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Minifinity The Classic Mini Forum and Resource | • View topic - 1984 mini mayfair

1984 mini mayfair

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1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:14am

At the start of this year I decided the thing to do was get myself a hobby, the reasons for this were A to keep me busy and B to keep me sane. The hobby selected was in fact to get myself a mini project (by mini i refer to the car not the size of the project!) So i got this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320852021405? ... 500wt_1287
And as you can see it is a very large mini project! I then proceeded to spend a heap of money on tools and a mig welder (which i have yet to learn to use.) and so i am now committed to bringing this car back from the dead and making it into the mini i always dreamed about when i was in school. I have sort of made a start, by which i mean i have spent money on bits i liked the look of ie. an 11" mountney steering wheel and some super cool ultra rare 10" alcan alloy wheels (also badly in need of restoration!)
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but like I was saying I did make a start other than just spending money I used my new grinder and ground the skins off the doors.
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Today is my next free day but its a bit wet so am posting this to you guys.
Last edited by Phatwiji on Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:33am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:19am

sorry but i clearly don't know how to put pictures on my post properly.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Andy500 » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:20am

Good luck with this one, you've got a fair old job on there!
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby mcbudge07 » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:23am

Phatwiji wrote:sorry but i clearly don't know how to put pictures on my post properly.

You just put [img]photobucket-link[/img] and then it shows the image ;)
Good luck with the project!
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:35am

mcbudge07 wrote:You just put [img]photobucket-link[/img] and then it shows the image ;)
Good luck with the project!


thanks :)
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:35am

mcbudge07 wrote:You just put [img]photobucket-link[/img] and then it shows the image ;)
Good luck with the project!


thanks :)
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 11:41am

Oh buy the way the putty type stuff they put around the window winder makes taking them off a real pain in the ass! taking off the window winder was easily the hardest and longest part of that job! And to be honest i cant see the need for the putty to be there in the first place (tuts and shakes head)
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 13th Mar 2012, 08:13pm

Having waited all day for the sun to come out and dry things up a bit I gave up on attacking under-seal job today, but I had something in the post so worked on that instead. A few days ago i had done a search for hub-caps to fill the holes in the wheels I have, to my pleasant surprise i found a site that appeared to sell hub-caps not only of the correct size but also carrying the mini logo, happy days! but when they arrived this morning it turns out that "hub caps" was a very misleading description of the item I had purchased. What i had in fact purchased were soft rubber stickers, of the sort i'm sure are stuck to hub caps but stickers none the less. So what i needed to do was get hold of some hub caps to which i could stick my stickers, or make some...........
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Bingo! :)
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Wed 14th Mar 2012, 03:06pm

Well the weather is better today so went out and flipped the mini on its side to get a good look at the bottom,
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and then decided there was no point using my under-seal yet as there was to much rust that needed to go first.

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so time to get the cutter out again :/ I was feeling a little concerned cutting even more bits off when i still cant weld! oh well a guy has said he will show me the ropes next Monday, i'm sure it will be fine welding is easy isn't it? lol

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so there we go bit by bit i am destroying my car, all i need to do is learn to weld, weld the back on, weld the front on, put in the front sub-frame, find and put in the back sub-frame, decide what engine i want to put in, put engine in, and errrrrr oh yer everything else! piece of cake lol
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 20th Mar 2012, 08:01pm

So made my first attempts at welding today, I still have a bit to learn! I found the mini's skin to be very thin I started by trying to weld on a boot repair panel (which unhelpfully was not quite the right shape so needed "encouraging" to fit.) and found burn through to be a constant problem. I think I have just about managed to avoid making a total bodge of it all, I am fairly happy that what is there may not look pretty but will be strong. I have picked up a few more tips (advice that is) and I think I will do a bit better next time. But that said welding is loads of fun the day just flew by :rock:
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Mon 2nd Apr 2012, 06:50pm

It has in fact all turned out to be lot more complicated than I hoped. First my problems (among many.) on my first welding attempt were due to the fact that I was trying to use the flux cored/gasless welding method which as it turns out is not good for thin sheet metal as it pulls a lot of amps and burns hot! So that explains why I spent the first day burning holes in my mini, undeterred I set about trying the gas out. This then led me to discover that my 30-40 mins of practice with gas welding had totally depleted my 1lt gas bottle :shock: and as these bottles were going to cost me £15 a pop I decided that further investment would be necessary and set about collecting(buying) the needed kit to allow my hobby mig welder to accept the larger gas bottles ie. regulator, special connection hose and supplier of welding gas. Having collected these items at long last I put them together and joy of joys I heard a hissssssss coming from the push connector on the back of the welder where the 4mm pipe is pushed in and no amount of fiddling would stop it, so I decided that maybe a spot of PTFE tape on the thread would do the trick. It didn't! In removing and then refitting it it decided to come apart and become two thing not one. After a few choice words I went indoors and began a search for a replacement, In the end a part that is close ish to being right was found and fitted and seems at least to do the job it even appears to have stopped the leak so I am hoping tomorrow to weld!!
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Fri 13th Apr 2012, 06:49pm

My welding is getting better (a bit!) I have finished welding on the boot repair panel and I think its ok, not neat but ok I also repaired the bottom lip of my door, well the doors frame (note "doors frame" not "door frame") oh have a look its simpler.

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Not tremendously exciting but it had to be done and then I got the new door skins, and that got me thinking. Fitting the remote opening feature I wanted would be a lot easier before re-skinning the door and for that matter so would electrifying my windows! So with a days fiddling about that's what I did...

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I dont have a 12v supply at the moment so it is as yet untested but provided the linear activator is strong enough to operate the latch mechanism I am confident both mods will work a treat :D
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Sat 14th Apr 2012, 02:12pm

More fiddling with the doors today, and good thing to as I discovered my fitting of the linear actuator to operate the door latch was a little wrong and would foul the window as it went up and down so i fixed this (I think) and then finished attaching the new electric window motor to the existing mini window winder mechanism, again I cant test yet as I still don't have a 12v power supply of any sort a.t.m. (aside from pinching the battery from the wife's car, which would not be well received!) so I must wait to see if i was successful.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby gus88 » Sat 14th Apr 2012, 02:51pm

Interesting stuff - keep it up.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Mon 16th Apr 2012, 06:57pm

I woke up thinking last night and realised that with my door converted to electric windows and having the opening mechanism operated by a linear actuator that in the (quite likely) event that the electrics fail I will be stuck in the car with no option but to break a window. This would not be cool so i decided it prudent to have the mechanical mechanism operating along side, as you can see from my earlier pic there is very little room now. I have just about squeezed them in by using the right mechanism upside down in the left door and vice versa, the only problem now is that the original door lever attaches to this....

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and its spring seems to make the whole action for opening the door very heavy, to heavy for the linear actuator anyway :x I am trying to get the spring out but no luck so far I hope when I manage this it will then be able to work? wish me luck. oh and I now have a little battery to test things with (that's how i know the actuator is not strong enough) still cant test the window winder as i took everything off the door to bung on some hammerite, I will reassemble and test that when I sort this door latching problem.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 17th Apr 2012, 11:03am

I used the "final solution" on the spring and its out now(by which I mean I attacked it with the grinder until it was dust) and so with a little more bending and reshaping of the arm between the handle and the latch it was all free moving enough to be operated by the actuator! yay :) Also got round to testing the electric windows and all is looking good, I am not totally sure it will work with the weight of the glass as well but then again it will have a decent battery then and not a poxy little thing from a lawn mower.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Fri 20th Apr 2012, 09:33pm

Ok so having moved the shell of the mini to my farther's house so as I can work on it with out people complaining about the noise I was finally able to get stuck back into patching up the swiss cheese that is my mini yay! And so today I decided to patch up this hole.....
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And so I cut away an area ready to patch....
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and the using the scrap steel from the old door skins I made a patch.....
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then tacked it on....
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then stitch welded the seem up (my first attempt)....
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and welded the other steel patch behind ....
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then ground of the excess to make a flat(ish) surface....
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I am not 100% happy with my work but it will do i think, i have several years experience as a spray finisher and so i am confident i can "make good" when it comes to painting it and it will look tip top :D
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Nozzle » Sat 21st Apr 2012, 08:20pm

I think your welder needed the volts turning up a little? Positional welding is never that easy though, even more so if there's rust in the area. Since you're a pro at the refinishing, you'll be able to make it look spanking good anyway! :-)

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Sat 21st Apr 2012, 08:47pm

Nozzle wrote:I think your welder needed the volts turning up a little?


No I think I wasn't holding it on for long enough stitching up the seam, I was being over careful not to burn a hole in it. I am confident my tacks penetrated enough for strength tho and like you said I can cover up a lot with the paint :D
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Thu 26th Apr 2012, 06:40pm

I turned up today as it looked like it was going to be dry to find that the last few days had slightly flooded the poor mini :( so i had to start with drying it as best I could and then what with dodging the rain and moving the shell again to put it somewhere where it may even stay dry when it rains, and trying to spray a bit of primer on any bare metal to help stop the rain from rusting it I didn't have much time to actually make much progress, but I did start to repair the boot hinge panel and what I did I was reasonably happy with it needs some grinding back but I hope my penetration this time will be better and it will look right from grinding back and not need so much "finishing/bodging" afterwards :) I was defo giving it an extra second or so on the spots and stitches, I will find out soon enough.
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I may get to do some more tomorrow if the rain holds off.

oh and one more exciting thing regarding the mini, I now have an engine and gearbox.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Fri 27th Apr 2012, 07:15pm

Today I was actually able to put in a good few hours of work on the mini and I am quite happy with what I was able to do. To start with I needed to finish welding on the boot hinge repair bit that I started yesterday and with a bit of "encouragement" I was able to line it up with the boot floor repair panel that I had already fitted. I am not totally sure that everything is going back to spot on where is should be but I did try when cutting out the rusted parts to leave enough metal to act as a reference point when it came to welding on new bits. But from looking at things today I am not absolutely sure that the back of my mini will end up exactly the same shape as when it left the factory lol partly because the repair panels (as it turns out) are not actually the same shape as the bits they are meant to replace, cest la vie hear is what I did starting with finishing off fitting the hinge repair panel.

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Then back to cutting out old rusted steel and then reshaping the "bottom corner repair panel" so that it sort of fitted in to the hole

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then welded that in (with some encouragement to make everything line up!(and yes by "encouragement" I do mean a hammer))

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then ground the weld back flat and realised a little "making good" will be required again when it comes to finishing!

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I then proceeded to do the same to the other corner until rain stopped play and got this far-

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And then wrap her up again

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And believe it or not that is the most dry most convenient and most practical spot I have had the car in since I first got it lol and no one moans at me for having it there! :D
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Zippyrude » Fri 27th Apr 2012, 07:46pm

nice to see this, most would have scrapped her
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Fri 27th Apr 2012, 08:17pm

lol Thanks, I never seem to do things the easy way (there's no fun in easy)
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 8th May 2012, 11:53am

I cant believe what a tool I have been lol as you can see from my earlier posts I am attempting to fit electric windows using an electric window kit that I have fitted, but over the last few weeks when i have been fiddling with it it has become clear the motor does not have the power to wind the window all the way up, and clearly this is no good! At first i thought this may be because i had just replaced the window rubbers and they were pinching the window to hard, but after trying with both the genuine and non genuine rubbers still the window would not wind all the way up, each attempt by the way involving a very fiddly and complex insertion and then removal of the glass, winding mechanism and motor assembly but still no joy, I was starting to wonder if i was going to have to scrap the idea when just now as i was fiddling some more it came to me!! and yes with a little checking it became clear that like a wally i had put the right hand door window winder in the left hand door upside down! the winders are spring loaded to help lift the weight of the window as you wind it up, but i had them the wrong way round so the springs were pulling the window down. what a plonker :roll: i cant test it yet but i am sure it will work now
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Nozzle » Tue 8th May 2012, 04:28pm

Which makes me wonder how you managed to screw the winding mechs in as the screws aren't in the same position on the front-ward side and back-ward side:

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 8th May 2012, 09:26pm

Nozzle wrote:Which makes me wonder how you managed to screw the winding mechs in as the screws aren't in the same position on the front-ward side and back-ward side:

Nozzle


but when you put it in the wrong door it is upside down and the wrong way around the screws the same if you flip it along the X axis! I must say i was only testing and so only held it in by 2 of the screws so maybe all 4 wouldn't have lined up, but i'm telling you that's the mistake i made.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Thu 10th May 2012, 06:54pm

Well having welded all the bits back on to the back ie. boot floor, hinge repair, corner repair and rear valance I decided to make things more difficult for myself by de-seaming the back as well. when i was looking in to the possibility of doing this it was fairly unanimous that it was not an easy thing to do, and what i discovered when i tried it for myself was that they were not wrong lol i was back to burning holes and cursing. But i got there in the end (well sort of) the hinge repair panel it seems was not put back right and will need some filler to look neat as will a lot of it but having said that i have welded spots from the back as well as seaming along the outside so i think strength wise all will be well it is just a matter of making it all look good in the end and i am confident i can do this. hear are a few snaps of the de-seaming.

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Fri 11th May 2012, 04:48pm

A bit of a scrappy day today, am nearly out of shielding gas so I wasn't keen to start anything big and not be able to finish it. But having said that I did get a few things done, first I put spots of weld on the back of the rear valance join to add some extra strength
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Then I patched yet another little hole this time in the rear wheel arch

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And then I fixed another little thing that has bugged me forever, that silly little semi circle cut out of the rear valance for the original exhaust to run below. Almost no one runs the standard exhaust and so there is always this silly little cut out there for no reason and it looks silly not to mention spoiling the nice curved line that defines the back of the car. So i got rid of it!

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Mon 21st May 2012, 09:34pm

So I got more argon mix and went back to patching holes in the off side rear wheel arch ( I decided this would be simpler than replacing it)
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then slapped on some paint
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I then flipped it over to have a look at the other side and decided to patch the hole in the sill there

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but when it comes to the rear quarter I decided to replace the whole panel (well the bit below the glass at least) so i cut out the old....

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but with that out of the way i found a few little bits to patch before welding in the new panel...

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and this bit....

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then spent the rest of my time today trying to make the new panel fit! find out how i did in my next post.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 22nd May 2012, 07:28pm

I got back down to the car again today and the weather was sunny so i made the most of it and put on my leather shirt, long trousers, leather gloves and full face mask! Dam it was hot but the PPE was needed as welding was the order of the day, specifically the rear quarter panel. so I got it all ready by drilling holes for the plug welds and cleaning the metal (once I was happy I had made it close enough to the right shape!)

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I then decided the the two butt weld joints I was going to have to do either side of the rear window opening were the ones that had the least tolerance for error and would not respond well to "encouragement" so I started by tacking them in place as best as they would fit.

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I then plug welded the back seam into position.

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And then the front and bottom edge and round the wheel arch

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And i had to join this panel to the boot floor and rear valance

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and then straight away grind my work off again in order to make it the same as the lack of seam on the other side lol

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and then a few spots along the top edge and I'm there save for a little tidying up with the grinder :D

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Nozzle » Tue 22nd May 2012, 07:38pm

Great work!!! You've really tackled that project by the balls, ace

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Tue 22nd May 2012, 08:49pm

thank you
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Mon 28th May 2012, 07:02pm

I have been doing a few odds and sods since my last post some of which may be of interest so hear go's, firstly when i came back to the newly installed rear quarter panel I found that due to a change of technique as I welded the arch above the wheel I had a load of dry welds there, this meant drilling out old dry welds with my increasingly blunt drill bits and then thoroughly spotting them back again. Once i was happy with my welding there I stuck on some paint to stop the rot for now.

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Then as you can see in this photo.....

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.....someone in there wisdom has removed the rear seat panel and both rear pockets! I have looked to see if it was possible to buy these parts but I had no luck, so I decided to do it my self/bodge it. And the plan for this is A) put in a supporting piece in the center.

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and then make an L section length of steel out of a spare bumper I had kicking around by beating it with a hammer until flat then folding...

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it was then necessary to make some sort of sense of the edges where the pockets were....

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I did this by making some steel box type things to go in place of the pockets and to take the weight of the seat something like this....(not absolutely right yet!)

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then neaten and strengthen with a bit of this...

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that is as far as I am as of the time I am writing this and I have the other side to weld in yet and then the cross piece and whatever else I decide needs be done to make all this right so signing off for now.
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Project Mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Thu 31st May 2012, 06:38pm

I was able today to finish the back seat bodge (well as finished as it needs to be for now) and in my opinion it is looking good I think what I am doing instead of the pockets is going to look real smart :D I first needed to make and install the boxing in for the other side which I did....

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since starting this back seat part of the project I found at last pictures of the back as it was originally and it seems the bit that was cut off from mine did in fact slope backwards in a way I had not anticipated or allowed for (I guess to help stop the back seat from slipping off under braking?) So I removed the L section steel support in the middle and replaced it with a longer one, then made some little widgets to go on the sides to bring the front edge of that up...

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And when I was happy with that I trimmed and welded the cross beam on...

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then to make sure it was all pucker I had to stick in the back seat I have and have a little sit :rock: its all good.

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I may at a later date add steel to the gap between the cross beam and the original bit but I think I will leave it for now as it seems fine.

P.S. have changed the rather dull dry name of my diary to Project Mayfair as that sounds cooler 8.)

:lol:
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Croker » Thu 31st May 2012, 08:51pm

Outstanding work there matey. Keep the updates coming!
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Project Mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Thu 31st May 2012, 09:43pm

Just wondering why my thread name edit did not take? (well it changed it for the 1 post but not for the reply.)
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Sat 2nd Jun 2012, 04:02pm

hmmmm I have just discovered "weld through zinc primer" and am thinking that I should have been using this all along! I must admit I was wondering about the susceptibility of the welded joints to rust in the future, but didn't think they could be painted then welded. All I had read and been told had lead me to believe that "your joints must be prepared and have have clean steel before you weld them". But it turns out there is a paint you can weld over. and I had even heard of it "zinc primer" its mentioned in these here mini forums, but it had never clicked that's that what it did, I was under the impression it was just a preferred rust proofing to be applied after welding. Ah well I lives and learns! guess I will just have to protect the welds I have already done as best I can with Hammerite and seam sealer and hope for the best.
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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Sat 9th Jun 2012, 09:53pm

Did some inner wing today, not much to say about it except it seems to have gone well and I had zinc paint to put on it this time, here is a pic or two of it.

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Thu 14th Jun 2012, 07:17pm

A little more progress to report today, firstly a bit more welded and some paint on to the repair I was doing in the previous post.
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Then after some thought I realised that the A panels I was planing to attach next can't be correctly positioned without the doors in place, and the doors cant be attached without first putting the new skins on them, and the new skins cant go on until all the work inside the door that cant be done with the skins on is done, and that cant be done util I have figured out how to do it!! Which after a good deal of head scratching and a few failed attempts I am fairly sure I figured out (I have a feeling I have made that claim before) and this time I have made sure all my fixings are secure and not going to easily snap off and I have simplified and refined the attachment of the motor to the winding mechanism. And with the door in a new position looking from a new angle I noticed a screw sticking out that had been catching on the window carrier and jamming everything (this I believe to be the main cause of the failings of my previous efforts) and having removed the offending screw everything went swimmingly and I will just tell myself it has helped by forcing me to redesign my attachments over and over again making them as strong as I can, so fingers crossed they wont bust when the door is all finished and on the car on the road somewhere!

So in the end the solution I am using is this, first take the little cog from the winder (this requires drilling out some rivets) when you have the little cog you will need to remove the excess metal from it (I dont have a pic of it in that state) it will then look like a cog stuck on a 10 pence piece. Then on the 10p side i welded on a short length of the standard square bar that's used in domestic doors (the bit that runs between the handles through the mechanism.) like so...

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this is in order that it will accept this plastic cog part that came with the electric window kit..

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that plastic part had needed some altering to be the way it is. The two bits together will then marry the electric motor to the mechanical winder by sitting here...

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and with the bits in place and firmly screwed down it looks like this...

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Then all that was left to do was make sure the wiring I have to add to operate the door latch and windows is run and taped out the way and i'm ready for the skin (well I will be when I'v copied it all to the other door!)

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Re: 1984 mini mayfair

Postby Phatwiji » Sat 16th Jun 2012, 10:13am

Phatwiji wrote:
Then all that was left to do was make sure the wiring I have to add to operate the door latch and windows is run and taped out the way and i'm ready for the skin (well I will be when I'v copied it all to the other door!)


When I said that I made it sound simple didn't I lol well I spent a day "copying" the door only to realise I have forgotten what I did, how I did it, and why I did it. (Dam impaired memory functions!) So rather annoyingly I am spending my time finding solutions to problems I know I have solved once already, that is half the point of this diary, it is not only for you guys to enjoy (maybe?) reading, It is so that in time to come there is some record of what I did I can look over and remind myself of the trials and tribulations of mini restoration/modification. Well that and the fact that when I get stuck I can cry 'help' and get some advice from you lot.

P.S. Before you ask, no it was not drugs that were responsible for my damaged brain, it was the small matter of being hit in the head by a lorry!!
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