Taking apart a shell

[snack]

I just picked up a MKI shell.  I bought it mainly for the doors, bonnet,  boot and glass.  I'd like to remove the roof so it can be reused and the front windshield  panel and rear panel from the roof down .  It looks like the roof was set into the the gutter portion and tacked with a zillion tack welds.  What is the best way to disassemble?

Thanks,
Steve

[94touring]

Carefully drill out the welds till the panels break loose is your best bet.  Any pics of the tack welds that you described?

[snack]

No pictures yet.  They are all covered with surface rust they look to be about 1/8" apart.  It looks as though the roof had a flange that dropped into the rain gutters, that appear to be part of the original body panels, and then spot welded together.  I'll try to get one cleaned up and get a picture.
Steve

[snack]

Here is a pic of the spot welds

[94touring]

Oh ok, well get out the drill and get busy!   ;D  Now that I've seen the picture, I've seen that before on a mini I had.  Maybe they're all like that under the paint and I never knew.  Maybe Joltfreak knows since he removed his roof and replaced it with the CF. 

[94touring]

Hey if you're not worried about keeping the lower piece that joins to the gutter, maybe cutting along it with a cut off wheel would be easier.  You don't have to cut ALL the way through, just enough to break it loose.  Either way if you want to remove the roof skin, you have to break the welds somehow. 

[joltfreak]

Make sure you measure both roofs before you cut!!! not all mini roofs are the same size. i would cut below the gutter  (esp. if the gutter was in good shape). it's always better to have too much metal then not enough :-[.

[snack]

If I cut just below the gutter will the front windscreen panel and the rear window/boot panel, door jambs and such still be usable or only for repair peices?  Hunter2 on M/M suggests cutting on the pillars about an inch blow the gutters.  There are some solid panels down under.  I really don't have any plans at this time for the shell.   I bought the shell for the doors boot,bonnet and glass which was all in pretty good shape.  I just thought I would try to salvage as much as I could in a cut up fashion, which I could store a little easier.

[94touring]

Well I'd say they wouldn't be usuable, unless you needed repair sections from them.  The only problem I see with cutting along the pillars is, you'll still have to remove it from the pillars.  I guess if you had a roof to replace you could try to cut it off at the same place you cut this roof off at, but I dunno about all that.  Even though its going to be extremely tedious and time consuming I still think drilling out all those welds will result in the best outcome. 

[xcc_rider]

Either way you do it, just make sure you keep as much usable as possible. If you don't need it, someone else will. I traded a firewall panel for a couple of 6-paks of Corona.

Worked for me..         dan

[MEhinger]

My take on it  is if you drill out all the spot welds. you will have little left in the gutter and it wil lbe a bear to put on another car. I have replaced a roof by cutting through the panels about 6 inches below and it worked fine. As for the back panel, someone is likely to need the lower part and will graft it in. It is just as difficult to break the panel at the side seams.

[joltfreak]

i would go as low as possible..
i would rather have too much metal and trim off than not enough....

[snack]

Thanks for all the replies.   If I'm understanding this correctly it sounds like the best place to cut would be the bottom of the A, B, and C pillars?

[MD-IN-UK]

Cutting at the bottom of the A,B, and C, pillars would also leave you the option pf doing a chopped top, 50's look also. Meaning, you'd have plenty of metal to do the job correctly. That is, if you wanted to go that route. (I wouldn't personally).