Sebastian Fettle

Wow - long time no update! OK here goes...

So I finally decided to stop messing around with the bonnet/wings fit for the sake of my own sanity. I was mostly happy with the gaps, so I drew a line under it and finally started welding the wings on.

I decided the fit is close enough to be able to deal with any fine adjustments by adding washers to the hinges.

The car went back on the jig while I did the welding. You can see the plug welds just inside the inner wing as I hadn't started grinding at this point.

The area where the inner wing meets the wing at the scuttle was UGLY! Attention needed! Before:

After:

Better! (Now that I look at this photo, it actually needs a bit more cleaning up. I'll do that later.)

Other side:

After:

The hole in which the indicator light is mounted on the near-side was an abomination the likes of which I've never seen. Heritage panels, people!

To try to get things to line up a bit better, I cut out the lower bit to match the front panel, and added a little bit of new metal at to the upper curve...

Hopefully when I finally source some clubman indicators, (second mortgage may be required) the one on this side will now fit properly.

With the wings in place, I started looking at fitting the A panels. I knew I had to cut the edge of the flitch where the A panel wraps around, so I brought out the doors again just to make sure things were in the right ball park.

Following the guide in the bodywork section of the mini forum on How To Bend The A-panel Lip Around Without The Right Tools, I man-handled the A panel into place. I found I needed to start the lip off in my hands with a pair of pliers before doing it on the car with the block of wood. 

Same on the near-side. The panel here is bare metal because its the original A panel that I cut off the car during the strip-down. It wasn't in too bad condition so I guess it might have been replaced recently.

When I was happy with the fit, I whipped them both off again and painted the inside bits so they will be ready for welding next weekend.

In other news, I finished building up the front subframe! Feast your eyes!

This has been a long time in the works while I've been gradually cleaning, painting, rebuilding or replacing suspension components. The final sticking point was the non-gen cone compression tool I bought didn't fit the thread of the cones. Non-gen tool in non-fitting shocker. Dad to the rescue with the correct die (v. expensive to buy) so all was good. 

The orange bump stop is the extent of the bling on this subframe. :) All components are as standard as they come. At least there will be plenty to upgrade in the future!

PS. I'm probably going to change those bump stops for black ones. They were all minisport had at the time. :)