And this is the old girl after giving her a good scrub with plastic scotchbrite and thinners to clean of what the paint scraper didn't remove and to neutralise the aforementioned goo from Hell.

I then wiped it down with a cloth soaked in thinners.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

So as you can see, the seams are cactus, but the floors are in pretty top nick. The roof, gutters and stills are all excellent.

The beaver panel is rooted, as is the battery box, spare wheel panel and some of the boot floor, but I have got replacement panels for all of these except the spare wheel well. I can;t fint anyone that makes one. It's funny how you can buy just about any panel except that one and it is one of the most common ones to have bad rust.

I will have more pics soon of the metal work being done.

The seams are nearly all repaired now along with most of the other rust work.

MadMatt is itching to get started on the donk so that he can do something till his leg heals.

I intend on getting her painted in Rheims (Ocean) Blue, which I found on an old BMC colour range chart and is a 1963 colour.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

wow...looks nice man
i am going to be starting on my 66 deluxe soonish and will be in the same boat as you
hope the rust on my mini isnt quite as bad as yours...but ya never know till the paints off i spose...

how did you have so much trouble finding a panel beater? Glen Carpenter's does panel work...not sure how much he charges though...

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Bling me up Scotty!
"wait till it grows into a plant...then bunny rabbit THE PLANT!"

1966 Morris Mini DeLuxe FOR SALE

All depends on wether you are after a baked beans on toast or lobster dinner type of job I suppose. Best way is to check out there work and have a chat to them about it.

Finding a good panelbeater who'll take the time to do a proper job (not just charge you for a proper job) is getting harder.

But that is just my 2 c.


Oh, and Morph, that is great progress!

Cheers
Matt

Well they do specialize in minis...its called Glen Carpenter's Mini Mart The QLD mini club recommended them to me for pretty much ALL my mini needs...they do sports engine builds and supercharger setups too

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Bling me up Scotty!
"wait till it grows into a plant...then bunny rabbit THE PLANT!"

1966 Morris Mini DeLuxe FOR SALE

What brand was the nasty green goo? I've been using some cheap wussy stuff from bunnings. Not very effective. Comes in a yellow tin.

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"Life is not like a box of chocolates... it's more like a jar of jalapenos. Whatever you do today, may burn your arse tomorrow."

Yep the stuff you get from Hardware stores couldn't take the skin of custard. i went to a paint supply place and got some heavy duty stuff to stripe my sub frames and while i was there i got some por15 to paint them in too.

Edit/ poeee post moderated

For all my parts, I go to MadMatt TheMiniMan (aka TheDownhillMountainBikingWorld ChampionWannabe! ) and Tony at MiniSport in SA (www.minisport.com.au). Top service and good prices from either and both have a wealth of knowledge on minis. I wouldn't let anyone other than MadMatt work on my mini's mechanicals.

I had trouble finding a panel beater that knew what they were doing, had an excellent team working for them and had customers vehicles in there workshop to prove the quality of their work. You will find it hard to find a GOOD panel beater that will do rust work. They all just want to do the quick $1K isurance jobs for replacing a bumper or whatever. With so much work around at the moment for them, they can pick and choose and rust repair work is a time consuming PITA.

On the car, the rust really wasn't that bad. Once it was ground back or cut out, the areas were simple to weld replacement pieces into. Replacement panels are cheap and the doors and boot lid were in good nick with basically no rust. Whoever owned the car obviously took the care to keep all of the darins unclogged.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

I'll find out and let you know mate.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

hmmm...interesting...i didnt know that...i've known matt for quite a while...he used to work on my 66 deluxe before i moth-balled it now that i am bringing it back to life i have been researching what (if anything) has changed in the mini scene...

would your panel beater be interested in another mini project?

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Bling me up Scotty!
"wait till it grows into a plant...then bunny rabbit THE PLANT!"

1966 Morris Mini DeLuxe FOR SALE

You can give him a call, but I don't like you chances. I guess it depends on how much work there is to do and what you intend on doing to it.

Wolf can come across as a little arrogant because he specialises in vintage/rare cars and more specifically, Mercedes Benz. He doesn't have any real tolerence for people that restore cars to anything other than original (or pretty close to it) condition and has so many people wanting him to do their cars, he can pick and choose. He gets sent cars from all over the world to restore.

He is also getting tired of people who give him a car and a blank cheque and just say "Restore it, whatever it costs". Some of his latest restos have been $800K and $1.4M. But we are talking about 1920-1930's Merc that there were only limited numbers made of (like 16) and basically had to have every panel hand made from scratch because 99% of the car was just cobwebs holding rust particles so it 'resembled' a car.

He has a few gull-wings (one of my favourite cars - YUM) on the go ATM. They cost in the order of $300K-$400K for a full concourse resto. They are worth $1M+ after the resto.

He only took on mine because I showed a genuine love and commitment to the car and insisted on coming to the workshop to do as much of the work myself as was possible. When he came and saw what I had already done myself, he was so impressed that he took it on. The look on his workers faces when we rocked up, with and English car of all things, was priceless.

The workshop is a "Must See". Not to sound wanky, but it is a place where magic happens and dreams do come true. The workmanship is second-to-none and the commitment is 110%.

Sleeping Beauties is the name of the company.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

i see...so i guess Nissan 350z Daytona Blue with White Pearl bonnet stripes and roof wouldnt exactly meet his criteria for a project "worth doing"...as far as i can tell the body is in fairly good nick...i havent taken it to bits yet...but it is difficult to find a flaw...there is little to no rust anywhere...and minimal panel work needed (i think)...

basically i need a panel beater that i know is going to do a good job...if he is just gonna be a snooty knob then i'll find someone else who can do the panel work...

as far as personal dedication to the work i am as dedicated as i can be with a fulltime job and a kid on the way...so...yeah...maybe i am not his type of customer...

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Bling me up Scotty!
"wait till it grows into a plant...then bunny rabbit THE PLANT!"

1966 Morris Mini DeLuxe FOR SALE

Don't get me wrong, he is a top bloke.

He may be happy to do just the panel work if there isn't much to it.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

he seemed quite nice on the phone he's coming around to my place on saturday to have a squiz at my mini...hope he likes what he sees

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Bling me up Scotty!
"wait till it grows into a plant...then bunny rabbit THE PLANT!"

1966 Morris Mini DeLuxe FOR SALE

Well...I got the call from Wolf to say that all the metal work is done and the car has had the hard-to-get-to bits carefully sandblasted. I will have pics up ASAP.

The work cost ~$3K, which I was expecting because of the amount of work needed in the seams and boot.

I am a little frazzled because I was hoping he would take 4-6 months to do the work so i can spread out the costs, but his metal worker decided he was sick of working on german cars and got stuck into the Mini. He got it all done in 3 weeks and that was doing it in between other jobs.

I now need to find the dosh to get the paintwork done, but with my trip to the UK next week, I am a bit thin on the ground.

I'll get him to prime it, throw a dust cover over it and hold off till I get back. I am going down to have a look at it tomorrow. Inazuma_x, send me a PM if you are interested in coming down.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...