The A-panels are a common area for rust on a Mini; Marigold’s were actually very solid, but only because they have had some prior work done on them to repair rust.
They were, though, showing signs of rust with bubbling in the paint so they needed inspection and to remove all poor repairs and rust, I cut them out. I Do not want to leave behind any rust or bad repairs.
Oh how I detest underseal; it’s obviously been applied to Marigold during some remedial work a long time ago as it was not standard to apply to the Austin Mini’s of the time. As I scrape it off, you can see the original Harvest Gold shade of yellow hiding underneath, and a small scattering of light rust.
With the laser cut parts delivered, cleaned up, welded and the painted, they could be fitted and then the full shell became fully roll-over.
It took a lot of time to adjust the roll-over jig to get the shell’s centre of mass as close as possible to the pivots to minimise any load on the jig.
This allowed me to make a start on cleaning off the horrid underseal! What a job that is…!!
I decided that some of the rollover jig wasn’t strong enough for my comfort and also being a Clubman (longer than a roundnose) I designed some extension brackets so had to wait for them to be laser cut and posted.
I began stripping down the front and rear subframes to piece part level in order to assess the new hardware needed and also to begin cleaning them up.
Okay so not something musical but I picked up a roll-over rotisserie jig to help with the rust repairs and make accessing the shell a lot easier within the confines of the garage.
Thankfully it was only a short drive down the road and managed to get for £100 off the RRP of a new one – I should be able to sell it on once I’m done for a similar amount anyway, so it’s a good investment for now.
dAfter posting about my recent purchase on Facebook I was made aware of a bit of a twin in the Cotswold Motoring Museum; a very similar looking Austin Mini Clubman in Harvest Gold.
I can only hope Marigold will look as good as this after the full blown restoration.
So with a few days on the Mini, it’s now a completely bare shell!
I have boxed everything up carefully, removed all the glass and wrapped up to protect it and ensured the interior is stored in a dry and insect free place to preserve it for re-fitting.
The engine and gearbox have been lifted out which was a logistical nightmare with such a low garage roof/beams and the engine crane.
