53 replies to this topic

[cityspeed]

Hi Everyone here is my Restoration of my 1993 Spi Cooper
The mini gets its name from one of its previous owners called Donald.
However the former keeper is a good frend of mine called Matt, he owned for the next 7 years and over that time experienced the joys of owning a classic mini for his first car.
Donald proved to be quite a naughty mini becoming very intermittent.
Matt at the time was working in a local garage with the help of the mechanic managed to get Donald moving again.

The standard Spi look was soon binned for some wide arches 12x6 mini lights and Gaz adjustable dampers + hi lo's ,K&N air filter a tidy sound system and lots of chrome!
After using it for a daily for college the gearbox went! so Matt saved hard and treated Donald to a MED fully rebuilt gearbox with hardened gears x pin diff + center oil pick up pipe + AP racing clutch! I remember Him picking me up after fitting it; the gears were so tight he could barely shift gear, after a few miles though it soon proved to be very nippy before it came off the road for a few years why? Well....
Imagine driving along with the music up loud (sub + amp) lights on/ heater pretty much everything electrical and the passenger accidentally smashes his knee into the head unit causing it to disengage nothing strange? Well what happened next was odd, all the lights went out and the power to the car stopped! This was the start to Donalds electrical nightmare.
Donald would work perfectly sometimes for days the suddenly either out driving or parked up would fail to start / cut out.This fault was eventually traced to a ECU power wire which was melted internally causing a intermittent connection.
Donald spent some harsh winters outside not running, and it wasn't until 2 years ago that he regained some of his health.

Matt had just managed to get a MOT on it and had it up for sale but it was advertised everywhere and just would not sell the parts total up to thousands but the shell was looking worse for wear

I previously had 2 mini's but never got round to getting in road worthy condition, a 850 and 998 city hence my username : cityspeed
Both featured on this forum circa 2007, I actually gave the city shell away after realising how bad it was

I felt like I failed at owning a mini, but got distracted quickly by passing a test and having a reliable fiesta , then got into VW's which just work so a few years went by until I was ready for another mini!!!!
With Donald now mine (2011) I decided to wrap him up for the winter with a nice snug cover and not think about him until I had some funds, Eventually I got round to buying him some bits.

Here is the history of Donald:
13 years ago(when Matt brought it):

6 Years Ago 2011 ( when I brought it)




until recently no work was undertaken due to me paying off the car, and recouping funds,
The Minilight's were sold
Time for some cheap wellers + 12" inch steels!


Just completed a basic welding course at my local college
Ok well now to start showing you my rusty bits!,
1 Rusty Passenger door

More than just a skin..




Got my dad to put some new bolts in my Hinges,then soaked them in a oil bath for 2 days turning them occasionly they bled rust and now they are smooth,
managed to find some nyloc/ stainless bolts tidy!


Today I managed to remove all of the sound proofing from the floors/ Cleaned passenger floorpan and painted (thin coat for now until I complete welding)
Rusty floor, as expected!




I used thinners for the little black bits left after scraping bits

Edited by cityspeed, 12 February 2017 - 09:27 PM.

[madboy]

good story ,looks like a good project too ,will be watching

[cityspeed]

Thanks Madboy!

So Today involved more cleaning of undersill from the fiddly places, then back to the Door, I K-rusted over my welding work as I have left it bare for a few days,
Collecting some waxoil tommorow, Currently watching paint dry and preparing for a full days work tomorow,

• Paint floor + rear bench
• Tidy messy previous welding work to front floorpan
• mark out brackets for my Recaro seats
• Make shims for Door, Remove rust from door frame, Fit align doorskin, mark fit drill hole for weld, then transport door to my workshop then finish it there,
• Paint hammerite to inside of doorskin! Fold/seam seal/paint frame

This is todays progress


Drawing up designs for the brackets for these (thanks Duncy H!), Going to mount them low+far back as Im preety tall

[LukeMoss]

Looks great my SPI will be coming off te road this Christmas so I'll be keeping a close eye on this thread well done!

[cityspeed]

Arghh!!! Did not have a dolly to use when I was smacking back the fold of the door skin, used the wrong hammer/ cardboard and have made a complete mess of it!
I now have aprox 20 little dents in the outside edge of the door skin!
would it be a good idea to heat it up next time? obviosuly not to much as to warp the pannel,
I am going to end up replacing this skin again now

Edited by cityspeed, 09 January 2017 - 10:50 PM.

[cityspeed]

Car is Now sitting on the drive which is much easier than 3 miles away
Cut 4 holes in my inner sill / floor to rust test the mess in there, in hopes of saving some of my floor, might make it easier when I replace innersills,
I krusted the cavity between the horrible outer sill and floor pans (6 times)

Found some horrible previous welding work to the subframe/Toe board mount!
+ realised I can't fix this properly with out subframe out way,.....
Dusted over area's of bare metal I made.
also front 2 floor pans have been dented due to incorrect jacking using slinging brackets which has just pushed floor up.

Rear fog light fell off on journey home on trailer ,on closer inspection on the bracket,.....it was so rusty it just must have been hanging by a thread!

Edited by cityspeed, 13 January 2017 - 08:03 PM.

[cityspeed]

Here's all bad bits before stripdown:

Edited by cityspeed, 09 January 2017 - 10:52 PM.

[cityspeed]

this weekend Its windows out so I can have a idea of the scale of the rust around the window seals, it's getting serious!

Edited by cityspeed, 09 January 2017 - 10:56 PM.

[cityspeed]

Preety keen to loose some weight


Went to put on the Mamba's and forgot I needed some special wheel nut's!

Edited by cityspeed, 09 January 2017 - 11:04 PM.

[cityspeed]

Contemplating Brooklands green instead of British racing green

Edited by cityspeed, 04 December 2015 - 08:37 PM.

[cityspeed]

Well people its been 5 months since my last post............ Progress continues but big changes have taken place!
So whats been keeping me busy:

• Moved out from my Parents place
• studying Automotive Electronics is taking up most of my spare time
• Setting up new workshop/ transporting Donald to his new home!

Donald is in the DRY!!!!


This was the last time I drove the car, before the SPI came out for good
Also felt it would be a good idea to get some nice shots just before I start hacking into him:

Edited by cityspeed, 10 January 2017 - 08:51 AM.

[cityspeed]

hmmm crusty........

On it goes!

Edited by cityspeed, 04 December 2015 - 08:27 PM.

[cityspeed]

I hate dirty engines, so out came the de-greaser:


Lots of cups of Tea + Elbow grease =

Edited by cityspeed, 04 December 2015 - 08:31 PM.

[cityspeed]

Been fiddling with brace bars not a massive fan of how they fit so might make up my own

Edited by cityspeed, 04 December 2015 - 08:25 PM.

[cityspeed]

Hello back,
It's been nearly 4 years since my last post on this project!
I've been lurking in the shadows of this forum unable to update you as I haven't done a thing!

Excuses follow: I've moved 3 times in 4 years & I'm also a bicycle mechanic so have a habbit of spending to much time in the shed fixing bikes for friends and countless bicycle restorations on the go!

When I first started I was naive thinking I could just patch up the rust, but the more dug the more rot I found, so I decided to take a step back from it and not rush into it.

This week feels like the actual beginning of the build !
I've just spent the last couple of weeks collecting some second hand parts from some of you fellow members!
This friday I'm transporting Donald to a place I can finally start working on him ( a cosy double garage with a pit!) No more barns! And dare I say it fields....

Edited by cityspeed, 24 January 2017 - 10:46 PM.