Mini Sue - 1988 City Rebuild
Front Bulk Head and Floor
"I think the neighbours took it quite well..."
So I've finished the welding to the front bulk head. I got a bit carried away and did not take any pictures of the repairs but if I just said there was alot of little patches needed and much sealing up that should do it.
Once finished with the welder I slapped on a good coat or two of Zinc 182 which is always a nice feeling and then a top coat of black metal paint. I then rubbed that down a little and applied two coats of stone chip ready for the final top coat when it goes off to the sprayers.
Finally got the other sill on as well but this time to ease welding up the underside of it I tipped the whole car over. I'd put this off until the sill was attached "enough" to give the car some strength back. This also means I can attack the floor it self, clean up any flaking paint and rust spots, check it over in general and of course give it a lick of paint. Using a spare pair of hands in the shape of Dan "the man" from next door I lifted the car onto the floor and then laid some lengths of carpet along the length of the sill I'd be rolling it on to and positioned an old tyre to support the roof. Then we just tipped it over an easy one man job.
The cleaning steps went like this:
- Removed the battery cable, fuel line and brake line.
- Scrapped all the old underseal off with a blow torch and a scraper.
- Wire brushed the whole lot with my wire brush attachment for the grinder.
- Welded up any holes I found along the way including all the round the drain plugs (which are only used when the car is manufacturered).
- Cleaned the whole lot with white spirit.
- Sealed all the welds, patches and joins with seam sealer.
- Painted the whole floor with black Hammerite Smooth using a brush. Yes there are runs but who cares, no one but the MOT man and the next bloke I run over will ever see it. Since when has this been a show car?
I'll be stone chipping and Hammeriting it all again nearer to completion but that should do for now and it will only get chipped while I'm still working on it anyway.
Just the boot floor to do now!