Body

Mike's Mini Project - page 7

The front wings, apron and a-panels need to be replaced. The fron end will be removablefrom the a-panels forward, but with no mounting bolts visable. The car should look like the front end is as per a normal Mini. This is to give access for easily installing and removing the VTEC and it's subframe.

^Home
^{Mike'
Project | |}^{Page 1}^|^{Page 2}^|^{Page 3}^|^{Page 4}^|^{Page 5}^|^{Page 6}^|^{Page 7}^|^{Page 8}^|^{Page 9}^|^{Page 10}^{Page !!}

1. Now its time to work on the front of the car, shown here before cutting off from the doors forward.		2. Well there's no turning back now, all the panels have been taken off, using cuttoff discs and the grinder.
3. Here you can see the rust to deal with under the windscreen. I will repair this with a partial replacement panel.		4. This show the same problem on the other side.
5. Here's how the a-panel and the wings will be fitted together. With two brackets overlapping one direction and the ceter bracket the other way, there is no flex in the joint.		6. A closeup shot of the inside with the a-panel and the wing fited.
7.Here's the brackets. They are made from flat stock 16 guage, bent at 90 degrees.		8. The front area now repaired.
9. Here is the driver's door all preped an ready for paint. It had a large crease from being opened too far, which I removed with a spot puller and touched up with filler.		10. With the fit of the a- panel confirmed, it is welded into place, after removing the door. The door comes off and on several times as the fit is checked and rechecked.
11. Another view of fitting the a-panel. The front wings were also mounted in place and clamped to the front apron, which was bolted to the subframe, all to verify the alignment of the a-panel.		12. Here you can see trial fitting of the wing...
13. This view shows where Metal has been welded in from behind to fix the rusted section in the corner of the roof.		14. A strip of metal was formed and wedged up from underneath, then tacked in place to repair the rust along the edge of the rear window on the passanger side. (RH)
15. Rear side marker holes are filled in with metal welded in place..		16. Some more fitting of the a-panel on the RH side. More door on, door off, door on, door off.
17.The roof corner after a coat of short strand fibreglas filler, and a coat of USC Lite filler.		18. The RH side corner after the same as well as a coat of polyester filler.
19. And the LH side after short strand fiberglas filler, USC lite, and polyester icing filler, lots of sanding!.		20.Body work on the a-panel, the door step, and the filled in rear marker light. Any areas with weled in panels or repairs are first given a coat of the fibreglass filler. This ensures a waterproof panel. The pink is the Icing, the brown is the USC lite.