13 replies to this topic

[jimini]

help me.
my lovel origianl mini van is a bit of a scalp problem ... the roof gutters are very rust ...rotten through in places ... the roof has been filled in all the corners in the past...can i get a new roof panel... this poor car has never been pampered and has never been off the road in all its life.. and spends most winters outside... what can i do

jimini

[miniman5]

Hello! im not sure about mots or any rules or laws but if your feeling meen get a rot box of ebay with a good roof, strip it and sell all the bits so your in the money then chop the roof of it and weld it up!

[Dan]

If it's a smooth roof I don't think you can get the panel from anywhere.

If it's a ribbed roof it should be available from M-Machine.

Genuine BMH roof panels are not available for vans/estates as they reckon the tool is too worn to use and it will cost about £100,000 to overhaul it, which they can't justify spending for the limited market in long wheelbase roof panels.

[Jammy]

How did the tool get worn so much, I can't believe it got used more than the others being a van tool! Or is it a case of it got a bit neglected?!

[jimini]

ahh dont know if i could butcher another mini van .. i

i cant see the panel on the mmachine website i will have to dig a bit deeper
thanks all

[MiniMoi]

And I just found the perfect donor car for you. It is a bare Clubman Estate, as far as I know they have the same roof as the Mini van's. But correct me if I am wrong. It looks like it has a solid roof.

Click here for eBay link

MiniMoi

[jimini]

looks good o think thats definatly the route to go...are the gutters part of the roof or ...both the side and the roof and spot weld

thansk jimini

[Dan]

The gutters are part of the roof pressing, and roof panels are horrible to change. You need to jig the car up really solid before you take the old one off (like by welding diagonal braces accross the shell from corner to corner) and you need to seam weld it properly right around because it's very structural and needs to be watertight. If you can find one then you should really use a roller welder to fit it as that's the factory way, but these are really rare and expensive tools and not many bodyshops will have one I should think.

Jammy, they made a very large number of Minivans. Most companies treated them as disposable items because they were so very cheap. The Post Office and AA went through thousands of them.

[Jammy]

But surely compared to the saloon models, van production figures were less and so the tools should be less worn?!

[Pavel]

And by the way, don't butcher a clubby estate if trying to save rare minis (e.g. vans) lol... Not many estates around!

[Dan]

I guess they just didn't maintain the tool as much since the van and estate figures were declining so fast when the price started to go up and bigger vans like Commers and Transits were getting cheaper. It can't have helped that British Leyland made the brilliant decision that the best place for all active production tooling to be stored was outside either. The tool probably sat unused in the rain for a good few years before someoone decided to put it away somewhere.

[Jammy]

How do you know sooooo much about the day to day workings of the factories and production lines, etc?! Did you used to work for BL??!!

[Guess-Works.com]

I have a vague recollection that the roof of the mini is not pressed but is sucked into shape, by a vacuum, while the metal is warm. thus there is little chance of creasing at the corners, and also the curve of the roof is maintained. This however may also be folk law !

[jimini]

i wander what a bodyshop would charge for this, its not a job i could tackle myself...

if any one has any ideas in afew years im planning on an engine swap .. update the the old been for modern driving... been thinking about a 1.4 lupo tdi.. ive driven one and there very nippy plus 60mpg sounds good the way fuel prices are going

thanks everyone