Thought i'd start this thread just for anyone who wants to see the progress of my new Mini, picked up on the 15/11/2009 for £650.
The Story!
I'm 17 on Jan 22nd, and have gone for a Mini! Originally looked, as the classic car insurance loophole would save me alot of money, but the more I looked, the more I liked! If you gave me a 106 or something now, i'd sell it and buy a very nice Mini!
So, i'm a student at sixth form, 17 in January. I'm jobless, currently, but have saved up £1200, and am saving for my insurance as we speak!
I've been watching the Mini market since the summer, and I have a good idea of prices. I hadn't been to see any before this one, but I know the prices, and there was just something about this one I found on eBay. I went to see it two days before buying it, on Friday the 13th of November, 2009. I took my aunt's partner with me, who has owned probably 20 Mini's, and even used to race them.
This particular Mini is a mid 80's City E, with a 1275cc engine dropped into it, and a custom interior. It doesn't run though, and has been sat for 18 months. It was dark in this little back garage, but we took some torches, and had a look round. The rear subframe was the worst bit, but we think it'll last until the next MOT comes, if not longer, 95% good my friend said. There is a little surface rust under thefront and rear windscreens. Plan is to nip these in the bud, removing the screens, sanding down, treating, filling, sanding down, and respraying. While i'm there, i'll change the seals too.
Apart from that, everything seemed, and still seems good, sills, floor, gutters, all the normal mini places. The engine wasn't seized, and showed no signs of it previously blow up, or overheated, but we didn't try and start it, as we didn't want the owner to know it would run with some tinkering, and maybe affect the price
I think the owner tried charging the battery, and that is about it. His dad gave him money for a new car we were told, and from then on it just sat there. Not sure about this, maybe he is just inept when it comes to cars, as fixing it would have doubled the value of this car I reckon, or we're being told porkies, but a look at the floor pan, and the boot floor confirmed that it hadn't had any bad smashes, everything was straight. Steering rack was good too.
Anyway, so we go away, telling them we're interested and we'll be watching it on ebay... At this time, with 1.5 days to go it was at £600. We walked back up the road to our car, and my phone rang. It was the guys dad, saying if I wanted it, his son would end the auction for £650... I was the first person to come and have a nose round, even though there were about 5 bidders, and 30 bids, and if I wanted it, it was mine, he said. I was shaking with excitement, but didn't want to make any rash decisions. I called him back, and said I needed to speak to my dad, and I couldn't get hold of him, and told him i'd let him know by 10am the next day if that was okay.
I went home, having a good think on the way, and did a HPI check, everything seemed okay, so I was interested, but decided it was a gamble. My experienced friend didn't want to rule my decision, and said it was down to me. I spoke to my Dad, and my Mum's partner (a former mini owner), and both of them thought they would go for it if it was them. If it turned out to be something small, like a starter motor and a new battery, it wouldn't be a problem, and I'd have lots of my budget left to but towards my insurance (~£700 declared modified tpft by the way from Footman James!) - but if it turned out to be something bigger, i'd have a good £600 to put it right, with alot of time, and help from more experienced petrol heads, and if by the end of it, I had a Mini I had imagined I'd get for £1200, i'd be happy, and i'd have learnt alot along the way. So anyway, it was my call really.
I had a good think, and phoned them early accepting their offer... I couldn't wait until 10am, as the ebay auction was at £620, and I was concerned that by the morning it may have gone over the £650 offer I was given, so I accepted their offer at 11pm last night.
So anyway, I went on the Sunday and picked him up with a trailer, he is currently sitting in my mum's partners workshop waiting for a new battery, all dirty!
I'm very happy, i've wanted to own are car since I was about 5 probably, so 12 years later, I'm there!
I just hope it's a simple fix, and only a battery, maybe a starter motor, and some tuning and tweaking to get his 1275 going! This way, I can put a good £400 towards my insurance, and i'm almost there! (Whether i'd be able to save another £700 for insurance if I spent all of my £1200 was another worry originally!)
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So the plan is to first try a new battery, put a charger on the old one, and the meter on the charger barely moved. Dead old battery. I'll replace it, then see what happens. If he goes, great! I have plenty of money left for my insurance, and can set it aside, and do stuff on the Mini as I get money. If not, we'll have to investigate deeper.
Once he's running, and I have some more money, the plan for him is:
- General good clean, polish and t-cut.
- Engine bay scrub up.
- Replace awful blue tinted lenses on the rear lights!
- General fixes! Door handle on passenger side, inside, just spins round? Choke cable pull not attached to dash. Doors could do with an adjust so they line up better, and don't look like they havn't shut properly, when they have.
- White back mirrors.
- New bumpers (chrome peeling, and a dent in the front one)
- Repair the tear in one of the front seat panels.
- Fit the top spec blue silicone HT leads I was given
- Pressed metal plates. (Back one is leaking and has dark patches)
- Small sub built to match the size of the (extra capacity upgraded) fuel tank, to go on the left side of the boot for a little bass punch.
- New boot board (current one isn't geometrically square, so is really had to get in and out!)
- New domed badge on the front bonnet badge. (Faded cooper one doesn't match the car and looks poo)
- New carpet. Deluxe deep black one. (While under the carpet I can find, rub down, treat, and paint any rust)
- Halogen lamps.
- 4 spots on the grill. (Not equidistant like they were on the late Rover Sportspack Mini's)
- Sportspack arches. (look great, and will look spot on with Sportspack wheels when funds permit. And the paint is flaking on my wide arches!)
- Wheel spacers to help fill new arches (Until I can afford a set of large offset Sportspack wheels, and the wider tyres to go with them)
- Budget tyres (current tyres are knacked. Been standing too long. Might as well go budget, as they'll only be used for a few months just to pass an MOT, and until I get new wheels when driving it early next year)
- Remove felt above hidden 6x9's in parcel shelf. See what speakers are like. May replace. May end up replacing the parcel shelf and doing properly. (They seem to just be poking through the body, and mounted underneath on a sheet of MDF. Not sure though. Need to check next time i'm in the workshop)
- New fuel cap.
- Move aerial from the back (no idea why it's there?) to the front of the roof.
- Remove the gay stickers.
- New rocker cover and T-bars.
- Nice oil cap, and rad cap.
- Install hidden kill switches.
- Handbrake handle.
- Fix up some paint chips.
- Replace gutter trim. (Split in many places)
- Dual rear fogs (even more like a Sportspack!)
- Eventually, iPod docking headunit (so I can sling the ipod in one of the compartments and have 8,000 songs, controllable from the headunit)
- Eventually, Sportspack wheels with good quality, wider tyres.
- Eventually, good quality Recaro leather interior or something (the stuff in it is better than stock, but still not too nice, and a bit old now.) - maybe with very light, and legal, window tints all round?
- Better suspension setup?
- Mini fins for the rear?
- Chrome wipers?
- Gaitors for gear stick and handbrake?
- Underseal when passed MOT and being driven daily?
- Have radiator re-cored, or replaced?
- Electronic ignition?
Anyway, for now i've only got pictures from the auction, when it was clean!
Won't be bad for £650 if it only costs a little to get him running again, considering (we think) he is quite rust free, and is a 1275!
A bit extra will make him look great, like a Sportspack, understated, to most peoples taste, and not too racy. Just what Tahiti Blue ordered! Even more money, and a little time, to get him mechanically spot on, he'll be great inside, handle better, and I might make some money on him
Oh, and his name will be Lucky, if we don't find any big problems trying to make him start, or any serious rust, as I will have scored a bargain, after originally going to see him on an unlucky day... Friday the 13th!
I'll update with some pictures when I go down to the workshop, and as I go along, fitting the bits I want. Not too mcuh of a project (WE THINK!) but, still, would be nice to document it all.
Enjoy,
Matt.
