Winnie Hornet Restoration

That's spot on. Fantastic work. Being a visual person myself the pictures speak volumes.

Any advice on the floor, is it possible to do something similar?

Although I can imagine it is possible to do the floors from sheet metal, I am far not skilled enough to try it.

Article one of this this months mags covers how to fit a roof skin

Zef wrote:That's spot on. Fantastic work. Being a visual person myself the pictures speak volumes.

Any advice on the floor, is it possible to do something similar?

going from limited personal experience, most of the repro floor repair panels seem to be a decent fit (oversize usually so you can cut them down) but mini buffs will always say to go for heritage panels, though i think i've only used one original rover panel on old rusty and that was a front wing cheap on ebay - bloody good fit though!

best of luck........

I have found Heritage and Minimachine panels realy good, but to be honest their floor panel needed some afterwork. No matter, at least they cold be fitted without serious cutting .

Thanks guys some really stimulating stuff going here, my flooring has been cut out and we found about 4 layers of sheet metal from previous repairs to the inner sill and floor area yuk. I bought my floor panels from Minimail, the drivers side had to be trimmed off on the rounded section where the gear stick is located so that it blends in. I also envy the work I see being carried out on some of the cars here, I mostly envy the guys who are able to carry out the welding themselves coz they are saving loads. I will post pics of the progress, this week as its mostly just welding work being carried out im hoping hours are less on labour, last week it was the preparation and fabrication of repair sections to go in that killed me on labour costs. My welder who now also comes in handy as a parts sourcer was able to get me some good sills at half the price being offered by Minimail, I couldnt pass it up.

robinkritz1 wrote:Thanks guys some really stimulating stuff going here, my flooring has been cut out and we found about 4 layers of sheet metal from previous repairs to the inner sill and floor area yuk. I bought my floor panels from Minimail, the drivers side had to be trimmed off on the rounded section where the gear stick is located so that it blends in. I also envy the work I see being carried out on some of the cars here, I mostly envy the guys who are able to carry out the welding themselves coz they are saving loads. I will post pics of the progress, this week as its mostly just welding work being carried out im hoping hours are less on labour, last week it was the preparation and fabrication of repair sections to go in that killed me on labour costs. My welder who now also comes in handy as a parts sourcer was able to get me some good sills at half the price being offered by Minimail, I couldnt pass it up.

I was very lucky, my son-in-law is a cracking welder did the Elf for me. Although I can weld, he had more experience so I bought the Open classic for him to canabalise parts off for his own Open classic which he has now completed, and now passed it back onto me for the 1275 engine and all running gear. the body is too far gone to do anything with. ( I may play around with it, practicing a bit of welding here and there before starting on the van project. who knows I may make a trailer out if it!)
I digress, a local garage charges welding by the inch, £1 ( must owe the son in law a small fortune!)

Hey Tony you're one lucky guy to have such a skilled son in law. Winnie has been with the welder about two weeks now, I just want to have the car back fully welded so that I can start the prep work ready for the paint then we can concentrate on the mechanics, engine runs very well but the brake master cylinder is gone, I recon I'll probably have to get new brake cylinders and one side of the hydrolastic plumbing is severely bodged. I'll be honest, right now Im so desperate to drive the car, Ill probably just have non original parts and change them slowly as I go, the plastic/sillicone hydrolastic plumbing is cheaper and probably lasts longer, I'm not going to be on display at the concourse de elagance any time soon so I recon I can get away with it.

I have tried my best to keep my Elf original as possible.So far I have submitted on the following.
1) Radial tyres- Camac. give a lovely smooth and comfortable ride but rubbish at speed on corners but ok!
2) Door mirrors- as against the overtakers on the A pillar. (too much vibration) Elf and Safety comes 1st !
3) Clutch Master cylinder. (already on car) But prefer that- can see the fluid level straight away- may change the brake master for one later- together with stainless flexible hoses? maybe discs but not sure yet.
4) Swapped the wiper switch position for the light switch- use that more than the lights these days!
5) removed dash light switch - replaced with spring toggle switch for electric screen wash.(orig hand pump still on show!
I think thats about it!

Original parts? What are those? To paraphrase the famous movie line, "We don't need no steenking original parts!"
I mostly settle for original-ish looking. Most folks on this side of the pond don't know the diff anyway.

Red Riley wrote:Original parts? What are those? To paraphrase the famous movie line, "We don't need no steenking original parts!"
I mostly settle for original-ish looking. Most folks on this side of the pond don't know the diff anyway.

original or not, your little car is still one of the coolest elfs on the planet......if not the coolest

I agree.

but, to comment on original parts, my own little JVG is original except for:

hazard warning lights
1100 unleaded head on original 998 engine
1.5 carb on water heated inlet manifold
cooper 2" single box exhaust
later mini front reclining seats
cooper s disc brakes
electric windscreen washers
front wings, a-posts and nearside door

but.....it is still on it's original, 42 year old sills! yep, it's never had new sills

I'm really just looking for the best of both worlds, try keep the general aesthetics as original as possible with subtle differences but blend in some modern technology to have a car which can be used regularly with parts which are readily available and affordable. I'm not too reserved about giving the car a nice modern twist , like yours Red Riley, down the line if money is available I certainly would'nt feel guilty going down that route. I like the subtle changes you have made on your car from the list Tony, you are personalising it to suit you, I'm doing a slight modification to my moustache grills, they were a bit distorted and In my bodge up solution I have blended the original grill bars with the sports type criss cross grill because the bars broke off at the thin connector plate, this will distinguish my car to make it personal to me. I will keep my original wheels but I would also like to have a sportier alloy set to change from time to time.[img][/img][img][/img]

Hey Bi AL, how did you do the hazard light conversion, that is something I would certainly like to adopt.

i found a cheap new old stock kit at an autojumble, but they are still available from the mini suppliers and via ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/KIT-CAR-CLASSIC-CAR-UNIVERSAL-HAZARD-WARNING-KIT_W0QQitemZ160415630698QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item255984456a

this link above is the same kit as i bought and fitted though mine was only £8 a few years ago! it wires into the loom under the steering column

Here are some pics of work carried out this week. Look at the layers of metal plates welded over each other in previous repair jobs[img][/img]Front section of drivers side rear inner wheel arch[img][/img]front inner arch repair[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img]

Looking good. That wheelarch repair looks familiar, been doing the same thing on my Mini Sky this week! Had to replace about 3/4 of one arch...

One question on the sills, looks like the bottom edge is a full seam - have any drainage points been left?

The original sills had vents in to allow water to drain out. That's where the "humps" are in the cover sills. When cover sills are fitted it's even more important to leave a drainage vent at each end, as eventually water will find it way in, and apart from the rust potential, the only way out is into the car through the cross-member, as my City E is currently demonstrating!

When I fit sills I ensure that they are fitted over the lifting slings which then double as a convenient vent.

Hey guys, yes the welder will leave some drainage points, he has done Minis before and seems to know quite a lot about them, even where to source for parts. Today I was able to de-rust the door which I bought for the Hornet, it had some very minor rust holes at the bottom of the door but some lead loading has sorted that out quite well. I think the time has now come to purchase some POR15.Check out the progress, sorry about the picture quality in some of these[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img][img][/img]
Now with the door holes so small, how do I get in there to srub out the surface rust on lower part of the inner door skin? anyone with ideas?

You could just leave it in there, and spray in some rust converter / Marine clean, metal ready and POR

i once had 8 layers of metal ontop of each other in the corner of the passenger side foot well was quite amusing at the time but ment we had to do more work so wasnt good you projects getting there good luck

Cheers Brooks, Its really costing me on the welding though. Here are some more pics of the progress[img][/img][img][/img][img][/img]

Very interesting reading here boys! I'm have the same problems on my current project Myvanwy and have now picked up some good tips and ideas. I am just about to weld in a whole new floor plus an extension piece (to account for the extra 6-7" longer length) probably next week so may have some photos soon

Will be looking forward to following your progress.

its looking loads better i had to replace and do alot of weilding well .. my dad did we had to replace whole pasenger side foot well 2 new sills patch up loads of pin holes rebuild rear valance and the list is endless lol it will all be worth it in the und just keep up the good work