Hello i am Ryan from sunny Malta :)
This will be my first project post on this forum and you can expect a very pic heavy and frequently updated thread coming up. I have just pulled the trigger on a ready restored 74' Mk3 with loads and loads of new or refurbished parts that come with it.
The car is painted in the Nissan Skyline R34 Bayside Blue. Having owned 2 minis, which i sold 6 years ago, i always thought if i had another one i would paint it some shade of metallic blue... who would have known this would turn up.
Now to the good stuff. The engine the owner gave me with the car is a freshly rebored 1380 Metro engine that has the Mg metro turbo head, some type of weber and lots of upgraded stuff which i still need the owner to write down for me. The engine has never been started after it was rebuilt with the new internals so i'm pretty scared about that, don't want it to be a Pandora's box.
It has loads of upgraded parts like new discs, reconditioned calipers, mini fins, new master cylinders, 13x7 wheels, carbon fibre mille miglia arches, reinforced front subframe to handle the new engine and many many more.
The only problem?
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It's all dismantled... Well this could actually the best thing that could have happened. This way i can do a nut and bolt restoration with all the dirty, greasy and muddy work done by the previous owner. I now have a shell that is 100% complete and i can start assembling as soon as the owner delivers the car and parts to my garage.
That doesn't mean it won't have it's challenges and swear moments. All the nuts and bolts the owner took off are all inside a tin cookie box so that is going to be a pain to find the right component(probably will have to source new nuts and bolts for everything). To do this i will have the help of my girlfriend who seems to be more excited than i am about the thing.
There are some parts that are missing from the car, like the window mechanisms, the boot since the one the owner had was a carbon fibre one and i told him to keep it to reduce a bit the price, no exhaust(including manifold), and probably a lot more stuff i'm not thinking about right now. But I made a list of what parts the owner will give me, and all the major components are there.
Now.... to some questions....
1) Is there any sort of guide on the steps to build a newly restored shell from the ground up? I already have the Haynes Restoration manual and the Haynes Service manual. But they both show specific instructions on a certain part, not the whole process.
2) Should i fork out and buy loads of soundproofing material to cover the whole inside of the car?
3) What challenges do you think i will meet along the way?
Attached Files
Edited by ryan13mt, 18 June 2016 - 04:27 PM.