Offending Bracket

This is the upper door hinge bracket. Behind it was rust, and the top part of it was completely rusted through. I put a small triangular patch into it, and it was ready to re-install... After, of course, the rot behind it was taken care of!

Patch Behind Bracket

This is the top patch that I put in in place of the rotted piece that was behind the upper door hinge bracket. Being in the upper corner of the A-panel, it was very difficult to get a good finish on the welds. I did the best I could...

Upper Bracket

I wasn't able to take a lot of pics this week because I had the nose to the grindstone (well, really it was the grindstone to the Mini, half the time!). This is the rotted spot on the A-panel. you can see where I tried filling it with weld, and then decided to do it right and patch it. You can see the lines I've cut.

Patched and Welded

I can say that if there is rust on a car, cutting and welding in a patch is the right way to do it. Trying to fill it with weld takes longer and the end result is not as good looking or as good of a product in the end.

Battery Tray

Here is the battery tray in the boot. Doing this by myself, I needed to figure out a way of getting the battery tray lip close to the boot floor panel so that I could weld them together. What I decided to do was remove the rolled pins in the end of these quick clamps, and run the working end through the drain holes in the tray. I then reconnected the calmps and clamped the assembly to a bar that I'd put across the back of the car, about 4" away from the tray bottom. This allowed me to put tension on the battery tray, sucking the lip close to the boot floor.

My Shame

These welds look bad. Really bad! What can I say? I'm just happy that the tray is not solidly attached to the boot floor. The floor no longer feels flimsy and tinny. Once the welds are ground a bit, and the urethane liner is sprayed over them, the floor should look just fine. The most important thing is that the rust is gone, and shouldn't come back!