It's a Mini Adventure

More of a distraction really. Once again little progress on my projects due to a guy down the road stopping to ask me if I did cars for a living. We got chatting and it turns out he has a mini cooper that needs some welding. Iv'e been here before what with having my own mini a few years ago. It was five years in the making and I ran it for about 3 years before selling it on. So knowing all the common problem areas I agreed to have a look before commiting myself. Well as any mini fan will know there was rust in the wing, a panel, inner wing and windscreen scuttle panel. I told him I had done it all before and that it was much less than I had to do on my car. I told him what panels to buy and where to get them for the best price.
So it was this weekend that I arranged to go round. After using my rotary wire brush (the best tool a man can get) which takes off paint and rust revealing clean shinny metal in no time. The only drawback I find is that after using it you tend to look like a porcupine, you'll understand when tend of wire strands inbed themselves up to 6mm into your skin even through heavy clothing. You don't notice them going in but boy do you notice when they snag on something. If this is accupuncture give me a pill any day.
Anyway. The rust was actually less than I feared so I decided not to remove the old panels but simply to cut sections out of the new panels and let them in. This would ensure good panel gaps and although it may take a little longer the end result should be better. So after seven and a half hours worth of cutting grinding wleding and more grinding the work was done. The only unexpected thing was that I had to take the windscreen out to repair the scuttle properly. I hope to get away with leaving it in place. Never mind. I left him to prepare it for paint so my job was done. I charged him one hundred pounds and he was happy and I was happier still. I forgot to take some photos so may pop round there later in the week for some before he paints it. Failing that here are some pictures of my mini before during and after.

You may notice I have put on a little weight since the pictures were taken, thats beer for you. I will post the full story of my mini in my next blog. I actually wrote an article for the essex mini club I belonged to so I will add this to my blog as it may be of interest and besides it's already typed up and will take no effort on my part.

I'd be interested to know if my mini is still around. 1983 mini mayfair A57 TGD. If anyone knows drop me a line.

As for the MG well I'm waiting for my stuff to finish on ebay before I have any spare cash to but the rebuild kit I need so in the mean time I will simply refit them now they are clean with new gaskets. I will update further when I actually do it.