<div dir="ltr">Mike,<div><br></div><div>First let me offer my sympathy... Sounds like the kid is a go getter, but maybe a bull in a china shop too. ;-)</div><div><br></div><div>Talk with him about the uni-body construction of a Mini. You know, about the egg shell properties which would disappear if the front were severed.... Glad to see you copied the mini-list where you may get better answers but honestly I never heard of doing this to an Austin Mini and smell disaster along the way....</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers!!<br>Jim</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 4:33 PM, Mike Rambour via Spridgets <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spridgets@autox.team.net" target="_blank">spridgets@autox.team.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> Hi,<br>
<br>
My son-in-law purchased himself a mini (mini cooper, not spridget) and right away ka-bloomed the motor, to be fair the motor had issues when he bought the car so it was already on it way out.<br>
<br>
So, I reluctantly volunteered to rebuild the motor and pulled it out of the car, with his help of course, he needs to learn this stuff. We did this by dropping the front sub-frame, suspension, motor and all on my 2-post lift. That was a mistake :) we found rust that was previously well hidden under the sub-frame components and he decided we needed to remove this rust, ok, I can live with that. Next he decided we should drop the rear sub-frame and check for rust, ok, did that, found no rust. The car is amazingly solid and with very little rust.<br>
<br>
Then he decided, we should fix the very few rust bubbles in the paint the car has, oh might as well remove the glass so we can get that rust under the rubber molding, might as well remove the interior and all the wiring and re-wire the car from scratch. Oh wow, there is a lot of bondo on the car (I personally think its factory bondo) and lets remove ALL the bondo to make sure no rust is hiding under it. I went away for a 2 week vacation and while I was on vacation he got the car to bare metal. I got home and found out I am doing a bare metal restoration of a car and I didn't plan on that, but too late now.<br>
<br>
He has decided to cut off the front end and make it removeable for future ease of working on the motor. Now I have a problem !!! He initially looked into getting a fiberglass flip front, but found a web site where the guy cut off the front, made some brackets and bolted the front on the car. That keeps it a steel front and not some flimsy fiberglass front, its not flip front but still removable if needed.<br>
<br>
I am against cutting off the front period, no flip, no cut, leave it as-is. Is cutting off the front ok ? besides better engine access is there a reason to do it, but more importantly good reasons NOT to do it ? Its not original anymore anyway since it has a 1275 in it, upgraded brakes and other go-fast toys from a previous owner, but its a remarkably rust-free (as rust free as these cars get anyway), appears to never have been hit 1959 Mini, so its a first year car. I am trying to talk him out of it, but its his car I can't say no, i suppose I could lock up the plasma cutter and TIG, but he is the kind of kid that would get the kitchen shears and cut it off anyway.<br>
<br>
mike<br>
<br>
-- <br>
A gun is like a parachute, if you need one but don't have it,<br>
you'll probably never need one again.<br>
<br>
------------------------<br>
<br>
<a href="mailto:spridgets@autox.team.net" target="_blank">spridgets@autox.team.net</a><br>
<br>
Donate: <a href="http://www.team.net/donate.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.team.net/donate.htm<wbr>l</a><br>
Suggested annual donation: $12.75<br>
<br>
Archive: <a href="http://www.team.net/archive" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.team.net/archive</a><br>
Forums: <a href="http://www.team.net/forums" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.team.net/forums</a><br>
Unsubscribe/Manage: <a href="http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/spridgets/bmwwxman@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://autox.team.net/mailman/<wbr>options/spridgets/bmwwxman@gma<wbr>il.com</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:small">-- </span><br style="font-size:small"><span style="font-size:small">Cheers!!</span><br style="font-size:small"><span style="font-size:small">Jim Johnson</span><br style="font-size:small"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/MET105/?ref=bookmarks" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-size:small" target="_blank">UHI Aviation Meteorology</a><span style="font-size:small"> Adjunct Professor</span><div style="font-size:small"><a href="http://www.ejssm.org/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204)" target="_blank">E-Journal of Severe Storms Meteorology</a> - Chair</div><div style="font-size:small"><br>"Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip." <br>Winston Churchill</div><br><div style="display:inline"></div><div style="display:inline"></div><div style="display:inline"></div></div></div></div></div>
</div>