MINI Club of Calgary

Now in this thread things get a bit Crazy....

Some pictures are quite graphic and disturbing in nature, and may not be suitable for Classic Mini owners and most Mini enthusiasts in general... discretion is strongly advised.
Now with that out'a the way, On with the build....

I should mention I have 2 projects on the go, I have my Mini Modification Build, and the Mini-Trailer “Boot2Bonnet Build"..
The trailer has been a testing-grounds for the Mini build, and I’ve made some progress with it so I feel we should start off with the Trailer..
As I progress with the Mini I'll bring it in gradually or start a new thread on that build.

Boot2Bonnet Trailer build:
I'll be going through the do's and don'ts on how to make a "Classic-Mini-Trailer"...
Keeping in mind I have no instructions, Disign-plans or any idea as to what or how this is going to turn out, but here we go......

Week - 1
You take one Rusted-out-to-far-gone 1969 Mini, a grinder fitted with a cutting disk and let the sparks fly....

Nice! Keep up updated with the progress, looks interesting!

Thanx Heli Guy, and I will continue updating...

Week - 2
Took the grinder to the Bonnet, no turning back now…..

-Now for the Boot…

I took out the fuel tank, shocks, and unbolted the Rear frame from the mounts.
I’ll be using the frame mount holes for mounting the new trailer Sub-frame.
also the Rear wheel-wells will be kept intact and used in the build, so it took a bit of strategically placed cutting.

The Chop-Shop action continued this weekend….
With a few good tugs and maybe a couple of extra hits with the grinder, Bingo!!!

With the dust starting to settle you can see the dream coming to a reality.
Here's what I ended up with late last weekend...

Next step will be to strip the 2 sections of trim and paint….. Oh ya, and Rust.

So I was busy this weekend stripping the 2 sections of the Trim, Lights, Chrome and any nuts'n-bolts.…

Next will be to cut the 2 pieces and fit them up together.

So I went for it on the Trailer last weekend in the Chop-Shop……
I marked out the first few cut’s, ripped and cut off the rain run-off’s and clamped the two panels together where I needed them to be.
With the two ends clamped down, from the inside I marked the rear panel onto the inside of the fender to get the exact curvature, this helped match the two ends up perfectly.
I then used my drill and perforated through the fender along the outline. In turn I drilled thru from the outside of the fender through to the rear panel to match the cut points.

Now for some sparks, and sorry for the shaky pic’s as it is hard to take pic’s and work the grinder simultaneously…

I finished cutting the other side this week but I used a cardboard stencil, I traced out the pattern from the finished side and flipped/mirrored the stencil onto the unfinished fender.
After the front fender panel was trimmed out I placed it against the rear panel and marked out the cut-lines, then made the last cut to the rear panel.

I was nervous when I committed to cutting, as I’m not following any plans, instruction or directions, but HOT-DOG!!!! look at the outcome?!?!?
I wish I had my MIG welding unit at hand, I would have tacked them together right there.

I'll clean the two panels up by grinding down the sharp ends, strip the paint and then it’s off Tin-Bashing and MIG welding we go.

Looking good. Quite the undertaking!

Now the hard work will start.
Looking forward to seeing it come together.

Thnx Heli, it has come along better than expected.

------

I hear you 'minidd', media-blasting for stripping rust & paint, MIG welding the 2 panel together and body-filler work for paint prep??? All things I have never done before……….
Come to think of it, I’ve never done any auto-body or Mechanics work like this before?? Should be fun…
Then I’ve also been working on my Mini conversion and engine project, all without professional supervision…… Can anyone tell me where all these extra parts came from!?!?!
LOL

With the paint stripping I have done, I found a world of botched welding, filler work and at least 3 layers of different colored paint?
Most of the headlight and fender sections were more fiberglass and bond-O rather than steel… not good.

Chop Shop update:

So heres a few pictures from the last few weeks of paint and rust stripping…
I had to change out the Bonnet and Boot lids due to extreme damage, but not to worry, I have the spare’s from the Mini that I won’t be using in my Mini build….

Take a look....

Shiny!!!!
Here you can see all panels ready to be tack-welded together, then POR-15 rust protected.
I hope to be working on the Trailer this weekend and have it welded and have the POR-15 applied so I can start on the new Base and Sub-frame..