5 replies to this topic

[Saoirse]

Right here's my mini. I've got some pictures for you to look at and give advice.

Recently (following slight bad weather) I noticed the floor was wet right next to the door, so i lifted up the carpet of the mini and found this:





Now it passed it's MOT in February, so I'm not sure what the deal is. Anyone care to elaborate?


Here is the paintjob, clearly you can see it's badly finished.





Also here are my unfinished sills









And here is the rust under might lights and the rust bubble next to aerial.






What should I do? (im a noob)

Thanks very much for your help

[taffy1967]

Well the top photo looks like it's been patched for the MOT? So perhaps water is entering the car from there, or maybe the door seals need replacing. Another favourite water leak hot spot is the front windscreen seal and water will happily fill up your foot wells from there.

As for the rust, well any good Mini friendly body repair specialist can sort that out for you. But it's really up to you and how much money you want to spend on either repairing the affected panels or replacing them altogether.

The rust on the front wings is common around the headlamps and on the top of the wings due to damp muck getting stuck between the inside of the front wing and the air vent trunking causing the problems.

[MRA]

you may also like to take a very careful look at the air vents.... if you have them it looks like a 90's onwards to me what year is it ? oh yes the air vents.... look from inside the wheel arch, and have a gentle prod around just use your finger to see if there is any give... not trying to poke holes as this will just make it worse

Regards Martin

[Saoirse]

Oh yeh, sorry, you're right though - it is a 1991 Rover.

I believe it was just patched for the MOT (bought it straight after it's mot), therefore could it be a shoddy job and maybe need doing again in a few months??
Is going to the body specialist is best way? I'm tight on cash but obviously want a good job done, I have a pal who also has a mini and would probably help me to sort it myself if it is possible for an ameauter to do a good job (not sure of colour though).

I'll check under the arches later.


For the sills - do you think I should have them sanded down and the put the sills on, or just put the sills on as it is (after painting).

Anyone with advice on the current painjob? (You can see in the picture with the door handle it's badly finished)

[vespafreak]

The floor in mine looks exacly the same, the idiot who i bought it off had bodged it.

I cant imagine that would be too difficult or costly to sort out properly tho, just a little welding.

[yorkshirechris]

I'd definately check out the water leak as your first priority because if water is getting in it will only sit there and rot away at your floorpan.

After that, as Taffy said it's entirely upto you how much you spend and what you want to get done. If the rust is coming through like that, chances are there'll be a whole lot more rust in your sills, front end etc and if you start poking around you'll find even more work for yourself... if you're a perfectionist you would go hunting every last bit of rust but if you're mainly concerned about the cosmetic look of the car then get the bubbles rubbed down & sprayed over. In my eyes its pointless getting a full respray because if you're going to that effort you may as well strip the whole car down and like I say, you'll end up finding more work for yourself