Progress!
Of sorts. Much frustration has been had over the last couple of weeks, mainly consisting of not having enough time to work on the car because of full hours at work (but yay, money!).
Some of the frustration has also been in the form of not feeling like accomplishing anything as getting paint out of the many, horrible corners in the minor is a slow and laborious task. Or was!
But more on that later. First, some chronological documentation.
This is the passenger side, which was a bit depressing to find out how badly it had been crumpled. I think they put in a new panel after cutting out a bent one, and then the same corner got bent again?
It's the only way I can see this happening.
The seam goes down the inner panel, through the inner guard (cunningly circling around the suspension!), and then cuts in to the floor pan/engine bay pan/whatever you wish to call it.
But after looking at the weld a bit closer, the bit on the pan is a separate join and I'm not really sure what it was replaced for. :\
The pans on both sides of the engine bay are an aftermarket addition anyway I believe? From what I can see of other Minors, the stock pans have speed holes?
Anywho, a shot from along the arch, showing the nice regular depression that was bogged in instead of knocked out. Goes pretty much the entire length of the arch.
And the outer panel, where it is clear that the new panel was added too close to the bumpstop, which apparently has had quite a bit of a workout!
Another shot of the rear corner less the bog. All sorts of happenings around here! I still picture the guy in the workshop wailing on the panel with a meat tenderiser to flatten it out a bit.
Under the bog was yet more panel pieces! By my count, the rear is made of 8 or so different pieces haha.
This was hiding under the righthand side engine mount and a couple of plates.
Other side was okay though, except for a bit of a prang to the front of the pan which travels across most of the gap between the chassis rails.
And now on to the reason why removing paint is not so much of a laborious task! Thanks to this little fella who was hiding forgotten in the back of the shed.
All dressed up and ready to party.
Had quite a few hiccups getting the blaster going properly and to a productive degree. First off was the discovery of wasps nests in the pipes (of course).
Then there was the wasp nest in the nozzle. Once that was sorted, we had a look online for somewhere close with appropriate media.
We figured garnet would be too coarse and probably wouldn't make it through this smaller blaster. Decided on walnut shell only to look at our watches and decided to keep our sanity.
Soccer mums in SUVs galore at 3pm! And a fair drive to get to the supplier as well. So in the end I drove down to the local Trade Tools (very creative name, I know) and picked up 25kg of ground glass.
This is where the real shenanigans started.
Walled up the car so as to not spray the glass TOO far, and then got to work.
...Or not. No glass, lots of air. Worked out that there was a second, separate valve for the media. Start it up again. Glass!
...For about 3 seconds. Nozzle is blocked. Find something to unblock it. Start it up. Stop. Unblock nozzle. Repeat for 30min until really frustrated.
This glass has not been put through quality control. So, off to rummage around the shed for a few minutes. Come back with an empty oil drum and a piece of crimsafe.
Run the glass through the makeshift filter, be amazed at the size of some of the glass that's coming out of this stuff. Bigger than a piece of long-grain rice!
Pack up and call it a night as it's now dark and stormy and threatening to hail. (Hooray, summer storm season! D: )
Fast forward a week and I've finally got time up my sleeve so off I dash to the shed to give Maurice a good blast!
First up though was rewalling the sanding booth as the painters plastic wafted around in the slightest breeze and was quite ineffective.
Especially when one of the dogs belonging to the owner of the shed heard me using the blow gun to dust myself off and thought he would get in on the action.
Turns out having a dog attack air out of the gun isn't so amusing when he jumps through your flimsy wall to get at it. -_-
But eventually, I am up and running. The difference running the glass through a sieve made is enormous! Why didn't they do this at production??
Anyway, today I had a merry old time showering myself in tiny bits of glass, discovering my skin gets irritated really easily by tiny bits of glass, and spending vast amounts of time vacuuming up said tiny bits of glass.
But the engine bay is clean! And so are most of the fiddly corners. There are a few bits that I apparently didn't see through the glassy haze, and I think I might purchase another bag and do the inside while the walls are up, as it is also full of many fiddly bits. And every crevice is already full of glass, so why not a bit more?
I didn't take my camera down today as I was determined to spend as much time blasting while the weather was good and the shed empty. And today the storm and hail only came just as I was finishing up!
How thoughtful!
So instead of pictures of Minors, have some photos of other assorted vehicles that Maurice would get in trouble for rubbing literal shoulders with.
The caddy that gets used for formals and weddings etc. There is talk of importing a matching one from the states so there would be two for weddings.
That is one pretty rear end...
An EJ Holden (I think) that has been gathering dust for a while now. Still runs though!
The Nova owned by the son and daughter of the guy who owns the shed.
Sounds beautiful when running.
One of the Thunderbirds. I shall have to take some photos of the other one, which I have had the pleasure of driving.
The guy is clearly in to American in a big way.
But he also has a Daimler which I would love to take ownership of (it's in a really difficult spot to take photos of).
And his son has a Mini that has some plans. There's also a Mercury Cougar and something else that evades my memory, but I am thinking something that is old Australian muscle.
Anywho, that's about it for now!
Motivation = re-achieved!
Soon I shall be slapping a coat of primer on and moving it back out of the shed, and then welding a contraption to hold the Minor while I work on it.
Fun times!
Cheers,
Matt
Of sorts. Much frustration has been had over the last couple of weeks, mainly consisting of not having enough time to work on the car because of full hours at work (but yay, money!).
Some of the frustration has also been in the form of not feeling like accomplishing anything as getting paint out of the many, horrible corners in the minor is a slow and laborious task. Or was!
But more on that later. First, some chronological documentation.
This is the passenger side, which was a bit depressing to find out how badly it had been crumpled. I think they put in a new panel after cutting out a bent one, and then the same corner got bent again?
It's the only way I can see this happening.
The seam goes down the inner panel, through the inner guard (cunningly circling around the suspension!), and then cuts in to the floor pan/engine bay pan/whatever you wish to call it.
But after looking at the weld a bit closer, the bit on the pan is a separate join and I'm not really sure what it was replaced for. :\
The pans on both sides of the engine bay are an aftermarket addition anyway I believe? From what I can see of other Minors, the stock pans have speed holes?
Anywho, a shot from along the arch, showing the nice regular depression that was bogged in instead of knocked out. Goes pretty much the entire length of the arch.
And the outer panel, where it is clear that the new panel was added too close to the bumpstop, which apparently has had quite a bit of a workout!
Another shot of the rear corner less the bog. All sorts of happenings around here! I still picture the guy in the workshop wailing on the panel with a meat tenderiser to flatten it out a bit.
Under the bog was yet more panel pieces! By my count, the rear is made of 8 or so different pieces haha.
This was hiding under the righthand side engine mount and a couple of plates.
Other side was okay though, except for a bit of a prang to the front of the pan which travels across most of the gap between the chassis rails.
And now on to the reason why removing paint is not so much of a laborious task! Thanks to this little fella who was hiding forgotten in the back of the shed.
All dressed up and ready to party.
Had quite a few hiccups getting the blaster going properly and to a productive degree. First off was the discovery of wasps nests in the pipes (of course).
Then there was the wasp nest in the nozzle. Once that was sorted, we had a look online for somewhere close with appropriate media.
We figured garnet would be too coarse and probably wouldn't make it through this smaller blaster. Decided on walnut shell only to look at our watches and decided to keep our sanity.
Soccer mums in SUVs galore at 3pm! And a fair drive to get to the supplier as well. So in the end I drove down to the local Trade Tools (very creative name, I know) and picked up 25kg of ground glass.
This is where the real shenanigans started.
Walled up the car so as to not spray the glass TOO far, and then got to work.
...Or not. No glass, lots of air. Worked out that there was a second, separate valve for the media. Start it up again. Glass!
...For about 3 seconds. Nozzle is blocked. Find something to unblock it. Start it up. Stop. Unblock nozzle. Repeat for 30min until really frustrated.
This glass has not been put through quality control. So, off to rummage around the shed for a few minutes. Come back with an empty oil drum and a piece of crimsafe.
Run the glass through the makeshift filter, be amazed at the size of some of the glass that's coming out of this stuff. Bigger than a piece of long-grain rice!
Pack up and call it a night as it's now dark and stormy and threatening to hail. (Hooray, summer storm season! D: )
Fast forward a week and I've finally got time up my sleeve so off I dash to the shed to give Maurice a good blast!
First up though was rewalling the sanding booth as the painters plastic wafted around in the slightest breeze and was quite ineffective.
Especially when one of the dogs belonging to the owner of the shed heard me using the blow gun to dust myself off and thought he would get in on the action.
Turns out having a dog attack air out of the gun isn't so amusing when he jumps through your flimsy wall to get at it. -_-
But eventually, I am up and running. The difference running the glass through a sieve made is enormous! Why didn't they do this at production??
Anyway, today I had a merry old time showering myself in tiny bits of glass, discovering my skin gets irritated really easily by tiny bits of glass, and spending vast amounts of time vacuuming up said tiny bits of glass.
But the engine bay is clean! And so are most of the fiddly corners. There are a few bits that I apparently didn't see through the glassy haze, and I think I might purchase another bag and do the inside while the walls are up, as it is also full of many fiddly bits. And every crevice is already full of glass, so why not a bit more?
I didn't take my camera down today as I was determined to spend as much time blasting while the weather was good and the shed empty. And today the storm and hail only came just as I was finishing up!
How thoughtful!
So instead of pictures of Minors, have some photos of other assorted vehicles that Maurice would get in trouble for rubbing literal shoulders with.
The caddy that gets used for formals and weddings etc. There is talk of importing a matching one from the states so there would be two for weddings.
That is one pretty rear end...
An EJ Holden (I think) that has been gathering dust for a while now. Still runs though!
The Nova owned by the son and daughter of the guy who owns the shed.
Sounds beautiful when running.
One of the Thunderbirds. I shall have to take some photos of the other one, which I have had the pleasure of driving.
The guy is clearly in to American in a big way.
But he also has a Daimler which I would love to take ownership of (it's in a really difficult spot to take photos of).
And his son has a Mini that has some plans. There's also a Mercury Cougar and something else that evades my memory, but I am thinking something that is old Australian muscle.
Anywho, that's about it for now!
Motivation = re-achieved!
Soon I shall be slapping a coat of primer on and moving it back out of the shed, and then welding a contraption to hold the Minor while I work on it.
Fun times!
Cheers,
Matt