Both sets sold, the power of the internet &/or this forum-Going to a member in British Columbia-

Thanks tagus-

BIG AL-

>>Just wondering... has anyone converted an Mk IV to the earlier grill & wiskers? Simple swap, or big deal?<<

Previous owner of my car ('79) had converted to MkI tail lights, so yes, I did the front as MkI as well. I had to pay someone to drill out the rivets that held the chrome piece on the lip of the bonnet, but the rest is pretty much what Dean is describing. If one looks closely, there's some paint now visible that was behind the later grille surrounds that is a bit rougher than the rest, but from six feet......

I find myself with 2 sets of MK 1 grille moustache's and whiskers & fixings-

Both brand new, never mounted-

New price for the 3 items- $249.00 (one set)

My price $150.00 plus postage-

BIG AL-

My whiskers are up on the shelf too...the PO used superglue.  I like Steve's idea about the silicone as long as it will really hold them on, I'll have to try that.

To make new hole in the body for whiskers, I'd make a paper template. Tape a piece of paper on the body big enough to trace the whisker.  With the moustache in place,offer up the whisker and place it on top of the paper.  Level  it by eye and tape it in place.

Stand back and see if you need an adjustment.  When it looks right, trace the whisker onto the paper. Remove whisker and paper template. Cut out paper template. Draw "X" for center of your mounting.   Replace paper whisker onto car, and mark center of hole at

"X" on template.  Fllip template over to mark opposite side.

use clips on whiskers and bolt up as previously stated.

 

The early ones were screwed on the lower lip but the later ones were spot welded on, can still be done fairly easily though.

Easy enough to do and quite common but you'll have to fill up the screw holes on the lip of the bonnet.

Just wondering... has anyone converted an Mk IV to the earlier grill & wiskers? Simple swap, or big deal?

I know of a Mini guy that fought with the holding clips on the wiskers and S door chrome and he ended up using silicone to hold them in place, not correct but it works and looks fine.

Originally the clips would have been riveted to the body and the whiskers would slide or be pushed into place. I found out pushing the whsikers was very hard (maybe even impossible without damaging the clips) and slide them would scratch the paint. So, with both clips in place (slid into the whiskers), wheels off and looking from behind the panel, all was needed was to align the rivets with the holes in the clips. They are very tight, definitely will not fall off.

I had thought about job welding the screws to the clips. But soldering sounds better.

Doug sometimes more work upfront make the final stage go easier.

The holes are there. We removed the pieces to paint. The problem is that the guy who took the parts off wasn't around when we put it back together.

I think the original installation of the clips is by pop rivets. The whisker then snaps onto them and the end of the moustache. If you are staring from scratch with no holes its trickey getting them horizontal. The way I did it on my Traveller was after snapping the whisker on the end of the moustache, I drew a Sharpy line around it. I then tried to get the clips exactly in the middle of the outline, with emphasis on the word 'tried'. At Mini Meet West in Vallejo, some dirtbag decided he needed the left whisker on my Cooper S more than I did.

Hi Dean,

When I mounted mine on my 60 I used clips from an auto trim shop.

I shaped them so the clips would slid into the whisker. Then I drilled 3 holes the size of my fasteners . Then fitted small threaded fasteners through the clips and slid the clips into the back of the whiskers.

Then lined up the whiskers to the surround and put then on the car and from the back of the panel I used flat washers  and nylock nuts. Just tightened my rachet until nylocks were snug. All done. The fasteners were SS.

 Regards

Joe

I believe that the method Steve told you is correct.  However, I didn't do that.  

This may be more work than you want to undertake but I bought new clips (stainless I believe) and I found that a machine screw would fit through the hole in the clip.  (I think it was a 4-40 that fit).  I cleaned the clip and screws with a wire brush, then I used acid flux to solder the screw to the clip.  That allowed me to slide the clips into the whiskers, then put the whiskers on the car.  Once in position I fit small stainless flat washers and nuts on the back side of the panel to hold it in place.  At the time I didn't have a welder.  If I were doing this again I'd TIG fuse rather than solder the parts together.  Anyway, this made installation easy for me.

 

Dean, I have several sets of the whiskers and the clips. I believe the normal approach is to mount the clips. You then slid the whisker in from the outside to engauge the next clip and then the surround. It has always made me nervous but it works. Hope that helps. Steve (CTR)

That didn't help.

I have the wiskers, bolts, nuts and the little mounting hardware.

What I need to know is how these go together.

ie: do the clips mount to the body first and the whiskers pushed over them? Or are the clips somehow supposed to be in the whiskers first then mounted?

//www.minimania.com/Search_Results/whisker%20clips/Parts

What is the proper procedure to install MKI whiskers?

http://restorationmini.com/forum/index.php?topic=427.msg3942;topicseen#new