I started cutting in the new openings for the wheel wells. Since the right side was mostly rust and holes, I got new inner wheel wells, and I'm also moving it upward on the Q panel when I weld it back in. Although I'm not sure how much good they'll do since probably half of the tire is outside the fender (but under the Sport Pak arch) Above pic is what's left of the right side inner wheel well.....bracket is for the rear mounted windshield washer bottle. I may take that off and remount it back in the front trunk area now. I don't know if I'll be using all of the floor panels, but there should be enough to fix the sills and the front edge where it's attached at the bulkhead floor at least. My next and ongoing challenge is to start getting some of this rot repaired. My seatbelts came in too, and since I've removed the companion bins where they used to attach I bolted in a door bar to see where I can install them. I can either weld a bracket onto the door bar or build a bracket off the body, not sure which way I'll go just yet. Some of it may be determined by which set of seats I wind up using - right now I have three sets to choose from!
Today was copy Binky day! I made a tool just like they used on Project Binky to bend up the lip under the arches, and it worked! I didn't do quite as good a job of cutting out the q-panel as they did, you learn as you go, right? The other side should go better. So once the hole was cut, I used the tool to start bending the lip up, a little at a time, till I got it the full 90*. I had to do a little trimming of some other brackets and in fact I still need to ease one of them about another 1/4" but the inner wheel well fit and lined up nicely with the new lip. Once I'm happy with the fitment of everything I'll weld 'er in place. Then I'll do the same to the other side and bolt the wheels back on and see how the clearance looks. It should be quite a bit better as I removed about 1 1/2" of metal. Once both sides are welded in place I think the next thing is to replace the rear panel. With that in place the boot floor lip (only about 2" of that will go back in) and lower valance can go in. That should stiffen things up all across the rear of the car. Then I'll weld in all the filler panels and build the rear braces for the subframe. From there I'll work forward.....on the door step, floors and sills. With those done I'll see about bolting in the rest of the cage. Once it's all welded and solid I'll put the motor in and start looking at all the other "to-do's'"
Today I wanted to assess my work before I did the same to the left side, so I took the springs off the shocks so I could move the trailing arms the full length of the shock travel. I put the tire back on and ran the suspension up as far as the shock would let it go. This pic shows the clearance. The holes are for the attachment points of the Sport Pak arches, so it looks like they will clear ok. The I went to the left, unmodified side. Second and third pics show the wheel won't go all the way up without hitting the lip, so I was justified in my thinking on cutting the lips up....there was still plenty of shock travel to take up. Lastly, today I gave the poor green Mini a bath - it hasn't been out of the garage for over three months so it was well past due for a good cleaning.
I decided to replace the rear panel in it's entirety, based partly on a recommendation from Dan - who pretty much knows about these things! I had another way to go , and I had panels for either choice.... First choice was to simply cut off the bottom, rusty bits and replace them with a panel made for that repair, in hindsite it might have been easier than drilling out all the spot welds and cleaning up that mess, but like I said....I think replacing the whole panel will give a better final result. I hope so at least. 1st pic is of the three repair panels, next pic shows the whole a panel removed.....I need to clean up any left over seam sealer and I'll need to get the flap disc after the remaining bits so I have a smooth seam to weld to. I also need to clean the e-coat off the joining surfaces of the new panel, and spray a little weld tru primer, then I'll be ready to weld er up. I left a little at the top on the c pillars, I'll clamp the panel up in place then slice that for a clean joint.
1st test fit of the new panel....still a little trimming and clean up to do before I drag out the welder. I had hoped to get it welded on today cause the weather's been perfect.....mid 70's and dry. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain!......I also need to make a thousand holes to plug weld thru!
I've been going slow on this project, mostly because I don't really know what I'm doing! Also, I don't want to weld something up only to have to tear it apart again, so I'm trying to make sure I'm doing this in a logical order that will all come together in the end. So I marked where I need to drill holes to plug weld the rear panel on, basically everywhere there wasn't a spot weld from before. Then I decided it would be a good idea to clamp up the valance panel to make sure everything was square and fit the rear panel and the rest of the body. Before I did that I decided to weld the boot floor edge on first, that stiffens up the valance panel and gives something solid to weld the back panel to. So I drilled a million little holes to plug weld the two together, bolted them up using the bumper attachment holes and filled in the holes with plug welds. So far so good, it still fits up nicely. Next I needed to weld in the closing panels, but first I had to modify them as they no longer can go where they did originally - I had to make room for the subframe to be able to go in and out. Once this stuff is all welded together on the car I'll build some bolt-in brackets for the lower part of the subframe to attach to these panels. One end is done and I'll get started on the other later today. This sheet metal is pretty thin so I have to be careful welding it together that I don't blow holes in it....so far I've been lucky. Once everything is welded up on the valance I'll clean up all the welds and give it a coat of weld thru primer before I attach it to the rear panel. I also need to cut out the left side wheel opening and remove the inner wheel well. Then the next thing will be to weld those inner wheel wells in and tie it all back to the rear panel. From there I'll move forward to repairing the floors and sills. I've got a really long way to go on this project so I just need to get on with it!
Surprise! Today I got a note from MiniTec that my axles are on their way to me......they even sent a tracking number. I have been working on the body, lots of cleanup, fitting, measuring, adjusting, more adjusting, thousands of holes drilled and swarf cleaned off but now it's all welded on again. The back panel is done except for the c panel joint which is just tacked for now. The inner wheel wells are fitted and welded in too. I've got the valance panel all ready to weld on but I'm not sure I can get the subframe in and out with it in place. I'm going to bolt it back on now that the back panel is solid and see what happens. I do still need to add a bracket for the inner fender brace between the wheel well and the parcel shelf panel. That will be pretty easy to weld in once I make them. Oh, and fill the fuel filler hole..... If the subframe will clear the rear valance then I can go ahead and weld it in place then build the brackets for the lower subframe mounts. Then I'll need to grind all the nibs off and give those spots a little primer. Next project after all this - floors and sills. before I can tackle those I need to clean all the sound deadening off the floors. I have a tool for that.....
Today I'm grinding all the nubs off from my welds, it takes a while as I want to be careful not to damage the adjoining panel or grind thru the lip I just welded. Like my buddy Dan the bodyman says, 40 grit rolocs work pretty fast on them, but I just ran out so I need to find some more. I wonder if HF carries them? (Edit: Yes, they do - $4.50 for 3 in 36, 60 80 or 100 grit.) I also got my axles today....another piece of the puzzle
Still don't have the parts for my air punch,, tho they show them shipped out via USPS on March 27th...... Today I cut a chunk out of the old back panel to fill in the hole for the fuel filler. The panel is curved in two directions so there was no way I thought I could make a piece that would fit correctly.....my buddy Dan suggested cutting it out of the other side on the old panel and it fit beautifully!
So far yet to go! I also made some short brackets to tie the inner wheel wells to a vertical brace to further strengthen the side of the car.....I'll have pics of those when I weld them all in. I'm not completely happy with how the valance fits, I may have to do some mods to it. Since I cut out some of the wheel openings, the valance comes too far forward and intrudes in the wheel opening. I don't think it's enough to rub on a tire or anything, but it won't line up so I need to address that. That's the one neat thing about doing all this in metal, if it doesn't fit, cut it out and weld it up again!
Work plods along, today I built the corner lower brackets for the subframe. I bought some flanged nuts to weld into the sheet metal so I can unbolt them when I want to remove the subframe. Next I'll weld the rear valance panel into place, then I can bolt these in and try the rest of the cage for fit. I also acquired a sport pak arch from Dan to try, it fits perfectly but the inner edge return will rub on the tires unless I remove it, which might make the arch flimsy. I need to bolt a tire back on, remove the temp brace and reinstall the shock so I can see how far up into the arch the tire goes, and how far out it sticks. Ima give the arches some more thought before I do anything. Plenty of other work yet to do anyway......
So, after making the rear brackets and marking where the holes should go on the rear valance, I dropped it out and welded in some flange nuts. I made a little bracket so that I could set the height just below the surface of the valance panel and tacked them in place, then went around and tacked the whole nut in place. After that I ground off the nibs so I'd have a flush surface for the bracket to mate up to. That done I bolted everything back into the car and to my complete surprise it all fit and bolted up! The back end of the subframe was only bolted to the parcel shelf, I needed to get these brackets in so I could unbolt it from the parcel shelf and add in the top parts of the subframe so I can see how it all is going to fit. Next up I'll pull the valance back off and make sure I've cleaned up all the weld nibs and get it ready to finally weld into the car. I also went over to Northern Tool and bought a couple of trailer fenders, with the idea that I may use those to form an inner fender from the q panel out to the sport pack flares, that should give plenty of room for tires - but I'll need to do some careful measuring first. If it looks like it will work I'll split it down the middle and have one for each side. The fronts will be stock 13"X6" wheels so std sport pak arches will work there, in the rear I'm looking at either 13X7 or maybe even 13X8 wheels.