'66 Minx: mild krustomisation

[Chipper]

Thanks Bill, I will do some searching.

Not much picture news. Welded in:
Several repair pieces inc the headlight area ones
24 side trim holes
Mirror hole
Rear door handle holes
Roof and door dent sorted
Sanded the stonechip on the sill & arches
Skimmed with plod and sanded. Sanding the whole driver side now. No pics, the whole world's turned to grey dust... Hopefully primer soon, then onto the other side.

 

[rottie007]

I really love this car, has yours got the round dial dash or the strip speedo? mine had the strip speedo and it was faded up till about 50 mph.. any more than that and it became bright red ! im guessing it had had an easy life earlier on lol

 

[Chipper]

Cheers, I bought it already satin+red wheels, hope you like it when it's done too. It's got the ribbon speedo, and fake wood...from what I've seen the earlier dashes look a bit nicer but hey. Speedo's OK but wobbles about.

Put a lot of hours in, pics later. Ran out of gas yesterday - very annoying..

 

[rottie007]

for teh record the front indicator/sidelight lenses are a PITA to get hold of so if you do redesign the front they may be worth ebaying

 

[Chipper]

Ah cheers, was looking at cutting out the bulb holders to make custom lamps...

 

[cardiffrob]

My father in law has a low mileage original car down in mid Dorset, if you get stuck for bits. Nice condition, IIRC, but it hasn't moved in years. He was thinking of scrapping it a whle ago.

 

[Grrrmachine]

This project gets a big thumbs up from me; I always wanted that Hillman, but living overseas meant it was impossible to find one, so I named my cat Minx instead. But your metalwork skills motivate me to treat the tin worm on my own car, so cheers for the thread.

 

[Chipper]

Thanks Rob, that could be handy, esp if it's got a red interior by any chance...
And cheers Grrrmachine, not sure about skills, but I'm ready to pile in & have a try.

Been mainly sanding, lots and lots of sanding. But took a break to do this, wasn't keen on the fakey wood dash.

Searching round for something to mask the switches/cutouts, I found the boy had some old plastic model kit paint pots that fitted perfectly.

Sanded glovebox, but you get the idea what it was like

Gold then red kandy:

Took out the "Rootes" badge/medallion in the middle, going to make something to go there.

 

[Chipper]

Slow progress... domestic mini-disasters like dissolving bathroom getting in the way... bit frustrating. Passenger side trim and rear door is welded up, and some dings being attended to. Still sanding and prepping for squirting of colour, and preps for mods.

Just to pep it with some pics and because it's Friday:
Before starting I made a toolchest from scrap mainly; old sideboard, extra drawers from pallets. Lift-out top tray. Hammered out the brass draw handle, hammer & bottle holder etc. It's now got 4x meaty castors rescued from a works skip by a mate:

 

[Cris B]

Love the flame detailing!

 

[Chipper]

Been a while. Progressing slowly, much very dull sorting of small dings and things on the body, sorting out the 50+ welded trim holes which sat on the crease line, flatting all that. Also smoothed all the stonechip on the sills, arches and valances. One door was a bit of a mess but is Ok now.

Another couple of carrier bags of underseal taken off the rear wheel wells and floors. In places it was an inch thick... metal underneath is all sound, thankfully. Not bad for 45 yr old celly-

Noticed the wheel are the wrong taper... not good. Originals seem bullet or round nosed, the ones in were 60 degree taper.

Cut away more of the front 'mouth' and made new infill panels for the front. The curved edge is turned over. New light, vs an original block one below. There will also be a small Watson type paint scallop on these

I bought this thing below with no real purpose, then thought I'd make a garage clock out of it. Flaked and bit of pinstriping etc. But the other half suggested it as the grille centre, so that's what it's becoming. Here after some filling and epoxy. Making some bits for the centre of it, not pictured yet:

Mini simple jig to position the wing thing, a plate behind will mount it. When lined up the wing thing will come off making it poss to weld legs onto the bracket while it's in place.

Started on the boot lid. Originally I was going to make a plateau thing to mount the number plate in, the bootlid smoothed and blended into that. The realised it would look too high up, so going to make a boot handle and leave the big ridge mostly as-is, with some reshaping.
Making hidden/internal hinges for it, so welded up about 15 holes, a wide piece with number plate lights and badge etc having been removed as well.
The rear bumper will be stainless tube with machined ends.

Boot hinge started:

Once the front is prepped we're ready for primer and colouring in... Got two chops to paint and got myself another project car arriving in a couple of weeks so got to get this rolling...

 

[Chipper]

Forgot - been using Jotun Epoxymastic on the front arches, floors, valances etc. Good stuff, very tough. Sprays nicely with 2.0 tip, nice finish. Much cheaper than the version tarted around the car comics too. I'm not sure what#s "mastic" about it, it's pretty hard.

 

[Biz]

Started on a floor pan; first made a blunt chisel from scrap and this thing that was in the wkshop when we moved in. No idea what it is (some medieval disembowelling tool?

the thing you cut up is called a "Ripper" it used by slaters to slide up under roof slates and tiles then hook round the fixing nail hammer the handle and "rip" the nail it out.

Cheers

Biz

 

[Biz]

Sorry just re-read and the above has been answered. great project

 

[Chipper]

Thanks mate. It's a bit out of date, must get new pics up.

 

[Chipper]

Quick update summary, been slow going but getting there.
Welded the hinge plates inside the boot, finished the hinges and modded the boot lid stays.
The boot got swilled out (grimey from old oil bottles banging about in there), sanded, epoxied and gloss blacked.
The body got epoxy on bare metal and filler bits and a thin coat elsewhere, to help the 2k high-build bond wet-on-wet. Was nice to see it in one colour, if only for a short time.

The rear wheel wells and floor pans got the marine epoxy, the whole car was guide-coated. Pretty pleased, very few bits to fix. Decided to paint the door insides too as they're a bit beat up. Can't wait to colour in the outsides...

All flatted and ready for colour, but more delays. A regulator died and I have to go abroad to see my old man who's none too well. Decided to relocate compressors and re-plumb everything. That needs doing anyway because the next car won't fit in otherwise. So it'll be a couple of weeks yet before the fun bit really starts.

 

[tux]

Outstanding Chipper, really inspiring stuff.

 

[Chipper]

Too kind Tux, cheers

 

[Chipper]

Quick update, been held back by various things not shed-related, waiting for weeks to get going.
Relocated the compressors and got another coming from Shiremoor next week (top place), the airfed mask was working the missus' comp too hard. The main car is all ready to colour in, just waiting on the comp to arrive.

Made a rear reg plate holder; 1.5mm plate with 6mm rod edging. Brackets for LED downlighters. Made wire guides to hide those best as poss.

Fired him up, a little teaspoon of fuel down the carb and he was running well. Except won't start in Park, will look into that later. Moved outside to jetwash the garage out ready for paint.

Done the door insides and shuts, here having the cards & stuff nailed back on.

Done all the welding on the bootlid and started sanding it. Made a handle, this is the second effort, still a bit to be done before paint.

Odds & ends blasted & ready for paint, the medieval codpiece job is an aftermarket exhaust finisher.

Bit more done on the grille centrepiece. Snipped out a disc from a 1.5mm brass offcut to go under the chromey pointy thing (steering wheel boss I think), and made it round in the pillar drill. Then beat a slight dome into it as it looked crap as a flat disc, can't really tell from the pic but the slight dome somehow made all the difference.

 

[fuff66uk]

Top top job mate,i can't wait to see it finished