Need some advice about rust
Turbo Mini Forums

This ones a bit lengthy...

3 years prior to now my car went into a 'mini garage' for repairs to the a-pannels/wing/front panel/scuttlecorner and inner and outer sills. They fitted 9" over sills to the outside whcih appears to have made a mess, somewhat more of a mess than i initially thought. Which is where my question comes in.

Without knowing what i was putting myself in for, I removed my front end in preperation to replace the whole scuttle and make up a steel removable front.

After removing the front end i found that not only the scuttle, but the area around the vents needed replacing due to rot setting in. After stripping the pannel below (inner wings between wheel and driver/passenger), it also became clear that the this would need replacing as the part which butts up against the door fixing point (flitch panel?) was also rusty, so have setout to remove that section for a repair panel. This is where the car sits at the moment with the inner wing/flitch removed.

At the bottom of the post theres a pic of the current sad state, but im not sure where to go next. Its a bit of a mess and a lot of patch and repairs are all meeting in this area, but im not sure how far to take my work. Initial plans were to make the car roadworthy for another couple of years in preperation for a full bare metal rebuild, so work was supposed to be short at this stage.

However, im itching to sort the sills out aswell, but im not sure if its worth it as im sure the floor will be virtually toast now (due to the oversill being put on).

What do i do, jump in and do the lot now or live with it for a few years?

Experiance and thoughts are very much welcome.

Edited by andeh on 18th Apr, 2006.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

Worth noting that before this point the car was neglected by myself, being a daily without having much attention in the maintenance side of things (appart from bling go faster bits), but its now a garaged second car which i dont plan on using much.

Edited by andeh on 19th Apr, 2006.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

Hi,
Cruel to say, but unless it's something significant, you'd probably be better off getting a good shell.
If you add up the cost of the all the panels, floors sills ect, plus all the time cutting and welding( you'll probably uncover more horrors as you get into it).
As you've got that far you may as well do the sills and floors.
Also be aware it's easy to end up with a twisted car when replacing a lot of panels.
Heritage panels are about the best. M-Machine.... don't do it!
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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Just repair the lot now and take a little time to get it right first time. I am now at the start of mine, car being dropped off at my mum and dads garage on thursday (Engine out sunday) Got to get this right, cos as mini1071s says, its an investment in this day and age of ever rising prices to what can honestly be described as stupid. Not to mention the shell flopping about like a dead fish wrapped in newspaper.

Also worth noting that aparently in January 2007 the use of solvent based paints will become very difficult to get hold of because of some EU regulation. So get you respray done this year, that is unles your going to use 2K

Edited by Sprocket on 19th Apr, 2006.

sounds unanimous, I’ve been itching to do it as well as its one of the only parts of the car im not happy with. However, what am i likely to need to do the job panel wise? Its not going to be just outer sills, so what else is it a good idea to get ordered at the same time? Inner sills? floor patches? Door step?

To avoid twisting what’s the best approach to take?

Edited by andeh on 19th Apr, 2006.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

To do a proper job of replacing the floors, I'd say your best bet might be full length floorpans? You can then weld the proper outer sill to this and have a strong joint. However to do these well it really wants both the subframes off the car etc etc, so it depends quite how far you want to go with it?

the whole of the front is already off the car, its not going to take much to take the rear subby off in all fairness, i was thinking of doing it anyway. Thing that comes in is the cost of a full length floor which'll be £230 or close.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

Decided im gonne take the outer sill off this side regardless to do an investigation, are things gonne go all wobbly when i do this? I.e anything i need to look out for?

Sorry for the extreme level of noob questions, but i gotta start somewhere.

Edited by andeh on 19th Apr, 2006.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

tack weld in cross braces made of flat bad at the door aperatures and if removing any large quantity of flooring in one go another cross brace across B post to B post, this should minimise any distortion. Its also worth using some wood batton across the floor pan between each corner of the floor and support the body on axle stands that way.

I'll be making up a trolly for the body to sit on. This will act as two things, one to support the floppy body when I have the inner and outer sills out and also to move it around easily.