Clubman Estate
Turbo Mini Forums

ill be doing similar repairs on my spare shell soon, keep on taking lots of pics please

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

looking good - it will be well worth it in the long run by the looks of it

Richard- thankfully the neighbours don't seem to mind about the noise, which is lucky lol.

Joey- No worries about the pictures, plenty more will be flooding in.

Cheers Rob, hopefully it will remain rust free for a few years, until i get round to restoring it properly.

looks like your doing the resto now!

haha, this was just supposed to be a little work before th mot lol.... how things change.

Well progress has been slow, because of the weather, and generally a lack of time.

But today i picked up my two recaro front seats and the back seat which im going to use to upholster the bench seat in the estate.

I would'nt advise these seats if your on a weight saving mission. They weigh more than a house. lol

Weather permitting i'll be back to the metal work tomorow.

Sorry about the crap picture i'll take some better ones at some point.

A little taster for you...

Edited by Oli on 29th Aug, 2009.

Look good Oli, even better if you can trim the rear in the same material. Did this on Mums 1380 Estate using the greay Metro herringbone material that matched the front Metro seats, looks great when finished.

You might have to take some metal out of the rear bin areas if you want to get the recline mechanism to go back far enough without the seat fouling the bin. But make sure you leave enough to support the rear seat base as it hinges on the bins when you put the load bay floor down.

How's it goin with the floor. There was a bloody great hole in it the last time I looked ! LoL !!

Richard.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

Well today, i got up early and decided to crack on.

First step was to take a couple of measurements, and cut a section of the door step out. This was because it allows better access to floor area etc, whilst making adjustmants to the panel.



Also, when Richard came round he pointed out that the door step repair panel didnt have the seam/join in it (at the back of the door frame). As the panel is pressed in one. I think it would look funny without it, so the plan is to cut the panel up and repair the doorstep and rear quarter in two different parts.... if that makes sense.

Anyway the floor panel, had been trimmed etc a couple of days ago, so it was slotted in place to see if any further adjustments would be need.



And it does!

The heel area in the front foot well needs to be cut, extended and welded back in, so it lines up with the original.



Also the inner sill doesnt seem to be high enough to meet the doorstep, (sorry about the poor picture quality). So the panel quality turns out to be alot poorer than originally thought. And im abit stumped about what i should so with the sill at the moment.



And then the rain came. So that stopped play.

But Richard, we're on the same wave length.

As i brought the rear seats aswell and started to strip them down

If anybody wants the foam for any reason lol, they can have it.







I've got the rest of the back rest of the seats to do... then i'll give it all a good scrub up. and get the mud of it all.

Update time.

A very productive day today.

Finished a little bit of cutting and trimming to the front footwell. All the metal removed.



Then went about welding the floor to the orignal, this was butt welded together. Also a little panel had to be made up and welded into the front footwell.



The little circular welds/ plug welds were done to fill any little pin holes. Must grind the welds back a little further.



Then the extended doorstep repair panel, was cut in two. The doorstep clamped in place.



However, the inner sill is well too short.



The rest of the doorstep panel will be cut again, just to repair this hole.






Nearly finished lol.

Looks like your making good progress...

Hats off to you dude!

Still suprises me every time, they look fine until you go in with the grinder lol

Well done mate.... Keep it up, it WILL be worth it in the end.

http://s256.photobucket.com/albums/hh167/boz-reb-2303/
http://s609.photobucket.com/albums/tt176/boz-reb/

1971 turbo mini van
1978 clubman estate
1971 clubman

Cheers Chaps, Comments are much appreciated.

Got some more done this evening. I'll let the pictures do the talking.













Reapaired the door hinge. (studs snapped off on removal!)





As the estate stands at the moment..... "3 wheels on my wagon...."

looking good but I think I'd be tempted to seam weld some of those joints;

I was thinking about the same thing, but i thought its pretty much equal to what would have been factory, e.g. spot welds all over the place.

Cheers for the heads up though Rob, I will be putting some more welds in tomorrow then, i still have a few other areas to weld anyway, e.g. the underneath, but its in place lol.

Was just about to say the very same thing. You are doing a lovely job of the repair but I would recommend fully seam welding. If the rest of your work is anything to go by you will be able to do this neatly too.

the thing with plug welding is that ultimately the joint between the panels is the perimeter length of the hole you are plugging; a spot weld is the surface area of the spot and therefore not necessarily the same? Thats how I see it anyway

don't get me wrong though, my car is all plug welded as well ; i've just added some seam welded area I felt could benefit with some extra strength

Oli.

As I said when I came over, I suggest you stitch weld over the top of all those lovely spot welds.

Dont worry about the sill step, thats ok just plug welded as you have it but all the rest I suggest seam welding. Dont do long runs, it can cause heat distortion. Just do an inch, miss 3 inches, do a nother inch, miss three inches etc. then return back and fill in when its cooled down. Grind back a bit but dont try and get ultra flat, you just need the nibs off. I suggest seam sealing all the welds before painting, after you've finished grinding. Seam sealer is either available paint on from a tin or in cartridge form. Halfords or Frost usually stock it. Do both sides of the weld / panel if you can get access to them.

Lookin bloody good though matey. keep it up.

Richard.

Minivanless, but reluctantly happy living with the decision. There'll be another one day.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=minimadmotorman#p/u

Thanks very much for the advice chaps.

Tonight i had to make another plate up, and welded that in.

I also started to seam weld the inner sill to the doorstep, the rear pocket to the inner sill. And the box section to the floor.

I'll get some pictures up tomorrow, as the lower rear quarter is going to be done when i get home, and along with the inner sill strengthener.

Yep, got a large tin of seam sealer, ready to go, just waiting until all the weldings done and ground back, and do it all in one go.

Oh and the underneath of the footwell needs to be welded.

Cheers, for all the advice!

All very good advice guys, im stuck into this job as well at the moment trying to finish before the wicklow winter sets in!!

Well done Oli so far, im seam welding as much as possible as it will be a road car with no cage.

I also cant stop thinking about that photo that was doing the rounds a while back which showed all the plug welds popping in a smack!
Has anyone got a link to it still.

Havent seen that video before... would be interesting to see.

I got a little more done tonight, I'll up date after i've had some tea.

I don't think it was a video - there was a photo posted some time ago of the untimely demise of a car after it hit a concrete wall backwards if i can recall. In one of the photos, you could see the step sill had seprated with the sill and the plug or spot welds were clearly torn apart.

As i say, don't want to worry anyone on this; it was simply an observation and exactly the samec as I've done on my own car!

Thats alright then lol.

Rob, if i pm you my email adress, would it be possible for you to send me some pictures of you wheel/arche combo?

As i brought some group 5 euros a few months ago, but am struggling to decide what wheels to go for. (staying with 10's)

no probs Oli - I think i've some more up to date photos of the car now;