Tink: My '89 Mini

[94touring]

Spraying the inside is pretty boring for me.  Plus it's really hard to bend up and twist in there to do it.  Never enough light and the boot gets very misty as you spray.  I guess what I'm saying is it's not my favorite job, lol.  I'm more excited to spray the exterior and get this thing done.  Block sanding extravaganza coming up. 

[94touring]

Masked it off. 

[MtyMous]

Awesome. Did you already get the firewall sprayed with the lizard skin?

[94touring]

I did not.  I actually planned on a quick rear brake job on my bini but had two stuck caliper pistons which took up most of my day.  But next week it will get the remainder of lizard skin on the firewall and on to body prep.  Probably paint the week after that and buff job if I had to guess.   

[MtyMous]

Sounds awesome. I'm taking leave May 27-30. That would be perfect timeframe if it was finished up for me to come grab it.

[MtyMous]

Spending some much needed time in the garage enjoying the awesome weather. making some progress. Completely disassembled the grille. Drilled out all the rivets and then riveted it back together.

Sorry for the crappy quality on these pics. I was in the garage and taking pics one handed with a potato.

From behind before


The frame all cleaned, sanded, and re-painted


Slats laid on there loosely to make sure everything was still peachy


Brushed, finished, riveted, and feeling good about it. Of course it's not perfect, but this is the grille that came with the car and it had pitting and some scratches/blemishes that were just too deep to get out without completely killing the finish.


Still sexier than the chrome finish though IMO


And now that it's done, it's gonna have to be wall art until I get the car back and start putting it all back together.


Time to start on the next piece... This one could get interesting. Not sure if I'm leaving it bare metal or not yet. Time shall tell.

[94touring]

Looks cool. 

[Willie_B]

Grille looks great. Garage time well spent.

[sparetimetoys]

This may give you an idea for the valve cover. These were for a 928 engine that I was working on installing in a 914. I had them powder coated in wrinkle red then buffed off the lettering.

[MtyMous]

Funny you posted that. If the brushed finish doesn't give the results I want, I've already decided it will get wrinkle coated in black and polished fins.

[MtyMous]

I'll be driving up to St. Louis this weekend and getting a car hauler with flat ramps, a beaver tail, and a flat diamond plate bed so I can roll the car up on the dolly and strap it down. Getting really pumped that I'm close enough to even need this trailer. haha

[94touring]

Pics of trailer when you get a chance.

[MtyMous]

definitely.

[tsumini]

Nice job on the grille. I've been looking at my '60 Austin 850 grille and it looks like it would be better to de-rivet and clean up rather than try to work between the slats. I presume the rivets are the ordinary semi tubular rivets readily available. Could you tell me what rivet is the correct one? and maybe source. I may have different length requirements but I can measure that.

[94touring]

Well I began messing with the boot lid to get it prepped.  Saw a bunch of rust down low, so peeled back the lip and cleaned it up with the sand blaster.  A few spots were rotten all the way through on the back section, not the skin.  Then I thought, maybe I should ask if he wants this dynomat taken off, to which he replied with yes.  I spent about 5 minutes and decided to crawl up top of the paint booth and grab a new boot lid.  So fitted a new lid, currently it's been stripped of the black primer it comes with, and the bare metal will be sealed off tomorrow.  These lids fit good, but darned if the latch plate is off about a 1/4 inch on them.  But 2 days of trying to remove the dynomat and fixing some rust verses 30 minutes of cutting the plate section and moving it over a 1/4 inch...I went with the new lid. 

[MtyMous]

Thanks again, Dan. Really hate that that Dynomat is such a pain in the butt. I really do appreciate you going above and beyond on this whole project.

This is why I send everyone I know over to you. Your customer service is by far the best. I wait on pins and needles for updates to this. haha.

[94touring]

The adhesive that holds it on is unbelievable stuff.  The thought of scraping and cleaning it up for hours on end was not appealing lol.  All I needed was a small rust excuse and I was sold.   ;D  The benefit of importing panels. 

[MtyMous]

No joke. I'm going to have to contain myself and really coach myself daily that I don't need to buy a million things from you at the same time that I pick up my car. haha. But I'm sure I'll cave in to the temptation.

[94touring]

Lucky for you most all the mechanical parts are in stock across the Atlantic.  Though I am nearly done putting together a massive order for the maroon car. 

[94touring]

Boot lid stripped, hung, and sealed. 

Then I pulled in the doors...  First door was fine, I think it's been repaired at some point in the past, I need to look closer.  2nd door had all kinds of issues.  However the skin itself was solid.  The lip of the skin and bottom of the door frame itself was not so good.   First pic is how bad it was, 2nd pic is actually with the lower back side lip of the door removed, the cleaned area is the skin.  I put a new bottom area on, 2 part seam sealer, and need to sand it up and it will be good to go.

[MtyMous]

Wow... never would have found that. I'm glad you're on the case.

[Mudhen]

Every couple of days I have to go back to page one and look at how awesome this thing looked BEFORE!

Wicked cool on the grill, MtyMous.  Gorgeous.

(94, is something wrong with the forum?  I'm not getting any notifications anymore...or was I being too obnoxious?   11.gif )

[MtyMous]

Every couple of days I have to go back to page one and look at how awesome this thing looked BEFORE!

Wicked cool on the grill, MtyMous.  Gorgeous.

Yeah. Starting to look more and more like it was just a polished turd. haha. Not any more though.

[94touring]

Every couple of days I have to go back to page one and look at how awesome this thing looked BEFORE!

Wicked cool on the grill, MtyMous.  Gorgeous.

(94, is something wrong with the forum?  I'm not getting any notifications anymore...or was I being too obnoxious?   11.gif )

hmm I dunno.  Are they still turned on?   I haven't touched anything.

[Mudhen]

Every couple of days I have to go back to page one and look at how awesome this thing looked BEFORE!

Wicked cool on the grill, MtyMous.  Gorgeous.

(94, is something wrong with the forum?  I'm not getting any notifications anymore...or was I being too obnoxious?   11.gif )

hmm I dunno.  Are they still turned on?   I haven't touched anything.

Yes...I did get an email on the 'cell phone pics' thread...but no longer on this one.  I'll try turning notifications off and then back on...