Skye is, of course, a Mini Sky. Which was delivered to my home, via Ebay, for the bargain price of £550 (including the delivery!)

Though I haven't really started work yet (due to all the other Mini issues going on at my house), I've given Skye a quick appraisal and photographed some of my early priorities. To be honest, a good weekend's work could get this car back on the road, but I want to be better than that.

One of the best things about this car is the total lack of underseal - how it should be as far as I'm concerned! So there's plenty of surface rust on the white paint. Lots to clean and repaint there.

So here are Skye's worst bits at present:

Front panel:




And underneath this bit:


Rear valance:


Rear wheelarch:


Considering those are the worst bits, it's not too bad is it? Hang on, it's a Mini...

7th September:

Finally managed to start work on Skye. I've been busy with Evy during the early summer, then after the IMM - what happened? Time evaporated. Mind you, this is quick in my timescales!

Anyway, Skye has already changed ownership - when Holly decided she wanted the Neon (hopefully more reliable...), Skye went to Jane instead. There's the motivation - Skye is insured for the road but not MOT'd! So it's down to me to get it up to standard.

Let's say there's not that much to do, but as we all know, to do it well takes time. To begin with, the front panel to inner wing plates were corroded - beyond an MOT anyway. Since the front valance was shot anyway, I started there.

Once I had stripped the lights off, it was clear that the wings were at least going to need some work:


I started by cutting the panel below the wings:


Though corroded, the joining plates took some shifting - drilling out of multiple spotwelds, plus an attack with the air chisel to separate them! And not surprisingly, the teardrop mounts were past it - one fell apart.

Behind the plates, the inner wings were holed (par for the course):




I cut those out and welded in patches:




With good metal to weld to, I prepped the inside of the new panel with a coat of red oxide, then, next day, a coat of white body colour. I had decided, for this job, to spray in single-pack synthetic - it's cheap, covers well, is resistant to chips, and is least toxic. The downside is a long drying time, but I can live with that.

13th September:

Once the front panel was off, I could see that there was not much left to weld to. As I also knew that the scuttle closers were rotten, I decided that it would be false economy not to replace the wings at the same time - the A-panels would have to be done anyway. I picked up a pair of wings at BMC Uttoxeter show, and set to with the spot-weld drill again and my fantastic friend the air chisel! I intentionally left the bonnet in place to help with alignment - having already aligned the new front panel to the old wings, I don't expect major difficulties with alignment now.

I also removed the windscreen, as there was some rust in the bottom corner:


Here's the underneath of that:


20th September:

A first attack with the rotary wire brush on the grinder (a vicious but effective tool, which requires full safety equipment!) revealed the extent of the damage, and what was still good. I've seen a lot worse:


Following Emalee's tip, I unbolted the damper mounting - and it was as predicted:


The bracket itself was also corroded right through:


However the windscreen corner rust was not as bad as feared - there were small holes, but I had expected worse:


So next job was out with the welder and spend most of a day putting in patches:






And from below:


As I write, I've ground back where necessary, Kurusted the previously rusted areas, coated with red oxide, coated with body white, seam-sealed the welds, and recoated with body white. Need to get some pics of the finished work, but it's ready to fit the new wing now. Then I can move over to do the same trick on the other side!

it looks like a challening build!!!

Fab work you have done so far tho!!!!

what are your plans for it at the end???

I think it's going to be easier than yours Emma!

It's Jane's car now; I think she may take it to work and some shows. But it won't get the hammer that my dailys get!

Eew, are those the last pics I posted? I need to put some more up... will sort that out later. Today I completed the fitting of the offside wing, which I began about three weeks ago. It's a pattern wing, so... yes, it was a real pig. After all the years the Mini has been made, you would have thought that the pattern panel makers would get somewhere near by now, but no, it fitted where it touched, and it didn't touch in many places! After much grief, swearing, and bashing about, I managed to get an acceptable fit (I have been careful not to remove the bonnet so I have something original to reference!) Today I fitted the A-panel and there was even more gnashing of teeth, as no matter what I did the two would not meet. Eventually a suitable compromise was reached, and I have one side fitted, just needing paint. Soon to begin the other side...

I'm sure I'd taken more photos... but no, none on my camera. Which means I don't have a pic of that vision in white which is now the inner wing! But here, to make up for that, I took a couple of shots under the fitted wing:


- through the headlamp hole


- and looking the other way, showing the seam sealer. I'll topcoat this when it's gone off in a few days. But you get the general idea - clean and pretty in white under there!

Here's the exterior of the fitted wing:





The seam gaps are filled with white Tiger Seal to keep the old tinworm at bay!


Today I started on the other side. This, fortunately, is in better condition.



The damper mounting is clean bare metal behind - but bare metal - which is why they rust! There are a couple of small holes at the front end of the sill, and the scuttle closer needs replacing, but it's not bad. I should have paint on this by tomorrow night.

its looking good!!!!!

A bit more done this weekend, though working round hockey matches & paint prepping is fairly slow progress!

Thursday: welded in the repairs to the bottom corner of the inner wing, and the scuttle closer, then primed that up:



Eventually got some topcoat on it too:


Friday: welded on the new wing. This side fitted much better than the other side and didn't give me much grief.



Apart from getting the A-panel to meet of course! This is my technique - I punch correctly-spaced holes in each edge, then put a 5mm bolt through with some flat heavy washers, and tighten it up until they pull together. Then tack-weld and seam right down!




Next it's all treated the same as the other side - seam sealer on all the seams under the wing, and white TigerSeal outside.

Sunday: prepping for paint, and a coat of primer. Strangely there's a bit of lifting on the nearside scuttle corner, which surprised me because this synthetic enamel shouldn't do that. So I'll have to let that dry then strip it back again before I can get on to topcoating - sometime round next weekend I guess!

Well, I got some topcoat on last week, but it's not been going well. I'm still getting used to this paint, and I got the mix and the spray density all wrong last week, so though the picture looks OK, there are loads of runs.



So today has been spent rubbing down the runs and putting another coat on top. It's passable now; there are still some problem areas but I'm going to put it back together next weekend and get on with the back end; I'll do the paintwork properly in the summer as I'm going to need the car on the road quickly now and I haven't the time to get it perfect.