At first glance this might look like a perfectly nice little Mini, but like many Minis there's a layer of rust lucking below the surface. In this case, there was nothing that would be flagged up as a structural fail come MOT-time, but that was quite a different matter once all the body filler had been removed.
So far I've unearthed severe corrosion in: both wing seams where they join the front panel, both a-panels where they're crimped to the flitch panel, both scuttle panel ends under the window seal, and of course both door sills and parts of the sill-step sections. There're also some nasty rust blisters along the bottom of the driver's door.
After some cutting away at the offside doorsill it turned out that a previous repair had been made to the floorpan, which itself had become severely corroded - probably due to it being covered over with a layer of body filler and finished with a quick coat of stone chip, most likely a quick bodge repair to get it through an MOT.
There was severe corrosion to the nearside portion of the scuttle panel which had progressed under the rubber windscreen seal. Having removed the windscreen and cut away the section of scuttle panel, it became apparent the top of the bulkhead and dash rail were also badly corroded, as was the gusset panel supporting the underside of the scuttle. In fact, the gusset panels on both sides were so badly corroded big chunks of them simply broke away and fell out when prodded.
Thankfully with the wings and scuttle panel removed there's really good access, so all the damaged metal was easily cut out and replaced.
The replacement scuttle panel was lined up, having first punched holes for plug-welds to the solid metal behind.
All the welds were then ground back with a grinder and cleaned up further with a flap disc.
New gusset panels were welded in place, primed and seam sealed. I like to drill a 20mm hole in the centre so I've got good access for injecting cavity wax once the bodywork has been completed, at which stage I'll fit a rubber grommet to close the hole.
Once the scuttle panel had been replaced I painted the dash rail, insides of the A-pillars and the edge of the windscreen aperture with 2K primer and direct gloss. The 2K paint is far better at sealing the repaired area than a 1K primer, which should prevent it corroding again in the future.
The front panel was primed and coated with U-POL Gravitex, and then painted with a 2K direct gloss. I chose to do this prior to welding the front panel to the inner wings as this area is difficult to access without removing the engine and subframe.
The front panel and wings were all aligned and fixed in position with locking pliers, then once the alignment had been checked the mounting tabs were welded to the front panel. The wings were then welded to the front panel and tops of the inner-wings.
Having removed both A-panels, I was relieved to see that the flitch panels where the A-panels attach were in fairly good condition and required only a light sand to bring back to bare metal.
The new A-panels were crimped and welded into position.
The worst corrosion was to the front offside doorsill, and the adjoining floorpan section which had seen an 'MOT repair' in the past. This whole section had to be cut out and replaced with fresh metal.
At some point in its past this mini had collided with something, and been repaired to some extent, but you could still feel the metal was out of shape. This photo was taken prior to me manipulating the deformed metal back into something resembling its original shape with a slide hammer. Then I sanded back to bare metal and primed with 2K epoxy, which was followed by a couple of light skims of body filler and two more coats of epoxy to seal it.
I chose Mipa for this project as I figured using a higher quality paint brand might improve the odds of everything working well together and producing a decent finish, plus I found a paint supplier who had everything in stock and a good score on Trustpilot. I bought all the paint, primer, hardener, thinners from Marlow Paint Supplies. I've spoken with them on the phone and they're super helpful, and get orders shipped out pronto too.
The products shown are as follows...
- V25 thinners, for the OC 2K Acrylic topcoat
- OC 2K Acrylic, 'direct gloss' topcoat, colour matched to Chawton White (NAL)
- EP 100-20 Epoxy Primer, with pre-mixed grey tint
- E10 Hardener, for the EP 100-20 epoxy primer
- F54 primer surfacer, a grey high-build primer
- UPOL Guide Coat, for identifying high / low spots when block sanding
- HS25 Hardener, for the OC 2K Acrylic topcoat
- H10 Hardener, for the F54 primer surfacer
- V10 Thinners, for the F54 primer surfacer
- EP Thinners, for the EP 100-20 Epoxy Primer
- OC Super Black, gloss black topcoat, for some MGB seat frames
I've seen plenty of people online spraying 2K products using only a A1P3 filter respirator, but I knew I'd feel more comfortable using a proper air-fed mask. So I purchased a DeVilbiss PROV-650 air-fed visor, but this meant I needed a much bigger air compressor to use it.
My initial plan involved joining the new 200 litre belt-driven unit to my existing 100 litre compressor, but it turned out this wouldn't work as they operate at different pressures. So I chose to use the bigger compressor for general workshop use, and for supplying the air-fed mask while spraying, with the smaller compressor supplying just the spray gun.
The only downside to this arrangement was having to drag two air hoses around while spraying, but this hasn't been any hassle so far. It's certainly a better option than buying a huge 270 litre air compressor with dual pumps / motors.
Obviously you can't simply connect an air-fed mask to an air compressor and get breathable air, it would be full of oil, water vapour, and any particles small enough to pass through the compressor's air intake filter. So I installed the ANi 3-stage filter (AH117334), which filters down to 0.01 microns, with a dedicated 'clean air' hose that's only used when breathable air is required.
My spraygun setup consists of the following items...
1.3mm fluid tip [SGK-12-13-K] with 1.3mm / 1.4mm fluid needle [SGK-414-K]
1.8mm fluid tip [SGK-14-18-K] with 1.8mm fluid needle [SGK-418-K]
DeVilbiss FLG5 (FLG-G5) Compliant Spray Gun
DeVilbiss Inline Air Filter (HAF-507)
ANi Spray Gun Pressure Gauge Regulator (AH085406)
I'm using the 1.8mm fluid tip/needle for spraying primers, the 1.3mm is for the gloss topcoat. The inline filer goes between the air hose from my 100 litre compressor and the spray gun via the ANi pressure regulator / gauge. The regulator is usually mounted directly to the spraygun, but I've placed it between the inline filter and short hose for better manoeuvrability while painting inside the boot.
My classic Mini history
This is me when I was seventeen with my first Mini, restored on a budget to get it through the MOT, which in August 2000 I passed my driving test in.
My second car was a 1975 Mini Clubman, which was in extremely good condition despite being unrestored and ten years older than my first. There were no rusty sills or floorpans, they were all solid. I reckon it'd had some kind of rust treatment early on in its life. The first owner had kept the car 25 years, and it had a full service record. This photo was taken at Mini In The Park in August 2001, back when this yearly event was hosted at Cornbury Park in Oxfordshire.
After the Clubman I wanted something with a more powerful engine and servo assisted disc brakes. The single circuit all-round drum brakes on the Clubman were scary at times, especially after driving through water! So in 2001 when I was eighteen I bought this five year old Mini Sprite SPI, it was a steal at £1900 with only 52K on the clock!
It was a great car to drive, even more so once I'd fitted some 12x5" Minilites with 165x70 Falken tyres. The only other changes I made were adding a chrome Cooper grill and an RC40 single centre exit exhaust.
Doing some welding on a Mini clubman, and having a beer-break, early part of 2002 when I was nineteen. I still have those axle stands! They're the ones I'm using to support the front subframe on my current Mini project.