Been a while since I updated what was going on. There is a new spare wheel well in the boot and Today I relocated car in shed so I could better work on the front. Like the rear a solid object had bumped the front when little Minx was living a neglected previous life. I straightened the bumper  and left it the way it was. Now I need to reshape the opening and fit the new grille that Christine so kindly provided. An easier task than straightening the bent original.  Some starting point pictures: It seems that little Minx encountered a post or tree at some stage. This bent the bumper back and reshaped the grille and surrounding area. As I mentioned previously I pulled the bumper straight, but left the ding in the grille as it would not prevent me getting a roadworthy and registering it for use, I will apply some pull tp the bent parts, and coax them around slightly to resume their original shape. It may need a little heat at the buckle points as well.

  After a 6AM start to do some outside work  "Work" = paid employment :-) Decided at midday that 42 C was too hot to work out in the sun and returned home to consume refreshing beverages, feed the man something and chill. Into shed but no acetylene until next week so started pulling the doors apart 1 door about 2 hours and an induction into the secret handshake club of door disassemblers and window glass replacement experts. rest assured that you MUST dismantle in the correct order as you cannot get parts out unless the required other parts are first removed.  The reverse applies in that you must first insert the moveable glass,,,,, before attaching window channel and winder mechanism. Otherwise you must re-remove the previously inserted items, place the glass in the bottom of the door, re-re-reinstall the guide channel. To remove the front channel and the quarter window you first open the quarter window, lift the assembly rearwards and upwards slightly, close the quarter...

  A new day deserves a new post So my acetylene cylinder is empty.... no welding until the world wakes up for the new year in a week or so. Well other stuff needs doing so had a look at a little ding in the back panel. A solid object had impacted the rear bumper and bent it and created a little ding in the rear panel behind it. The same solid object may have also been responsible for destroying the original fuel tank. Borrowed the serviceable one from my Series 1 Rapier which bolts right in. This model has a larger tank than the earlier Minx models. It was not a big issue so I just straightened the bumper and bolted it back on. Pictures of dent in last post so here are some fresh ones: Dent in rear after a little hammer and dolly work Two low spots shown up by block sanding A quick colour prime to see what still needs work This is as far as you get with one spray can :-) Nikko pen marks showing two spots needing further work NOT the final colour, this is just a prime coat to sand b...

 Well a new year so start out as I intend to continue....again 😀  Pulled half of the spare wheel well out, widen the space 35mm and see how it looks. First picture marked and made first cut Second picture leaving this space. The piece removed Showing tin worm holes. New wheel in place...test fit should be OK. Will need to sit  vertically while the original spare was on a lean to the right hand side. Will require a slight modification to the wheel retaining piece.  Simple task, The new space. I will cut the rusted bottom out a weld in a new shaped piece  replacing the rust coloured portion. This should be a simple metal shaping exercise to get it nicely curved like it was always there. then two short low curvature pieces to fill the 35mm gap. A coat of paint and nobody would know it wasn't factory original. This was the GT model that had wider wheels.... trust me :-)  Tomorrow's task to cut, shape and weld it all back together 2nd January 2022 Half way thro...

  We tend to forget when trying to do a time line of a restoration job of all the little tedious steps and dead ends. I recall my friend Clay Mileson finally getting a shiny stainless steel firewall installed in his 40 Ford sedan. He had spent weeks shaping trial fitting, reshaping trial fitting again until it was finally in place. A thing of real beauty. But as I commented to him at the time, the write up will just say "A stainless steel firewall was installed".  with no mention of the blood sweat and tears it took to make it happen, like it was an simple afternoons work. Restoring any old car is a journey. You first have to fix all the damage caused by age, wear and tear and rust. Then comes the tricky part, that is "unrepairing" all the bodgy stuff that went before. Now my intention was to simply spray some bargain bright yellow paint on my Minx. But it seemed silly not to fix all the things that would annoy me for evermore if I left them. These defects would be ...

  It was apparent that the DPO had put some time and effort into adding sealer of some sort around the inside of the boot and the front and rear glazing. I was a little confused as to why he would have sealed inside the boot thus preventing any water getting out??? As I mentioned previously it was very difficult to extract the rear screen. I had to carefully cut away the "black stuff" which must have been windscreen sealer in a previous life to release the rubber. Strangely the rubber seals both front and back were soft and pliable, good enough to reuse after a wash. I worked around the boot removing as much of the BS (Black Stuff) as I could, then got to work on the rear window aperture. The BS was 5mm thick in some places and didn't want to let go. However I persevered using special tool KJ 285 (otherwise known as an old 1/2" wood chisel :-)  )  Now I could see what was going on  I finished the job off with a rotary wire brush and there before me was the reason the...