75 replies to this topic

[Beej123]

Well, we finally picked it up from it's old home yesterday. It had spend 8 years there dry stored and has had bits of work carried out over that period. As you can see from the photos, it is totally solid and we can't find a single spot of rust! It still has air in all 4 tyres with no cracking.

It's a project that me and Carl (Carlzilla) have taken on as we are moving our interests into minis full time!

The plan for it is to get it as close as we can to how it will have left the factory. It had a maroon roof with a white body and from what we can see maroon wheels?

The only bits we may struggle to get hold of at a sensible price are the front indicators, rear bumper and a good cream leather interior so if you have one of know of one, could you let one of us know?

Pictures speak louder than words so here it is!















So there it is, not a bad lump of car. The plan for today is to get it all cleaned up so we can see exactly what we are looking at and then as of tomorrow it will be full speed ahead with the rebuild. The car is complete with it's original engine and all the lights and clocks.

This will be a full time build so progress should be pretty quick.
The plan is to get all the mechanical parts done so it's safe and reliable and then get an MOT on it so it's out of the way.
Then crack on with the body work and making it look pretty

[miniman86]

wow, i do love a mini variant!! good luck with it mate!! i may have some spare side grills with lamps etc, and i also have a full light blue leather interior for sale on here out of one i broke......

Alex

[Beej123]

Thanks! I think we have sourced a front grill set, we are in need of the indicator units though! How much would you want for them if you can find them?

And I might get back to you on the seats but ideally we want to put a cream interior in so it's standard but thanks for letting me know!

[giner88]

love it! bet your glad its a solid car, takes so much hassel out of the picture. what colours/colour were you thinking for the respsray?

[bcjames]

That looks amazingly solid!

[project mini chris]

That looks awesome! Nice little Project! Watching this!

[analogue_radio]

Lovely looking thing! Give it a proper wash and it'll look so much better already!

[Beej123]

It will be resprayed back to standard so maroon roof and Old English White body. Just attacked it with the pressure washer for half an hour and I can't believe how much better it looks already, you can see through the windows and everything!

Will do a full service tomorrow and check all the engine out and try to get it running (we know it runs but no oil pressure) and then we know if it will need a new lump or not. Hopefully not so it can keep it's original engine.

[bcjames]

Get some more photos up, it's amazing the difference cleaning the muck off can make!

[Beej123]

I'll take some later (got normal work to do now) and stick them on, need to strip it all out today ready to tackle electrics and stuff.

Can't decide whether to remove and rebuild the engine, paint it up etc. or not. I'm thinking that if we leave the engine in then the engine bay is going to let the finished car down.
What do we all think?

[Beej123]

Right, small update on the plan, tomorrow morning we plan to get the engine serviced and checked and assuming that it runs fine we will give the whole car a check over and do the electrics, brakes, clutch etc. and you may see this driven to Bingley. It will be in a state to look at but the mechanics will be fine, it will be complete with photo board explaining it's condition!

No promises as there are lots of things that have to go right for it to work but we will see ;)

[Carlzilla]

Tomorrow has to move like clockwork for this to happen. Like James said, original colours. I reckon the paint on the roof can be mopped back so no need for painting that. We're just mostly missing the odd bits and pieces really!

[Carlzilla]

Oh, and we're also not sure of the milage. We're taking it as it's gone round the clock once, but if it hasnt....

[Beej123]

Anything is possible if you have the will and are willing to work by inspection lamp!

[CMC]

Nice find and good project ! I'll be following this :)