Hi All,
Well I guess I better start a project thread for our 92' Mini Mayfair or 'Alan' as he's more commonly known in our house.
After recently getting a garage for him I thought now was the time to tackle a few tasks ready for its MOT next month. That quickly lead into deciding last week whether it was time to take it off the road and restore it after finding a fair bit more rust that I thought it had. We've owned it since June last year and was bought as a driving resto project.
The plan now is to strip it back close to a bare shell and fix any rust the car has. The engine will be tided up while out of the car and we may even up the power too. The wiring is shocking so i plan to rewire the whole car when we put it back together. Our aim for this car long term has always been a good solid runner we can take on road trips and holidays. My goal is to have a Mini that drives like its brand new and styling from a few different era's that suit our tastes.
I'm a complete Rank amateur mechanic and will be learning as i go so please excuse any stupid questions because i'm sure they'll be a lot! I plan to do as much myself as possible even down to the welding. I don't expect it to be a show winner when done but will be all my own hard work. This is the first car I've ever restored.
Right well enough waffle and onto some actual progress and more importantly pictures (because that's all we love to look at).
Here's a picture of him not long after buying him last year.
So today I began to strip the car ready to take the engine out in a few weeks time. As it was sunny I rolled him out into the sun while I stripped the rest of the dashboard out.
Although i'm not going to use the existing wiring loom i'm still labeling all the plugs and connections as I go so I can refer back if I get stuck. I stripped as much of the dash out as I could. i stupidly haven't taken my catch pan to the garage yet so have left the heater in. I guess that's tomorrows job.
Fun Fact! although the mini is light. Pushing it into a garage up a small ramp with a semi flat tire on my own nearly bloody killed me! Hey ho this is now where he will probably sit for the foreseeable future. I don't have power at the garage atm and due to space i think this will be the best way to store it.
The Mrs popped down with my little helper for a few hours and while we took the windscreen out she stayed as warm as possible.
After getting the windscreen out we could see what we was dealing with underneath. Looks bad but I was expecting worse if i'm honest. The Bodged filler job was to hide the worst of it so that will be stripped back to see how bad it is.
this is the condition of the window.
Next on the list was to see the condition of the floor. Overall again seems okay but yet to strip the soundproofing off the floor. found a small hole on the drivers side above the floor where the A Panel is but inside the car (don't know the name sorry).
The other side has had some patches in the past. Not sure its the tidiest but until i start welding i'll withhold judgement lol. Doesn't look that bad to me and seems solid.
While stripping the seat belts out i found this mess at the bottom of the driverside companion box. The rear wheel arch is also hiding loads of rust. I suspect things will not be great underneath lol. Theres also a patch you can see which has been done at some point.
Lastly I stripped part of the rear ready to pull the tank. Boot floor looks like its going to need replacing. the Subframe looks like it was in really good condition. Found more terrible wiring and joints in the boot. Was even one under the fuel tank.
This is how i left him today!
More to come tomorrow!
Dan