Left yesterday afternoon, hooked up my tow bar last night, and drove back this morning. The new tow bar I used worked excellent, zero problems with fitment. Amazing how much better they pull with the cross brace installed too. The car needs several tune up items replaced and brought back to life. The parts I ordered last week are due to arrive around the 30th. The body has a fair amount of rust on the front panels that extends to the lower door skins. First time on a internal hinged mini I've encountered a sagging door. The skin actually came loose from the frame causing it to sag. Waiting to hear from the owner to see if he wants to spend the money on the full restore. It could use it.
My face isn't usually this blurry :)
Got her running today. Bad condensor on the distributor.
Dan,
That is good news. Quick fixes are always nice. Perhaps getting it running again so easily will prompt the owner to go ahead with more of the needed restoration work. One can always hope.
PS> I did indeed get the job. Got the written offer on Wednesday. Signed it and sent it back yesterday. Planning on starting on the 14th. Lots to do to finish up classes and get relocated.
Cheers!
I hope so, I'm ready to tear into it and make it look purdy.
Glad to hear of your job.
That's some scary looking rust. Hopefully it is just surface rust.
Its pretty much all rot. I've recommended he replace all the front panels and have the lower parts of the doors reskinned. Needs a patch on the drivers floor pan that goes into the wheel well too. That drivers door really needs something done since its coming apart.
Talked with the owner, gotta wait till mid-end of Dec to see if he can afford the restore.
That look's kind of my Mini! I hope the owner is able to afford to have it done right.
My price for the restore is about the same as most shops charge for a quality paint job... Of course half way through it I'll be going damn I should be charging 10k for this.
So Dan, your back in Az. now?
No still in NC till the end of the year.
Got all the service items on the car today, drained the tank, flushed things out, tuned up, ect... Running top notch, but now that it has some extra go the clutch is slipping.
May be moving forward with this project, but on a budget style refurb. May not be replacing any panels.
Oooo, that's too bad.
Flying back to NC to start working on this thing. Should be interesting not being able to replace panels.
Are you going to patch up the body the best you can with out fresh panels?
Yep thats the game plan. Door skins and around the headlights could be tricky.
You've done that sort of thing before, right? I seem to remember you had to patch up some spots on the red mini (a couple of years ago) without patch panels. What type of welder do you use?
The red mini on the top of the page had a ton of patches, but it also had all new front end panels including hood, door skins, ect... I use a little flux core mig welder from harbor freight and an angle grinder. Works wonders.
That's what I have. What settings do you use when doing the sheet metal. I am horrible at it.
The low setting for sheet metal speed 5. Just takes some practice and short burst.
Day two of working on the VA mini. I'm sore from sanding. So far I've patched up a few holes on the wing where it meets the scuttle, cut out and replaced a large section of drivers floor pan, took off the doors and fiberglassed the bottoms where they were rotten in a few areas, patched a couple holes on the hood, cleaned around the headlights, and fixed a section of rust along the windshield. Tomorrow hope to have the doors completely prepped for primer and the floors cleaned up and prepped in the area I had to fix.
Wow, you really jump in there quick on these projects! That is a lot more than I would ave expected in such a short time of starting on it.
Any pictures??
Ok another day of patching. Some pics so far...
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=517)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=516)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=514)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=510)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=505)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=500)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=511)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=497)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=495)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=493)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=490)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=515)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=504)
Nice work! You move pretty fast. How many hours was all that work? Are you doing a complete respray?
Haven't really kept track of time, but roughly 21 hours so far. Yep, doing a full respray.
Is it still going to be BRG?
BRG, picked up the paint this morning. All masked off , cleaned, sanded, and ready to start primering and continue the prep process. If i'm lucky tomorrow night I'll have it ready for the final spray.
More prepping and primering today. Got a coat of BRG on it before I called it a day. Tomorrow I'll have it finished and put back together the following day after the clear hardens. Waiting on new door hinges to arrive so I can mount the doors also, since the drivers side were shot and sagging.
So what do you like better, flying or restoring Minis?
Are you towing it back up to VA when you're done?
Coinsidently the owner is building a house in Wilmington and will be here this summer to take it to its new home.
As far as flying or restoring minis....tough one. I feel very sore after 3 or 4 days of solid non stop work. I do like fixing up a mini though and the various challenges that come up unexpectedly.
TA DA...
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=521)
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=520)
Your a madman!
Go for it but try not to burn out.
Great economical job.
Best regards Scott ;)
Nice work, Dan! Do you plan to keep doing this in Arizona? With the dry air rust should be minimal on Minis and the restorations should be a breeze for you.
Well thanks! :)
I'll do them as they come up if anyone is ever interested in throwing a project my way and some cash. Other than that, my pickup is on the to do list. Gotta get it to AZ and still house hunting/garage hunting. One neighborhood I'm looking at probably would frown on me grinding and welding away unless I keep it low key.
Update: Kevin the owner was very happy with the outcome on the car. Apparantly was all smiles and got to drive the car around some. Sending him one of my tow bars to haul the car to his new house since he had a brake line burst a couple days before I left. Didn't have time to order new parts to fix it before my departure.
Got this picture this morning from the owner and his wife. Wanted to share it. 4.gif
(http://www.restorationmini.com/forum/MGalleryItem.php?id=919)