Adventures with a 68 Mini

[blaked]

Light progress on the car this past weekend. Fitted the door post boxing plate. Question for the group - would you recommend as a next step to install the outer wings or save that for the later and instead tackle the rear driver corner and boot floor repair. Is there any advantage one way or the other.

[94touring]

Either way, but one thing I probably should have mentioned was fit the front wings before you go welding up the A panels. It can prove to be difficult to get A panels, wings, and the front end panel to all fit. Also fit the bonnet at the same time to verify gaps. You should also fit the front subframe to the front end panel to align it all.

[blaked]

Afternoon everyone - fiddled with the outer wings for several hours Saturday and got them to a reasonable place for welding today. The passenger outer wing is now securely tacked in place. Would have kept going but ran out of wire. The wings in are clamped in place in the photos with the bonnet. With the wing on its looking like a Mini again!

On the way are several panels for the rear: a complete back panel, full boot floor, heel board, and some other odds and ends. Anyone know if repair panels are made for the upper parts of the B and C post - essentially the surround of the rear window.

[94touring]

Nice job man!

[skmini]

Gaps look really good.  I spent a few hours with mine too and it was super satisfying to have it finally all line up.

[blaked]

Good morning everyone, yesterday was new panel day for me - very exciting. A complete back panel, full boot floor (w/ battery box), heel board, rear valence, and some other bits. The parts landed within a week of order at 570 GP in shipping and 350 USD in tariffs. If anyone hasn't ordered panels recently tariffs are applied at entry. A separate invoice was sent by the carrier, in this case DHL. 

As I plan the rear end repair, is there an oder of operations that is recommended? Back panel first then boot floor, boot floor then back panel, both at the same time, or doesn't really matter/personal preference? Secondly, is bracing recommended before either the boot floor or back panel are removed?

Appreciate any guidance the community can offer.

[94touring]

Would you mind breaking the bill down? I'm still trying to compare what we're all being charged to find some consistency in the tarrifs.  It's all over the map right now. Whenever I make my next big order I'd like to at least be prepared for the pain. 

For your rear end...are your wheel arches still in place and the subframe attach point brackets that are on the rear arches?  If so just slide the boot floor in place and bolt it to those attachment points. If not, well attach a bare subframe with trunions and clamp the whole rear end and boot floor and then begin to tack into place. Then remove subframe and get to welding.

[blaked]

Checked the invoices and total for the panels was 903.50 GP. The tariff was 319.93 USD. Looks like i overestimated from memory in the post above.

The arches are in and so are the brackets so thats good. Ill use that for alignment. Once I get the floor tacked in ill test fit the subframe. Kinda regretting that task as the assembly is fully built with radius arms.

[94touring]

Ok so after shipping the panels were about 2k USD and then call it 15% tarrif plus their $17 admin fee and a few bucks for the regulatory bill they add.  Thanks!

Takes about 1.5 hours to take the arms off and put them back on I just discovered yesterday redoing some stuff for a guys subframe fyi.

[94touring]

Another thing you'll see since the arches are still in place, the boot floor will only fit one way with them there. So the alignment part will be very easy. You'll just want a rear end panel there to get the correct "pitch" on the boot floor, though those brackets for the subframe on the arches, provided they haven't been bent one way or the other, will set it pretty much where you need it. No real reason to mount the subframe since those brackets are already there.

[blaked]

The math im calculating is:

1 GBP = 1.32 USD (as of today)
903.5 x 1.319 = 1,191.72 USD
319.93 / 1,191.72 = 26.8%

[94touring]

Did you say shipping was 570£ also?

They use shipping in their duty calculation. So if it came out to approximately $1945 × 15% = $291.  Then they charge us $17 in processing fees.  Then there's a few bucks in regulatory charges.