268 replies to this topic

[jb93]

Well I can't promise much, but I thought it was about time I got my act together and started a project thread. It won't be anywhere near as exciting as most others on here, however I will try my best to at least make it half decent.

Here goes.......

I've now owned Vinnie (yes really original name I know ) for two years, and have now become so attached to him, I think I'm in love in a weird sort of way . We bought him from the garage where I work, where he had been part exchanged against a Fiat 500. The bloke that traded him in bought him as a present for his wife who didn't like him, and consequently he wasn't loved (I'm more than making up for this now ).

The idea was, to tidy him up as I learned to drive in him, and then sell him on.... That plan went belly up from day one, and I'm still stuck with him now.

I have lots of plans, all of which require money, which is quite tight at the moment, so I'm just going to have to be patient and wait .

 

Edited by jb93, 09 January 2014 - 11:28 AM.

[Noah]

Can't wait to read this, I love your car.

[jb93]

Can't wait to read this, I love your car.

Awwwwww

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

I was wondering why you didn't have a project thread a few days ago! Vinnie looks amazing as always, will be following!

[jb93]

Right, got my act together soooo.....

(by the way, a lot of these are phone pics so I apologise in advance for the ppor quality)

This is the first picture I've got, taken the night he came home, looking rather sorry for himself as you can see



All the cones were replaced as they were shot, new headlamps and a general tidy up resulted in this.....



This was at sixth-form parked next to my mate's mini which about 2 months later got wrapped around a tree ... it didn't get scrapped though and was sold to someone who was planning to restore it . This was taken mid Januaryish after getting the car at the end of November.

Then Bingley happened



Got these beauties wrapped in Yoko A539s all ready for spring...



Then it looked like this.... (4x4 mode )







So yeah, not that exciting but hey ho

Edited by jb93, 16 April 2013 - 07:34 AM.

[jb93]

I was wondering why you didn't have a project thread a few days ago! Vinnie looks amazing as always, will be following!

I'm taking inspiration from Rita's thread ..... It'll be a lot of photos of shinyness

[silver_toes]

jb, I love your mini. The colour is lush !, Good luck with the refurb, from the pictures he looks very smart already. What are your other plans for Vinnie ?

[jb93]

jb, I love your mini. The colour is lush !, Good luck with the refurb, from the pictures he looks very smart already. What are your other plans for Vinnie ?

Thank you :)

The body is pretty much there now, but ideally I want to drop a bigger engine in, some Cobra Monaco Pros, Force racing splits, a bit of neggy camber on the front... the list continues

I'm thinking 1310, although I'm quite obsessed with R1 conversions at the minute... we'll have to see

Edited by jb93, 15 December 2012 - 07:42 PM.

[Mini-Mad-Craig]

I was wondering why you didn't have a project thread a few days ago! Vinnie looks amazing as always, will be following!

I'm taking inspiration from Rita's thread ..... It'll be a lot of photos of shinyness

Thanks! Honestly, everytime I left the house I'd take a photo of that car. I couldn't walk past her sitting outside without walking around and looking from different angles. I'd be helping my parents get the shopping in and end up wandering across the street to take a look from the distance

[scotty_1987]

looks well man i like it a lot !!

Nathan

[jb93]

Thanks! Honestly, everytime I left the house I'd take a photo of that car. I couldn't walk past her sitting outside without walking around and looking from different angles. I'd be helping my parents get the shopping in and end up wandering across the street to take a look from the distance

I spent most of photography at school in the car park experimenting with the DSLR taking photos only problem was, someone wiped them off the memory card

Edited by jb93, 15 December 2012 - 07:47 PM.

[RawlinsGTR]

Never really realised you didn't have a project thread!

Your mini is lush, and also irritatingly shiny.

Looking forward to seeing the updates, makes me desperate to get mine fixed to be honest!

Simon.

EDIT: Howcomes you've put it in the "Mini Engine Rebuilds" section? Then again, in hindsight, I guess putting mine in the "Complete Mini Rebuilds" section was kinda tempting fate.

Edited by Dog., 15 December 2012 - 08:23 PM.

[jb93]

Looking forward to seeing the updates, makes me desperate to get mine fixed to be honest!

Simon.

There will be more tomorrow... promise

[jb93]

Anyway, it pretty much stayed like that until April time, after it failed its MOT due to excessive rust on both rear quaters. Due to me lacking in both knowledge and skillage in the welding department, I got him booked into the local Mini specialists for both rear quarters to be repaired.
Oh... I got a thirty badge too



I then ran him around until June where I had to make the decide whether I was keeping him or not - (obviously that didn't take very long ). I booked him in to have a new front end and both doors reskinned. I then decided I might as well get a new grille, bumber, headlamps etc which didn't exactly help the money situation . I also put the Bullet Evo mirrors I bought at Himley on.

I dropped him off in mid July, and collected him about four weeks later having missed MITP 2011, but I didn't care because I had him back looking better than ever . I still remember getting him home and getting a bit too excited about washing him with no rust on the front .



Tadaaaaaaa!





That was pretty much it for a while, as I had skinned myself and literally had no money

[jb93]

At the same time as the front was being done, I decided to do something about the dash as I was fed up with the crappy walnut style thing that was in, plus it had a chip in the corner by the glovebox exposing the hinge. I painted it Cherry red and that was that..... but the filler sank, and it looked really rubbish.

Sooo after I spent the next few months saving up to buy an MPI 3 clock dash, as I loved the OEM look. I managed to pick one up (I say pick up, it was a steal) off a member on here who was breaking his mini, with the clocks and binnacle. The only problem was, it was delaminating quite badly and needed something doing to it.
(It looked a bit like this)



So because I was on a budget, I decided to carbon wrap it (couldn't afford to skin it ). I settled on metallic grey vinyl, as I hadn't seen it used before on a mini

After several hours of swearing, and burnt fingers, I managed to come up with this....

Edited by jb93, 17 December 2012 - 08:27 AM.