Making panels.......

I've had my mini for quite a while now and really haven't made much progress at all! I've been so motivated by this thread that I need to do her.

I done these panels months ago before I read this thread and after taking the advice of some forums and people but I'm not happy with the results at all!



Photo isn't very clear but basically it's an inner wing flitch panel replacement as the old ones were basically knackered. I was told to do a lap joint and plug weld the new panel over the existing panel but I'm really not happy with the finish and want to it properly. I want to cut the lap joint part out and do it properly.

Would anyone have any advice in how to go about fixing my rookie mistake :-( if I cut out the part of the panel that is overlapping and cut a new piece of metal to fit the hole that May or may not be there and seam weld it in would this be sufficent? Please any help would be grateful!

I've also ballsed up the other side but hopefully once I've done this side I'll be able to rectify the other side much easier.

Wild any chance of a better picture from both sides? Very difficult to see what you are asking?

Here's my build project on Mini Forums, one of the first repairs we did was the Flitch panel, this was done by a professional welder. I think the Flitch sits on top of the bulkhead (sort of double skinned).
We seam welded the Flitch to the piece that we cut off.

There is loads of Mini experienced advice on www.miniforums.co.uk if you get no joy here.

Only thing I would say is to bend more gradually as you might introduce stretching. In the photo (if I've quoted properly) you can see that at one end you've done almost the whole 90 degree fold, and at the other end there's none, but that puts a stretch in the flange section in the middle which can lead to the panel twisting. Do the whole length about 10 degrees at a time and it seems to help.




Yes, often you have to think the whole job through to make sure that you don't end up blocking access and making the job harder. It's just experience, you'll remember next time. I've lost count of the number of jobs I've done on my project that would have been simpler if I'd done them in a different order.




As you do more of this stuff, you'll gather scraps of stuff to put in the vice or bender to help make these closer bends. It's just a case of looking at it from all angles then figuring out what you can use to extend the reach or get into that corner. A straight bender isn't the cure for everything, bits of scrap angle iron and bar can come in very useful.




That's correct - because the metal in that section would be smaller (which is why you would have needed to shrink it if you'd folded without the cuts) you have to remove bits of it. I sometimes do what you've done, then fold it, then use a hacksaw to cut along the overlap, to make sure I haven't cut out too much of a 'V' shape.

I would first do the 90 degree bend (the flange on the cone), then cut a V into it (or shrink the metal, which might be hard to do in in such a short space) to create the bend along the red line in your picture, then stretch the metal to form the cone.

wheeler / droopsnoot; thanks guys, I think i'll try out both of your suggestions on a spare piece first to see which is easiest v best result.

I sort of did a mix of the two ways that were offered, I made the straight fold at the top of the cone, then I made the 90 degree fold and tried to stretch the metal to form the cone, it started to shape but in the end I had to make some cuts in the fold and used a large piece of metal tubing to complete the shape.

I then cut the repair panel to fit using a mix of joggled edges for lap welding and end on end joints for butt welding.

Made a few errors along the way but nothing that cannot be fixed, could have been better but not bad for a first real effort.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Here's where I am so far:

First after re-measuring I marked up the panel and made the initial fold at the top of the cone:



Then I made the 90 degree fold and tried to stretch the edge to form the cone, I had also made one cut before I made the 90 degree fold (first possible mistake I think:



You can see it sort of wanted to form but not enough so I introduce a large metal tube:



Two complete the cone shape I had to make another cut (poss another mistake) and then using a piece of bar forced down by hand / body weight I then completed the other folds with a light weight hammer, I also introduce more cuts rather than shrink the metal however I made a few boo boos (another mistake)





All the cuts however can be welded up so its not the end of the world, if I had been a little more bold and cut the underside fold to the correct size before it was folded I may not have needed the cuts but I didn't want to leave the folded edge too small, still everyday is a learning day!!

Here's the panel being test fitted before the joggled edges and but edges had been introduced on the left hand side:



Here's a nice pick of the left hand side once the joggles and but edges had been marked and cut, I decided on a mix of joggled edges and butted edges to improve strength?



The top R/H edge and bottom edges are joggled and the R/H edge of the cone is a butt (I couldn't work out how to joggle on a radius without flattening the curve?@?@?

And finally here is a close up showing the horrendous mess I made of the underside internal curved folded edge:



The panel itself is a pretty good fit, its just the folded edge that I messed up!!!

I am now making the repair piece for this area:



First I started by measuring the area to be repaired to make a template, I used the intact bottom area which is a mirror image:



This template turned out incorrect, I had to make another one but you get the idea.
I then transferred the measurements to a piece of 2mm steel:



I cut the plate down first and did the first bend in my folder:



Form advice in this thread I new I would have to make the bends evenly and in small stages, once I did the first folds I then trimmed a piece of 4mm bar so that it had a radius'd edge the same as the radius of my piece to be bent. Using this held in place with a G Clamp I started to slowly apply the bends. To get better leverage I also placed the piece sideways in my bender with this 4mm piece clamped against my panel:





Slowly but surely the fold is forming, however as this metal is a lot harder to form and needed a lot more beating I managed to shear the welds on two of my captive nuts on my bender. I also kept having to hammer flat the area where the clamp is in the above pic as making the folds is trying to pull the flat area out of shape.

I am trying to make this piece without having to cut and weld so its slow going but it looks like it will form without having to put a shrink in the edge??

The actual piece I need will be smaller than this but I did not want to cut it to fit before I had formed the correct shape.  

So after another half day in the garage I managed to complete the circular repair piece (less a small amount of minor adjustment before welding)

I struggled at first to do the internal bend as I could not find a way of holding it in my bender or clamps to be in a position to fold it. In the end I managed to use part of the subframe as a pattern. Its the rear rubber cone that came off when I removed the trumpets, I think it was very poorly spot welded onto the piece that I am now repairing? Anyway using it as a template held together using 2 x G Clamps I started the fold.



When I fitted it in place the diameter was slightly out but using my vice I managed to bring it in line, its not quite right but it will be hidden behind the the piece used as a template above:



I also had to re-do about 15 - 20mm of the top RH edge external fold as it too was out of kilter so apart from trimming down the excess edges and a little fine tuning its ready to weld in place.

I have to be careful however after I have fabricated all of the pieces for this side ensuring that I weld them in the best order otherwise I will find it hard to dress the welds where dressing is required.

The piece above will probably be last to be welded?

When I weld the circular piece which is 2mm thick I clean up the edges of the existing rusty coloured piece above and as advised i'll bevel the edges of both the repair piece and the existing piece that it will be welded to. To be honest I should have cleaned up the existing piece first in case cleaning it causes my repair piece to not fit as snug!! (lesson learnt for next time).

To complete this side I have two pieces left to make, the LH main support (The RH one was the second piece I made) and the internal support piece that the circular piece I have just made sits on, you can see the intact one at the bottom of the pic above, its located between the two main spars.

Thanks - its always nice to get support, I thought I was nuts too however, as someone stated earlier in this thread (or was it on the Mig Welding Forum?) I started with a Subframe that was wortheless and may end up salvaging it, even if I don't, along the way i'll learn some new skills, so why not. So far its proving successful :-)