55 replies to this topic

[browno]

I think the time has finally come to put up a project thread to show off possibly the world’s longest rebuild of such a small car – partly to show it off, but also to give me the motivation to get the final jobs done and get it on the road ready for the mini 50 celebrations next year.

So to get to the start of the project, we need to go all the way back to the summer of 1993, when I was 16 and eager to get behind the wheel. I had saved up a fair bit of money, and was keen to get myself a car that I could tidy up in the six months before I could start driving. My Dad had spotted a mini that was being repaired at a garage owned by my mate’s Dad, and was up for sale as the owner’s husband had been banned for 12 months. So, a week or so later (on August 31st 1993, in fact), I became the proud owner of a 1985 Mini City E, which had a new MOT that day and had recorded 47420 miles. It was in good condition, but hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, so on the first day it looked like this (with me & my brother in it looking very young & of course stylish!):




So I got my most stylish gear on and got to work giving it a clean, and got rid of the fetching brown interior, after which it looked a lot tidier:






The only visible fault was a small rust hole in the bonnet, so I got rid of that:




Then we thought it would be worthwhile getting it into the garage so that we could whip out the rust-prone rear subframe to repair it as needed and paint the floor in that area:



The good news was that the original subframe was in great condition, as was the boot floor, so we stripped everything back, gave it all several coats of hammerite to protect it from the elements and reassembled it all looking much better:








So far, so good – in fact we’d found it quite straightforward – and at this point is where things changed from a quick tidy up into a more serious project. Having sorted out the rear end, I also stripped and painted the floor in the middle of the car without any problems. Then we decided to up the ante by taking out the front subframe – achieved by simply lifting the body off the front running gear, which was then wheeled out.





Then the engine/gearbox and all brake and suspension components were separated from the subframe and it was built back to give us a rolling shell (so that the engine could be rebuilt and put back into the shell later)

This resulted in a shell that was well protected underneath and looked like this:



Part 2 coming in a mo...

[browno]

As it had turned into more than a quick tidy-up, and I wasn’t going to have it ready for when I did my test, I decided that the paintwork wasn’t great, and could be improved – so it was sent off to a mate’s garage for a paintjob… He assured me that he’d take great care of my pride & joy for me…




The car was prepped and primed, but then the project stalled for the first time, as it was being painted as a favour, it was low priority – so spent about 2 years sitting in a shed at the garage awaiting attention.

Eventually, when I was at Uni, and had nice long summer holidays I got cracking on with it again – I built the engine up which is based on the original 998cc unit, but significantly upgraded (I was concerned about insurance at the time, and the engine was in such good nick, I decided to modify it, rather than transplant it) with the following bits:
Minisport stage 1 kit (alloy inlet & LCB exhaust manifolds, superflow exhaust & K&N filter)
Minisport stage 3 cylinder head
Minisport road/rally cam
Single 1 ¾” SU HIF44 carb
Aldon electronic ignition conversion

After a bit of nudging, the car then got painted in Ferrari Rosso Corse with a Ford Diamond White roof – and I had a motor that looked like this:



So the motor was fitted (and sounded fantastic) – then the spending then started on shiny bits for it including lots of trim, a six-point safety devices roll cage, a pair of cobra low-back buckets and all sorts of other stuff. With a big push on to fit this lot up, the car was looking pretty good and just needed some trim and wiring finishing before it was ready:




However, at this point things changed again, and the project stalled for the second, longer time. I ended up staying on at Uni for 3 more years to do a PhD and towards the end of that 3 years, my dad (who can be seen in some of the earlier pictures) died suddenly aged just 49.

Eventually I ended up finally getting myself a job, which was back near home, and bought a house – so got a mate with a truck to bring the car over into my new garage – so, we are up to 2004, 11 years after I bought it, and it looked like this:



Finally after lots of failed attempts, earlier this year I decided to have a big push and finally get it on the road, as it has become such a huge joke with all my friends and family that I have the infamous unfinished mini that it needs to be finished! I also figured that since it’s something that I’ve worked so hard on with my Dad and Brother that I need to finish it off as a memory of him too.

So far, I’ve stripped the top end of the engine again and rebuilt the head, rebuilt the carb and got the engine running again before I started work on some of the other jobs that need doing – some that weren’t done originally, others that need doing because of the lay-up.

After a lot of work, it doesn’t look much different – but it has had a lot of jobs attended to:



The electrics all now work, and the current jobs in progress are focussed on sorting out the interior and tidying all the wiring. One of the big jobs was getting out both screens to fit new seals, which meant I could also take out the dash and retrim it with a bit of help from the missus:




It’s currently looking better – but taking lots of time to get the details sorted out – things like the heater, which had a leaky matrix has been taken out, stripped and all the parts painted and reassembled with a new matrix, and replacing just about everything in the cooling system (new water pump, thermostat and everything else flushed out) - only to find that the pipes into the heater matrix were also leaky… so I’ve now got a new set on order (it seems that every Monday, I've got another order for Minispares or Minisport!) to get fitted up this week.




Well – that's got us up to date – hope it’s of interest! I’ll try to keep this updated with my progress, and I look forward to your comments.

browno

[T.Harper]

Brilliant pics!

[JOEMACCA51]

Wow that was a great read looks good. Nice to hear a mini with a bit of personal history! loook forward to regular updates!

[minirock]

its really nice how someone can keep a car soo long and have such a history with it
i wish you the best of luck for the future
Cheers James.

[Al*]

great project! really wish you all the best wityh it and am sure that if you stay set to it you will get it done... minis are a great father son bonding.. my first mini was purchased when i was 16 and i spent countless hours in the garage with my dad for the better part of two years redoing the whole car... very sentimentel.

best of luck and i'll keep watching.

Al

[minimaff]

nice project,

its good to see you kept the car over all those years.....

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Woah wikid Project looks amazing.

[browno]

Thanks for all the positive comments folks - it;s definitely been a long time coming, but I am at least making some progress now!

I've been doing a bit more work today - started off taking out my newly refurbished heater, as the hoses to it were leaky...



Then I connected up my new shiny silicone hoses, and fitted it up




Connected the hoses up at the other end



and ran the engine up to temperature - thankfully with no leaks anywhere!

After that, I started doing a bit more work on the interior - and fitted my rear door cards from retro retrims...




Then started getting ready to do the fronts, but the light was failing me (very poor lighting in my garage ) - so I gave up for today!

At least it's another small step closer to being ready!

Edited by browno, 26 October 2008 - 10:11 PM.

[browno]

Well - it's been quite some time with no update - but things have been happening (pictures to come soon!)

Having refitted the heater with new pipes, a few days later there was once again water in the footwell, so it had to come out once again! This time I looked more closely a tthe new matrix - the pipes go onto a small plastic plate, which is then butted against the body of the matrix, with a couple of o-rings to seal and four slef tappers to hold it on... evidently when the pipes are attached, they were causing this to flex slightly and giving a leak... So I decided to try to improve on the design by adding a small gasket to the face, and using a little gasket compound to aid sealing - with this fitted up, things improved... Although, having now been on for about 3 weeks, I did spot a little water in the footwells again last night!!! THis heater is fast becoming my Nemesis!

In the meantime though, I've fitted the front door cards and alloy door furniture, which look great! I've also changed the oil (allowing me to sort out a slightly leaky sump washer), and refitted the exhaust as that was blowing slightly from teh LCB y-piece. I've also started tidying the engine bay wiring, as it was in a bit of a mess - so that's now looking much neater.

The jobs I'm doing at the moment are to try to work out what's happening with my electrics at the minute - I think there's an Earth loop somewhere that's causing the lights to work randomly, and the dash lights to look particularly odd (turning the sidelights on results in the Heated rear window, foglight and both indicator warning lights lighting up!!!) - This is the sort of annoying job that has made me put off so much on this project, but this time I'm determined not to be beaten!

On a more positive note, I'm going to be heading to Bingley hall this weekend to pick up some inspiration and missing bits - but am at a crossroads on a major area of looks - what wheels to go for?

My first instinct is to go for 12" minilites (in either silver or all-white, like the Italian Job special edition), but I also fancy 12" revo 4-spokes in white. Then I look at the older Minis and can't help but fancy converting down and fitting a set of 10's (minilites) to go for the classic look, and to fit in with the cage, etc (but then that's more £££'s to convert)... Any suggestions (or photos of red minis on any of the above, or even different, wheel options would be greatly recieved!

That's about all for now - but I'll add some new pics as soon as I get the chance...

[edi57]

Keep up the good progress that you're making. White wheels are a big favourite of mine... you don't often see them!

I'm looking forward to seeing the pics.

Ed

[Mart!]

great project! so, in all the 15 years, have you ever driven the mini??

[onlymelloyd]

What a brilliant project! It must be nice to have owned it for so long and have done all the work yourself. Keep it up!
Have you thought of black wheels? mine is red with black weller wheels, black bumpers etc ( <- pic in avatar )

[Junior Mini]

Great project, nice to see so much love being adorned. With regards to your electrical woes, my first place to start would be the tailights wiring, especially the earth tags. Try unpluging them? Doe's it help or not? Did you clean back to clean metal after the respray??? If you did it's possible it has started to oxidize, cleaning up with some fine sandpaper and then coating with something like Vaseline would hopefully solve the problem.

Hope this helps but if not then let me know and i'll try to help.

Good luck

Paul.

Edited by Junior Mini, 21 January 2009 - 08:30 PM.

[Saxo-Fiesta-Mini]

awesome project fella bit like mine a say i bit i mean a very small amount

when i was 6 me and my dad agreed that we would oneday take a mini to piece and restore it and that would be our little project but he passed on when i was 10 jump forward to 2009 me being 21 finnaly got my mini hope mine comes close to matching urs even if mines a daily driver gonna be awesome once i finished