133 replies to this topic

[EatSleepJDM]

Hey I'm Jamie.
I'm 16 and pretty much live and breath minis I got this mini for my 10th birthday, kept it in the garage for 3 years, and then my Dad and I took it apart, and began the full nut and bolt restoration around 2006.

It was a completely standard 1988 Henley Blue City when we first got it, but I don't have hardly any pictures of it when it was like this It was the textbook 'old-lady' car, it was just driven around to shops, just a normal mini. We paid £150 for it, which turned out to be an absolutely massive bargain

Anyway, pictures!

As it was when we bought it, ignore the number plate:P it was a birthday present after all!

We then proceeded to ping around town in its standard state until the tax ran out, before taking it off the road to start one massive restoration

In 2006, in our new house, we began the strip down.




Then we stripped the interior, but this is the only picture I have of it being stripped inside at this stage.


Ater stripping the exterior nearly completely, we replaced the rotten rear valance with a new one, and coated it in hammerite, and whacking on the seam sealer


After that, we painted the underneath in white hammerite, and repainted the solid subframe, assembled all new brakes and suspension, nothing fancy, just some minifins, KYB gas adjust shocks, hi-lo's.


Anyway, a few months past, including welding in the boot, around the sills, and it then got to the stage where we would be taking the front wings off, the front panel off, and dropping the engine.




Which then left us with a whole engine and subframe assembly off the car


So, a couple of months passed, which then resulted in us fitting new wings and front panel. We want this car to remain rust free for as long as possible, so used weld through primer, then primer and sealant. New scuttle closing plates, repair on the flitch panels and shock absorber mountings repairs. Whilst we were working on the front of the car, we decided to weld over the spare wiper holes for where LHD minis would have them, making a much cleaner scuttle. I must say, my Dad did all welding and big jobs. So he can take credit for pretty much the main majority of work


Then, we bolted the front subby back on, and started putting things back in the engine bay, in preperation for dropping the rebuilt engine and gearbox back in.


More to come soon

Edited by EatSleepJDM, 25 September 2010 - 07:53 PM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Good work Jamie Now, respray pics is what we want to see.

[EatSleepJDM]

Thanks Craig
I'll whack on some more pictures of rebuild though, then respray pics.
I'll be as quick as i can

[EatSleepJDM]

And now, for the engine and gearbox

For insurance purposes, it remained as being a 998, but we have still added some tastey bits
Including, cooper 12G295 head converted to unleaded, +60 thou overbore, SW5 camshaft and HIF38 carb with K&N Filter. LCB exhaust manifold, with maniflow exhaust and alloy inlet manifold.




After getting the bulk of the engine rebuild done, my Dad completely stripped the gearbox, and rebuilt it with new bearings and baulk rings.


Then we connected the gearbox back to the engine block. We painted the engine block Nightifre Red, and the gearbox Rover Quiksilver silver, as I didnt want it just to be red like the 1275's I've had a comment saying it looks "old-skool", so im very happy with that

Anyway, I had to put the rocker cover on, I couldn't resist, just to see what the whole thing would kinda look like:

I like it

Then the day came that we had to drop the whole lot back in the mini, so using a crane from my Dad's work, we put it all back in


After about oly 10 minutes of squeezing it in the bay, we had success!
After bolting in the engine and box, connected the driveshafts and new brakes and suspension. we put some wheels on, and got it rolling on all 4 wheels properly, for the first time in years

In that picture, is my dad, Dave, who has done the majority of work on the mini. Big thank you to him. He's on here, called: dlm

So after seeing it on all 4 wheels again, and starting to look like a mini, we decided it would be a good idea to whack on the alloys to see how nice it would look. We also needed them on to see how much cutting was needed on the front arches, as they're 12x6 deep dish revo's. I thought it looked seriously cool with them on, very pleased already at this stage

Very pleased with the choice of wheels

The after loving how the mini was shaping up, i had my photo took with it


More to come soon

Edited by 88minicity, 21 November 2009 - 11:52 PM.

[EatSleepJDM]

After many many weeks of intense sanding and filling, it came to the stage that we were nearly ready for paint. We wanted it done professionally, so we looked around for a good sprayer in our area in Swindon. Our search brang us to Blakehill Body Centre, who does alot of minis, highly recommended by the way!
So the day arrived when Rob, from Blakehill came to pick up the mini on his trailer, and take it down to his unit in Cricklade. We followed him with the bootlid, bonnet and doors in our car
I'll let the pictures explain:






After much towing, we all arrived at Rob's unit in Cricklade. We then offloaded the mini from the trailer, and into the paint booth, within the workshop where the mini was to be workd on



So after dropping the mini off, we then left it in the safe hands of Rob for the next few weeks. After a few days, we went down to Blakehill Body Centre to check on the mini. I was extremely glad to see it in primer, after ebing prepped and filled more. This is the sight we were greeted with when going to check on it:






and my boot and doors, bonnet was elsewhere.

As you can tell from the photos, it had began to look alot more like a proper mini again , and i was really glad we sent the mini to be professionally sprayed

We then got a call from Rob at Blakehill, to tell us the mini was finished, and polished!
This was great news, so we proceeded to drive down to Cricklade at an alarming rate to see the freshly painted mini!

And when we opened the door and saw it, I was stunned. It looked so nice! The roof was absolutely amazing, the shiny was unreal. I was so impressed with it
The pictures aren't very good so I apologise, as it was under artificial lighting. But. here it is














I absolutely love it, and am thoroughly impressed with the result!
I get the mini back next weekend hopefully, so I shall upload some better quality photos when it comes back
Let me know what you think

Edited by 88minicity, 22 November 2009 - 12:42 AM.

[project mini chris]

This is really starting to come along really nice mate I'll be watching your progress

[Teapot]

This is a real Adventure and it's great that you're so pleased with it. Keep up the good work (and congrats to your dad too)

*EDIT* OMG I sound like my old headmaster

Edited by Teapot, 22 November 2009 - 09:39 AM.

[andysmini1]

That is looking SPANKING!!! great color scheme and much better than that blue.

Can't wait to see more piccies!

[Pitcrew6464]

great job nice to see the storyline of photos out of interest whats the cost of the sprayjob

[EatSleepJDM]

Thanks for all the replies guys

I'll get some good photos of the boot and bonnet some point today, as I have them in my bedroom with the new interior


Pitcrew6464: as of yet, i'm unsure of how much it will cost, we will find out when we get the mini back next week or next weekend ish

thanks!

[Spenner]

Looking good Jamie havent even seen it in the flesh myself yet but i will this week somtime.

Spencer

Edited by Spenner, 22 November 2009 - 11:53 AM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

Loving the pink dress mate!

[BadgerBaiter]

ooooo fantastic

Love the colour mate, keep up the great work!

[EatSleepJDM]

Loving the pink dress mate!

i knew someone would mention that I'm glad you like it mate!

Looking good Jamie havent even seen it in the flesh myself yet but i will this week somtime. thumbsup.gif

yeah hope you like it Spenner

BadgerBaiter: glad you like it mate!

[EatSleepJDM]

Just thought I'd put a couple of pics up of the bonnet and bootlid for y'all





Also in that picture, is the dashboard that will be going in the mini It's used to be a cracked walnut dashboard from an spi, but we sanded intensely, filled and primed for many days until we were happy with the smoothness of it. Then sprayed on snowberry white, and lacquered it all hopefully it shall go well against the red interior.
I'll get pictures of the interior when it's all in the mini
And I'll get pictures of the dash when it's all built up, may do it in the week sometime

Edited by 88minicity, 22 November 2009 - 09:23 PM.