it had failed its mot on a number of things and i decided to buy it and make it into a compleatly restored track come road car.
After picking up the car it was clear to see that like most minis it was starting to rust to bits and had many holes which is why it failed its mot.
After driving it up and down the drive i decided it was time to start the work and off i went...
The engine bay was relatively tidy...
big plans were to be put into place for this area of the car...
As you can see some areas of the car had considerable amounts of rust
After looking at the V5 it was clear to see that the car had been imported in 1979 and its is classed as a mini special, a cooper look alike. The one area of the car that i found special had to be the red dials as i havent ever seen these before??
After some extensive work we compleately stripped the car and took off all of the paint getting it back to a bare shell. It was only then that i realised what condition the shell was really in..
At this point some considerable time and money had been spent around £350 worth of body pannels. a friend recomended a guy to look at the shell before i carried out the repairs and body work and he said he though £800 should sort all the spraying and filler work. however when i had finally finished all the welding, which i thought i never would, it turned out that the gy from the body shop had changed his mind and that it was going to cost well over £1000 minimum!!!!!!!!
so i had a big think about what i wanted to do and he recomended that i hav a look for a new shell and keep the one i had worked so hard on for a later date when i had the money and much more time for all the filler work.
So i decided to cut my losses and find an new shell for the car so that i could re shell the whole car....
I sourced a new shell for abut £350
The body shop chap was more than happy with it so i went ahead and bought it.
The shell had part of the ERA turbo body kit and it had also been compleately dee seemed all over.
It didnt require any nre pannels but it did require some attention and patching in the tops of the front wings as well as under the floor pan at the rear, as well as some patching in the rear valance.
Otherwise it was compleately fine! :cheese:
I went all the way fromt darlington to surrey in a day with a transit van to pick up the shell. It was slightly touch and go as to wheather the shell was going to fit in the back of the van...
however it did thank god!
As you can see the front arches sit about the indicator holes as this was the case with the ERA turbo kit.
The front bumper was missing so i decided to mix and match the kit with a zeemax front bumper.
I photoshopped the front bumper first on a picture to see if it would work with the rest of the kit and i think it does :grin:
So after some rubbing down and patching it went to the body shop and came back looking like a post box in a lovely shade of AUSTIN RED!
Then it really was empty pocket time as the mods started,
Full polly bush kits through out
The front and rear subframes were compleatley re furbished with adjustable tie bars bottom arms for the negative camber
I have just purchased hi and lows but not yet taken any pictures
they are fitted with spax 40th anniversarie dampers with compleate adjustment!
Braded hoses have also been fitted to the front and rear subframes!
along with....
twin DTM at the rear...
with the front bumper rougly mounted and the subframes all attached it was time to sent it back to the body shop to have the front bumper blended into the rest of the care and the final work carried out.
I am currently sorting the engine which is a 998 for the time being, nothing was ever wrong with it but it did need a good old tidey up and a spray in heast resistant paint.
these are some of the pics that i last took and this is pritty much were i am in the build...
i fitted a full saftey divices cage and welded plates to the sheel where it was to be bolted to for added strength....
One of the engine mods is going to be weber carbs so i welded in a weber box the encorparate them...
