Old front end

Mini front end !

End of life..

Rear subframe

Rear subframe ready for sandblassting

No welding needed

Radiator cowl and rear sub frame fittings

Ready to be sand blasted.

Front subframs almost never have rust due to the 

amount of oil the inncur over the years.

This subframe can also be sandblasted without having to be welded.

Front subframe (front side)

Front subframe (rear side)

After sand blasting the front subframe it came

out looking like this..

and of course epoxy coating then finally in factory black.

Rear sub frame After sand blasting.

It came out looking like this..

and of course again epoxy coating then finally in factory black.

Nice..

Wheels old/new

New tyres are unfortuneatly needed these are dried and cracked.

Such a shame because they are good tyres Yokohama's and still have a lot of tread.

Actually I think the previous owner had the tyres fitted then his clutch plate blew up/shatterd and the mini just stayed sitting their for years..

Also sitting on flat tyres the tyres just got danaged..

Plenty of tread, almost new..

After sitting for years on flats, tyres have just split, see here under..

This is why these tyre cannot be used, !

You almost cant see the damage when their inflated.

however if you go driving well lets not go their..

No body should ever put their self in harms way and risk something like that.

Save you money and get a set of new tyres.

Never have seen a centre cap like this before !

Shame i dont have 4 !

If anyone has another 2 i would only be very happy 

to take them off their hands.

Anyway, in that box of bits happend to be 2 new tyres so got them fitted to those white 10 inch

GB-Minilite wheels (originating 70's/80's).

Tyres are balanced and the lead is self ahesive stuck to  the inside centre..

This is sort of the colour code I hope to go for like the sprite (superspridget.blogspot.com).

Blue mini white roof white wheels and mirrors etc.. thats sort of colour code.

Windscreen corner panels old.

New window corner should eventually with a bit of triming

 on the lefthand window post "Fit"

Meanwhile a small order to mini spares (https://www.minispares.com/)

After recieving a small order from the Infamous Mini Spares,

 within 3 days or so I had the parts in house.

Just the ticket !

Having a bit of a trial fit !

The edge of the front panel still needs all the spot welds 

griding off and straightening here and there...

AKA fiddling/fettling..

Now to attack the right hand side of the window lower corner..

First slicing the left handside after marking approx where the new panel has to come..

just lay the new one over the top and draw or scratch where it has to come.

then always stay well inside the lines, because you can always slice a bit more off later.

I reckon we are going to see some more R**t...

Anyway here you see once again that moisture has got in and 

started rusting and eten away the closing panel under the window corner.

.

I suppose yet again a car that has not been galanized and is almost 40 yrs old

isnt in to bad a state..

This particular shell/mini was built in Belgium..

New window corner should eventually fit with a bit of triming

 on the Righthand window post...

At the moment my aim is to remove lots of pieces that will need replacing so I can 

get the car sandblasted whilst keeping some stiffness in the structure..

Looking good..

Obviously everything is just plonked on their to give an idea

how rust free it is going to look later..

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Whilst continuly tripping over the old 10inch GB alloys (garage floor) that have really seen better days
I decided to get the tyres took off and the wheels a bit smartend up as I would like to keep the mini
looking like a mini on the outside when it is eventually done.

Their is a fair bit of oxidization on 2 of the wheels.. mmm

I am a bit of a fan at the moment of our local sandblaster

so decided it may be a better idea to get these blasted and epoxy coated ..

Ok and then made "White"

Yeah white...

Back to silver is just to mmmm not fitting in with 

the colour code I would like.

 And as if by magic.....

Taadaaaaa...

I like it and for the money i paid, it was well worth it..

Front end surgery wings and A-panels

Andy now time for some surgery..

Get the angle grinder ready..

After running the wirebrush in the bonnet gutter to clean up and reveal the spot welds

I chose to cut with a disk left of the gutter along the side against the front right wing.

Saving me the hassel of drilling the welds out like |I did on the sprite.

Also I ran under the headlight hole the cutting disk, but well on the wing side not damaging the front panel, or trying not to anyway.

Removed the external metal beeding and sliced through the wing and A-Panel which will be easy enough to remove later.

Ater removing the wing ended up removing the piece i was to lazy to drill out the spot welds on..

Slicing cacefully and ticking it off with a screwdriver in the length not sideways.

Otherwise you will just deform the inner wing plate thingy ma jiggy panel..

front wing long  gone..

Lots of rust revealed under the front wing.

If I hadnt removed this wing It would have rusted through the new paint job in no time..

Window hook spot welds drilled out and starting the surgery..

litle by little corner removel checking there is nothing to accidentally cut away..

Bending up the the window hook.

Revealing probably more rust..

Window hook gone and the other closing panel under probaly 20 yrs gone..

Stripping

Like I said doing things back to front ! 

Time to remove the doors and glass.

Sat on a few old yoko,s

Rubbers from the glass is out.

Lovely dent thanks to the father in law who accidentally dropped a piece of scafolding on it from a height..

You bend it you mend it is my moto 👴

All fit to be filed a way in file in

B 1 N

Bit of the head line and internal mirror needs coming out

Doors arent to bad however the plan is to reskin..

Front Sub out

Removed subframe and also the ancillaries.

Just before removal..

Front subby and steering rack, steering rack is only 2 u bolts x4 nuts and the 

steering rods.

Garage gets very cramped very soon.

Old red shocks were back in the day classed as an upgrade