1960 Austin Se7en mini. US spec. Ex SCCA car

In reply to Ian F :

Yeah that Volvo looks good! A weekend’s worth of welding perhaps!? 

At least it’s stored with windows in so the inside won’t go rusty. 

April 5th 2018

Attempted to do some clean up in the garage, while trying to keep an eye on child #2, who at 6 doesn't always express the greatest of interests in my garage antics. This time though he seemed genuinely interested in the mini as I think it's starting to look like something now.

He wanted a sit inside, and it being much less rusty than it ever has been, I popped him on the back seat.

He wanted to know what the certain areas were, so I explained them to him. He pretended to drive and then I showed him what it might look like with a wheel on it.

Man how cool would that look!

Bit of negative camber eh?

I then got stuck into the next task, cutting off the quarter panel on this side. This is the new panel just laid on top to show the difference between the >Mk3 panel on the MK1 shell.

The front edge needs trimming off. 

Then old panel mostly cut out.

Use the new panel to trace the cut edge to the old panel.

Then more trimming.

This then gives me perfect access to get the companion bin welded in. This guy, just offered up here with some 1/4" holes drilled for plug welding where my spot welder can't get to.

Clamped up and holes drilled in the floor for plug welding.

Spot welded to door frame seam and plug welded pretty much everywhere else.

There is then the little closing bracket that can go in. (Incidentally this is what I messed up on the other side. I welded this bracket in before putting the companion bin in, so I'll have to figure that out at some point.)

Mostly spot welded in

Welds get cleaned up and then flicked over with etch primer inside here as its hard to reach when the quarter panel gets welded in.

Then I finished welding the door step in and ground the welds smooth.

Not 100% happy as I didn't get the welds to "disappear" through grinding, which tells me that I didn't get the two panels to align 100% perfect. But I can smooth this all out with a light skim of body filler. 

No progress this weekend as I'm helping out Maschinenbau and others with his Infiniti/Datsun swap.

April 8th 2018

Having spent a chaotic Saturday at Machinenbau's house, and my wife having 'Girl's night out' on Saturday night I took it easy on Sunday watching the kids. 

Still managed to sneak off to the garage in the evening though to do a little work.

I'd ordered some more weld thru primer off Amazon as it was cheaper than O'Reilly's stuff, meaning I couldn't carry on with the quarter panel until it arrived. I did have a small amount left to do a small piece though, so decided to make the rear seat bracket which I either forgot to save from the old floor or cut right through it, one of the two.

Card template.

Test fitted in place.

Bent out of 20ga.

Metal version test fitted.

Then spot welded at the top and plug welded to the floor from underneath. (The holes exactly match factory panel, must have been for fixturing as they serve no other purpose)

I then had a go at filling the seam welded areas on the door step.

For some reason I didn't stop to take a photo of the filler and the sanding process as it was super messy.

But here's after it was freshly primed.

And after it dried. I think another coat of filler to some small areas and it will look pretty good.

I couldn't put off the last part of the cantrail puzzle any longer as I kept moving it around my workbench anyway. I'd been procrastinating about repairing this curved end piece as it has some large holes and very thin pock marked metal.

I cut out the swiss cheesed sections and replaced with new metal and plug welded the large holes up with copper backing.

Then drilled new 1/4" holes for plug welding and welded it into the shell. The welds need tidying and a coat of primer.

Glad I just got that out of the way.

Friday 13th April 2018

Yeah I had bad luck earlier in the week, I got a flat tire at work on the minivan. Found it at 5pm just leaving the office, so I threw the spare on and needed to get to cub scouts, didn't get chance to get a new tire. The weather looked OK for the rest of the week (32F in the morning but 60F in afternoon) so I thought about just commuting by motorcycle. But the bike wasn't running right, so I spent all evening stripping the carb down and cleaning it, and changed the spark plug which made it run better. 

Riding it the next day it had a very bad flat spot which didn't happen on the return journey, so I think it was due to the cold morning temps. (it's a 250cc air cooled). About 2 miles form home I feel the back end going a little wobbly on me, I stop and look down and I've got a completely flat tire on the bike! I managed to ride very slowly and gingerly home, aired up the tire and its been fine since.

On Friday I did get a new tire for the minivan and thought I'd teach the kids how to change a tire with a hand on approach. My daughter took more of an interest, shes 12 and has said she wants to have a project for her first car, so this is the first lesson for her, how to change a tire by herself by the side of the road with the scissor jack and the Ford tools. My son was more interested in eating his ice cream.

Now I'd noticed the last time I poked my head under there that the rear wheel wells are getting quite a lot of rust, something on the list of things to look at. When we got the wheel off the ground with the scissor jack positioned under the correct mounting place on the rocker panel to floor seam. We were about to take the spare wheel off when I noticed the car slowly going down. I noticed the jack pushing the rocker panel upwards, as the jacking point seems to be now made of rust! 

I quickly got the kids out of the way and the hydraulic jack swung underneath the rear suspension point. At the time it was fine and no one panicked, but in retrospect it could have gone bad if the car fell off the jack with my kids right there.

So done with the wheel, high fives all round and plenty of smiles on their faces, I closed the tailgate. it bounced up slightly, oh well grab the handle to open it back up, when...

Grrrr, what is with this car.

So I climb into the trunk, pry off the trim and manage to find the problem, a broken cast aluminum hinge piece.

Friday the 13th for you. Good job this car is just a beater. I just need it to last a couple more years and I'll get something else.

Anyway back on to the mini.

I spent Friday evening refurbishing some seat brackets that I did save from the old floor before it was tossed out.

These are very early type brackets that were welded to the floor cross member and take a different style of front seat. The seat and bracket were re-designed just after my car was made. I can't buy new versions of these brackets (they are easy enough to make anyhow) but its nice to refurbish the originals.

2 done, 2 to go.

They are going to be welded on to the floor cross member here.

The front seats were attached to these brackets and just tipped forward to allow rear seat access.

The design was quite clever in that the pivot point was higher than the center of gravity of the front seat (occupied and unoccupied) so that it didn't need any form of latching mechanism (added weight, cost etc), the front seats did not tip up when under braking. 

I did take measurements of the brackets on the old floor before cutting them out, but as I don't have the front seats to double check, I will have to ask the someone with a early car to confirm the spacing between brackets before I weld mine in.

I also have some plans to use the 2 most inboard seats brackets and the hand brake bracket to mount a remote gear shifter bracket to. (I will reveal details of this design later on).

Saturday 14th April 2018

I had a much less eventful Saturday, thankfully. I did visit Rural king and noticed they are now selling mini wheel and tire packages, which is very thoughtful of them!

In the evening I managed to wrestle the rear quarter panel on, I say wrestle as it was a tough job getting it to fit!

I guess when I welded the companion bin in after cutting the old quarter panel off, it might have distorted the opening slightly. 

I had to really push and pull, strategically clamp it up, use a rubber mallet to get it to fit.

Eventually I was happy enough and tack welded the butt joints and spot welded the seams.

That's all I got done.

This week I'll keep tack welding between the tacks until its fully seam welded.

Keep it up, looks great.   Love to see minis get brought back.   In a never ending mini project myself and I’m excited to see your conversion come along.  I thought about your conversion too.   I didn’t have to deal with what you’re dealing with.......I’d definitely not do the body any favors if I attempted panel replacement

In reply to SLGGR :

Thanks man. I’ve not done a body restoration to this extent before, so I’m making it up as I go along!

Oh yeah I’ve been following your build, it looks amazing! Is it driving yet?

The constraint on my project will be funds, once I’ve done with the body I will not have enough for the Powertrain until I’ve saved up a few more grand, which will take me a while.

In reply to Chappers :

Yeah I’ve driven it and it’s fantastic.   I’m excited to see your reaction when you get yours on the road as well.   Keep doing it the right way.   I’m really into the old racer minis and you’ve got quite an interesting one.   My next one will be something akin to yours.  I’ve done the crazy, want to have a vintage racer.....after I recoup funds as well.

Friday April 20th 2018

My quest is to make this a little faster than it would have done when it rolled off the Longbridge production line, I also want to improve the safety to match by installing seatbelts. 

I've already welded in captive mounts in the B post and the inner sill. But I need the inner mounts in the exhaust tunnel in the floor.

I can basically copy the method that BMC came up with sometime in the mid 60s.

Positioned 16" from the heelboard.

Bit of 16ga steel.

My knee just happens to be the same bend radius as the tunnel.

Some 1/4" holes for plug welding.

Bit of weld thru primer.

Stuck on.

Drilled two 1/2" holes and welded some large washers and the 7/16" nuts.

While doing that I also spotted the handbrake bracket was only attached to the floor with some measly looking welds.

Added a couple extra stitch welds.

Then went back to the quarter panel, got the front edge fully welded and ground down.

Then offered the door back up to see how well it fits.

The gap at the back of the door is a little tight, but I've still got to change the door skin yet, so I expect some change. Front edge is perfect.

Applied a bit of body filler to some of the low spots in the quarter panel.

Then put some primer on to see how it all looks.

After it dried it looks pretty good.

Think it's good enough for now so that I can get started on the other side.

I'm still trying to focus on getting the underside all done so I can take it off the rotisserie this time next month. Still lots to do....

Tuesday April 24th 2018

Here's my starting point on the opposite side.

Started to cut off the A panel, which exposes the nasty expanding foam (asbestos?) inside the A post.

Combination of spot weld drilling, angle grinder cuts and peeling it open.

Removing the inner wing stiffener plate which exposes a load of trapped dirt.

Based on my experience of the other side I just started peeling off panels that I know hide rust.

Again on this side I find a Mud Dauber nest.

Thankfully I'm ahead of the game, as you may remember I made 2 identical stiffener plates at the same time when I did the other side. 

Here's where I left it for the night. Not bad progress for a couple of hours.

Bit of a milestone, as that was the last of the original rusty panels to remove from the shell. From now on, its putting new (or restored original) sheet metal on the shell.

Next I need to get rid of any flaky rust and rust treat the metal.

April 25th 2018

As I had to replace the little threaded plates for the upper shock absorber mount on the passenger side, I thought I'd go ahead and do the same on this side.

They are spot welded on, so they get removed like this. I think they would have been tapped 1/4"UNF or something.

I made 2 new ones, tapped for M6x1.

But I couldn't find the 5mm drill bit I'd previously used to do the other side, so I just went with 5.3mm or whatever imperial size that works out at. I tried an M6 bolt in and it stripped the thread, so predrilled hole too big then.

So I then try a 4.7mm drill and ...my tap breaks.

I ordered a new M6 tap and a new 5mm drill bit, made 2 new plates, and retapped the holes to M6.

Except when trying an M6 bolt it was all wobbly...

I look at the supposedly M6 tap and it's a "6mm tap" which is in fact a 1/4"x 28! It actually measures 6.4mm OD. You can see the size difference with the M6 tap below.

Eventually I just said screw it and tapped everything to M8x1 and did the passenger side to match.

Now those upper mounts will be the most secure bracket on the whole car.

April 28th 2018

AH! the Sun, where have you been you big ol' bastard!

It was a nice day to wheel the shell outside for the first time in 4 years and give it a good wash. I actually use a rust converter on the insides of the firewall cross member after getting a lot of loose rust off with a wire brush attachment on a die grinder. 

Once that was all done and very thoroughly dried, I splashed some zinc primer inside all the cross member cavities.

Which is a million times better than the mud dauber home that was there before.

Here's some photos I took walking around.

Like I've said before, I'm in a quite strict HOA neighborhood, so I thought this would raise some alarm, but a few people walked by, no one said a word to me..

Once I wheeled it back inside I carried on with the rebuild of that cross member. Pretty much the repeat of the passenger side.

Here's where I had to leave it for the day. More rebuild tonight, so I'll post some more pictures tomorrow.

Thanks for looking.

In reply to Chappers :

I’m still amazed watching your work & progress on this. 

In reply to Pete Gossett :

Ha, yeah you’re probably amazed I'm spending my time and money on this rust heap! 

Truth be told I’m not that in to driving cars, or the creations that I come up with. I doubt I’d be any good at an autocross. 

I more enjoy the build as it’s fun to me. I’m already planning the next dozen projects I want to do but I have to finish this one first.

But I've mentioned to SWMBO about selling it after the build, she disagreed and said I must keep this one. 

In reply to Chappers :

I’m just the opposite - I want to drive/race/compete - the car is just the method to get there...although some certainly stir the emotions more than others. To me every step prior to the car being on the road is pure tedium necessitated by being a cheapskate, like a prequel to the main event. 

Let me know if you need a driver once you get it on the road. ;-)  

Chappers said:

In reply to Pete Gossett :

I more enjoy the build as it’s fun to me. I’m already planning the next dozen projects I want to do but I have to finish this one first.

I lean the same way myself. 

As far as planning future builds, I think that applies to everyone but Pete. LOL

I too am more of a builder and really enjoy watching this metal take shape. I don't think I've ever autocrossed the same car twice in a row due to the constantly fluctuating drivability of my projects and their donors.

Monday 30th April 2018

Like the other side, this side's inner wing stiffener bracket had rusted pretty badly where it attaches to the bulkhead cross member, there was so much rust growth behind it that it had popped the spot welds off and I could nearly pull it straight off the car by hand (only had to drill out 3 remaining spot welds).

Got the same treatment as the other side.

Then I turned my attention to the new inner wing.

Started by removing the incorrect stiffener plate.

The e-coat doesn't get between the panels, just bare metal, so I'm glad I'm removing it.

Here's my home-made stiffener offered up. There some indentations in the inner wing that are not wanted, so they will be removed.

Marked up what to chop out and also plug some unwanted holes.

Welded up, looks like a mess.

Ground down (on both sides) which looks better. This will all be pretty much hidden once the wing gets welded on, but I want it to looks nice. Ha!

Then clamped up the two stiffener plates to check fitment. All measures pretty good. You can see I've already drilled the bracket ready for plug welding, which I'll do next.

I rode into work the last few weeks off and on, on my little Super Sherpa dual sport. 30F in the mornings and 60F on the way home.

Last couple of days its been really nice and the warm weather riders have come out, I'm struggling to find a motorcycle parking spot at work! 

I don't really fit in....

Wednesday 2nd May 2018

Cripes! It's May already! 

I'm still cognizant of my self imposed deadline to have the car off the rotisserie by May 22nd, so it feels like it's getting pretty tight on timing right now...

I also have a ton of stuff to do at work, with a big gate review coming up in June and me being the PM, I pretty much in charge of that, LOL.

So what better than signing up for more activities? How about doing a Hare Scramble on May 20th? 

I took my son to watch his first hare scramble race on Sunday, we watched the PeeWee riders have a blast on their mix of 2 and 4 stroke bikes, although at first daunted by it all, he said he would be interested having a go next month (May 20th) IF dad also did it too!

I think that's only fair, if you're encouraging your kids to try something new, you should at least have tried it yourself. 

(I won't talk about the ballet dancing I had to do when my daughter started that...)

It looks like we can work out the PeeWee stuff just fine, but what class can a 34 year old, out of shape, non experienced off road rider, enter? 

It looks like there is a class for that, but I bet the other riders have much more capable machinery and it lasts for a sodding 2 hours!

I have a 2004 Honda CRF150F that I bought in really bad shape and subsequently fixed up just to just potter around behind my son's XR50. 

So the plan is, buy some extra safety equipment for the both of us, and just turn up and have a go.

Wish us luck...

Here's some photos of the bikes.

The CRF150F was just run into the ground by the PO; I replaced the rear shock, the chain and sprockets, the brakes, the tires, filter and oil.

I also noticed a gear tooth in the oil, so I had to strip the engine to investigate. It was the kick start idler gear (machining fault) so I basically rebuilt the whole engine too. 

But it now runs pretty well (re-jetted it) and gets us out and about.

Back on to the mini though.

I got the stiffener brackets welded on.

Then offered the inner wing up.

But I noticed some faults in the stamping that I'm kind of annoyed about, as to me they are important datum points to align the other panels. The Heritage stampings are quite expensive as they are supposedly regarded as the best.

The top edge of this seam is either bent incorrectly, trimmed incorrectly or both.

Compare to the other side.

I then had a mishap, I was shaking up the jar of weld primer when I didn't notice but the bottom end of the jar fell out and the contents went everywhere! I'm not having much luck keeping this stuff inside containers! It either wants to decorate my workbench, the walls or the floor, but rarely makes it to the car...

 glass jar + ball bearings + shaking = a bad situation.

So I just went to bed.

Thursday May 3rd

Did a little bit last night. 

Firstly I bought a new can of weld thru primer, I tried the SEM stuff but it was piss thin. 

I much prefer this Transstar stuff, it’s got loads of zinc in it. 

This time you’ll notice all of made its way into the container and I intend it to stay in there. I’ve used a plastic air tight food type container. 

I slapped some of this primer on the inner wing and the car and then threw the inner wing on. 

It fits up a lot better than the other side, but I still had to use a couple of metal screws to pull them together. 

I did all the plug welds to the stiffener bracket, firewall and toe board areas, but the floor area (clamped above) still needs some persuasion and I need to check alignment with the A panel before I weld that area.

I then spot welded all the other areas I can get the spot welder in to.

this took me all evening and I was so exhausted I called it a night. 

My wife also said I have to take a day off to spend with her tonight (family night) so I’ll probably get back on it Sunday or Monday. 

Saturday I’m planning to take part in a organized dual sport ride close to home, Riders for striders, which raises money to buy strider bikes for kids in the children’s hospital. Should be a fun day and a great cause! 

Oh yeah it’s forecast 74F today with an hour or so of rain midday. Perfect day for riding to work. 

Although I didn’t have any problems parking today!

where are all my biker chums? 

Thursday May 10th

I was absolutely knackered after the 200mile dual sport/adventure ride on the 5th and then the day after I was invited back to the off road club, where the ride started from, to ride their trails with my son. We rode a few hours on the hare scramble course in the heat and we were a sweaty mess afterwards.

So I took a few days off from the mini, but I got back on it again the following Thursday.

Starting with this misalignment of the floor to the inner wing (flitch) flitch area.

The floor needed bending up about that crease line that is about 6" in.  (like that crease wasn't formed correctly) 

I tack welded a length of box section to the underside and used that to lever the floor up.

I could then mostly spot weld this joint.

I then tidied up some of the plug welds.

Next I wanted to offer up the A panel and try on the door.

I cleaned up inside of the A panel and the seam on the inner wing where is attaches to and applied some weld-thru primer.

Although the trim edge on this panel (much like the other edges on this panel) is terrible! Again this is a datum to locate the A panel. it should be straight, not curved like this.

So I actually had to cut and weld in a very thin strip of steel that formed a straight edge and trimmed via a trail and error of offering the A panel up, then offering the door up and measuring how much I still needed to trim. 

(I didn't take any photos of all that as it would be immensely boring)

But here's a photo of the A panel welded on.

But....Something went wrong when it was finally welded in, the door did not fit!

The bottom front corner was hitting.

The two panels are 1/4" out.

But elsewhere it looked OK.

A bit dejected, I felt like I was losing interest in the build and was burned out. 

My wife suggested I take a few days off from the mini and maybe clear my head.

You are an angle grinder artist! 

Take tomorrow night off and come build ridiculous box flares for my Datsun, or just help me empty the cooler 

Sunday May 13th

After a few days off from the mini, I got my head in a better space and decided to get back on to the build.

After not much thinking about it, I needed 1/4", so I just cut the tack welds on the A post/A panel joint. 

 I spaced the join 1/4" and tried the door back on.

I'll be a monkey's uncle, it fits!

And the hinge holes now line up.

I just have to now fill the 1/4" gap. Luckily I kept a section of the A post that I'd trimmed off (now realize I'd trimmed too short). Its all welded up and welds ground down.

I could then attach the hinge stiffener brackets behind the A panel.

I'd also trimmed the door step panel and offered that up and the inner sill panels.

I'm feeing a little more positive about the project again, now I feel like I'm making progress.

In reply to maschinenbau :

That’s some compliment coming from you Travis! You make metal fabrication look easy and it’s not! 

What time you starting in the garage on Friday? 

I’m supposed to sell a motorcycle and then go to a friend’s for bbq. I could pop round for a little while in between. 

Dude. Seriously impressive work. You should post a short retrospective covering just how much Mini is left in this car. Seems like every panel has been replaced. Build-your-own Mini kit style.