FOM The Clubman Estate

[Tupers]

Today I marked out a sheet of steel to make a cover for the battery box.

I rolled 5 beads into it to match the bottom of the boxes and bent a lip on each side to help seal it up. Unfortunately rolling the beads put a slight twist the the lid but I can get rid of that.

I though I'd do a quick test fit after tacking a temporary brace in. It's seem to fit fairly well, just need a bit more tweaking to get it just right.

Once everyone had cleared out of the work shop this evening I ground down most of the welds on the bulkhead.

I did the welds around the engine steady as well.

And I started doing the seams.

 

[Robotstar5]

You're going to have nice looking engine bay when finished can't wait to see the motor that's going in.

 

[Tupers]

You're going to have nice looking engine bay when finished can't wait to see the motor that's going in.

Thanks I think it should looks pretty good once it's in color. The engine's going to be an 1100 A plus bored out with Hillman Im pistons and a ported 1300 cylinder head.


Having ground down the welds on the bulkhead down I thought I should probably get rid of this one last hole.

I made a nice little late and welded it in.

Seen as this is never going the be left hand drive I got rid of the throttle pedal captive nuts.

I got rid of this lot as well.

Today I decided I wasn't happy with the gap that expanding rust had made behind the flitch braces.

I drilled the spot welds out.

As you can see there was quite a bit of rust behind the brace.

Once I'd miged up the hole in the bulkhead I painted it and the brace with etch primer before tacking the brace back on.

And then welded back on with a much smaller gap between it and the bulkhead.

Unfortunately the O/S brace had popped out in two places so I decided to take it out in on piece and refurb it.

As with the other brace I drilled out the welds and used a spot weld chisel to remove it.

I cleaned it up and etch primed it and the brace, I also welded up the two small holes in the brace as I don't need them.

 

[Cris B]

Out of interest what is your technique for filling the smaller holes?

 

[Sphinx]

Out of interest what is your technique for filling the smaller holes?

I was wondering that.
When I was welding up small holes left from a drill, I used a low setting and wire speed and built up small tacks on the very edge holding the torch almost horizontal to the metal. It was tricky but it was the only way I could think of doing it.

Looking good though! It's going to be a nice neat engine bay when finished and indeed will the rest of the car.

 

[Cris B]

I am yet to try it but I have heard that if you can position a lump of brass behind the hole then you can effectively spot weld on top of it to fill the hole. I wondered if that was the technique used here or some other black art I haven't come across yet. There's lots of holes that will need filling on my 'bay so I'm keen to pick up tips!

This is a great project and I've enjoyed reading it so far.

 

[Tupers]

Out of interest what is your technique for filling the smaller holes?

Using a block of brass or copper behind the hole also works quite well and keeps the welds relatively flat but keeping the block in place can be a pain.

Personally I prefer to I use a similar technique to Sphinx and build up very small tacks from the top to the bottom of the hole. After that I normally run over the front and back of the weld with a 40 grit flap disc and you can't tell the hole was ever there.

 

[Tupers]

A few more up dates for you guys, just little bits really but it all adds u in the end.

I spent most of Friday dosing but I did get around to welding on the O/S flitch brace on.

Grinding the seam off the wing and 'A' panel left a slight height difference in the hip line so I did a bit go welding and grinding to correct it.

I decided to weld up the rest of the A pillar but as soon as I touched it with the mig the thinning metal blew out so I cut a big chunk out instead.

I made a plate to fill the hole, the self tapper in the centre was used to allow me to position it accurately while tacking.

Once I was happy with it I welded it all up a ground it down, you'll notice I also filled in the end of the roof gutter.

While I was at it I did the gap in the gutter just behind the doors.

And I did the back as well, I think the gutter looks much cleaner this way and I'll be drill through the bottom so they still drain.

 

[tux]

 

[Tupers]

Why thanks you sir.


Some of you will have noticed that I welded up the old fuel filler as I didn't really like it. After a bit of discussion in the work shop I decided hinging one of the rear lights would be a great way of hiding the new filler.

I started out by cutting the area behind the N/S rear light out and making a steel replacement for the light gasket.

Then I moved onto making the hinges starting with this.

With a bit of cutting it changed to this.

And then this.

Once I'd decided where to hinge them I made a bracket, trimmed the hinges down and test fitted it to the car.

After a little tweaking of the hinges I welded the hinges to the light back plate.

Isn't it cool?

 

[slimjim]

nice, you wont even need to lock it, no one will think of looking there

 

[tux]

Now that is just pure class! Nice work duder.

 

[brightspark]

nice if sumone runs up the r send and shorts the lighting cables out near the filler neck

 

[Angusdog]

There's already loads of stuff in this car which I haven't seen done on a mini before; now this - brilliant. I wonder if you could fix a spring on the inside at an angle which holds it closed and holds it open, i.e. would be at max stretch at the halfway point.

It also reminds me of the scene in Vacation where Chevy Chase is trying to find the fuel filler in his new Family Truckster. ("You think you hate it now - wait until you drive it"). Funnily enough, both it and the Clubman Estate had stick-on wood effect vinyl down the sides.

 

[Tupers]

Thanks for the comments guys, I figured once finished it would be something cool to confuse people that haven't been following the build. The light unit will have a cover over the back to tidy it up and protect the cables.

There's already loads of stuff in this car which I haven't seen done on a mini before; now this - brilliant. I wonder if you could fix a spring on the inside at an angle which holds it closed and holds it open, i.e. would be at max stretch at the halfway point.

I was thinking of putting a gas strut on it and an electronic popper so I can press a button and it'll open by it's self.

 

[rtcosic]

I was thinking of putting a gas strut on it and an electronic popper so I can press a button and it'll open by it's self.

Behave, that's pure automotive porn, you'll get the Mods on your case with that.

 

[tux]

Behave, that's pure automotive porn, you'll get the Mods on your case with that.

I concur. Thats too flash by half!

 

[Park_monkey]

Just finished reading this thread from the start, some real inspired work. Your attention to detail is great. Nice one, keep it up.

 

[Tupers]

Thanks for the comments sorry about not posting any updates I've barely steped foot in the work shop since christmas let alone touched the car. I did however manage to drag myself down yesterday to do a little work on the centre console.

The opening for the gear stick was still really rough and I didn't have enough steel left around it to do a peened edge so I decided on a 4MM rod bar hoop welded in behind the hole.

After doing a few test pieces with my wire bender I made a full hoop slightly larger that the hole then cut off the excess and welded it together.

I placed the hoop on top of the hole to check how much more I needed to cut out of the console and then tacked it in from behind.

Then I welded it in from the top, I've also done the same for the hand brake opening.

I still need to grind down the welds but I think it's heading in the right direction and I wont have to worry about the gaiter snagging in the console.

 

[tux]

Hey, youre alive!

Was going to give this a gentle bump after I found it on page 3 (oo err missus!), as I was getting withdrawel symptoms, but figured you'd probably been busy.
Great to see some progress dude.