Tink: My '89 Mini

[94touring]

Ok I cleaned up the shop and paint booth.  Rolling this car back in Next week.  I'm ready to get my body work on.  It will be refreshing to do metal work instead of upholstery and car reassembly!

[MtyMous]

Best news EVER!

[94touring]

Ok started the metal work.  Removed the rear subby also to get in the knooks and crannies. 

[MtyMous]

Awesome man. Did the subframe put up any fights?

[94touring]

For the most part no, but the bracketry used for adjustments blocked the lower bolt on the front trunions. 

[MtyMous]

Hmm. I'll have to take a look at that. The PO installed them and I've never dropped the subframes. So I'm sure I'll have the same problem when I take them out to paint the subframes myself. lol

[94touring]

Yeah I had to trim the one tab to get a wrench in there.  It's doable just tight.  The bracket is welded to the main piece, which can't just be taken off with the subby in place.   One bolt is inacessable.    Was going to do rear end work today but my throat is killing me.  Back next week.  5 days off to get tons done.  Last half of March off too.  Painted in no time.   Sold out of my last set of door jamb panels yesterday and need a set to do your front end.  So ordered that and doing various other errands.  Will you want the sub frames left off?  Figured you'd want to clean them up. 

[MtyMous]

Nah. You can pop the subframes back on. I will need to remove them, but that will be a little ways down the road once I get her home. They will likely be completely refinished, but for now I've gotta be able to wheel it into the garage and wheel it around to work on it. haha. I don't have the luxury of a barn.

[MPlayle]

[94touring]

I was going to suggest a dolly.  I can make you one for cheap.  I just carried the automatic shell into the shop by hand with a helper.   Then set it on the cart.

[MtyMous]

Hmm. You may be on to something. how would one go about safely transporting that on a trailer then?

[94touring]

Put down something soft for it to sit on, then strap it down.  Could use a few different points that would keep the straps free of the new paint.

[94touring]

Oh...you still want the license plate brackets removed right?

[MtyMous]

correctamundo.

[94touring]

The inner door jam and wing I'm out of stock on to do your front shipped this morning.   Should be perfect timing for when I get back.

[MtyMous]

Sounds great. I've made up a list just so I can keep tack of everything. haha. I'll send it to you in an e-mail so you can see it and let me know what I'm missing. haha.

[94touring]

Ok sounds good. 

[94touring]

Did a little work on the rear end yesterday.  I'm still under the weather and the actual weather is suppose to get down to freezing ass cold again, so we'll see how much I actually get done this week.  But here are some pics.  I noticed you have an oversill on the right side, can't remember if you told me that before or not, but I'm taking that off and putting on a sill that will have open vents.  I ordered two heritage inner wings on the vent side thinking it was the whole wing forward of the shock mount with the lip on the top channel...of course not.  Just the vent section minus the gutter.  But will work fine to repair your side.  Was just hoping to replace the whole inner wing in one shot to save some extra welding. 

Left side corner forward of the wheel well cut out and fabbed back in. 







Welded up the plethora of holes back there too!



Need to do a little more wire wheeling on the closing panel but the majority of it was solid.  One minor rotten area above it, nothing crazy.





For the other side however, its trashed out.  This will take a lot of work.  Essentially lopped off the whole corner. 





Other corner forward of the wheel well fixed up easily.







 

 

[MtyMous]

Wow. Really making some progress on such a crappy day. I got out a bit today here in OKC and it's drizzling and just plain miserable. It's awesome to see the progress as it happens. I really appreciate you taking pictures and documenting this. It's going to be in a scrap book that I'll keep with the car.

I honestly didn't know about the oversill. Not too happy about it, as it was probably installed by the crappy shop that did some repair work from an accident. I truly appreciate the depth of effort you put into this and all of your restorations.

I think I've had more people ask me when I'm gonna get my mini back in the last month than the entire time it's been gone. My answer is "I'm not too worried about what day I get it back. I'm sure I'll get it back when it's done right."

[94touring]

Yeah threw me off when I saw one normal sill and one over sill.  I made the dolly for it today and got it on that and rolled it out of the booth.  I ended up having to paint a cowling and some other panels for a tractor today.  Ice storm tonight I guess?

[Mudhen]

I ended up having to paint a cowling and some other panels for a tractor today.

Restorationtractor forum now!

I love tractors... 4.gif

[94touring]

John deer green!

[94touring]

Yeah it's cold.   Been sleeting and snowing all day here.  Zero degrees forcast for tomorrow morning. 

[MtyMous]

Yeah. It's ridiculous here in OKC as well. -10° wind chill as we speak, and you're just up the road.

[94touring]

Well I stayed at my girlfriends last night and got stuck on the way home this morning.  Luckily 4 ladies working at the state farm at the end of the road where I got hung up in snow came and pushed me out.  They were singing like a good neighbor state farm is there while they pushed.  It was pretty funny.  Then I saw a guy spin out on the highway a few moments later.  Took me a couple tries to get into my parking garage due to the incline into the upper deck.   47.gif