154 replies to this topic

[millermilla]

Hiya,

I thought I would put my winter project on here. My previous car was a very nice ERA Turbo but unfortunately it had to be sold for financial reasons.

The budget for a replacement mini was £1200 which doesn't really get you much but I'm pretty handy with spanners and a welder so didn't mind having to do a bit of work.

First job was to clear out the garage ready for the new project.





After spending about 6 weeks looking for something suitable I was getting rather frustrated. Sure there were plenty of rusty shells for sale for around £500 but by the time you do the welding and spray a shell your up to at least £1500 - £2000 and my project had to be cheap.

I had been following a 1994 1275cc Auto Sprite on e-bay that was on a 30 day listing for £1500. It looked pretty good for £1500 but was running out of MOT. I waited right until the last day and was amazed to see the little Auto had not sold yet so put in a cheeky offer of £1000. The guy phoned me right back and said if I collect today it's mine for £1000.

I was well pleased so cash in hand off I went to collect the car having never seen it in the flesh! The car was about 100 miles away and having not seen it before it was a bit of a gamble but to be honest £1000 for a Taxed and Tested Mini that can be driven away seemed pretty good money.

I arrived and the car looked pretty good. There was a bit more rust on the scuttle than described but that didn't bother me too much. I was surprised to find a full service history with every MOT and only 30,000 miles and 2 owners from new. I quickly handed over the cash and drove it home with no problems at all. It drove just like a 30,000 mile car.

[millermilla]

First few jobs were pretty basic, there is not much of a budget so it was just a quick clean up and bolt on some shiney bits I had donated and lying around.


Second hand Aston fuel cap





Second hand interior mirror



Second hand grille and bonnet badge




Apart from a few hours labour nothing spent so far :)

[millermilla]

OK now time to start some more serious work. When I bought the car it had about 2 weeks MOT remaining so the first job was to prep it for an MOT.

A quick check in the boot revealed a battery box in pretty poor condition. The initial plan was to patch it but after a bit of poking around the holes just got bigger and bigger so I decided to replace the whole battery box.









The new battery box was a copy part and cost about £17 I think. It didnt fit to well and need a bit of fiddling to get it to fit.





Next job was to remove the bumpers and clean up the front and rear valances.




Boot removed and cleaned





20 years of grime removed










And bumpers cleaned and treated





I had a spare gold plated Bini badge laying around so that got fitted in place of the original





All going good, total spend so far about £17

[millermilla]

The front end was pretty clean as it had a new front end about 5 years ago. Just needed a good clean.









Found a pin hole in the n/s/f footwell but by the time you clean away the rust the hole was about 20x the original size but still small enough for a patch rather than a new floor










Both front floor plans got a decent clean and repaint. No nastiness found apart from the one small hole.






I managed to buy a stainless steel RC40 exhaust from a facebook group for the bargain price of £20. It was pretty dirty and needed welding as it was cracked but after a quick weld job and a bit of elbow grease with some Autosol it looks great!










Total spend now up to £37!

[millermilla]

If you've noticed the ever changing number plate it's my private plate that I will eventually get round to transferring over to the mini but for the time being I have just been seeing how it looks in the pics.

Next job was to sort out the rear brake and at the same time I cleaned out the arches and repainted them. I replaced the rear shoes and wheel cylinders as they were pretty shot.

[millermilla]

Time to pay some attention to the front end.

The pads were worn and at least one swivel so for good measure I done discs, pads and all four swivels. At the same time I cleaned out the arches and repainted them.




















I've gone a bit mad on the budget and it must be up to about £120 now!

[millermilla]

I gave the interior and boot a bit of a clean then added another £7 to the budget buying a can of gunk to clean the engine.












I took the grille out and engine splash guard so it's just as clean behind the grill and spent a bit of time cleaning the underside of the bonnet.










I also purchased some waxoil and paint to the budget is now up to about £150

[millermilla]

Next up was time for the MOT. I don't have any pics but it passed with no problems :)

Now all the mechanical bit are done it's time to attack the scuttle which looks nasty

[backstreetclassics]

looks good keep it up

[millermilla]

I've got to be honest I was not looking forward to replacing the scuttle panel. I spoke to various people who told me I would have to remove the wings to replace the scuttle but I really did not want to as the front end is solid.

I know heritage panels are much better but having only spent about £190 so far I didn't want to spend £115 on a Heritage scuttle panel so I bought a copy panle from Bingley for £35. I know it will be harder to fit and not look quite as good but this really is a project on a budget and I don't mind working a bit harder to save a few quid. Total spend at Bingley was about £60 for a scuttle, clear front indicators and repeaters, windscreen trim, windscreen sealer, stainless sill covers, a closing panel and some grille trim.

Scuttle all cut out.

















With the spray paint from Halfords the budget is now up to about £270 but probably spent at least 75hrs working on it so far

[millermilla]

Warning, full frontal image with new indicators, repeaters and scuttle :)





I don't usually like clear rear lights but couldn't resist and e-bay bargain for 99p. I had some orange bulbs already and used to Mr's nail varnish for the brake light bulbs LOL.

[millermilla]

Well that's my project so far. The budget is up to £270.99 so £1270.99 with the price of the car which I'm pretty pleased with as it's taxed, tested and looks half decent. I have however spent a hell of a lot of time working on it and already had lots of tools, paints and consumables to hand. I must abso mention my little helper Charlie :) He's only 3 but he loves Mini's.

[Minilover1.3]

Wel done mate, looks great!

[Noah]

Good stuff, interesting technique with the scuttle as well.

Well done!

[iMurray]

i like! clean and simple