Back from VA with a mini

Started by 94touring, November 25, 2009, 03:59:26 PM

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94touring

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  :)

94touring

Got her running today.  Bad condensor on the distributor. 

MPlayle

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!

94touring

#3
I hope so, I'm ready to tear into it and make it look purdy.    

Glad to hear of your job.  



Willie_B

That's some scary looking rust. Hopefully it is just surface rust.

94touring

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. 

94touring

Talked with the owner, gotta wait till mid-end of Dec to see if he can afford the restore.   

MiniGene

That look's kind of my Mini!  I hope the owner is able to afford to have it done right.

94touring

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. 

Minicop


94touring

No still in NC till the end of the year. 

94touring

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.

94touring

May be moving forward with this project, but on a budget style refurb.  May not be replacing any panels. 

MiniGene


94touring

Flying back to NC to start working on this thing.  Should be interesting not being able to replace panels. 

MiniGene

Are you going to patch up the body the best you can with out fresh panels? 

94touring

Yep thats the game plan.  Door skins and around the headlights could be tricky.   

MiniGene

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?

94touring

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. 

MiniGene

That's what I have.  What settings do you use when doing the sheet metal.  I am horrible at it.

94touring

The low setting for sheet metal speed 5.  Just takes some practice and short burst. 

94touring

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. 

MPlayle

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.

MiniGene


94touring

#24
Ok another day of patching.  Some pics so far...