G'day from Queensland Australia

Conrod · Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:58 am

Hi,

I'm Kev from Australia. I'm retired and love old Minis and tinkering in my workshop. I have two welders, a nice new Weldmatic 200i and an inherited UNITIG 200 AC/DC (Jasic). I am looking forward to learning this new skill and this forum came highly recommended. Cheers.

Coldman · Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:32 pm

Welcome Kev!
Tinkering in the workshop is just plain old fun. Looks like you got some good power sources to play with there. Can't say I'm a fan of minis but I've known a few who are passionate about em. Panty dropping muscle cars are more my thing although I haven't had one for a while. Lately on the automotive side it's more about getting dragged into repairing earthmoving and trucks including repairing bad welds and fatigue/fractures when I go out west for air con/refrig work.

TraditionalToolworks · Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:40 pm

Coldman wrote:Can't say I'm a fan of minis but I've known a few who are passionate about em.

You had better bite your tongue Gramps!

I lived in Japan for about 5 years and they had some of the greatest mini restorations over there. Many of the older Japanese cars resembled minis...I used to own a Range Rover classic, and the minis would show up at the same meets as the Rover folks. I like most cars and certainly like the clean minis.

Can you get aftermarket body panels? Will you tig 'em ?

Coldman · Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:00 am

Who you callin gramps

Oscar · Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:12 am

Welcome!

TraditionalToolworks · Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:41 am

Coldman wrote:Who you callin gramps

Well I guess I was callin' you...but I was mistaken son.

You look much younger with that face cream on!

Coldman · Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:43 am

That's not cream, it's beer froth

TraditionalToolworks · Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:49 am

Coldman wrote:That's not cream, it's beer froth

Well, it makes you look younger!

BTW, welcome Kev! I didn't know the UNITIG units were Jasic, another bloke posted a Jasic recently (dare I use bloke in America...

)

Conrod · Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:28 am

Coldman wrote:Welcome Kev!
Tinkering in the workshop is just plain old fun. Looks like you got some good power sources to play with there. Can't say I'm a fan of minis but I've known a few who are passionate about em. Panty dropping muscle cars are more my thing although I haven't had one for a while. Lately on the automotive side it's more about getting dragged into repairing earthmoving and trucks including repairing bad welds and fatigue/fractures when I go out west for air con/refrig work.

Hey Coldman, thanks. I'm building a 1976 Aussie Leyland Mini Van as a street sleeper. Shorrock supercharged 1310cc. I fancy to fabricate some Ali manifolding. Got to learn how to use my machine first. Ha!

Conrod · Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:30 am

Coldman wrote:Welcome Kev!
Tinkering in the workshop is just plain old fun. Looks like you got some good power sources to play with there. Can't say I'm a fan of minis but I've known a few who are passionate about em. Panty dropping muscle cars are more my thing although I haven't had one for a while. Lately on the automotive side it's more about getting dragged into repairing earthmoving and trucks including repairing bad welds and fatigue/fractures when I go out west for air con/refrig work.

Hey Coldman, thanks. I'm building a 1976 Aussie Leyland Mini Van as a street sleeper. Shorrock supercharged 1310cc. I fancy to fabricate some Ali manifolding. Got to learn how to use my machine first. Ha!

Conrod · Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:42 am

TraditionalToolworks wrote:
Coldman wrote:Can't say I'm a fan of minis but I've known a few who are passionate about em.
You had better bite your tongue Gramps!

I lived in Japan for about 5 years and they had some of the greatest mini restorations over there. Many of the older Japanese cars resembled minis...I used to own a Range Rover classic, and the minis would show up at the same meets as the Rover folks. I like most cars and certainly like the clean minis.

Can you get aftermarket body panels? Will you tig 'em ?

Thanks TT. Japan is a place I want to go to some day. They have a great Mini Scene over there. I can still get panels for all my four Minis. Heritage panels in the UK are the best and priced accordingly. I would love to TIG 'em but might have to MIG 'em until I am proficient. I have a 1960 Austin Mini Van that I brought with me from the UK to Australia. It will need some repair panels. After having it soda blasted it showed up some previous repairs with dubious welding. Looked like it had holes or bubbles in it if that makes sense.

Conrod · Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:47 am

Coldman wrote:Who you callin gramps

Ha ha....my five younger brothers and sisters are all Grannies and Grandads....so you could be callin' me Gramps too.

Conrod · Sun Jun 21, 2020 9:57 am

TraditionalToolworks wrote:
Coldman wrote:That's not cream, it's beer froth
Well, it makes you look younger!

BTW, welcome Kev! I didn't know the UNITIG units were Jasic, another bloke posted a Jasic recently (dare I use bloke in America... )

Thanks for the welcome. My UNITIG is an older square looking one. It has Jasic printed on the front panel and UNITIG in big letters on the side of the black housing. Unfortunately I inherited it from a good welder who was going to teach me how to use it but he passed away from silicosis before we got started. He hadn't used it for a while and when I got it home it didn't work. I had to get the high frequency circuit board and gas solenoid replaced. I didn't tell his wife or she would feel terrible and want to pay for it. Over $500....I know, it was a shock but I wasn't going to worry about that. It arcs up beautifully now so I'm happy.

Conrod · Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:03 am

Oscar wrote:Welcome!

Thanks for the welcome Oscar. I'm not used to how these posts work. I failed a few times then decided to just drop my words in behind the quote bracket at the end of your message and it seems to work.

TraditionalToolworks · Sun Jun 21, 2020 12:45 pm

Conrod wrote:Thanks TT. Japan is a place I want to go to some day. They have a great Mini Scene over there. I can still get panels for all my four Minis. Heritage panels in the UK are the best and priced accordingly. I would love to TIG 'em but might have to MIG 'em until I am proficient. I have a 1960 Austin Mini Van that I brought with me from the UK to Australia. It will need some repair panels. After having it soda blasted it showed up some previous repairs with dubious welding. Looked like it had holes or bubbles in it if that makes sense.

Japan is a great place, I was there last year, unfortunately my Father-In-Law was dying...but luckily my family got to see him before he was gone...he really loved my kids...they meant the world to him.

That 1960 Austin Mini Van sounds way cool. I lived in Japan during the 80s and owned a Honda Acty, it was what they call a K car. It had a 650cc engine in it, which is very similar to a motorcycle engine. One interesting thing about Japan is they have Shaken, which is a vehicle inspection...you need to have everything working, can't have dents on the car, etc...so you don't see old beat up cars on the street like you do in America. For this reason most of the old minis were really nice.

I've seen a lot of people mig body panels online, but most of the people I know do tig them and/or fix holes with tig. My '46 Chevy Pickup has a tear in the fender that was tig'd and wasn't ground clean, but I like it, it gives the truck character.

My truck is literally painted with a brush from what I can tell. I have some welding to do to fix up a few areas, but the truck is solid for the most part and the engine runs well. I got it registered last year and will never have to smog it, in America older cars don't need to pass smog.

BillE.Dee · Mon Jun 22, 2020 6:31 am

It's NOT the older vehicles that have to be smogged,,,IT IS the operators.