4 replies to this topic

[Laurie]

My first real mini Benny, officially Benjamin, but my mate Benny.
He's a original right down to his Dynamo! 1971 mini 1000, he's going to be keeping some features but some others are going headfirst in the bin / for sale / swap section
Bought for £4000, yes you read that right £4000 from a mate, it was love at first sight!
After checking everything was in order as it should be, and checking on here! It continued
I'm waiting til nearly Christmas, my birthday money to be precise, to get his engine changed to unleaded, his ignition changed for electronic and all 4 tyres changed to those I trust the date of lol
In the meantime I'm steadily working on bits I can do, and visiting him regularly in the workshop, though space has now been made in the garage it's up a 45 driveway first

First 'change' was a dead easy light unit, bought rubbed back painted and all (well ok - both lol) lamp holders fitted

Ready for the next / current project on my list: Bennys bonnet, now his current bonnet is rotten through with rust and I'm very certain if you put enough weight on it you'd go through!
So 'new' bonnet was purchased, complete with surface rust and actual rust in one area. My husband insists that I was ripped off lol
So I broke out the sander, wire brush and dremel to 'fix' the rust and surface back to raw metal. Success! So then treated the raw metal and fillered with fibreglass to restrain the level - only a few mm, and it's not a strength area anyway after rubbing down and fillering any minor bumps and scratches (and removing resin I'd managed to drip just about everywhere!) it was time for the first coat of etch primer. Given the size of the bonnet I decided spray paint was not the way to go on this, so researched old methods of applying paint pre air gun.
Filler primer and more etch followed (probably didn't need the second coat but I felt the colour of the filler primer might effect the topcoat being white every coat sanded in between.

In the meantime I took my finished lamp holder to my local car paint mixers who already had the code for glacier white and mixed the paint to precisely the colour of the lamp holder for less than £20 for a litre of old fashioned 'tractor enamel'

Back to today, the very first coat of topcoat was painted on the rear of the bonnet (in case it went belly up), and it looks amazing! It's going to be sanded back and another coat painted on but it's a shame it's barely going to be seen after the soundproofing is stuck on in a couple months (to let the paint cure properly)

I'm not sure what I can do next, I can probably see me pulling one of Bennys doors off and tackling that, as one has a long dent from being opened against the wind. My mechanic mate assures me in just another door skin that's needed then I can plough away. Either that or I'll source / swap his interior it's currently RSP or anniversary interior apparently pretty rare(?) but I hate it lol

You see in 2004 (I found the receipt) Benny was repainted the wrong shade of white, he's currently old English white with a flag on his roof. Be a shame to lose the flag but I can easily get another one put in it's place as I've got the receipt for that as well

I'm planning on Benny doing the L2B run next year, his third my second but I really don't know if he'll be ready or not? He's not going two tone lol

Still, here's Benny:  IMG_0140.JPG   53.26K   4 downloads
 IMG_0142.PNG   113.54K   5 downloads

Oh and googled a photo of the colour he's supposed to be
 IMG_0173.PNG   399.34K   2 downloads

Edited by Laurie, 21 August 2017 - 12:35 PM.

[Ben_O]

Lovely looking Mini.

 

Good luck with all of your improvements!

 

Ben

[blueovalcraig]

Lovely wee mini. First mini I ever remember being in was an old English white 'A' registration mini city which belonged to my gran.

[Laurie]

Lovely looking Mini.
 
Good luck with all of your improvements!
 
Ben

Many thanks for the luck, I'm going to need it, it's my first ever car project involving the old oily stuff lol, well ok technically my second, but I don't count that fiesta as it was 'just a car' to me iykwim, but I did learn a lot from it

Got my Haynes bible for the car and anything I don't properly understand will be either asked on here or asked of my mechanic mates (or both), and if it's 'hard' / 5 spanners I'll get it professionally done lol

[Laurie]

Lovely wee mini. First mini I ever remember being in was an old English white 'A' registration mini city which belonged to my gran.

Thank you x
It's lovely isn't it when a mini gives you fond memories back, I felt this going through all the old Minis at Crystal Palace and Brighton. My brother is determined to come next year too if only to see if his 4 old girls still exist!