My 93 Mini Cooper 1275i recommission.

Before I started removing the door frame, rightly or wrongly I decided to cut out the vin from the scrap scuttle and transplant it into the new heritage panel. This has raised eyebrows elsewhere but as this IS the original car and I have a photo trail of my work I thought it was acceptable and maybe even going above and beyond the usual restoration.



Next up was to brace the inner door frame and remove the outer frame skin by drilling out the spot welds.


Some rust in there, time for the sills to be chopped out!





Cleaned up and zinc etched.





Floor was a sandwich of rust. The cost of using oversills.





New door frame clamped in for size.

Next up was to get the sills and quarter floor into place but only after repairing the heel board.
I was sweating on this as I didn’t want to remove the subframes and tip the shell just yet as there was a lack of strength in the floor. I had already snapped the subframe bolts trying to get them out so I thought it was sh!t or bust!

Instead I cut the companion bin lower section, removed the sills back as far as I could and cut away the heel board from inside.





I’ve still got to put the closing panel back in here before repairing the companion bin.



To get the floor cut back to the right place so there was no gap I tacked the sill to the door step, chocked up the floor panel, then marked a point 60mm in from the edge of the floor panel with an engineers rule, then inside I measured back on top of the old floor the 60mm I’d come in. Marked the line, held my breath and cut through at 45 degrees with a 1mm disc. It was perfect to allow me to tack the floor then seam it all the way.
 






I managed to find a Clarke CSW6T spot welder for £300 which did this, then I dropped my mates old spot welder back to him.


I got my floor welded and ground back.



Then cut out my seat support to be able to finish the floor welding then prepped the areas with paint before welding  the repair section back in.







A bit of etch primer later and it all looks like this.



Last job was to offer up my inner flitch repair which was a poor fit from M-Machine, which annoyed me as everything thus far has been good. I tried my recently purchased bead roller and put a swage into the repair panel to try and match the original.

Thats where we are just now until I get home in just over a week.

Just scan read this as I need to be in the workshop so will fully read through it later - but looks like a lovely little distraction to me 

Can't see owt wrong putting the correct vin back.
Will be a nice toy once you finish.

I purchased this back in July and wanted it to be a quick turn around but I just couldn’t patch it up for someone else to go through the same down the line. I work offshore fir two weeks at a time with a fortnight break in between so I generally get at least 5-7 days every leave to push this forward.  Im hoping it will be at the body work stage by sort of Feb/March time fingers crossed.

I also purchased a full roof cut from a Pano Bini which will be a big job but should be one of only a handful out there with it done.

This is sat in the garage with all the ancillary bits inc headliner and trims etc. 



This is a piccy from the company selling the kit, shown in a classic mini so I know it fits.

I reckon the roof will be fabulous...a better version of the old webastard roof.




This one infact , with a very moody 11..ish year old me at the wheel of my grans new clubman (VRL 797T ?)

Looks like you’re doing a great job saving that Mini. Mine is a 94 Cooper and still on its original sills although to be fair it’s pretty much only done about 500 miles since about 2004 when I started messing with it. I bet if I dug deep enough there’d be some repairs needed. Lower windscreen lip is starting to go for sure.

One of the first things I did when I got it in 2001 was absolutely lather it in Dinitrol wherever I could get it. Seems to have done a great job.

I'll answer your questions in order 

1 - Copperweld - Its a trade only product by Kent Europe (you need an account / minimum spend with them) - its very good - U Pol do a copper weld but avoid at all costs its useless - best one in the market that works other than the Kent product is Bilt Hambers 'Etch Weld' - its a weld through etching primer so 2 products in one from a excellent manufacture and sensibly priced see below link  

www.bilthamber.com/paints-and-coatings/etchweld

2 - I only use branded products I'm confident that will produce the required results over the long term - never heard of 'Autotek' primers - it could well be ok but who knows - you're making a excellent & thorough job of the restoration work on your Mini - last thing I'd want to be doing is risk having to undertake remedial works to paint due to inferior products failing at a later stage (nothing worse than having to do a job twice) personally I would only use a branded product that I can trust - for that reason I'd recommend the Bilt Hamber 'Etch Weld' above for etching primer and Bilt Hambers 'High Build' build for general priming - link below 

www.bilthamber.com/paints-and-coatings/highbild

3 - Sikaflex 221 - I wouldn't use as a seam sealer - its a PU product which you will find difficult to brush out / replicate factory seams - far better to use a dedicated automotive seam sealer that's manufactured purposefully for the task - here's my response to the seam sealer question raised recently by another member 

' There's loads on the market and I would avoid 95% of them - the vast majority are supplied in a 1 litre tin - some are pure rubbish and others are pretty good - the problem however lies in extracting the product from the tin with a small brush and applying it to the seam - it strings all over the place and by the time you have it applied & brushed into the seam it looks a proper mess / over wide & stringy - I avoid it all costs - far better is a seam sealer that is supplied by the cartridge which is then applied by a skeleton gun - this you can apply it far neater then just brush in as required



The good ones are Silane Modified Polymer based which retains elastic rubberised properties in order to take into account any minor flexing of the vehicles seams - at all costs avoid pure silicone based products along with any PU based products (such as Tigerseal etc) - these have their uses but not as a automotive seam sealer



I use a product supplied by Kent Europe - unfortunately its trade only and you have to hold an account / minimum spend with them which rules that one out - 3M 50740 does the job and is available on E Bay but its a hell of a price - like £25+ a tube !



A little research brings up a product manufactured by HB Body that will do the job for you - TDS below



www.hbbody.com.gr/products/filesUploads/703_S%20115%20AUTOSEAL%20SPECIAL%20CART_tds.pdf



And its available at a sensible price online - link below



www.jawel.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=173&products_id=2812

4 - International Interzone 954 - Is a industrial coating that provides a high level protection in harsh environments - whilst it will be fine on the underside of the car I would have a concern that its probably not that workable to a finish suitable for top coating with a car quality paint - I would assume that its very difficult to abrade / key back to a level & smooth surface but you might want to undertake some trails on a test panel first - from experience I would recommend a automotive quality primer - by all means undertake some trails then come back to me should you require any further recommendations - the gravitex is fine if that's the route that you are going down followed by the body colour - there is an alternative that in my book offers more protection and makes the car more usable and that is to coat the underside with Dinitrol 4941 which is a OEM quality underbody coating that provides superb underbody protection - I would also recommend the use of Dinitrols ML (Brown) / 1000 (Transparent) cavity waxes - use of the Dinitrol system would delete the use of the Gravitex & body colour but would provide for a far more resilient underbody finish - by all means get back to me should you require any further details 

5 - All depends on what you find / how well the surface coating has been applied - you really cant tell most of the time until start to abrade it - some surfaces appear fine but others a very poor - I normally put the sander over them to abrade and see how it performs any minor signs of rust or peeling and I strip the panel back to bare metal 

Hope this answers your questions - don't worry about the number or length of them and please don't hesitate should you require any further details / information etc