79 Canadian Mini

[94touring]

Those doors are surprisingly heavy with all the gear and guts.  I mentioned in another thread this week I did a winder to slider conversion with plexi and aluminum skins and dropped a ton of weight. 

[Jimini II]

A friend of mine owned a 90's Rover Mini cabriolet and the po had converted the doors to outside hinges without removing any weight from them.
The doors were so heavy the pins were starting to wear out with less than 3k miles on them.

[skmini]

Right door in.  Hard to tell in the picture, but he gaps aren't perfect just above the door handle and along the A panel.  I'll be doing an extra bit of work there with some filler rod.  I also made a bit of a mess of things as I bent the flange over, but I'm hoping a bit more work with the hammer and dolly and some filler will help there.  Other than that, it actually fits better than before I took everything apart.

[94touring]

Will hinge shims solve the problem?

[skmini]

No, although I have done a bunch of fooling around with hinge shims already to get it mostly square in the opening.  So, the swage line lines up, the latch lines up, the latch side is mostly good, the rear lower corner is good and the lower edge is good.  The hinge side is just a bit too close near the top and a bit too far at the bottom.  If I shim it so the hinge side is good, then the rest is too far out.  I ground the edge back a bit at the top, so that's now looking good, but I just need to add something less than a 1/8" on the bottom of the hinge side to even it out.

Some of this comes back to your previous comment about mounting the door when fitting the door step, which I didn't do, claiming the door skin seemed to fit.  Next time.

[MiniDave]

yes, but even so it will still be better than it was when new! Remember, these were cheap throwaway cars when new.....don't get your door-to-panel gaps too tight, have to leave room for the paint.

I think it's coming along great! 

[skmini]

yes, but even so it will still be better than it was when new! Remember, these were cheap throwaway cars when new.....don't get your door-to-panel gaps too tight, have to leave room for the paint.

I think it's coming along great! 

Thanks!  I get a big grin on my face when I look at what I've got done so far.  Considering all the panels I replaced without the benefit of factory jigs, I'm pretty happy with how everything has fit.  I wouldn't want to try rolling a marble on them, but the gaps around the door are much better now.  If you look carefully in the before picture, you can see how the right rear side was hit at some point: the seam trim is bent and you can see the outline of the inner fender on the outside.  Also, the door stuck out a bit at the bottom rear corner.

[skmini]

As I was looking through old pictures of the Mini, I found this one with the Mini and my '77 VW Bus.  Just like the Mini, I had maintained it mechanically, even putting in a rebuilt engine, but the rocker panels were mostly rust.  The floor was in pretty good shape, but the nose had a bunch of filler in it and there was enough rust around the windshield that water would leaked in and drip onto the fuse panel.  Too bad I didn't buy a mig welder and some replacement panels at that time instead of selling it.  Also, I was running out of parking spots.

[94touring]

I've been bus obsessed since buying mine! 

[skmini]

I spent a fair number of years obsessing over air cooled VWs.  I also had a '58 Canadian standard Beetle.  The bus was my daily driver for a few years.  The gas heater they put in the later busses was great, instant heat even in extreme cold.  I had a set of Hakkapeliitta winter tires for it in the correct size and load range.  Winter tires, engine over the drive wheels and lots of ground clearance made it great in the snow.  4x8 sheets of plywood?  No problem.  5x5 sheets of baltic birch?  No problem.  14' pieces of baseboard?  No problem.  All the gear for a 17-piece big band?  No problem.  Camping trip to California?  No problem.