Straighting out the bent, bending the straight..

Ross Lowe is doing the body paneling (something that I can't do).
Ross is a retired restorer (and a family friend) who specialises in older cars.
He has just (well almost) finished his MG (after 30 years).. Brilliant stuff.

Ross has been doing a great job of stripping my mini's panels and replacing them with the replacements I bought.

The new A-Pillers (internal and external) and front side guides have been fitted.
(still need to be spot welded)

The doors have been given special treatment. They have had the outer skin removed and have been cleaned up.

The passenger door is in the process of having bottom sill replaced.

The front guards are getting there aswell as the front panel. It's all starting to take shape.

I sent in the bumpers and grill to be re-chromed and polished. Will look rather 'bling' when I get them back.

The inside foot wells have been secured as they where "not good"..

The door skins have been fully fitted and treated. The old door skins.. not much left..

The roof have been paneled out and a thin coat of bog applied. The hole cut in the center of the roof has also been plugged.

The front guard are on now and spot welded. Ross did a magnificent job of lining everything up
considering they didn't come from the factory in such a good state.

It was a sweet moment to see the front end in place.

A Picture of the apron after it was cut away.

The Front Guards are now fully fitted.
Time to clean up the imperfections and get all the lines right.
Smooth as a babys bottom.

Had to get 2 new side sills, which I cleaned down and painted. This will be the next big job.

The insides of the guards have also been puttied and givens the silky smooth treatment.

The guards have all be welded on will the spots smoothed down.

Now the Weather is starting to pick up, time to get onto the list of things I need to do at home.

Cleaned down and painted the fuel tank.

Gave it a coat of enamel black which gives it a nice shine. Still got to sand it down and do the main panel again
(as that is what is seen)

Some good progress has been made the last few weeks.
The Sills are almost done and the front cleaned up and looking brand new.

The Front is now almost completely done. Its taken a while (and a lot of money) but it's finally starting to look like its going to make it.

Ross has done an amazing job on the engine bay (and the rest of the car)

The door have been finished now with all the edges rolled and the joins welded.

Work has started on sorting out the problems with the bonnet. As it was quiet lumpy in places.

The Interior. All The side walls are complete.

Time to start work on the rear sub-frame, which has a piece missing from it as the previous "owner" cut it out
so he could fit his exhaust. What to people thing they are doing when they do something like that.

One it is out we can repair it properly and replace the boot floor, battery box and the real beaver panel.

Work done on the inner a-piller. Just needs sealing up.

The boot floor has been cut out (and will be cut out some more) aswell as a clear shot of the previous "owners" handywork.
The rear sub frame was removed shortly afterwards so I can take it home and 'fix' it up.

The replacement floor and battery box have been put in (with a lot of work) and the edges sealed (will be cut back).
The boot lid has also been done which if you have seen the original photos was quite badly off.

Weld marks for the boot floor showing though the back seat panel.
The new beaver panel (and side spats) have gone on and its starting to look quiet nice down there.

Notice the lovely cooper S in the background which has also come in to have some minor work done.
(Some looser jumped on his roof)

The Front is basically finished now. All cleaned up, smooth as a baby's bottom and almost ready for paint.

My Brother (who can weld ;) did a magic job of fixing up the rear sub frame We had to remove the entire back section
(after bracing it first) as it was twisted and warped (most likely because somebody used it to jack the car up).
At it turned out, removing the entire back brace and replacing it with some square bar was the right thing to do as you will see later.
Watching my brother weld was a joy. He really knows how to do it properly and it certainly will last longer than the rest of the frame.

While the sub-frame was out I cleaned it up and gave it a coat of under body paint. We (Dad and I) also replaced the suspension bushes with polyurethane
ones which was more fiddly that we thought as we had to take out both suspension arms. This turned out to be good as it gave us a chance to polish the
ball at the end of the arm and repack everything with new grease. We also removed all the brake as I have brand new ones to go back on.

The sub-frame finally went back in and was a perfect (though tight fit) with the new replacement boot floor. The replacement tire well was
obviously bigger than the original so the newly welded in backbrace only just fitted under. An original sub-frame wouldn't of been as forgiving.

The Car (after a very long time) is almost ready for the paint shop. All the doors have been refitted (with temporary seals) to ensure
everything is just right and all the other bits and bobs have been tested.

I really need to thank Ross for doing a tremendous job on the Mini. It will certainly be quiet a looker when its all painted up due to his
extreme level of professionalism getting the body just right.