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

Radius Arm removals

Radius arm removals.. dead easy these almost fall out.

couple of bolts and nuts..

And the left one too.

Rear Subframe removal with Louis.

Me and Louis talking about the  the following steps.

We decided because the car is staying on the drive so long as  the Sprite 

still has to stay in a few more weeks we choose to keep thee windows in and the doors 

on to keep rain and cats out.

Is a bit of a risk I know , let it fall and broken glass.

Anyway off we went trolley jacking up the rear end first.

Rear subframe bolts loose and trolley jack it up..

2 bolts left against the heel board 2 bolts right against the heal board and the bolts in the boot.

fuel line and hand brake loos.

Dont forget the nuts from the shocks.. dohhh..

Up Up and away..

Noow hard you think a mini is you always discover rust and more work than you imagined.

Even though 1978 it aint so bad.

Curious to know what will be left over after getting it sand blasted.

Taadaa the rear subframe..

Even though it looks in dire straits this one is a good one..

No welding required just media blasting coating in epoxy and then factory black.

Old wheels and tyres

Wheels off tyres of ready for a good clean.

Tyres had plenty tread on but didnt have the ummf anymore to cut it..

Real shame they wer once upon a time good tyres..

Good old Yoko's

( TYRE YOKOHAMA A008 165/70/10)

Advice from Lynn

Just had an app from a nephew Pascal and his daughter Lynn has

done this sort of thing before !

She said " hey uncle Andy this is how you make the lights "

Thanks very much Lynn for the advice, I will pass it on to the work crew !