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Starting to cut out sills
kitcar007kev - 21/7/11 at 09:48 PM

Started with the grinder!

Cutting out sills

PSpirine - 21/7/11 at 10:15 PM

Umm

Before you do any more cutting - given the extent of rot and what you'll have to remove, I strongly suggest you immediately brace the shell by welding some random diagonal braces (just 25x25 box section) all across it as you have a very high chance of distorting the shell completely when you cut some more of the sill/floor out!!

Litemoth - 21/7/11 at 11:02 PM

Depressing business...did it all when i was about 21 on a similarly blue mini and brought it all flooding back. My inner sills were a lot worse than that though ...as were the top sills, floor pans, cross members, jacking points, rear sub frame, rear sub frame mounting points, boot floor and battery box. Not to mention the fiddly bit of sill down at the bottom of the cubby-hole storage area either side of the back seat.

Anybody else shear off the rear subframe mounting bolts?

Yours is not too bad at all...honest.

As stated above, It would be worth tacking some braces across the door seams (not side to side necessarily IMO but top to bottom/ front to back - the seams the rubber door seal sits on) as the sill tends to bend down and in, leaving an uneven gap around the door. I was using gas mind you.

Cut out and replace a bit at a time....it'll lose shape and depress the hell out of you otherwise.

Good luck !!

blakep82 - 21/7/11 at 11:17 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Litemoth
Anybody else shear off the rear subframe mounting bolts?


ha yes! thats when i took a grinder to it, cut it up, took it to the dump, and bought my pickup chassis
i would love to have finished that mini though

norfolkluego - 21/7/11 at 11:54 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Litemoth


Anybody else shear off the rear subframe mounting bolts?



Been there, done that. My first car was a Mini, almost 40 years ago. Replaced the subframe (after drilling out and retapping the bolts), had to cut and braze the hydrolastic suspension pipes. Took it to get re-MOTd and the tester poked out the sills with his finger.

The good old days, er... not really

JeffHs - 22/7/11 at 04:56 AM

Yep. Did all that with a 63 Woody Traveller about 35 years ago. Took me about 2 years off and on, all welding done with stick!. I put it on the road as my wife's first car. I was so pee'd off with the rebuild I never did get round to overhauling the engine. We used it for years and finally abandoned it at the side of the house as a future project. About 2 years later a mate asked if he could borrow it because he had no wheels or money. We got it started, freed off the seized clutch, changed the oil and filter and he took it for MoT - needed a wiper blade. He used it for 12 months then brought it back! Sadly long since gone to the scrappers.

Daddylonglegs - 22/7/11 at 09:14 AM

Yep, been there too. My eldest lad's first car was Mini Mayfair we restored and the donor was given the 'stress relief' treatment as blake's, cut up with a cold chisel and angle grinder and taken down the recycling centre in the back of our Laguna estate

Best 2 days I'd spent for a long time