I have fitted the latching system and actuator to door no. 2....




I then checked to see if the glass was going to fit ok, and to my disappointment it did not. This was because first I had made the bracket holding the actuator protrude to far into the door and second because the doors were in fact not the same and i'm not talking one's left and one's right! It seems the doors are slightly different, in ways that I am sure would normally not make a blind bit of difference but for my purposes
it was a real problem, the way it was the window would not be going up and down unless I ditched the actuator and so having rewelded the mount for the actuator to allow for maximum clearance and still not having the space, it hit me! i can pinch a few millimeters by removing some of the window carrier I very much doubt it will measurably affect anything but it gives me the space I need.




as you can just about see from the out of focus pic there is now plenty of room for the window to go up and down without catching on anything, I was so pleased with this modification I decided to go back and do it to the first doors window also (just in case.).

I have fitted the latching system and actuator to door no. 2....




I then checked to see if the glass was going to fit ok, and to my disappointment it did not. This was because first I had made the bracket holding the actuator protrude to far into the door and second because the doors were in fact not the same and i'm not talking one's left and one's right! It seems the doors are slightly different, in ways that I am sure would normally not make a blind bit of difference but for my purposes
it was a real problem, the way it was the window would not be going up and down unless I ditched the actuator and so having rewelded the mount for the actuator to allow for maximum clearance and still not having the space, it hit me! i can pinch a few millimeters by removing some of the window carrier I very much doubt it will measurably affect anything but it gives me the space I need.




as you can just about see from the out of focus pic there is now plenty of room for the window to go up and down without catching on anything, I was so pleased with this modification I decided to go back and do it to the first doors window also (just in case.).

Looking good mate. I too figure things out and then forget how I did it, so your not alone. I have to say I wasn't hit by a lorry though so glad you made it through.

Thanks Marshall for your kind words. I know very well how lucky I was, so the fact my memory leaves a little to be desired is not a big issue even if it does wind me up some days, I tend to forget about it quite quickly anyway lol. But that aside I have done a little more, mostly to the doors where I had one or two things to re-do, namely the window winders again. I once again decided that I needed to toughen up cog join between the electrical and mechanical window winders, and having previously re-welded the square bar section on to the small cog to ensure its strength and durability. My next concern was the nylon (or whatever it is) plastic cog parts that came with the electronic winder motor. They have to fit snugly over the square bar and then fit inside a second cog that in turn fits inside a toothed opening at the end of the flexible length running from the electric motor itself. Sounds simple doesn't it well among the many many plastic parts that came in the electric winder kit there were exactly zero parts that meet my requirements, so once again I was back to bodging, oh I mean modifying. And as you will know if you have been following this I have regularly found myself in the position of needing to re-do these bits, and I very much have to stop myself claiming that this time I have done it, as I think I may have made that claim already (and here I am redoing!).But this time I "hope" I have done it! It was in the end necessary to combine two outer cogs to make one finished outer cog, bits of two cogs at least. and when finished it looks like this....


Then there was the inner cogs and I changed them again to a plastic part I found that was already square on the inside, and so would fit the square bar on welded to the small cog with only a small amount of packing. This resulted in something stronger and neater than I had managed before...



Other than that the only other things done to the door were to run the necessary wires for the various switches and the like needed for the windows and door latches (I made this more complicated for myself by deciding I needed to be able to open the passengers door from the drivers door for reasons I wont go in to as its all been giving me a head ache all day.).




Having recently received new boot hinges in the post I got to thinking about them and realised this, as you may remember a boot hinge repair panel has been fitted and the rear seam was then removed leaving this rather unsightly step in the steel where the seam would have been...



(thats an old pic repeated.) This problem I can solve quite satisfactorily when it comes to finishing I am sure but it will involve a bit of filler, and I am not happy with the hard corner edges of the boot hinge being bolted directly on to 1-2 mm of (frankly rather week) filler. fearing this could lead to a constant need for attention and re-painting I feel I must do something about it. The fix I am going for is a good old fashion rubber gasket to spread the forces and cushion things as they are clamped down by the bolts. So i cut rubber gaskets.....

Having let the Araldite harden for 24 hours I could put the two cog parts together, and blow me if it doesn't seem to have actually worked!



So with that I really don't think there is any more I can do to improve my window winding system so I'v stuck all the bits together and with the battery charged it all (touch wood!) seemed to work like a dream. All that was left was to fit some stops as the window no longer has the space to role all the way down, and if someone was to do this by mistake it would cause untold damage as the bottom of the window tried to push its way through the electric motor. So having established how far was safe for the windows to go down I installed some bolts and padded them with a bit of gaffa tape.




Next on the agenda was readying the door skins to be fitted, this meant welding on little patches to cover both the scoop for your hand and the hole the opening mechanism is fitted through to leave one large flat uninterrupted door surface.






To be honest those pictures make it look like it went better than in fact it did. I made a bit of a balls up in as much as with all the preping and getting all my welding gear set up and then cracking on I forgot 1 small thing (that I always seem to forget till its to late) and that is this IF YOU WELD TO MUCH IN ONE GO IT WARPS THE PANEL! So me a rubber mallet and an hour of persuasion later it was back flat (well nothing I cant make good with finishing any ho.).

I then offered up the skin to the door and clamped it so the top edge lined up with the top edge of the inside of the door. This done I looked at the bottom edge and it is about 10mm to long lol. I will be having some fun there then, looks like it will be necessary to re fold the bottom edge but thinking about it I decided the most important part to line up is the crease as that runs horizontally the entire length of the car, and the doors not following it would look poo. The top and bottom edges will just have to be altered as needs be because the crease cant be moved.

Today I prepared the second door skin (more carefully this time!) and I was able to see I had been a little harsh on myself re. the heat warping, it seems that the skins don't start especially straight and flat around the area i'v been working on anyway. So the patches were cut and the metal prep'd ....



And welded on, slowly this time....




I then went to work straightening both panels a little more as this is the only chance i'll get to do what I did. which was this....



I was able to use that set up to make both panels flatter, to a point that will only require a little making good when it comes to the finishing stage so I am happy with it. Next up was pulling the shell out so as to temporarily fit the doors and establish the correct position to attach the skins. I enjoyed the look of the de-skinned doors on the unfinished shell so much thst I took a pic of that as well lol ...

Today I passed the point of no return well as far as the doors are concerned anyway, by which I mean I have started to refit the skins. I began the day by running through in my head all the things that needed to be done before the irreversible skinning was to happen (I say irreversible but this time i'm not planning on spotting the skins on, just folding in the hope I may be able to take them off again one day?) and when my head stopped spinning from that mental exertion I began doing something useful. I decided to put a strip of mass loading/flashing tape on to the skin and that drastically reduced the "ring on" when the skin was tapped. So I reckon that it will reduce its resonance of engine and other noise's, so therefore it's worth doing.



I then laid out all the parts ready and got all the tools I thought I was going to need out and then just stared at it. I was being a chicken It was hard to take the step of actually doing it, my mind went blank and all I could think was "I'm forgetting something and I will feel like a tit when I realise"



but after 45 min's of racking my brains and double checking everything I decided it was now or never and whacked in some seam sealer to go between the two bits as they come together and bosh they were one (save actually fixing them lol.). Welding the top corners of the skin to the frame seemed the sensible thing to do first so I got it all prepped and lined up and fired up the MIG. Shortly after starting my welding It became apparent that I had in fact overlooked one thing in preparation for the task, MIG wire!!! after 3 spots it ran out and I had no more .6mm wire. Bummer I thought to myself, I have started now I cant just stop again. So despite some reservations about over cooking things I broke out my only remaining MIG wire the (as yet untried) 0.9mm. I was sure I would now be drawing to many amps and heat things up to much melting the window rubbers just the other side of the 1mm steal I had to weld and maybe starting a small fire. But to my pleasant surprise I actually found it easier to weld with the .9 than the .6 the higher ampage meant that as soon as the ark was initiated it only took a second for there to be enough metal in the join and enough heat for good penetration so it all seemed to be strangely quick and easy and no fires.



Then it was a case of mole grips and hammers to fold in the edges as neat and firm as I could manage...




And then I had to go so will be finishing it off in the morning.

And here is the finished article....



So that's one down one to go! Didn't have time for number two today tho as I had to attend a medico legal appointment in Bristol "yawn". But did have time to get me wheels out again and do some more on them, looking good (even if I do say so myself!) I must grind the rims a bit but other than that just needs the rubber and hub caps.

Having spent two days on the first door I was able to bash out the second one in just a day and with a lot less head scratching.



I even remembered to put something over the glass to protect it from splatters of weld (a mistake I made the first time round!). Welded the top corners of the skin and ground them back again and folded in the edges of the skin like so...




So now I guess I need to go back to fitting the A panel, now that I have the doors I will be able to line it up properly. That is if the doors actually fit the car now? lol hope so

This is a great thread to follow! Keep up the good work!

Thanks, always good to hear some positive feedback.

What did I say about the doors not fitting now? Jinxed myself didn't I lol. So spent the day persuading the door it did want to fit and line up with everything nicely in the end it was necessary to "move" the mounting holes on the shell and as any who have tried know moving a hole is not as simple as it sounds especially if you don't want to move it much! the reason the holes were in the wrong place im sure is because what with the car being rolled on its side loads of times and dragged around like that the small flap of rusted steel has been bent bent and bent again. At least now with my inner wing repair it will have the strength to stay put now. So after a morning of thinking about it in the end I settled on the idea of making the holes bigger so the door can be manipulated into the correct position then welding washers in place to make the holes small again so the door will fit on and off without to much faffing about in the future. By a convenient coincidence the door needed the washers on the inside edge to move the door back far enough for the latch to work anyway.





In the end I think it fitted quite well, that's one done next door requires I repair the inner wing etc. on the other side so thats the jobs for next week sorted for me.

I like what your doing..i wish my project was as involved as yours but at 15 with not a lot of money im doing the best i can maybe when i older i can start over with a full restoration at the moment my dad says its not worth it as a first car it will get dings and scratches lol.. keep up the good work it helps inspire me to do mine lol

Good news my dad has taken pity on me scrabbling about outside in the weather and has allowed me to use his garage/workshop to work on the car in .



So Monday was spent clearing the garage and moving the car and then welding a patch into the inner wing where rust had taken hold, once the patch was cut and shaped and I started welding (still with the 0.8mm wire) I found the welder working beautifully and getting excellent penetration allowing me to do some very neat welding (for a change lol)




Happy with how the welding was going I needed to get everything ready for fixing the A panel on which involved cleaning and painting the relevant bits and lots of tweaking to get things lined up just right (well that's the plan, guess I wont know for sure for a while.) and when I was happy I welded it up.




then with it in place it was seam sealer and paint in an effort that it wont rust to fast.

Then just because I now could I clamped on the front wing to have a look at it and check the fit. And for the first time in I don't know how many years it looked like a mini again .

the build still is going great

the shell is coming together now

hope to see more

Dave

Unfortunately I started the day today with a bit of a mishap! See if you can work out what happened?



Yes I knocked it over. Fortunately it still works (the regulator not the gauges lol) so I was able to use it, guess I'll get another one when I next replace the the bottle.

Next on the "to do" list was the under scuttle filler bits so more prep in places I cant see but know will rust



Then welded in the filler bit...



due to rust the filler bit did not quite meet the bits of the scuttle that were still there and I realised that I didn't actually know how to fit these bits but could fit them in such a way as to allow a lip that the flip front could close against. That being the plan I needed a little repair strip for the scuttle...





and that being done I moved on to the other side and discovered more rust than I was expecting as the bit of wing that was still there had been hiding it. Once the useless wing part was removed this is what I was left with.



so I began removing rusty bits (again!)

More of the same today but it was slow going as up under the scuttle needed lots of rust removing and little patches shaping and fixing in place, and there is no space up there! I wont bore you with details of all the photos but this is a montage of pictures of the days, work you should be able to see what I was doing (same old cut out the bad weld in good bits). Oh and discovered today that the olive green primer that covers all the metal on the mini does not need to be removed before welding! It doesn't conduct so you need to scratch it to fire up an arc but it doesn't seem to interfere with the weld in any other way, I had always wondered how it was everywhere? So it must be applied pre spotting the shell together. I guess that makes sense as I dont think a spot welder needs to ark? So anyway knowing that now will save me so much prep time, maybe I was just being thick but I was told rule 1 of welding was to make sure your metal was clean so assumed that green crap needed to go, and also I thought if this was a known thing someone would have told me!! oh well I am telling you, the green stuff wont hurt your weld (unless you know better?).

Ok so I was going to weld in the panel in the previous post today but curiosity got the better of me and I looked behind the shock mounts!!



and



So my attention was diverted and the panel will have to wait until another day.

I cut back and removed the rusty bits until I found steel cleaned all I found behind and slapped on some zinc paint. A patch was shaped and prep'ed then welded into place



then I sorted out the shock mount itself, I deemed it salvageable and so spent the time reconditioning it.





Then a quick coat of hammerite on all, some silicon sealant to go in between and prevent it happening again and fresh nuts bolts and washers all round and all done(well half done will need to do the other side the same.)

I had exactly the same experience with one of my shock mounts but not the other. Very surprising at both the inner wings and mounts seem to be the original ones. You put alot of work in to saving that holed mount. I was lazy and bought a stainless steel pair. Great work and journal, keep it up

So I did weld in this panel today but it took a fair bit of prep what with the holes and the cleaning and the zinc and the making good all that was behind it not to mention the persuasion (hitting) that was needed to get a good fit



but after clamping and pushing and jiggling and enough welds to make my eyes start to go funny I ended up with this...



and yes by the time I took that pic I had started to grind back/tidy up my welds a bit.

Then I needed to put the skirt back on the corner of the scuttle that had rusted off/I cut off so some shaping and cleaning of scrap steel later I was able to tack this in place



And after some considerable amount of welding, grinding and welding and grinding again I ended the day with this



and having offered up the wing I am hopeful it will be fit for purpose, next job will be to fit the filler bit as per the other side.

The filler bit was done but on that day I didn't have my phone so no pics. It all went pretty much to plan and you can just about see it on this pic where I had the door on to line up the A panel.



And with it all lined up as best as I could manage I welded it in place




And with that I decided to put the bonnet and both wings on and see how things were looking...



It was looking good! except for the bonnet was not as good a fit as i would have liked. But before I changed anything to fix that I needed to know if the quick release hinge things I had were going to make and difference, so next job fit them!
First job there was to cut off bits from the existing hinge arm to allow the sleeve to fit nicely over them like so...




then fit the sleeve parts to the bonnet (and adjust)




but even with some of my best adjusting i still wasn't happy with how the bonnet sat. Namely it seemed to curve up to much in the middle as you can see from this pic if you look at the line between the top of the back edge of the bonnet and the scuttle you will see what I mean in the middle it is out by about 12mm and that's far to much especially as it will be so obvious from the drivers seat....



So I decided to do something about it, I foung a spare bit of steel with a ridge pressed in to it giving it a bit more rigidity and decided to stick it to the underside while weighting down the bonnet to make it straighter like this...




so with that done a 24 hour wait is needed before seeing if it has worked, so I moved on to fixing the hole behind the other shock mount...

The bonnet straightening idea would have worked well if I had put the steel rib in the right place but as it was it made it a funny shape! So try number 2 and first take it off.The good news there was that it was surprisingly hard to remove it and so therefore when I get it in the right place I am confident it will stay there. then re-glue ....



this time fingers crossed! other than that I was cleaning the front subframe and removing surplus bits from it ready to use it as a guide to making up this flip front I am doing. More from that later

Firstly I will say that the bonnet is now a good fit as the rib trick did the trick. Thar being done its time to look at
a) mounting the engine/modifying the subfarme to take the engine and gearbox.
b) putting together the front panels to make the flip front.

Now the way I see it both of these operations are dependent on the other! so I offered up the parts to see what I would be working with...



The good news is it all seemed to fit(within acceptable tolerances at least), well that it "would" fit when persuaded to do so at the point of making the flipper. The bad news was I saw how little space I had to squeeze the engine into yes I had seen a mini engine bay before but not in 10 years or so lol and I can see it is going to be tight, what I need to do is make a plan of attack for what to try and do and in what order I am now thinking that fitting the engine and lining up the drive shafts need to be the next task, and that will involve modifying the subframe and.....? I dont know, any advice or pointers would be welcomed at this point as I am back at the stage of not fully knowing what the hell I am doing lol. All I know is that its possible and so somehow I will do it, its just a question of figuring out how.

ok so what I am thinking is 1st I need to check things are right with the car in its original configuration, and by that I mean attach the front subframe as is and then fit the hubs and other suspension bits along with the steering rack etc. in order to get a good idea of how these things need to be and take measurements and notes and photos so that as I modify the subfarme to accept the engine I can avoid buggering everything up. The problem with this is that I do not actually have the bulk of the bits I would need to do that. I have the disk swivel hub, steering rack, arms that the steering rack fits to, but apart from the subframe itself I have no other suspension parts whats so ever. I have been trying to make a list of what I will need? this is it so far....

1x suspension strut
1x lower arm R/H
1x lower arm L/H
1x set of lower arm bushes
2x front shocks
2x rear shocks
2x front rubber cone springs
1x cone strutt
2x lower arm pivot pin+bushes
2x tie rods+ washers and bushes and nuts and bolts
2x top suspension arm+ pin, bushes, nuts and bolts
2x tie rod+bushes
2x tie rod and swivel hub ball joints
2x track rod end
1x steering rack U bolt
2x rubber suspension cone
2x Knuckle joint+cup

I dont think that is all I need but listing it was making my wallet hurt lol any suggestions as to a good place to go for affordable bits (new or not) i'm open to suggestions. My farther in law is looking out for a donor mini for me so fingers crossed.

I have been thinking about the parts I need and as I want it lowered and with -ve camber anyway and those bits would not come on a donor car perhaps buying a donor isn't the way to go (there doesn't seem to be any such thing as a cheap spares or repairs mini any more!) either way it will cost me 100s in parts so while I attempt to source what I need to move on with the main part of the project (any help in that area welcome!) I am spending time on other little jobs ie. little welding jobs,cleaning stuff and further refinement of the doors wiring like how it will be routed from the door to meet the rest of the loom. Here is a series of pics that show the solution I came up with in the end...

Well as far as collecting together the front suspension parts go's I think I am getting there, I scored a reconditioned pair of upper suspension arms today for £40 quid including delivery, a pair of new -ve camber track rod ends for a tenner including delivery, full set of new shocks £37, tower bolts £10, poly subframe mounts £15 and a pair of knuckles for £6.75. Not everything yet but getting there. And today I made myself the part that attaches the subframe mount to the bulkhead (sorry dont know its name and cant find the pic of it I had seen) but anyway hear it is.....



and this is where it go's...




and yes I did make 2 of them

So I went for a few days where I kept forgetting my phone and therefore my camera, so I will give you a quick catch up on where I am. I spent a lot of time cleaning reconditioning and painting the parts I need for my brake set up (the fiesta conversion). I think I have it all ready now, I am just waiting for a 10.5mm drill bit some slightly longer bolts and the pads and then It will be good to go (or rather stop!).



My poly subframe mounts arrived so I fitted them for now along with the subframe...





I used some flashing tape (for roofing) to do some mass loading in order to reduce the resonance of the larger flat areas of steel just the rear quarters and roof (for now)...





I had been able to get hold of a load of "closed cell foam" in the form of roll mats for a good price and am under the understanding that it is good for both acoustic and thermal insulation so have decided to bung this everywhere to keep things toasty and quiet...





loads of other bits have arrived and are on there way. Things are moving on well I think

more stuff arrived today, 1st the bearings for the swivel hubs so (slowly as it was my first time) fitted them...



and then the rest of the bits I need for my brakes arrived, the slightly larger drill bit allowed me to make the holes a much better fit than it had been the first time when I tried with the "nearly the right size" drill bit. So the longer bolts (which also arrived) today fit sweetly now, so I wont have to have a nightmare every time it comes to stopping thinking my brakes are going to fall apart! and here they are in all there glory, mini disk hubs with Fiesta caliper mounting bracket attached in a secure fashion...



I better hope this all works properly and fits when it comes to it or I will look like a right tit.

8.8 bolts in the caliper bracket? Good luck with that!!!

Nozzle

Nozzle wrote:8.8 bolts in the caliper bracket? Good luck with that!!!

Nozzle

They were M10 X 30mm high tensile steel bolts, I was led to believe those were the ones I wanted and they seem correct to me. You realise the caliper bracket is the Ford one!

That's what I was thinking you might say - for your safety I'm glad this issue has come up! 8.8 is fairly standard - 10.9 and 12.9 should be seen as high tensile.

Nozzle

yes they are grade 8.8 bolts, are you suggesting that they are insufficient? (you have opened my eyes to the world of bolt grading! lol)

The lowest of the low is 4.6, "soft cheese"
Then there is range up to the commonly availble "hi-grade" 8.8, "hard cheese"
Then there are those up to 12.9, "tough as old boots"
And there are those that are made in China to no standard whatsoever and just have "8.8" stamped onto them...

But being a safety critical system, I'd be inclined to source out a specialist bolt firm and pick up a set of 10.9's or above of the correct size you require.

Nozzle

Thanks for the concern and the info Nozzle, these are the bolts... (new one on the right)...



I do not doubt what you say but I think that provided I do not have Chinese "imitation" bolts I will be ok. I am told that bolts in this situation (primarily providing a clamping force) very rarely fail, plus I think all 4 would need to fail at the same time to provide me serious problem, and I feel that is unlikely. And finally I drive like a wuss anyway lol.

Moving on, I worked on reconditioning the steering rack, first cleaning and painting then greasing all I could, fitted new gaiters and packed them with grease and finally fitted the longer track rod ends...



I reconditioned my existing bump stops and refitted them along with my new rebound buffers and shocks...



I also fitted the new ball joints to the swivel hubs but no pic of that. Still waiting for the suspension arms and tie rods, not to mention the rubber springs....

Ok here are the hub ball joints...



My new castle nuts and split collar's arrived so tried to fit them and discovered the thread on one of the shafts had been damaged at some point, meaning the castle nut would not thread on after a fair bit of fiddling and thinking I decided that as tempting as it was just to use brute force to make the nut cut its way past the damaged thread, I didnt want to mess up my brand spanking new nuts. Looking closely at the problem it seemed the end of the shaft had at some point taken a knock and bent out of shape the first 2-3 turns of thread, so looking at the other one (which was fine) I could see with the castle nut in place far enough for the split pin to go in there were nearly 2 turns of thread proud of the end of the nut and a further 2-3 were only used by the intermittent turret parts of the nut. So I decided to remove the offending turns of thread completely feeling fairly sure the remaining thread would be sufficient (my recent ordeal with caliper mounting bolts tells me not everyone will agree with me there! lol)....



I then went on to clean and paint my 1.5deg negative camber lower arms and then fit them with there new bushes and lower arm pin...

So long as you have FULL engagement of the thread throughout the WHOLE length of the nut you'll be fine. Dressing it with a needle file would have sufficed. When you come to tighten all that up, do it to the specified torque using a large PLAIN washer, (this applies the pre-load in the bearings) then undo and use the tappered washer and do to the specified torque, then on to the next hole. You have a torque wrench that goes this high? As an idea, if you're using a three foot pole, it's about as tight as you can humanly do it... Anything shorter and it wont be reaching the specified torque. Lock it all off with a fresh split pin.

Nozzle

Ok thanks for the tip's, I think it will be awhile until it all gets put together to go on the road tho. I will have to take the subframe off and fit the G13BB somehow first.

I put the hub/brake/wheel assembly together to see how things were and drew 2 conclusions, 1st the caliper is going to fit nicely as the disk runs slap bang in the middle of the caliper mounting



and 2nd the caliper does seem to unfortunately touch the inside of the wheel at the moment I am hopeful this will be corrected by using a wheel spacer as the further out of the wheel you move the more space there is, I just hope I wont have to push my wheels out to far as I don't like that look to much. I reckon a bit of a tidy up of the casting on the caliper would give a mm or two.

I have a 10mm wheel spacer on the way and that combined with some metal ground off the corners of the caliper and caliper mount the wheel will fit (I hope). I assembled it on the bench today using washers in place of a correct spacer and had the clearance for the wheel to go round, only a few mm of clearance but that is with new pads and as they wear the space will increase. I have no worry's that the metal I have ground away will have any negative effect on anything...



with the same ground off the other corner.

I also made the decision to use coil springs not rubber springs so shelled out loads of cash on a set of them with hi-lo's. And then after that I made the decision I need to stop spending all my money on a car that go's nowhere!!

Well got me springs and fitted them (to the rear subby at least I still need the upper arms for the front.). While I was on the rear subframe I fitted the -ve camber brackets (one of which was a real s**t to get the holes lined up and the bolts in.) looking good! cant wait to feel the ride but I know it will be a while.




and I bashed the studs out of the drive hub ready for the new ones that will come with the wheel spacers in a few days...