The dental work continues August 2022

 Some starting point pictures 




The damage is very apparent on the left hand side, the grille surround being pushed back and the sheet metal behind in pushed down and buckled somewhat. Not an easy spot to get into and apply the appropriate pushing forces needed to straighten.

After  several hours of pulling, pushing and banging it now looks much better


                                  The alignment of the left and right side pieces making a rectangle
                                  So the correct alignment is easy to see, before welding the broken 
                                                        left side back where it belongs



The work needed on the the buckled center panel between the grille surround and the lower tray area is apparent. Now almost back to the original shape.




                                                The undamaged right side as a comparison 
                                                          of the original shape required

                                                     From the front, looking much straighter:
                                        The length of RHS on the floor providing attachments to apply
                                                               the pull to get it straight


         Finished up for the day and took some pictures of visible rust spots that will need to be attended to.
                                            In all the standard spots on the Minx bodyshell

                                                               Standard rust spot right hand

                                           And same left hand side, hiding behind attachments 
                                                                  but still needs fixing:

The resultant rust hole in the lower right side guard


                                                           An unwanted hole right side 



30th August 2022

The strip down continues so the under bonnet area can be cleaned. sanded and the various damaged parts repaired ready for paint.
It seems a total waste of time to paint the outside and be afraid to open the bonnet and spoil the entire effect.

A couple of pictures before I got heavily into cleaning up under the bonnet.
Lots of dirt, and evidence of previous repairs.





The drivers side inner guard cleaned up reasonably well.
All the darker paint is undercoat and some BS (Black Stuff) the DPO had pushed into every crevice without bothering to clean out the rust and seal the metal surface first.
All body seams will need to be cleaned, rust rinsed, primed and sealed to prevent further rust.




Further digging around the lower front guards revealed previous rust damage and some bodgy  repairs.
The left side having a large amount of bog  in it.
When I probed up from the bottom through the out of sight holes I managed to provoke the flow of a large amount of road dust, dirt and such like. The join between guard and sill being poor and also full of little rocks.
It may be the best way forward is to cut off the bottom 6 inches and weld in new metal.








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