So I thought id post an update of whats been going on with the mini the past few months. Ive had the mini 15 years now and over the years its been through several looks and a couple of restorations.
This year i decided it was time to go down the 10 inch wheel look and fix a few paintwork issues.
Heres what the car looks liked before (12" wheels and sportspack arches)
Obviously removing the sportspack arches meant welding up the old holes are they sit higher than most other arches which meant most the car would end up getting repainted.
There were also a few paintwork issues on the frontend that needed sorting out as well as a small amount of rust on the bumper lip so that was replaced, oh and a door skin required to fix a small amount of rot in the front corner (basically the door that didn't get reskinned last time)
Started stripping things off, couldn't go too mad as I had to drive it to my dads unit.
Paint blister on the rear quarter
The front panel mess. More on that later.
The mess under the giant blister on the front panel. It looks like when fitting the grille I managed to crack the paint, a few years later water has got in a few places and 2 layers of primer had separated. Luckily the rust was just surface rust.
Old bumper lip removed, sand blasted underneath and new lip fitted.
Old dead door skin
Rest of the front panel cleaned up
Arch holes welded up (new arch holes in pic), side repeaters removed, all primered up.
Same story at the back (arches were tubbed several years ago).
About to get painted.
Painted and home
Reassembly. I had a tight deadline for the 2017 Dales Run (https://www.facebook...53250431387178/). Ive not missed it in 9 years so wanted to get it back together by then. Hence the lack of pictures.
Ready... Just. MOT'ed the morning before the run.
Unfortunately I don't have any pics of just how much work the arches took. They started out life like this:
And had the outer lips removed, but the fit wasn't great so had lots of modification on the inside edge, which left the screw recesses paper thin so they had to be reinforced with more fibreglass. Probably 1-2 weeks work all in all.
The arches were inspired by Seans mini here: https://www.facebook.com/mudwerx/
So whats next? The interior needs some work over winter as that never went back together properly. Ive got some new seats to put in (Recovered Honda CRX seats) and i'm toying with the idea of doing a centre clock conversion if i can get the funds together to get one of the new electronic centre speedos. Oh and i'm tempted to take the engine out to give it a repaint.
I'll post some more pictures of the car/spec when i get some time :).
Edited by DannyTip, 19 October 2017 - 04:09 PM.
