I had the house to myself this weekend! Time to work on the mini. Whoop!
With most of the NS floor out of the way, I needed to clean up all the bits that had been left behind - like this piece of floor which was welded to the toe board like a tank.
Not too rusty underneath, after a quick going-over with a wire cup brush.
Much drilling, grinding and hole punching later, the floor-hole looked like this. I also paint stripped and POR15'd the inside of the cross member...
...and the area of floor that it covers. Also dumped numerous coats of POR15 into the inside of the outer sill, trying to work it in between the surfaces as much as possible.
It dawned on me when I tried to test-fit the floor that its impossible to fit this panel properly with the heelbaord already in place. It is supposed to sit inside the toeboard and heelboard, so there is no way to get it in without folding it in half. Balls! Therefore decided the best thing to do was cut off the heelboard end so that I can weld it flat to the outside, rather than tucking it inside. I intend to seam weld this join anyway, so it should be strong enough.
With everything clamped up, the dodgy NS doorstep I fitted earlier in the year finally pulled into a straight(ish) line. This is good because it has been warped out of shape since it went in and I thought I might have to replace it. :)
The biggest problem now was a really crap fit at the heelboard end. For some reason I expected a floor panel to be quite easy to fit because its long and flat. No such luck!
Decided after much stressing that the situation could only really be resolved via surgery. The lines are correct now, but it will need some substantial welding.
All clamped up ready to weld!
This is where I left it today. I'm mostly happy with the fit at this point, and should be able to start welding it up next weekend. At least I will know a few things to look out for when I do the driver's side next!
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