Classic Mini Clubman with Toyota 4E-FTE, by Mearcat

After some feedback on recent blog email updates, I didn't realise the overwhelming number of ads and spam that was being added as part of the emails sent out to my blog subscribers. I've decided on a new RSS-to-email provider Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and should provide a better and cleaner experience in the emails you receive. Everything looks like it's setup okay and ready to go. After the shell and panels have been painted, it looks like the 4E-FTE Mini project is in the home stretch but there is plenty of more work to complete. Thanks for following my project! 

Many years have passed since the engine and gearbox was sandblasted and painted. After sitting around the workshop for so long, not always under a cover, it was quite dirty and some areas needed a paint touch-up. Everything needed a pressure wash before paint touch-ups so I designed and 3D printed some (flexible) TPU filament covers to seal all openings and electrical connecters to mitigate water ingress. The engine & gearbox was pressure washed, being careful not to direct any spray at the openings even though they're covered. After everything was dried off with compressed air it looked like much of the paint needed some prep and new paint. The gearbox was quite patchy and would need doing also. The gearbox was removed, wire-wheeled then primed and re-painted with enamel paint. Note that all the case bolts had been removed prior to painting. I also had to remove and reseal the oil sump as I had previously found had a minor oil weep. The mating surface was well cleaned in prepa...

The Mini shell, panels and miscellaneous parts were sitting in my garage for over a month waiting for the booking date at a local professional paint shop. Once the week arrived I confirmed a day that had no rain forecast and everything was loaded up with the shell and dolly on a car trailer, and everything else in my ute. A week or so later I was able to pick up everything. The shell and all parts had one coat of (white) sealer then two coats of 2K direct gloss in Ford Code Orange (used exclusively on the ~2022-2024 Ford Raptor range). This is a huge milestone in the project and considering that paint shop advised they had to do zero additional sanding work before painting to achieve this quality, I'm immensely proud of supplying such high quality paint prep work to them. The total volume of paint used was 2.7 Litres of sealer and 7.7 Litres of 2K top coat! The last step in finishing the paint job was to mask multiple areas of the underbody coating on the lower firewall, floorpan a...

I have a date booked in at a local spray painting shop so it was time to get everything finalised and ready for transport.  Various pinholes in the fibreglass flares/wheel arches were patched up with spot putty and sanded smooth. Some time was then spent making sure they still fitted properly against the body with a small (~1mm) gap for a rubber seal, and also clearance at the ends of the flares around the door sill seams. Once they were prepped, I masked off the underside of the arches and painted a couple of coats of underbody coating on the underside to mitigate any stone chips. Unfortunately I managed to knock two of the arches off a high shelving rack which resulted in a few hairline cracks in some of the seams (from when I split and modified the arch curvatures). I had to grind away a channel into those seams, add some new fibreglass matt/resin, sand and then re-prime it. Other parts that will be painted in the body colour have already been painted in primer. These had some m...