33 replies to this topic

[Sir Cheat]

For 3k whats this guy going to do for you? Most of the stuff on your list is not that bad. Got any pics of the bad parts of your Mini?

[MiniBonkerz]

Bought my cooper for £3500 and its mint apart from a few nigly bits i have since spent £1000 on bits and bobs but when you get the comments from strangers is worth it my mini will be in the family for a very long time now and my eldest daughter is set on having it has her daily drive she's only 6 bless her

either way you have to have a mini in your life

[warhonowicz]

always worth keeping it ... and if you can't do the work yourself ask around this and other forums (maybe a club local to you) and I'm sure you'll find people willing to help you with work

as for the money side of things ... simply don't keep track of the money you spend and it'll be fine (5 years of Mini ownership, 3 Minis and around 10k later I have now stopped keeping track of it)

[widerim_pickup]

You could pay £3k for a car that looks nice and have more trouble than this one anyway, at least you know at the end of it everything is good.

...the guy who sed he wld do the restore on it sed he would get a completly different shell for it as the one i have is so awful with doggy welding down to it etc

As ethel said, you will get into trouble if you get found out, unless its a new one which iirc is about £3.5k

N/S Top and bottom swivels worn
O/S top and bottom sxivels worn
O/S rear radius arm worn
F/S/frame broken
top tie bar bushes worn
O/S + N/S front sub frame mounts
front panel corroded O/S
Boot floor corrosion
suspension tie bar brushes worn
corrosion lower R/valance
handbreake travel excess
exhust system rattle

As most people have said these are not major problems and most are easy cheap fixes.

I would suggest you get a photobucket and get loads of pictures of the bodywork up so i can have a look. Can probably do you a price less than £3k and keep your shell, so no possible trouble with the law in future.

[AndrewJ530]

Being a girl is no excuse for not picking up a spanner either - everybody who knows anything about anything started out knowing nothing.

Exactly what ethel said. Being a girl shouldn't stop you picking up a spanner and getting stuck in. If anything it should be easier for you because girls have smaller hands and arms than blokes so you can get into all the nooks and crannies we can't .

[spiguy]

Looking for some advice people.......it seems im having never ending bad luck when it comes to my mini what with getting completly ripped off when i bouight it.........first off my water pump went so i got that fixed when i had it in the garage i asked them to do a fuull look over of the mini they then got back to me with a huge list stating that it needed the following doing to it:
N/S Top and bottom swivels worn
O/S top and bottom sxivels worn
O/S rear radius arm worn
F/S/frame broken
top tie bar bushes worn
O/S + N/S front sub frame mounts
front panel corroded O/S
Boot floor corrosion
suspension tie bar brushes worn
corrosion lower R/valance
handbreake travel excess
exhust system rattle
so i took one look at the least and thought hmmm expensive but worth it and was going to gradually get it done.....then a week ago drivinng home when all of a sudden the mini was reving really high nd felt like it wldnt move anywhere so i pulled over and discovered that even though i was acelerating the mini was moving no where so got towed home on the way my breaks went.....got someone to look at it tonight they said it was the stering colum that was asolutly wasted away..... and basically sed that i can spend countless amounts of money on my mini and it will never look nice!! very gutting to hear as you can imagine!! he gave me a very good offer to do a restore on it which i wld pay him monthly and looking at about spending over 3000 at the end of it maybe more...so now i have the choice as to what to do????? im really not sure i love my mini but is it worth it??

Most of your list is not too terrible. Thing is, 'corrosion' is a pretty vague description. With minis there is (almost) always going to be corrosion in these places. The question is, is it serious enough that it would fail the MOT.

My feeling would be that both the garage and this guy want to get work / money out of you, so of course they will tell you all this.

Swivels (ie ball joints) are easy enough to do - do them yourself, should be about a tenner a side in parts. tie bar bushes you can do yourself, if they really need done. The garage likely looked at them and the bit they can see looks a mess, so concluded that they are wrecked. Handbrake you can do yourself, exhaust rattle ?!? - you can find an rectify that yourself. Radius arm could cause you a problem, I've only ever done em when replacing the subframe, and it is very hard to get the the bracket bolts etc out as everything gets rusted on there. So it might be hard to do the radius arm without taking on alot more of the back end.

The front subby broken one is interesting, wonder where that is?

So I think the corrosion issue needs more clarification - pictures up here will get you loads of opinions and you might find its not that bad - lots of the other stuff you can do yourself for very little, and gain plenty experience.

Do you need the car as a daily driver?

[1293sleeper]

to argue the other point i have spent nearly £7k on my mini in the last few years and now want to sell it but will never see my money or any where near it. its only worth doing if you think your going to keep the car for a long time

[jaydee]

If you're approaching repairs yourself, ask for help to do swivels and subframe bushes, are jobs that you cant do alone and need a bit of experience, but arent hard jobs as replacing cones can be.

[Billy Rubin]

The way I look at it, the running repair costs on Billy are far less than the deprication on my other half's Clio....and that includes panel replacement, repsrays, full front brake replacement etc!

[1293sleeper]

The way I look at it, the running repair costs on Billy are far less than the deprication on my other half's Clio....and that includes panel replacement, repsrays, full front brake replacement etc!

i like that way of looking at it

[dave21478]

Get a second, then a third opinion from knowledgeable people before spending a single pound on it.

IMO this chap is to be avoided at all costs.....

.... mini was reving really high nd felt like it wldnt move anywhere so i pulled over and discovered that even though i was acelerating the mini was moving no where so got towed home on the way my breaks went.....got someone to look at it tonight they said it was the stering colum that was asolutly wasted away..... and basically sed that i can spend countless amounts of money on my mini and it will never look nice!! very gutting to hear as you can imagine!! he gave me a very good offer to do a restore on it which i wld pay him monthly and looking at about spending over 3000 at the end of it maybe more...so now i have the choice as to what to do????? im really not sure i love my mini but is it worth it??

Im not sure exactly what you mean but high revs and no movement is due to either clutch or gearbox problems. What happened with the brakes? either way neither fault is anything to do with the steering column at all.
This mechanical genius then says you could pour a fortune into it and it will never look nice, yet if you pay him 3k he could sort it out? sounds dodgy to say the least, and as mentioned by others, rebuilding the car into a used bodyshell is very shaky legal grounds. there is NO WAY that it can be done and keep your existing rgistration and identity, the only possible workaround is to keep the identity of the relacement shell and rebuild it with parts from your car, but this is a real tight-rope to walk and taking more than a certain amount of components frm your car to rebuild the other will also be illegal.

find someone local, knowleadgeable and trustworthy and see what they say. A mini club, or someone from this forum if they are lcal would be a good place to start looking. The mechanical list you put up is easy, routine repairs on a mini and should present no difficulties to someone who knows what thy are doing. Frankly, a garage should not spend more than a full day doing those jobs. As for the rusproblems, thats another matter and depends entirely on how rusty it is and what welding may need done.

Edited by dave21478, 02 July 2009 - 03:26 PM.

[MiniMe01]

hi guys thanks for all ur replies iv decided toi stick with it and get the work done...im gonna go with what most of u are saying and get a second and third opinon......as for the shell the man did say that is was illegal but more thank likely wouldnt get caught but i am quite put off that idea!!
Regarding the comment abouit more pictures as soon as i can i will take some for you
Thanks again for all your help really appreciated

[Teapot]

I bought Huey in 2002 for £4,000 and the last big bill in 2008 was for £3,998, so I figure the costs are going down and in 1,999 years he won't cost me anything
You've had a nasty shock but if you are truly committed to your beloved mini you WILL keep it and it WILL be your pride and joy. It's like a naughty puppy -- a load of trouble but you love it to bits and you are fiercely protective.



Actually Huey is more of an elderly hamster on amphetamines.

[redhotmini]

it doesnt sound too bd - most of the things are quite simple things to fix. if you need a hand fixing things just shout.

[MiniMe01]

ok so heres the pictures......



MASSIVE HOLE INSIDE BOOT NEAR RIGHT INDICATOR!!



Not a very clear picture but rust underneath near left indicator i think it was lol



more rust bit further up from other bit i think lol this is alot worse as when i proded it i could have quite easily put my finger through it



rust lower door driver side



other door more rust



rust left indicator



the person i bought it off lovely filler work to hide the rust total bodge job



more rust going along the inside of boot near spare wheel that breaks away when touched