18 replies to this topic

[mk1coopers]

Back when I was working for Rover we had Minis coming back within the first year for replacement bumpers and other chrome trims, Rover eventually went to stainless steel to stop the warranty claims, the later cars do seem to suffer more from rust, especially around the windscreen / scuttle, some of this was down to poor paint coverage, some of it was down to the larger windscreen seal trapping water.

Edited by mk1coopers, 14 December 2011 - 08:49 PM.

[mab01uk]

The later rusting chrome on Mini's is because many of the older and more dangerous toxic chemicals used for earlier higher quality chrome in the 1960's and 70's were no longer allowed to be used in industry. Modern cars used stainless or chrome on plastic instead.

Some of the changes were for safety as said.
eg. The Mk1 & 2 mortise door latches allowed the doors to open during an accident impact when the body distorted. The later Mk3 onwards doors have anti-burst door locks to keep the doors shut even if body distorts. The parcel shelf metal was cut away on later cars to cause less damage to passengers knees and legs on impact than the earlier solid metal shelf.

There are many other examples of changes over the years driven by safety, cost reductions and improvements to try to keep up with newer competitor small car designs . The last major changes for the 1996 Mpi Mini's implemented by BMW cost millions to meet the new European safety/emission regs but it seems there was no money available to improve the steel used or the rustproofing which would only have added yet further costs to a 40 year old design that was already expensive and needed too much manpower labour to build without robots.

[mk1leg]

The best were up to the late 80s as in the 90s they used reclaimed steel and when I visited longbridge production line in 93 there were rust patches already in the finished panels.....................

[newnham500]

That's very intresting and I'm not taking the p.ss, I never new they made advances in safety to the older mini.

To be honest, I just thought they put fuel in injection in the front, and airbags in the middle. Did realise they went that far to improve safety, I was always under the impression that if your gonna crash, don't do it in a mini. no matter the age. :0