Bodges Found On Your Mini

Plaster of Paris poured into the battery box, without removing the battery, to fill rust holes, then undersealed from below. The battery was a nightmare to remove.

A mate of mine owned a 1275Gt in the mid-eighties which failed its MOT on worn swivel joints. He was at a loss as to why they were done up so tight that he couldn’t undo them until he asked the garage to take the job on who then told him the ball-joint nuts had been WELDED ON!

This mini still had a valid mot in 07...  Pervious owner had the rear subframe and panel work replaced by mini specialist in 05... But why use and weld on a whole non-genuine rear valance panel when you can just use the end sections and slap it all with filler, and don't bother with the closing panels/boot floor. 

 

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And this is the local garages £50 per hours worth of 'professional' mot standard welding repairs with all the tiger seal removed I had done. 

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It is surprising how rusty a car can be and still get a perfectly legitimate MOT,something along the lines of does it deflect under thumb pressure?If no then pass and advise,if yes then light probing with the official corrosion assessment tool,no hole? Pass and advise.
With all retrospective finds we were not privvy to the instructions the repairer had.Devils advocate,Steve..

When I first got mine I had fun discovering that everything was finger tight...
Flywheel bolt, hub nuts, shocks, calipers, ball joints

Weirdly the previous owner had put in the split pins or folded over the lock tabs.. but every nut and bolt was finger tight.

I bought my Mayfair back in 1999 - the P.O. wanted to keep the stereo and speakers from the back shelf - not a problem as I had my own and a good friend worked at a stereo shop anyway; however when we looked at the parcel shelf we both burst out laughing. Rather than cut a hole properly, using a jigsaw or nibbler, it looked like it had been attacked using either an axe or a hammer and brick bolster. We ended up cutting it properly using a nibbler attachment for a drill. 

 

My 1275GT had been lowered using cut down trumpets rather than Hi-los or Adjusta-rides which caused the tyres to rub, and it had an electric fuel pump in the boot, which was mounted at just the right place to prevent the spare wheel from fitting into its proper place. Crazy!

 

My favourite wasn't exactly a bodge - more of a creative fix which gave the car an identity. My first car's P.O. worked at an exhaust centre, and the 1977 Mini 1000 he owned had started blowing from the back box. They didn't have a Mini system in stock at the time, so he looked around the stores for something that might fit. Step forward a front pipe from a flat-four Subaru. This was reversed and added at the mount on the rear subframe once the old blowing box had been cut off. So the car had twin upswept pipes about 12" apart which probably did nothing for performance but gave a nice burble. Loved it.

 

 

I bought my Mayfair back in 1999 - the P.O. wanted to keep the stereo and speakers from the back shelf - not a problem as I had my own and a good friend worked at a stereo shop anyway; however when we looked at the parcel shelf we both burst out laughing. Rather than cut a hole properly, using a jigsaw or nibbler, it looked like it had been attacked using either an axe or a hammer and brick bolster. We ended up cutting it properly using a nibbler attachment for a drill. 

 

My 1275GT had been lowered using cut down trumpets rather than Hi-los or Adjusta-rides which caused the tyres to rub, and it had an electric fuel pump in the boot, which was mounted at just the right place to prevent the spare wheel from fitting into its proper place. Crazy!

 

My favourite wasn't exactly a bodge - more of a creative fix which gave the car an identity. My first car's P.O. worked at an exhaust centre, and the 1977 Mini 1000 he owned had started blowing from the back box. They didn't have a Mini system in stock at the time, so he looked around the stores for something that might fit. Step forward a front pipe from a flat-four Subaru. This was reversed and added at the mount on the rear subframe once the old blowing box had been cut off. So the car had twin upswept pipes about 12" apart which probably did nothing for performance but gave a nice burble. Loved it.

 

 

 

In the 60's, to stop the back box being ripped off on Rallies I used a centre box off an MGB which was the right length but a lot shallower. The chrome tailpipe was off a Lancia Fulvia (worked in a Lancia Dealership at the time.) I found the MGB box by walking around a local branch of Autela with a tape measure.

Here are two I found on mine;  

 

         

 

Perhaps I'm missing the joke, but that looks spot on for a Racing Green (faded numberplate light paintwork included!)

 

Here are two I found on mine;  

 

         

 

Perhaps I'm missing the joke, but that looks spot on for a Racing Green (faded numberplate light paintwork included!)

 

Here are two I found on mine;  

 

         

 

 

Come on Richard_  - Fill us in - I'm not getting it either

Oh right - the thread's called bodges found...

Sorry.

Edited by Richard_, 04 May 2022 - 09:01 AM.

When I first got my green mini at auction back a few years ago the front wheelbearings had been done up finger tight and then splitpinned, as if they didn't have the spacer between the inner tapers.  No wonder the MOT advisory was " slight play in the front wheelbearings"

Gotcha, I was missing the joke! 

 

Nice original stuff on your Racing Green by the way, looking good

 

Oh right - the thread's called bodges found...

Sorry.

Gotcha, I was missing the joke! :shy
Nice original stuff on your Racing Green by the way, looking good

Oh right - the thread's called bodges found...

Sorry.

I'll get me coat! 🤣

Edited by Richard_, 04 May 2022 - 07:04 PM.

Oh dear, this starting to bring back memories of what I did to a few cars back in the '80s.
Bake been tin, jubilee clips and some exhaust past was a regular task to get the exhaust through an MOT.
I also got through quite a bit of filler

I found your car...........