62 replies to this topic

[fattail95]

Hi there guys!

Rust... One of the joys of a Mini driver! I have some pictures of the rust on my Mini at the moment, I was looking for some advice about what I should do about it.

[Matrix]

Replace the panels infected by tim worm it's the only way!

[dark]

You looked under your carpet yet? lol

[fattail95]

I haven't as yet. The metal is mostly ok, its just these parts that are bad.

[dark]

Well, it's a nice mini, looks a lot like mine
I'd recommend garaging it, rubbing it back, and seeing if it has rotted all the way through, if so, some parts might need replacing, some may only need some little patches welded in.
I'd get a whole new scuttle though, so much easier

[coopdog]

looks like a load of welding to me

[fattail95]

Yeah at the moment I am looking at:

Scuttle Panel - £115
Doors - 2 x ?
Front Wing - 2 x £80
+ Respray Costs
+ Labour

£500 sound enough for all this?

Thanks.

[mini danny]

it propely gonna be a lot more than 500 for labour and spraying

[fattail95]

More than £1000?

[AVV IT]

What you should do about it, depends how long you want the repair to last. No doubt some people will tell you to rub the rusty areas down, treat them with a rust treatment and then paint over. The problem with that is that the rust you can see on a classic mini is normaly "just the tip of the iceberg" and is usually just a sign of more extensive corrosion underneath and behind. Just treating and painting over the areas that you can see, therefore tends to just seal moisture in and make the problem worse, meaning that the dreaded rust bubbles will be back with a vengeance in next to no time.

Ideally the only way to repair this sort of corrosion properly is to weld in new metal, which in your case appears to mean: new wings, A- panels, doorskins, scuttle, front panel and a patch welding into the rear quarter beneath the window. If you don't have the tools and the skills to do this sort of work yourself and don't intend on buying a welder and learning to be able to either, then you are looking at quite a sum to have this done professionally (probably upwards of £2k including a respray).

More than £1000?

A ball park figure for the front end alone would be around £1,500. when you add in the doors and the repair to the rear quarters, then I would guess that you are talking about at least £2k.

.... this is why so many of us buy ourselves a welder and learn to do it all ourselves!!

Edited by AVV IT, 06 February 2012 - 04:31 PM.

[mini danny]

it all depends if you gonnna be the welding yourself or not if you do the welding yourself it will make it a hell of a lot cheaper

[redhot-mini]

id try and save the scuttle and wings that is only just stating to rust get it bare metaled and see if its rooten if its made tiny hold weld them up as the wings are original so they have the best panel gap but door skins look like the need doing and above the rear quarter window

Edited by redhot-mini, 06 February 2012 - 04:28 PM.

[fattail95]

What you should do about it, depends how long you want the repair to last. No doubt some people will tell you to rub the rusty areas down, treat them with a rust treatment and then paint over. The problem with that is that the rust you can see on a classic mini is normaly "just the tip of the iceberg" and is usually just a sign of more extensive corrosion underneath and behind. Just treating and painting over the areas that you can see, therefore tends to just seal moisture in and make the problem worse, meaning that the dreaded rust bubbles will be back with a vengeance in next to no time.


Ideally the only way to repair this sort of corrosion properly is to weld in new metal, which in your case appears to mean: new wings, A- panels, doorskins, scuttle, front panel and a patch welding into the rear quarter beneath the window. If you don't have the tools and the skills to do this sort of work yourself and don't intend on buying a welder and learning to be able to either, then you are looking at quite a sum to have this done professionally (probably upwards of £2k including a respray).

Upwards of £2k? I'm not going to have a full respray of the car, just the new panels. The small patches of rust like below the window, I will probably just rub down, treat and paint.

How are you getting a figure of £2k?

[mini danny]

well most garage will chrage £45 an hout to do the work and 2k will be the fornt replaced and just the front resprayed and you cant really just patch the scuttle it needs to be replaced or will just get worse and worse

[coopdog]

What you should do about it, depends how long you want the repair to last. No doubt some people will tell you to rub the rusty areas down, treat them with a rust treatment and then paint over. The problem with that is that the rust you can see on a classic mini is normaly "just the tip of the iceberg" and is usually just a sign of more extensive corrosion underneath and behind. Just treating and painting over the areas that you can see, therefore tends to just seal moisture in and make the problem worse, meaning that the dreaded rust bubbles will be back with a vengeance in next to no time.


Ideally the only way to repair this sort of corrosion properly is to weld in new metal, which in your case appears to mean: new wings, A- panels, doorskins, scuttle, front panel and a patch welding into the rear quarter beneath the window. If you don't have the tools and the skills to do this sort of work yourself and don't intend on buying a welder and learning to be able to either, then you are looking at quite a sum to have this done professionally (probably upwards of £2k including a respray).

Upwards of £2k? I'm not going to have a full respray of the car, just the new panels. The small patches of rust like below the window, I will probably just rub down, treat and paint.

How are you getting a figure of £2k?

labour, people dont work for free