Stan's 78 mini restoration

[stan360]

 71.gif  alright alright alright  !   

[stan360]

I cleaned some vent tubing/ducts this weekend....3 of these have splits and are a bit rough , so I will look on ePay and pick up some replacements since most of these are no longer available. 
Starting to sand and primer small parts.

MtyMous ....the DSN bracket looks great. I have been digging on the website now for a couple days. 

[94touring]

Demolition day.

[MtyMous]

I like the clean, shiny plastics. Since I've owned the mini, I've been searching for a better way to get fresh air into the cabin. It's been my mission. I'm ALMOST to the point where I'm willing to make some hard ducting with some sort of plastic or metal tubing. Let me know if you have any luck on fleabay. I might be in the market for some new pieces, too.

[MiniDave]

I was thinking of doing some vents in the A panels then plumbing them directly into the footwells and dash vents....

[stan360]

I am a little pissed about the duct tubing, and keep finding small splits in the edges of 3 of these .  I did manage to pick up what  I needed on epay uk ....we shall see what those look like when I get them though.   I do like the A panel idea, a direct shot.  Could have some shark fin inlet on the sides. 


Dan , the mini looks better already.  You could cut the rest of that front end off and slap a VTEC onto it for me.

[94touring]

I tell you after cutting into the clubby your car looks like a piece of cake.  It really is a solid base shell.  I dropped your rear subframe and it's pretty new.  With some degreasing it probably will look brand new.  I didn't see a spec of rust on it.  Just dirt from normal use.  I suspect it was replaced not long ago.  Nice bonus find!   Oh and the trunion bolts were all perfect as well as greased so they came out with zero effort.  That never happens!

[stan360]

That is great news.  I did get a trunion bolt kit just in case.   I also have radius arm repair kits...possibly not needing those either , but good to have spares.

[94touring]

Now that the wet blaster is up and running we can really begin.  Found a few areas of filler in the back corner.  Looks like a minor accident of some sort, nothing major.

[MiniDave]

Looks like a solid car to start with, should be an easy resto and paint job......

[94touring]

Was definitely involved in an incident.  Has an indent on the A pillar, b pillar, and rear seam.  The a pillar one will need pulled.  Not sure  if it was rolled or slid into something.

[stan360]

Well  if it got smacked that may explain the respray and or  couple of shades of white on it.   No sweat though....I have faith in you Dan  4.gif ,  I seen that  Clubman you are tackling....this one will be a walk in the park .

[94touring]

I'll keep on blasting and see what else I find.  Not finding any rot yet, aside from the front end that's been removed.

[94touring]

Ran out of sand but we're moving along. 

[stan360]

Yeah, looks pretty solid so far. Hopefully no real rough spots or hidden surprises on the sills.

[94touring]

One ugly patch to redo and a small hole so far is it. 

[94touring]

Back next week to finish off the interior.

[MiniDave]

All that sand will make a good base to pour a concrete pad outside the garage door!  4.gif

[94touring]

See wetblast thread about my need for a pad.

[John Gervais]

That's quite a bit o'sand there, for sure.  You'll probably have piles everywhere.

I imagine you can only vacuum so much, and that there'll be sand stuck in the bottom crease of the wheel arch/body side panel, or inside the cross member etc.  How do you plan on removing the sand from the minis small crevices? 

[94touring]

Lots o washing.  There's no other  way really.

[MiniDave]

I dry blasted my old Jag, but it was so well balanced on the rotisserie that I could spin it - that threw sand out of everywhere!

Don't know that would work with wet sand tho.....

[94touring]

When I do the underside it will be on the rotisserie, which is when the hose will get the sand out.

[94touring]

Forgot to mention Stan, found a few holes in the boot corners under all that black gunk.  Another few holes on the valance but none of them are bad. 

[stan360]

It's looking good.....  There was a lot of black goop swirled around in the boot and some in the firewall.....somebody did some creative patching I suppose.  There was also some crafty hand brushing white paint work in the boot too.