Here's some fun pics for record's sake of the disassembly of my baby... soon enough she'll be back together and all her issues will be taken beautiful care of....

But, for now, enjoy the dirt, rust, and grease I have to deal with!

 

That looks like a great project to work on. Remember, it's all fun and games until someone find more and more rust. Ha ha ha

Do you intend on removing the front panels that are rusted through?

BTW - What does your A panels and door skins look like?

 

Good job!

But, this is disassembly.....lol

 

No that's not disassembly... that's de-mini'ng. Are you making a hovercar? Lol

 

Nah, just wanna take my Mini for a spin.....(groan) lol

 

Luckily, it looks likes those areas are my only "large" rust problem... my sill along the side has a little, but I'm just going to clean it up, reseal it, and put on the oem fender flares to make it look pretty again after repaint. I don't think I'm going to replace the front sections... just fiberglass the inside to make a nice backing and then fill the outside to what it should look like prior to repaint.

I'm not committed enough to do a FULL restoration... or reweld panels and such... I just want her to look pretty and last another 10 years, till I have to do it again! LoL

Today....

BEFORE


AFTER



Nothing like a good days work

 

nice mustache!

 

Looking good! (the parts, that is, you need a bath...) lol

 

How did you prep the sub-frame assembly for the repaint?

Are you going to sand and coat the bay while you have the motor out?

 

For the Subframe, I degreased the heck out of it, then washed it all off, then used a wire wheel to kill all the rust/paint I could find, then used POR-15 Metal Ready... Then just painted away...

I have the whole engine paint kit from POR-15 and have heard great things about it from restoration buffs... it comes with Marine Clean Degreaser, Metal Ready Etcher, POR-15 Paint base coat, Brush On Engine Enamel in your choice of color, and Solvent/safety stuff... I got gloss black, as I'm not a fan of BMC green, but they do have an "austin healy green" that looks like it's the stuff. Everyone said it's the best stuff to get a great strong smooth finish and be able to paint by hand without masking the world off to "Spray" paint on.

The Engine itself will be gloss black, with the transmission and all accesories/mounts "Cast Aluminum" and brake lines and cylinders bronze. I've taken a ton of pictures off Minifinity of engine bays to borrow ideas from and have some good concepts of what I want things to look like.

Here's a few of the pics I've looked at a bit...











I'm going to try something a little unique for the engine bay, and have used the wire wheel to kill almost everything rusty/painted in there, tomarrow I'm going to use a nice bedliner product on the inside of it, as I've tons of luck with it and it's cake to reapply to anything that deteriorates or gets damaged. I know it's not OEM or the greatest restoration technique, but it works like magic, is hard as hell when it dries and super resistant to punishment while being really easy to wash off and clean. I just want it to be clean, look clean, and function well... I'll post pics when I get it done and get the subframe back up and in tomarrow or so to get a chance to see what it looks like (don't worry, I won't cover any bolts/nuts... learned that the hard way)

Today the dremel has been out in full force with a ton of different tip attempts to see what works well and what doesn't when it comes to the engine getting all tidied up. And It's getting there....

 

BTW - Nice Modern Mini.... looks a lot like my style of modern mods... Here's the profile of the Scion I built up for show and then sold after last show season... I'm a LED freak too...

http://www.scionlife.com/?wedrivescions

 

Hehehe... well as one LED fanatic to another let me say "good show, sir".

I've been contemplating how to paint the engine and bay of my car as well... As you can see, it's a bit fugly:



So far most people have advised painting the engine right on the car... The ones you put up links to look SO good though. Of course, without an engine hoist, it's all academic, plus I have, you know, NO IDEA how to take everyhitng apart like that.

 

I had to take it out... there's no way I could get it clean enough with all the crap in the way!

Here's some pics of today... I still have a lot left to do, but it's a good change from before... and I'm getting each piece back in bit by bit...

 

I cannot stop hearing

"NO DISSASEMBLE"

in my head, lol.

 

NOOO! No Dissassemble Number Five!

 

Isn't that a picture of the dreaded DSC witch? Electro Nanny!!!!

 

Okay... almost ready to go back into it's place.... just waiting on a seal for the oil filter mount and for some other paint to dry....

Before...





After...

 

Very well done!

 

It's IN!

Here's some decent comparisons

Before


After


Before


After

 

(Sigh)...

 

awsome, but looks like a lot of work.

 

Thanks.... took about 2 weeks on and off, an hour or so a day... it was easier than I thought it'd be...

I'm more afraid of the next part... bodywork and paint preparation... yikes.

Once I get the engine all up and filled with fluids and running again, I'm going to shut it down, wrap it up with plastic or something and start sanding! Windows Out, Interior Out, etc.... I'll get it all smooth and happy and then send it off to get a new coat of original paint with a few tweaks....

I'm way too impatient... I want it all done now...

 

Engine looks great! What did you do to the exhaust manifold? Sandblast then what?