Early MKI wing to A panel fitting origional de-seamed style

Hi Folks

I Have been asked by a colleague who is restoring a very early MKI, as to how the A panel was fitted to the wing when there was no seam. Unfortunately the original is long gone and he wants to put it back together right. Has anyone come across one before ?

Cheers

Was the original actually deseamed or was a special "extended" wing made?

an interesting concept Tony, never thought of it that way around , this is what we are hoping to find out though

Just thought it a bit stupid to construct a seam and then de seam it (and expensive time wise too)

Unless it was seamed inside first and then leaded up?

Never seen one like that; I guess it would look good though. With no rear seam, removing the front seam would give a nice clean body line.

My thinking would be to flatten out the seam fold of the A-panel, joggle it to lap behind the wing, cut the wing fold off and seam weld it. But that's just a guess.

I would suggest that it was one-piece wing A-Panel/Wing. IIRC the original mini concept was like that but it was deemed too expensive for production. Note that there is no sign of any joint on the piccy below!

I would go with asahartz' suggestion to joggle the outer "A" panel bearing in mind that the "Flange" on the seam takes up about 6mm (1/4" in Christian Units)....so I would build up the joint and finally seam weld it with the panels tacked onto the car. Lead filling would be recommended after the panels are welded in place.

Somewhere on this T'internet there maybe forum threads relating to the olde "minisprints" etc which were de-seamed back and front as to how best to accomplish this. Note that the original Elf appears to retain the seam above the line of the waistline chrome trim.......note that an extra piece of chrome trim may be required to bridge the gap between the scuttle and side trims as per.....


This picture was cribbed courtesy of my copy of the W/S manual AKD3239 ...circa 1962 (....and I hope I'm not infringing anyone's copywrite here!!!???).

Now....what do we do with the inner "A" Panel....just flatten the flange and use it to provide additional support for the joint ?????

Would love to see piccies of the finished job!

Cheers and Good Luck



















reads

I like that... Interesting. Curved front corner on the door too - so that will need its own bit of fabrication.

Now what would that look like with internal door hinges... sets me thinking!

Hi Asa

I like that... Interesting. Curved front corner on the door too - so that will need its own bit of fabrication.

Methinks all external hinged doors came thus !!!!!!

Cheers

Alan

Do you know, I'd never noticed!

But then I've never owned one either.

I have referred to John Prenell's Book Mini The definitive History. He mentions that 3 deseaming options were considered.

The first was to reverse the flanges and have an open join-but this would have hindered the access to the top hinge.

Alternatively the panels could be joggled and then lead loaded-cosiderably increasing labour time

The final possibilty was to overlap and spotweld the wing and A post and lead load the join: judged as more suitable for the assembly lines, it was assumed this method was chosen.

John has researched the mini thoroughly and has many contacts that worked on the assembly lines and design offices as well as the development workshops.
I guess the decriptions above are in line with forums members assumptions

His book is well worth buying.

Hi Folks

I Have been asked by a colleague who is restoring a very early MKI, as to how the A panel was fitted to the wing when there was no seam. Unfortunately the original is long gone and he wants to put it back together right. Has anyone come across one before ?

Cheers

Sorry to jump in, but..

Just how early your friends car? Understanding has it that the one piece front wings were only originally on the first dozen or so pre-production cars. Is your friends one of these or does it disprove the theory? How does he know it "should" have one piece wings?



The September 1961 Autocar road test car.

The image of the de-seamed Elf is a genuine pre-production Elf, being one of the first 12 or so semi hand built press vehicles produced in late 1961. This car is currently being restored back to some form of originality but as this was owned by one of the directors at the Longbridge plant, it has been through various rebuilds and modifications in its life. It was fitted with a supercharger at some point and I believe this is still in place. Watch this place as speaking with the owner last year at the Mini 50 celebrations at Cofton Park in Birmingham, the car should be on the road again quite soon.

I was talking to the owner of MWL again only last week, he's still stripping it down and sourcing parts. One wing has been replaced and conventionally de-seamed but the other side could be original, he is working his way around to it and will investigate the original way it was built if the information is there.

It was owned by BMC (on log book)and in the history file there are hand written letters from Issigonis and Marcus Chambers, the car rarely went out of the plant, it was driven by anyone and everyone within the plant and constantly had bits and pieces added and evaluated. It was fitted with twin tanks a Shorrock Supercharger and even a witter tow bar by BMC.