Another body off rebuild?

[Crosswise]

I decided to clean up and waxoyl my chassis today, I removed a lot of flakey rust from the passenger side outrigger which revealed a small hole near where the diagonal joins it. After removing a bit more dirt and rust it became this:

So now it looks like my I'm going to be removing the body in order to get the chassis shot blasted and repaired. I haven't decided what method of rust protection to use but I am very tempted to get it hot-dip galvanized, I need to do a bit more research before I make a decision though.
I'm not planning on touching the engine or gearbox as I don't have any problems with either and the clutch is only 6k miles old. I will look to replace anything else which seems sensible as I find it but I do hope to have the car back on the road to at least see a bit of summer.

Edited by Crosswise on Monday 31st July 15:41

[peteA]

Crosswise said:

I decided to clean up and waxoyl my chassis today, I removed a lot of flakey rust from the passenger side outrigger which revealed a small hole near where the diagonal joins it. After removing a bit more dirt and rust it became this:

So now it looks like my I'm going to be removing the body in order to get the chassis shot blasted and repaired. I haven't decided what method of rust protection to use but I am very tempted to get it hot-dip galvanized, I need to do a bit more research before I make a decision though.
I'm not planning on touching the engine or gearbox as I don't have any problems with either and the clutch is only 6k miles old. I will look to replace anything else which seems sensible as I find it but I do hope to have the car back on the road to at least see a bit of summer.

Nightmare!

Thats way worse than mine...I had a small hole at the very bottom of the tube...ground out the rust (the remaining metal was all shiney!)and welded in a repair...painted up it all looks like new.

Good luck with the repairs...getting done for the summer may be a bit optimistic...? unless you have lots of spare time and money that is!

[Crosswise]

I probably am being a bit optimistic with the time scale, I have taken on lesser tasks before which have always taken far longer than anticipated. I know from experience that I will spend weeks waiting for parts or waiting for the weather to improve. It also seems that time and money are mutually exclusive as I never have both.
I don't know what I'm going to do with the body either, I've already got a body shell in my garage that I don't want to move. I also have 50l of petrol in the tank and I can't drive anywhere as the MOT has expired, I have no idea what I am going to drain that into but I'm sure that won't end up being the biggest problem I encounter. At least I've got air tools as some of the bolts don't look like they are going to come out easily.
I need to decide whether this is a good opportunity to get my interior re-trimmed or whether I should try and keep the cost down. I have no real idea how much I should expect to pay to get the chassis sorted at the moment though.

[ridds]

If you supply the chassis with the body off, both sides repaired is about £1500 + the dreaded I'd say.

At least that's the quotes I've been hearing.

Edited by ridds on Tuesday 28th April 20:05

[Brummmie]

The tube is only cheap, i think i paid about £20, then some bosses turned up and also drilled/welded in. It took me from early Nov to buying tax in March to do mine, inc dropping the foreign motor in. I barely did any REAL work in that period! prolly 4 days a week on the thing.

[BCA]

Brummmie said:

The tube is only cheap, i think i paid about £20, then some bosses turned up and also drilled/welded in. It took me from early Nov to buying tax in March to do mine, inc dropping the foreign motor in. I barely did any REAL work in that period! prolly 4 days a week on the thing.

...but worth it right?.. right?

[HRG]

Someone has an outrigger promo deal on at the mo but precisely who eludes me right now.

[jammy_basturd]

Sorry to hear about your problems! Still hoping to do something to mine soon, and I'm hoping to get mine done in a couple of months, but then I'm pretty sure I don't need any welding done, so I'm just going to rub back and apply new paint. Also last day of work today (redundancy) so I have plenty of free time at the moment.

May I just ask, what year is yours?

Edited by jammy_basturd on Tuesday 28th April 23:13

[Brummmie]

BCA said:

Brummmie said:

The tube is only cheap, i think i paid about £20, then some bosses turned up and also drilled/welded in. It took me from early Nov to buying tax in March to do mine, inc dropping the foreign motor in. I barely did any REAL work in that period! prolly 4 days a week on the thing.

...but worth it right?.. right?

Of course! that or throw it in the skip.

[Crosswise]

jammy_basturd said:

Sorry to hear about your problems! Still hoping to do something to mine soon, and I'm hoping to get mine done in a couple of months, but then I'm pretty sure I don't need any welding done, so I'm just going to rub back and apply new paint. Also last day of work today (redundancy) so I have plenty of free time at the moment.

May I just ask, what year is yours?

Edited by jammy_basturd on Tuesday 28th April 23:13

It is a Jan 98 car and has done 52k miles. It actually looked quite solid, it wasn't until I started tapping it was a small hammer that the hole really opened out. The driver's side seems a lot better but I will be getting at least all 4 outriggers replaced plus whatever else appears once it has been shot blasted. ps good to see another Mini enthuisast with a Cerb!

ridds said:

If you supply the chassis with the body off, both sides repaired is about £1500 + the dreaded I'd say.

At least that's the quotes I've been hearing.

Edited by ridds on Tuesday 28th April 20:05

That sounds a lot more expensive than I was expecting. What places have a decent reputation for chassis repair and is there anywhere near Bristol?

[Jasper Gilder]

The problem with hot dip galvanising is that the heat might distort the frame

I'd suggest zinc spraying. I had a 3000m Chassis repaired and zinc sprayed in 1996, put it in a wet shed and left it for four years as I'd run out of money - every time it rained hard a stream ran through the shed over the chassis.

So - when I got it out in 2000 what was it like? Rotten? Rusty? Scrap? ..... No it was perfect and unmarked. Still is

So there's your solution - and it's almost certainly cheaper than the hot tub!

[ridds]

Jasper Gilder said:

The problem with hot dip galvanising is that the heat might distort the frame

I'd suggest zinc spraying. I had a 3000m Chassis repaired and zinc sprayed in 1996, put it in a wet shed and left it for four years as I'd run out of money - every time it rained hard a stream ran through the shed over the chassis.

So - when I got it out in 2000 what was it like? Rotten? Rusty? Scrap? ..... No it was perfect and unmarked. Still is

So there's your solution - and it's almost certainly cheaper than the hot tub!

After looking at a few Elan chassis etc that are hot dipped I really cannot see and issue with distortion. The Cerb chassis is a LOT more heavy duty.

The only other issue is drilling every tube to allow gas expansion, internal coating. People worry about moisture build up in these if the holes aren't plugged properly. However if it's coated inside I can't see the issue.

[Brummmie]

Just prep it properly in the 1st place, as TVR did not. I did have 2coats of zinc on mine 1st, but it was shot blasted prior to that, so its got something to key into.

[Jester7]

Crosswise said:

jammy_basturd said:

Sorry to hear about your problems! Still hoping to do something to mine soon, and I'm hoping to get mine done in a couple of months, but then I'm pretty sure I don't need any welding done, so I'm just going to rub back and apply new paint. Also last day of work today (redundancy) so I have plenty of free time at the moment.

May I just ask, what year is yours?

Edited by jammy_basturd on Tuesday 28th April 23:13

It is a Jan 98 car and has done 52k miles. It actually looked quite solid, it wasn't until I started tapping it was a small hammer that the hole really opened out. The driver's side seems a lot better but I will be getting at least all 4 outriggers replaced plus whatever else appears once it has been shot blasted. ps good to see another Mini enthuisast with a Cerb!

ridds said:

If you supply the chassis with the body off, both sides repaired is about £1500 + the dreaded I'd say.

At least that's the quotes I've been hearing.

Edited by ridds on Tuesday 28th April 20:05

That sounds a lot more expensive than I was expecting. What places have a decent reputation for chassis repair and is there anywhere near Bristol?

You could try Matt at Silverstone Performance, i belive he is in the middle of a Cerbera body lift for outrigger replacement??

[Tyre Smoke]

If you are near Bristol, give Richard at Dulford Automotive a call 01884 266675. He did mine and it's a proper top job and mine was a lot, lot worse than yours - my central chassis rail needed a lot of work, and my car is/was a 33k 99V, garaged and cossetted all it's life apparently

[BCA]

Tyre Smoke said:

If you are near Bristol, give Richard at Dulford Automotive a call 01884 266675. He did mine and it's a proper top job and mine was a lot, lot worse than yours - my central chassis rail needed a lot of work, and my car is/was a 33k 99V, garaged and cossetted all it's life apparently

It most probably was. The greatest damage done to these chassis was, IMHO, at the factory whilst they were left outside before (a very crappy) powdercoating and assembly.

Still, atleast now yours is done properly - it'll be solid for ALOT longer.

[Crosswise]

I had a couple of hours this morning so I made a start. I thought the passenger seat would be an easy first step, it wasn't! I could not find a spanner which fitted inside the runner to hold the bolt, eventually I managed to wedge one in and get the bolt out, then on to the other 3. That was the first hour gone. Am I missing something here or is this really the easiest way to remove the seats? The drivers seat was better despite being seized on the runners as the bolts were rusted into the chassis so I could remove the nuts without the bolts spinning. The centre console is ready to come out now but I'm not sure how easy it is going to be to get it over the handbrake. judging by the amount of water in the drivers footwell I'm either going to have to find and fix the leak or fit a bilge pump.

Tyre Smoke said:

mine was a lot, lot worse than yours

I wouldn't be too sure just yet! I can already feel the hole extends the length of the triangular plate on the outrigger so I'm expecting it to be bad once I can see the full extent.

[brogenville]

By all means shoot me down for suggesting a ridiculous solution, but has anyone ever tried cutting away sections of bodywork to get at akward chassis areas? Admitadly replacing said fibreglass would be more difficult than the removal, but given that whole sections of different cars can be pliced together by a competent bodyshop, maybe other bits could be done too with relative cost savings compared with a body off job?

Ah well, its probably a silly idea, but I thought I'd put it out there.

[julian64]

Problem being access for your tig welder. The better the access the better the job.

If you are going to the extent of getting someone to weld I'd present them with a frame.

I'd also ask them where the frame jig they are using while they weld is.

Freehand welding to a metal frame not bolted into a jig = super tricky wheel alignment later on.

[ridds]

Crosswise said:

I had a couple of hours this morning so I made a start. I thought the passenger seat would be an easy first step, it wasn't! I could not find a spanner which fitted inside the runner to hold the bolt, eventually I managed to wedge one in and get the bolt out, then on to the other 3. That was the first hour gone. Am I missing something here or is this really the easiest way to remove the seats? The drivers seat was better despite being seized on the runners as the bolts were rusted into the chassis so I could remove the nuts without the bolts spinning. The centre console is ready to come out now but I'm not sure how easy it is going to be to get it over the handbrake. judging by the amount of water in the drivers footwell I'm either going to have to find and fix the leak or fit a bilge pump.

Tyre Smoke said:

mine was a lot, lot worse than yours

I wouldn't be too sure just yet! I can already feel the hole extends the length of the triangular plate on the outrigger so I'm expecting it to be bad once I can see the full extent.

Don;t even bother trying to undo them.

Grind the bastids off and replace with nice new zinc coated ones and apply some copper slip to the very last part of the thread near the body so they don't jam up again. This way the Lock-nut put will still do it's job.