Initial Body Shell Prearations

First the body shell was stripped down to a basic rolling chassis (the engine, its ancillaries and the interior were removed). The car was then transported to Andy Redmond in Shepperton for the real work to begin. Andy runs his own classic car restoration business, Kar Kraft.
 

The Outset

This photo shows the basic rolling chassis. The wings were the first items to be removed in order to provide access to the corroded inner panels.

Bare Chassis

Shortly after delivering the Cooper to Andy, Jon Butt and myself spent a day helping to remove and disassemble the two sub-frames. These and the other suspension components, have now been cleaned and powder coated.

Sand Blasting

The photo below shows the Cooper after having been sandblasted and primed. The blasting was carried out in order to expose and remove rust. Care was taken not to distort large body panels during this process.

The front section of the car was also removed, purely for convenience. This did mean cutting through the inner wings, which was not too much of a problem as they both needed to be replaced.