52 replies to this topic

[mini_man_dan]

This a thread for the rebuild and modification of my 1993 cooper. If you are all seated and comfortable, i shall begin; (Refreshments can be found in your kitchen).

The Story begins in 2001, my uncle found this cooper in an auction house (i dont know where) and immediatly told my dad. It had substained damage to the front end in a accident, hence being in the auction. My dad bit the bullet and being a mechanic by trade repaired the car and gave it to my mother. Forward to 2009 and the car sits on the driveway, rarely used and looking very sorry for itself. Rust had begun devouring the front end. This is where i come in, i offer to take the car off my mums hands and to repair and love the car unconditionally, oh and by allowing my dad to repair it, seemed fair to me
The cooper had minor work done here and there, plus the usual stage one mods added but in september 2011 me and my dad decided that the car needed to be taken off the road to give it some tlc, we got a bit carried away.

This is where the good part starts....


Here she is a year before rebuild, the only thing changed since then is a new set of wheels, she hid rust very well!


Me and my dad begin taking her apart, so far its been easy...






the next Post will be coming very soon....

Edited by mini_man_dan, 06 May 2012 - 04:21 PM.

[mini_man_dan]

I told you next post would be soon i suppose i should let you know what the plans are for the car, well;

Colour: rallye green
Style: Miglia arches, arch angels carbon roof and bootlid, abs motorsport japanese carbon grill. de badged and bumpered.
Engine: 1275 block, kent fast road cam, med lightened flywheel, bill richards modded cylinder head
exhaust: mini sport superflow manifold and 2 1/4inch rc40 millenium exhaust.
interior: optimise automotive interior, black.
Brakes and suspension: mini sport calipers and vented disks, adjusta ride and gaz shocks.

il post some more pics up of the build in a while....

[mini_man_dan]

After purchasing a weilder from machine mart the work continued on the car, heres what we had to do.
Repair the boot floor,
de bumper the car,
replace outer sills, inner sills and door steps, both front floor pans
repairs to scuttle, inner arches.
And generally tidy up the car...


















Im sorry there arent a huge amount of photos for this bit, we had six months to do this build and the camera was largely forgotten. However we did manage to take some pics of the rear subframe... strangely an axe was found lodged in it :S

Edited by mini_man_dan, 06 May 2012 - 04:24 PM.

[mini_man_dan]

So we started work on this in september 2011, all the work you see above took until march 2012 at which point it was time to hand over to the body specialists and painters. We used a company called penfold panels in folkestone, kent... il plug them a bit more later on in the thread.. The following pics are from them and show the work they had to do...

with a nice snug fit in a trailer, a little too snug , the mini was on its way. It was a friends trailer, not the body shops...


time for a montage!














I couldnt be more happy with the job these guys did! it was done to an amazing standard and they were beyond friendly and helpful whenever i called in... next comes the painting...

Edited by mini_man_dan, 06 May 2012 - 04:42 PM.

[mini_man_dan]

I had never seen this paint before on a mini, which is why i chose it and loved the way it looked on a fabia vrs. it blew my mind when i saw it, now me dont think any good no more...

[roofless]

I Like it .....once you get wheels and trim on it'll look a lot different, but I think its great

[mini_man_dan]

soooooooooooooooo after paying, collecting and carefully transporting the shell back up to our bat cave it was time to put it back together... the following picamatures are thus...

i bought a new rear subframe, with adjustable suspension all around



just a pics, and some carbon flashing





The fuel lines and a few ancilleries have been put in pre empting the engine being installed, take a look at this...









This is as far as we have got, i will be posting a little less frantically than i have today but will keep it updated... i hope its been entertaining so far, i cant wait to get her back on the road!

[mini_man_dan]

Thanks roofless! cant wait for it to be all back in one peice.

[tom1990]

looking sweet as just dont take the smash seriously lol nice project mate

[mini_man_dan]

Cheers Tom, the accident happened along time ago before the car was ours so its all coool.

[Alex_B]

Hubba hubba! I love the colour, and carbon roof, and and and, Cant wait to see this built up, looks smashing so far!

[mini_man_dan]

haha! thanks alex!

[mini_man_dan]

Right time for another update! The minisport discs and calipers are on and so are 3 of the 4 arches. Ive gone for miglia arches which i got off abs motorsport. The arches have needed alot of trimming and still arent 100% perfect but look pretty cool nonetheless.











We are having abit of trouble with the front arches being so high up the front wing that we cant put the indicator in its place. being a 1993 it has to have a side indicator If any has had a similiar problem with these arches have they got any advice?

il put some interior shots up later this week when i head up there next.

[jagman.2003]

Great looking project. Very nice finish.

[mini_man_dan]

Thanks Jagman! its all coming together now.

We are hoping to start her up on saturday and begin work on the interior. We only have a couple of weeks to get the car finished so its going to be pretty intense!