Mini Restoration

Subject: 1960 Morris Mini Saloon

Object: to save it from near certain death

The car prior to repair. You'd never guess the bottom was getting crusty.

Photo during late stages of repair.

I confess.  My mini was a rust bucket.  Left side lower door hinge area was the first to show.  Floor pans in front were well eaten.  Boot floors were toast.  Fortunately, the sub-frame mounting areas --front and rear-- were still clean and sound.  The rear wheel wells weren't that bad, just a little rusty around the lower edges.  I decided to save the thing. 

Featured here are photos showing repair to the lower door hinge bracket area on the left side.  Extensive photos on all other aspects of this restoration exist, but are not shown here. 

Rust repair to lower left side door hinge bracket area and sill panels.

The outer hinge panel -- shown in catalogs-- was not available for a mark 1 at the time.  With no suitable donor cars available, I chose to make splices to the rusted areas.

This repair occurred late during the restoration process.  Many surfaces adjacent to the areas being worked have already been repaired.

Click on thumbnail image to view the full image.

Rusty hinge bracket area.  Bracket removed.  Rust cut away. Note the additional rust holes next to a previous repair of the hinge panel from 12 years back.   This was cut out and patched again as shown in the third photo.

Rusty sill panels, interior and exterior are cut back to solid material.

Patch work at lower hinge bracket area exterior. 

Sill panel section clamped into place for tack weld.

Interior view of outer sill panel section tacked into place.

Exterior view of outer sill panel section tacked into place.

Exterior view of outer sill panel section welded 90 per cent. Note the spot welds at the jacking plate and panel adjunct.  Left end still has excess material to be trimmed and is not welded yet.

Fabricated drain channel piece for inside wheel well behind lower hinge bracket.

Another view.

Channel piece clamped in place prior to weld.

Panel patch for behind hinge bracket is clamped in position prior to weld.

Panel patch is tacked into position.

Panel patch fully welded. Spot welds penetrate thru to join opposite A-pillar structural panel.

Inner sill panel patch spot welded in place. 90 per cent in.  Tack welds to be added at left end.

Hinge bracket welded in. Area is sealed of with DP40. 

Note about paint protection.  The primer of choice in this exercise is Ditzler DP 40.  This is an epoxy primer with good sealing properties. A primer surfacer is applied on top of the DP 40. Exterior finish top coats come later.

In the case of layered panels that have to be welded into closed off areas, I chose to use 3M Weld Thru Primer as a minimal protection.  This product works surprisingly well.  An area painted with this material can be welded.  The paint surrounding the weld will discolor, but does not burn away. 

The factory method of insuring that primer covers all the seams, inside and out, is to physically dip the body shell into a huge vat of paint.  In larger cities, it is possible to find a company or two that will dip old cars to strip paint.  Typically these places also offer primer dipping as part of the process.