Update by Tim Suddard to the
Austin Mini Cooper S project car
Apr 14, 2014
Our drip rail, as we began the process. Mini Mania sells this type of repair material for about $20, so we didn’t have to create our own.
We cut off the rusted area, using a cut-off wheel, then ground the surrounding area and welded in the new material.
The repair is almost imperceptible. We rough ground it with 24 grit, using a 4-inch grinder and final ground it with 80 grit, using an air grinder. We then primed the area.
Our Mini’s rain gutters began to rust away. Luckily, Mini Mania makes repair pieces for this area, making our job of matching the metal that we’d removed with a cut-off wheel much easier.
The process was simple, though the execution was a bit challenging. You must perfectly match the line of the gutter.
First clean and prep the rusted area where the old metal was cut. Then cut out a patch area exactly the size needed in order to butt-weld it in. Very carefully weld in this super thin metal with low heat. Next carefully grind down your welds, making sure to match the original contour of the metal.
All that’s left is priming the newly repaired area.
It was an itsy bitsy, teeny-weeny rally-winning project Mini. Subscribe to Classic Motorsports and get them in your mailbox.
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