Most liked posts in thread: Mini Ecoboost Project

Today I went ahead and welded on the valance panel, then trimmed off the excess. I also put a few tacks in where the panel meets the inner fenders. I'll need to go ahead and finish welding those areas, but I'm kinda thinking of adding a small bracket between the valance and inner fender, rather than just tacking the two panels together.







I think the next thing to fix will be the quarter panel, then the floors, then the sills. I'm not going to mess with the arches right now....I kinda need to decide what wheels I'm going to run, that will help determine which arch I go with. I could also use some of the Group5 arches....maybe.

 

Next project - try this bad boy out!

220V Miller spot welder.



Several issues.....

1st, it's heavy as hell, 30 lbs is my guess. Trying to hold it still and clamp down in the right spot, time the weld etc? Fraught with peril! Need to dress the tips before I try it on anything too.



2nd, I'll need to wire up the appropriate plug, I do have a circuit available and a long extension cord.

Lastly, learn how to use it to get good welds.....I guess I have enough scrap metal around to practice on before I attack the Mini body. Probably should have used it on that back panel for both the side seams and the flange at the bottom, but I know how to weld with the mig, so I thought in the interest of getting it done I should just use what I know.

We'll see......

 

So I cut out the door step and now I'm trying to figure out what sequence to do the repairs.....I'm also trying to decide if it's a better strategy to remove the entire floor panel or only the parts towards the outside that are really rusted. It would be nice to have complete clean non rusty floors but I can't decide if the outcome is worth the extra effort as the panels I have won't do the entire floor, I will have to patch in a few of the missing pieces.



When I did the back panel, it was only after I had removed the old one that I found I could have bought a repair panel for just the bottom couple of inches - that would have been FAR less work than changing the whole panel and I'm pretty sure the results would have been just as good, maybe better.

Like Binky, I could have bought an entire new floor and welded it all in one piece, but when the car was sold to me I was told the floors and sills were ok......and they might have been when he first started on the car 8 years before I bought it, who knows (but I doubt it!)

 

My project is continuing, slowly......in the meantime my buddy Don and I trekked south about an hour from KC to the private Hedge Hollow race track to watch some friends run their vintage American cars. My buddy says this track is one of the fastest he's ever raced on but it's completely miserable for spectating. The track was never intended to be open to the public, so there are no access roads or spectator areas.....he may add those as he's now running NASA race weekends as well as lot of club dates for the Mustang, Corvette, BMW and Porsche club events. Right now the only place you can watch from is on the balcony in front of the garages, and all you can see from there is the banked turn one and the short front straightaway. Too many trees in the way for the rest of the track.

We also had a huge storm blow thru which did some major damage to the trees in my neighborhood. Spent a day helping neighbors clean up the mess.....most all the trees in my 'hood are 50-60 years old or more and are pretty huge - even the branches are a foot or more in diameter. Gave me a chance to fire up the chainsaw which hadn't been used in several years. Some fresh gas, a quick sharpen of the chain and some bar oil and it was good to go.



I've also been helping a couple of guys with their new classics. One fellow has now rebuilt his engine, transmichigan, whole front end and brakes all around. He also added a Weber carb and has been trying to get it tuned out properly. He's almost there with the carb and we have an appointment in 10 days to go to the dyno to get it finally sorted, in the meantime he's been adding break in miles as quickly as he can. The second car is a recent BaT purchase and it's a really nice car with just a few needs.....it's a Canadian 998 with drum brakes, some terrible oil leaks and a non op clutch. He's ordered a 4 pot brake kit and we'll see about the rest when it gets here.



On my hot rod, I've added a 1/4" spacer at the front attachment point of the rear subframe, to move the wheels back into the centers of the wheel openings, they were a bit too far forward to my taste. That required redoing all the other attachment points and remeasuring for length the replacement floor parts.

I've also been practicing with my bender tool, and made a filler panel for the floor where the companion bins sit - the new floors had a cutout in the shape of the companion bins.....next up - more welding!

 

So in order to remove the floor pans and sills, I needed to get the weight off of them first....as it is I had a 2X6 across under the floor and resting on the lift pads. To do that first I needed to remove the subframe, which is now a lot more difficult as I welded in the rear valance....so the subby has to come back to clear the lip of the floor, then it has to go forward to clear the rear brackets thru the notch in the wheel wells, then down and forward till it clears the rear valance then once it's down all the way either raise the lift or take the 4X4's under the back of the subframe off so it will drop low enough to clear - it's a process!

Once the sub was out I needed to figure out a way to lift the body up off of the scissor lift, I built a small bracket that I bolted onto the end of the engine hoist lift arm, the screwed that to a 2X6. The board rests against the double seam at the top of the rear windows and I'm confident it will support the weight of the body. So the next step is to start removing the floors and shore up the ends where the subby attaches and measure thoroughly to make sure it's all square.

I still have a board resting under the floor and on the lift arms just in case the engine hoist decides to come down......more as it happens!

 

I made a bracket to hold the dimensions and to support the right side, since there's so little metal there now, and will be even less when I cut out the floors. I think before I do that I'll see about designing some reinforcements for that right side to stiffen it up, then when I weld in the step and sill it should be in the right place.

 

Thanks for all the encouragement!

I'll pick up the 67 S today and bring it home, then pull the motor, and get ready to haul it to Tulsa where the other car is.

Then the next step s to find the donor car, seems like wrecked 3 cyl Fiestas have dried up lately......

 

That's my assumption too, but if I don't get a reply to my email I will call them early next week.

 

Fed it some fuel and got it warmed up today.....