Way back in 2010 (about a year after I starting this project) I had the shell sandblasted, then sent out the body for rust repairs. There were many repairs to be done but the rear section was is terrible condition and the entire boot floor and rear valance had to be replaced. I found a local guy who did private work and had some good reviews from others who had work done by him.
Some post-blasting photos of the rear :
After a few months of him having the shell, I went to inspect progress and it was immediately obvious that the quality of the many of the repairs was absolutely disgraceful. It turns out he started working out of town and got his teenage son to do much of the work instead of him!! The worst of the work was the boot and rear valance with panel alignment and welding that was atrocious. I retrieved the shell and took it home, feeling rather deceived.
Some post-blasting photos of the rear :
After a few months of him having the shell, I went to inspect progress and it was immediately obvious that the quality of the many of the repairs was absolutely disgraceful. It turns out he started working out of town and got his teenage son to do much of the work instead of him!! The worst of the work was the boot and rear valance with panel alignment and welding that was atrocious. I retrieved the shell and took it home, feeling rather deceived.
These are photos AFTER the repairs...
I sent the shell off (a second time) to a local Mini guy to get a lot of the repairs redone and a new beaver panel fitted but the lower boot section would still need fixing/replacing as he couldn't easily source the parts at the time. To this day I regret not doing all the panel repairs myself but at the time I just didn't have the skills or a good MIG welder.
Fast forward a few years and it was time to look at this panel work. I offered up the boot lid to see how bad the fitment was. The boot lid no longer had an even gap all around the boot opening - in the photo below, note the large gap on the right hand side and small gap on the left.
The right hand boot hinge holes no longer aligned with the bootlid holes.
The panelwork immediately below the boot opening was not a smooth curve after it had been deseamed and this caused the bootlid to stick out a ridiculous 10mm past the panel.
I recently found a local guy was getting rid of the rear section of his Mini for free and I grabbed it knowing that I would use it for these repairs.
As for doing the repairs, my biggest concern was getting the boot opening the exact right shape and size when welding in a new section so I laid in some fibreglass in the boot opening edges of the good boot section before cutting it apart. This would act as my template when fitting the new panel piece.
The first task was to cut away all the lower boot and valance panel. Once this was done, I also realised the that boot floor was not at all flat. The floor is not flimsy sheet metal and not easy to bend - it's probable that is was bent when it was welded in by the previous repair.
First thing to do was to do some panel beating so the floor was flat again
I then cut out the better panel from the good shell
...and then proceeded to cut away the unwanted layers leaving only the boot panel sheet metal. The three layers of sheet metal in the rear seam are stacked and spot welded together - boot panel lip, boot floor and the valance/beaver lip.
The piece was then cleaned up and paint removed
The boot hinge holes in the panel from the good shell were badly worn so I welded in some patches and decided to re-drill new holes once all the panels were in place. This photo shows the old panel that I cut out and how bad the boot hinge holes were in the new piece
With the patch welded in :
From here I very slowly trimmed down the new replacement piece to the correct shape. This fibreglass piece was used to position the shell and new lower boot piece before tack welding them together. With the new piece clamped in place, this photo taken from within the boot shows the huge gap and the proper position of the boot panel.
Now because the boot floor had already been cut short, I had to weld on a small extension strip of boot floor
The new panel was then tacked in place (after using the fibreglass piece for positioning) and the extension strip of boot floor trimmed where necessary
After fully welding in this panel, I used a flap disk to grind back all the welds but in the case of the concave shape around the boot lip, I used a rotary tool / Dremel to grind those welds down.
At this point, I offered up the boot to and the fitment was excellent.
The shell was flipped on the rotisserie and a new bottom (beaver) panel was then trimmed to size and welded in.
The welds were then ground back and some primer applied. There was a small amount of panel beating required to remove some panel distortion caused from the welds, and some minor panel misalignment.
At this time, I fitted the boot lid and made sure that all the gaps were okay. Specifically, the boot now had a near perfect alignment with the lower panel.
I then had to redrill the hinge holes in the body. I had to fit the hinges to the boot lid, hold the boot lid in place and line up the gaps, then drill the holes. One problem was that the holes in the boot lid were about 3mm larger diameter than the hinge studs.
There needs to be a small amount of room for adjusting the hinge angle but to ensure at least the top stud was centred in the boot lid hole, I made a small plastic collar for the stud
I made sure that all the holes (in both hinges) were aligned before tightening the nuts. If you are working with Mini boot hinges, be aware that they are specific to the Left or Right hand side (marked with L or R on the actual hinge) This alignment will ensure the hinges don't bind when the boot is opened or closed.
With the boot lid held in place by some magnets and straps, and some foam pieces behind the boot lid to get the panelwork lined up, I marked & drilled the new holes in the body and bolted on the hinges.
I sent the shell off (a second time) to a local Mini guy to get a lot of the repairs redone and a new beaver panel fitted but the lower boot section would still need fixing/replacing as he couldn't easily source the parts at the time. To this day I regret not doing all the panel repairs myself but at the time I just didn't have the skills or a good MIG welder.
Fast forward a few years and it was time to look at this panel work. I offered up the boot lid to see how bad the fitment was. The boot lid no longer had an even gap all around the boot opening - in the photo below, note the large gap on the right hand side and small gap on the left.
The right hand boot hinge holes no longer aligned with the bootlid holes.
The panelwork immediately below the boot opening was not a smooth curve after it had been deseamed and this caused the bootlid to stick out a ridiculous 10mm past the panel.
I recently found a local guy was getting rid of the rear section of his Mini for free and I grabbed it knowing that I would use it for these repairs.
As for doing the repairs, my biggest concern was getting the boot opening the exact right shape and size when welding in a new section so I laid in some fibreglass in the boot opening edges of the good boot section before cutting it apart. This would act as my template when fitting the new panel piece.
The first task was to cut away all the lower boot and valance panel. Once this was done, I also realised the that boot floor was not at all flat. The floor is not flimsy sheet metal and not easy to bend - it's probable that is was bent when it was welded in by the previous repair.
First thing to do was to do some panel beating so the floor was flat again
I then cut out the better panel from the good shell
...and then proceeded to cut away the unwanted layers leaving only the boot panel sheet metal. The three layers of sheet metal in the rear seam are stacked and spot welded together - boot panel lip, boot floor and the valance/beaver lip.
The piece was then cleaned up and paint removed
The boot hinge holes in the panel from the good shell were badly worn so I welded in some patches and decided to re-drill new holes once all the panels were in place. This photo shows the old panel that I cut out and how bad the boot hinge holes were in the new piece
With the patch welded in :
From here I very slowly trimmed down the new replacement piece to the correct shape. This fibreglass piece was used to position the shell and new lower boot piece before tack welding them together. With the new piece clamped in place, this photo taken from within the boot shows the huge gap and the proper position of the boot panel.
Now because the boot floor had already been cut short, I had to weld on a small extension strip of boot floor
The new panel was then tacked in place (after using the fibreglass piece for positioning) and the extension strip of boot floor trimmed where necessary
After fully welding in this panel, I used a flap disk to grind back all the welds but in the case of the concave shape around the boot lip, I used a rotary tool / Dremel to grind those welds down.
At this point, I offered up the boot to and the fitment was excellent.
The shell was flipped on the rotisserie and a new bottom (beaver) panel was then trimmed to size and welded in.
The welds were then ground back and some primer applied. There was a small amount of panel beating required to remove some panel distortion caused from the welds, and some minor panel misalignment.
At this time, I fitted the boot lid and made sure that all the gaps were okay. Specifically, the boot now had a near perfect alignment with the lower panel.
I then had to redrill the hinge holes in the body. I had to fit the hinges to the boot lid, hold the boot lid in place and line up the gaps, then drill the holes. One problem was that the holes in the boot lid were about 3mm larger diameter than the hinge studs.
There needs to be a small amount of room for adjusting the hinge angle but to ensure at least the top stud was centred in the boot lid hole, I made a small plastic collar for the stud
I made sure that all the holes (in both hinges) were aligned before tightening the nuts. If you are working with Mini boot hinges, be aware that they are specific to the Left or Right hand side (marked with L or R on the actual hinge) This alignment will ensure the hinges don't bind when the boot is opened or closed.
With the boot lid held in place by some magnets and straps, and some foam pieces behind the boot lid to get the panelwork lined up, I marked & drilled the new holes in the body and bolted on the hinges.
Comments
Post a Comment