Adoom

Filling in the hole. 1.2mm is so nice to weld.

I have a 2zzge Allex. Goes real good. Lift kicks in at 6400 and starts pulling harder up to 8200 redline. 140 killingwhats apparently. I reckon now must be the best/cheapest time for sourcing these engines. Not uncommon to see at PickAPart now.

Two coats of epotec brushed on. Needs another coat. I used about 1.2L. I'd probably get better coverage spraying, but I'm not set up to spray yet and I also didn't want to paint everything in the shed white too. I splooged it on heavy around the seams and gaps etc and pushed in the cracks as best I could. Plenty of runs, but it's never really going to be seen. The underside of the parcel tray was a real cunt to get clean enough to paint. It had a lot of surface rust... and rust coloured paint which was covered in old hard glue, that was also brown, which was covered in that fluffy sound deadening. The whole back panel was completely coated in glue and fluffy stuff too. The rotisserie bits in the way, small space and lack of light was an added bonus. I ended up using turps with steel wool and various hand and drill/grinders to get the glue and fluff off. Then I tried using phosphoric acid on the rust and discovered the paint. So had to use paint stripper to get that off. Then I could use the acid and more steel wool and wire brushes. After many hours over days and weeks I decided it was acceptable and I was okay with painting it. Then wax and grease remover.

Nice! Thanks for that. I've been busy with the front panel and getting the underside prepped for epoxy primer.

Does anyone mix their epotec 408 by weight and have the numbers? I used the digital kitchen scales and weighed 500ml (in a mixing cup) of hardener and 500ml of the 408 and came up these numbers. I didn't get around to weighing the thinners... Someone sanity check this?

Mine is an old boc 170p. must be about 18 years old.

Voltage, or whatever is on the power knob...(mine is just 1 to 6) then adjust the wire speed to keep up with the voltage.

I write my settings on the side of the welder with a vivid.

The rest of the stuff I ordered. Teeny tiny little disc brakes. These are the biggest brakes you can get that will fit in (most...some)10" wheels. My options for brakes were: Drum brakes. Most mini's had drums. It's not hard to out drive them. So, just no. 7.5" disc brakes. solid disc. fits 10" wheels. also needs disc brake hub and 7.5" specific drive flange. Only came on the early cooper S minis. Like hens teeth now. 8.4" disc brakes. solid disc. needs 12" wheels. also needs disc brake hub and 8.4" specific drive flange. Only came on 1275cc minis, so way less of them. Come up occasionally, but people want $$$ and they will still need rebuilding. 8.4" MG Metro disc brakes. vented disc. needs 12" wheels. The whole hub assembly will bolt straight on, but you will get positive camber. Only came on the MG Metro turbo. When is the last time you saw one of those. You can get new 7.5" brake/hub assembly from minispares/minisport. But the 7.5" brakes were not particularly good anyway, or so I have been told. Or you can get new 8.4" brake/hub assembly from minispares/minisport. But I kinda want 10" wheels. So I got the minisport 7.9" vented brake/hub assembly for just a few hundred more than the 7.5 or 8.4 so I can have good brakes and 10" wheels. It's basically the 8.4 brakes with different discs and alloy 4 piston calipers. I justified it by telling myself, it's all new. If I got some used brakes, the hub could be damaged, the bearings, CVs, balljoints and discs will probably need replacing, the calipers will need rebuilding.

That's option 2.

Yep, been using my old auto darkening helmet. It works fine, but the work area needs to be well lit because the base tint of the lens is fairly dark.

Supplier has said it's technically out of warranty, but told me to send it in and they will take it up with Optrel to see what can be done.

Maybe half the diameter of the nozzle I guess. But it varies a a little depending on what you are welding. On thin <1mm stuff I like to get as close as possible while still being able to see what I am doing.

Maybe, there could be clearance issues between the usb charging plug and forehead. I've googled replacing the battery, but all I found was for an older model that is not even remotely similar to mine.

Well shit. My expensive $800 Optrel panoramaxx 2.5 helmet I bought in 2019 doesn't charge anymore. The battery is supposed to "never need replacing", so is not user accessible. The helmet still works while the charging cable is plugged in, but totally dead when unplugged. I've optimistically emailed the supplier in the hope that it's a known fault and covered by some warranty. I really can't justify buying a new one every three years.

And the front panel is welded in! It definitely needed lots of convincing and about a million vise grips to get the panels to line up properly. There is a couple of spots where I will need to use some filler to get the levels closer. I added in some little bits of angle to stiffen the panel join, like there is between the wing and the a-panel. It feels pretty solid. Still got a bunch of visible welds to grind down.

Thanks. In my case, it was cheaper from minisport UK vs minispares UK because they had the gaz shocks and adjusta-ride as a kit.

STUFF!!! I won't need this stuff for quite a while, but I thought I'd better get it now because I was thinking prices might go up with the looming recession, or whatever. I got all this, including the GST and freight from UK for about the same price as buying only the shocks and rubber "cones" locally. So the adjusta-ride and new knuckes were basically free. Still quite a bit of money. Apparently the rubber cones are supposed to be replaced after about 6 years! I'd bet not many people did that. For those not in the know, the rubber cones are the 'springs' in mini suspension.

Be sure to store your CDs in the dark. Had some dropped on my desk at work that must have been kept in the sun or something, they were totally fucked and turning weird colours. Straight in the bin.

Is the yellow also 2k? Or is it 1k and you painted over the top with a 2k clear? Looking good!

Painted the front panel after filing down the razor sharp panel edges. Still cut myself on it. This is so I can get paint in the places it will be hard to do with a gun when the panel is mounted. Not sure If I got the mix ratio correct for such a small amount. Where it pooled in the low spots it took several days to cure. I think I will use digital scales next time, rather than the mixing cup markings. When I drilled out the spot welds for the original panel, I drilled all the way through, then I overlaid that panel onto the replacement panel and made dots on the headlight ring so I could line it up with the holes in the wing. It was still a wrestling match, as you can see the front of the wing is a bit beat up and out of shape. Then I thought, I'd better put the front panel on too, for additional alignment guide. So I went to bolt the front subframe mounts to the front panel.... and found I needed to file the locating pin holes so I could actually get the bolts in to the captive nut. With the mounts now on the front panel, I went to bolt it to the two holes in the front of the subframe.... And they were off by about 10mm and forcing it on made one of the old mounts partially delaminate. Well, I may as well make some solid mounts, since I plan to do that eventually anyway. One mount. Two mounts. I didn't have alloy thick enough, so I did them in two parts. I'll keep telling myself I'll tig them together later. I threaded the pin holes and used cut down bolts for pins. You can buy solid mounts like these... but they are about $60! Only took me about an hour. Found that the correct distance between the two bolt holes in the front of the subframe is 660.4mm. Measured the subframe and that's correct. With my new mounts on the panel, I only had 655mm, so more filing of the pin holes in the panel. MOAR wrestling and I got the front panel aligned enough that I was happy to weld the headlight panel in. I have already pre drilled the seams on the new panel for plug welds. I will rotate the car belly up, so I can weld down from the top... The seam lip on the old panels is pretty thin now.... so the plug welding is going to be 'fun'.

Finished processing the parts mini and cut out the panel bits I need. It's a real bastard trying to cut out the 'companion bins' either side of the back seat, without damaging them. I used the engine crane to put it on the trailer. It was only some light drizzle when I left for the metal recyclers. 500m from the metal recycler, the heavens opened.... and ALL OF THE RAIN fell out. I got totally soaked just removing the tie downs. Fortunately the guys used the forklift to unload it. Got $30 for the shell and some random scrap, so it will cover a trip to the transfer station with the hideous honda seats that were in it. I'll have to find some other junk to make the trip worthwhile. I also tried some ExOff degreaser. Mitre10 was ~$70! Repco had it for ~$40 but the local was out of stock.... so I asked Mitre10 if they would do their 15% price promise, and they did, so $35!! Worked well, I didn't think of taking a before photo. These bits were totally encased in old grease, mud and tar. I soaked them overnight then went over them with the wire brush and steel wool, some scraping with the screwdriver was required on the stubborn bits but they cleaned up really well.

Clamp/press a block of copper hard against the back of the join when you are butt welding, especially with the large gaps you have there. The copper absorbs the heat and makes it much harder to blow holes. The weld doesn't stick to the copper. Also real good for welding up small holes. I use a bit of flattened 15mm copper pipe. I think you might also be able to use aluminium, but I have never tried.

After putting an extra scissor jack under the engine so the car doesn't tip forward. I dropped the rear subframe. It has a towbar.... WTF do you tow with an 850 mini? It's still pretty solid, just covered in piles of mud and crap. And it has the handbrake cable guide that was cut off my other one.(apparently because intentions of using a hydraulic handbrake).