55 replies to this topic

[exuptoy]

That’s a credit to you Dave. People see a ‘little’ mini around and don’t realise the work that has gone into making it look factory fresh. They just think it’s a clean original car.
Thanks for posting this.

Edited by exuptoy, 31 August 2020 - 08:19 AM.

[slidehammer]

The interior came up a treat. The finished car looks really good. Well done

[leepol83]

Brilliant mate looks beautiful!!! Top work, what colour is the actual car ? Also the measurements for the decals very helpful Did you take any of where the cooper laurels go in the rear quarters ?

Thank you! It's Anthracite. Don't see many of them around. It's a very dark blue. In bright sun you can really see the blue but when it clouds over and at night it almost looks black. I really like it.

Here's a pics of the laurel measurement. I can seem to find the vertical shot I took

Brilliant thank you, it’s a lovely colour ?

[Jase]

That's a cracking project and another Mini on the road. Well done!

[Sam76]

Cracking job at an amazing pace!! These Mpi’s will be the rarest cars in the end, the way they rusted!
A credit to you mate!

[Curley]

Impressive work mate! Well done. 

[rich_959]

Really impressive the amount of work in such a short space of time. It might be 'refresh' rather than a restore but I'd say you've done a job to be proud of. What a great rescue!

[sonscar]

good work.I think that there would be a case for more "refreshes" than restores and more time spent on the road than in the garage(those who desire to restore have my utmost admiration)I have spent years in the past restoring.Have great fun with it.Steve..

[johnR]

 

Day 10

 

With the car completed and now home it was now time to turn my attention to the interior. I actually did this over a couple of afternoons, but I could have easily done this in one day if the missus didn’t need help with the little one. 

 

The previous owner had removed the carpet and lost it, so I had to source a replacement. 

 

I couldn't find a one-piece carpets new and the only used one for sale in the entire country at the time was a red carpet on ebay. I didn’t want to attempt to fit one of the multi-piece aftermarket kits, so I snapped this up cheap and decided to give it a thorough hoovering and dye it black.

 

It actually came out really well and I am very happy with the result! I used a vinyl spray paint and it absorbed into the fibres well. It retains the original texture and looks as good as new. I also fitted new seat support plates before fitting it into the car.

 

 

 

With the carpet drying out in the sun I turned my attention to the seats. As you can see the rears were really mouldy and the fronts were quite stained. 

 

 

 

It was really easy to strip the seats back and remove the covers. I then soaked them in white vinegar for an hour to kill off and release the mould, smothered them in stain remover then put in the washing machine with a couple of wash tabs. I set it to 30 degrees with a pre wash of white vinegar and extra rinse with no spin drying as it didn't want them to rip themselves apart.

 

They came out so much better than I thought they would. Reassembling them was very straightforward but before doing that I also replaced the front drivers seat base foam as it had collapsed.

 

 

 

 

The door card were easy to clean up with some multi-surface cleaner. I also treated them to some autoglym vinyl protect that I had laying around. They came out looking like new.

 

 

 

 

 

Next task was to build up the new dashboard. I would have ideally restored the original dash and door cappings, but I have kept hold if it and that’s something I may do in the future.

 

Swapping all the gauges and switches over was very easy. I also cleaned up all the contacts on the back of the gauges as they furred up from the moisture in the car. Before this nothing worked apart from the speedo nor did any of the illuminations, so it was the first thing to try.

 

I didn’t get any photos of the new dash fully built, but I’ll post some pics later of it in installed into the car.

 

 

 

 

 

Last job on the list was to build a stealth parcel shelf. It bugged me that the speakers were on show and they really stood out. I happened to have a piece of mdf offcut in the loft that was an almost perfect size! 

 

I used the original bit of carpet from the shelf and in 10 minutes with the jigsaw and router it was done. £4 worth of acoustic cloth from ebay and it was also covered. 

 

It dropped straight in and looks fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

That dark brown dash isn't going to fit - it's too small! :)

[Quinlan minor]

Where did you get the new dash? I'm going to have to do mine at some point.

[nitrodave]

Thanks for all the kind comments. Not much to report on other than the car is going great and i'm really enjoying using it. 

 

I got the dashboard and door cappings from these guys. I offered £150 for the dashboard and they accepted it.

 

https://www.ebay.co....n0AAOSwweZevUn6