Pete
Shocked at the reply you have put on here. After everything we have gone through and had to do to your mini to get it back on the road. At the time you booked your car in you were to have a front end replacement a respray and an interior retrim. You chose your trim and left the car with us back in May last year.
Once we had got started on the mini we found that the car at some point in its past had been involved in an accident and had been previously repaired all be it very badly. The car wasn’t safe to be on the road. We then had to start removing not just wings, scuttle, A panels and Front Valance. but all the inner wings, floor pans, sills (inner and outer), rear valance, repair the boot floor, door skins, boot lip, door posts and rear quarter panels. Here are a few pictures of what we found.
The Start
Starting to remove the panels
Wings off but car twisted and pushed over to the drivers side
Once we had got to this stage we found that the inner wings on the car had been cut and repositioned and spot welded back together. The wings were split around the shock absorber mounting points and were only tacked to the firewall. Both inner wings had to be fully removed and replaced with genuine heritage panels. The Heritage panels took nearly 2 months to arrive.
This is what was left of the wings and what they should have looked like.
We then had to completely remove the floor pan footwells as the originals were CARDBOARD and SILICONE SEALANT.
This is the passenger footwell cardboard repair
The drivers side
CARDBOARD!!
Once removed:
Now fitted:
We then fitted your wings and A panels and sills and doorsteps and door posts ready for your arches to go on and be blended to the body work.
Not forgetting that the sills and doorsteps were previously stuffed with paper to pack them out.
After everything had been cut off, repaired, replaced, straightened, corrected, welded properly, re-skinned, blended and primed. It was painted in canary yellow.
It was at this point you came to see the car and were over the moon with what we had done. You then changed the interior design and chose a style of graphics for the body work and interior trim to match this. OK I admit at this point things went a little of track but my Father going into hospital with Cancer was a big thing for me to deal with. Then after Christmas you changed your mind on the graphics on the car which we had started to fit and decided to change the interior trim for the 3rd time. We continued with the engine rebuild and all of the wiring, lighting, exhausts, breaks and running gear etc
Once all of that was fitted and working the car went for an MOT and unfortunately it failed. The rear subframe wasn’t good enough for the test centre and the original CATALYTIC Convertor from your car was not working and required replacing. This is something that was not in our control. None of the parts we had replaced or fitted failed on the test.
At present your car is completed and requires just the subframe going on (which is on order from Northwest Minis) and then the wheels fitting. There is one small mark in the paintwork on the scuttle were we fitted the front screen which will be airbrushed in before your collection. The car looks great and you will be more than happy with it when you collect it.
Your the 35th Mini we have rebuilt but the first to be unsatisfied with the work. The length of time for your job I feel is typical considering the amount of work that’s gone into the job and the man hours to get it completed. Iam sorry if you feel its taken to long but we are not going to rush a job just to get it finished, our work is always carried out to the highest of standards hopefully you can see from the pictures just how far we have gone.
Thanks
Ashley James Autotrim.
