68 Mini Pickup Project

[94touring]

Oh yes they will be paint matched.  I like how clean the wood and picket are, but since I'm going with 6x12 deep dish wheels wanted something a hair wider. 

[AcesLow]

I can not seem to find rave fender flares online. Do you have any pictures of them? I was looking at carbon weezels Miglia flares. Pricey though... What type of welder are you using? My 140 HD from Lincoln  seems to be working pretty good. Did you plug weld the valence on or do you have a spot welder as-well? I'm almost all patched up just in time for winter.....

[94touring]

I bought the arches from gbcarparts, had them on sale for about $120.  They are the same as wood and picket, just about a quarter inch wider.  The reason why I prefer WP or these Raves is the screws are hidden and screw in from the bottom onto the lip.  Clean looking.  I use a little flux core welder from harbor freight, gets the job done.  Spot welder would be handy but I just drill a hole and spot weld the pieces together that way.

[94touring]

Patching a few things on this side before I weld the rest of the front end on. 

[MiniGene]

Right on.  How much time are you going to be able to devote to it this stint?

[94touring]

Two days a week, about 10 hours.  I got the inner and outer Apanels pieced together and everything is a go for this side.  Gotta grind some welds and finish getting off the black undercoat crap.  My flares should be here around tomorrow too.  As I type this I realize I forgot to pick up some more grease to spray between the Apanels and inside that door frame section I patched up before I weld them on.   

[94touring]

Okay got lots done today and those flares came in.

Cleaning up and using the wire wheel.



Primer time

[94touring]

And everything welded up.  I threw a subframe in there to make sure things in fact lined up. 

[MiniGene]

Now that is looking good! It's starting to get it's shape back.  How difficult was it to get everything lined up nice?

[94touring]

Umm, not too hard really.  A little persuasion was needed here and there.  The Apanels went on easier on the left side but the front end panel took some brute force upward on the left side to get it to touch up against the wing flush for whatever reason.  I had things clamped up before in Arizona and didn't have that problem that I recall.  

Oh and also I remembered to get my grease and sprayed between the Apanels after painting them and clamping/welding together.  I'm determined to keep this thing from rusting! 

[snack]

Hey Dan, quick question.  I'm going to be putting on new inner fenders, fenders, a panels  etc.  The inner fenders are Heritage and seem to be painted a thick glossy black unlike the floor panels the have a lighter coating of something on them.  Do those glossy black panels need to be stripped or just scuffed and primed?
Steve

[94touring]

Scuffed and primed will do the trick! 

[94touring]

Ok time for floors.   

[MiniGene]

Yes!  That full length panel looked like it worked out great.  Other side tomorrow?

[94touring]

It fit amazingly easy.  The corners came together and the hole for the seat belt was a dead match as well.  I'll probably finish welding the perimeter tomorrow and have an area on the tunnel where the x-member is that needs some attention.  Then put in half of the x-member if I make it that far.  Debating to buy kickpanels or just fab up my own as well.  

Oh and for the rear subby attach panel, I'm going to install the rear subby to make sure I get things dead ass perfect.  It would be easy to screw that up. 

[94touring]

Todays work.  

Used a subby that still had the hardware attached and made sure things fit.  Before I cut out the subframe attach panel initially, I had also put marks where the holes should align.  Everything came together perfectly.





And tinkered with the x-member.  

[MiniGene]

Smart move with the sub-frame.  Is it just that one mounting area that needed to be replaced?  Is that sub-frame good enough to run with just a clean up and repaint or are you going to need a new one?

[94touring]

That subby goes with batman's old car.  My subby I cleaned up already and will use.  I'll need to replace the other mounting area also, but doing one at a time, so I could use the other side as a reference.   

[MiniGene]

I had forgot that you had electrocuted a subframe into submission for this project a while back.  I reread the posts and saw it again.

[94touring]

Ok got some more patching done and the x member is welded into place.




A little body filler skim coat and sanding and it will be perfecto.

[MiniGene]

I swear if I ever do it again I am doing it on a rotisserie.  It must be amazing to work on stuff like that without having to be on your back.  Looking great.

[94touring]

Yeah the rotissier makes it a gazillion times easier. 

[MiniGene]

A gazillion.  It doesn't get any better than that!\

[94touring]

I have way too much floor work to try to attempt this on my back.  Have tons of cleaning and grinding under there yet to do.  Need to get some seam sealer and go around the perimeter and grab some more primer too.  Will be doing some sand blasting on the underside of the bed area soon to eliminate the disaster that is back there.   

[94touring]

Decided to order a sample of a color I'm interested in.  Still leaning toward orange.  This particular one is a kandy/pearl.  Will spray a piece of metal and see how it looks in person.