155 replies to this topic

[Elliskwleisk]

So after some knuckle head ran in to the back of my mini, after only passing his test 6 days before, I received £1300 in insurance money directly from him as a settlement offer. Brilliant! I could get a shell and my welding equipment for basically nothing! So I felt this was a good excuse and a good time to start my mini project. I've been wanting to do this for about two years now after buying my current mini and slowly uncovering more "botch jobs" and poorly modified parts. So this one is going to be done properly, to my spec and for me to use everyday. Purists beware, there may be some carbon fiber, fiberglass and non period modifications, but hey, I'm building this car for me, not to sell, so I want it to be exactly what I want. Feel free to throw any constructive criticism and comments right this way as I am pretty amateur and I am bound to make many rookie mistakes! 

 

So the story began with the first chapter of collecting my mini after purchasing it on ebay!

  

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I searched high and low for a car transporter from many people but everybody's either seemed to be knackered or being used so I managed to get one of these removal vans for free for the weekend. It was a brand new one so was actually pretty nice, safe to say, even with the aerodynamics of a brick, that thing could shift! The only problem we had was how on earth we were going to get the mini in the back but we'd work something out! 

 

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So after blocking half the road in a busy part of Essex for over an hour we came to the conclusion the only way to do it was to just lift it and hope for the best. So after being mocked by a few passers by we managed to get some extra hands and somehow, with a bunch of unfit blokes, she rolled right in.

 

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An 800 mile round trip later and i got her home. 

 

 

That's all for the mean time, I'm in the process of giving my small workshop a makeover so once that's finished ill get the mini in and get cracking! But don't worry, shes in another garage in the mean time.

Edited by Elliskwleisk, 02 September 2013 - 11:35 PM.

[domdee]

Yes another beautiful MK3 about to be restored!

[Elliskwleisk]

Unfortunately my phone is away getting fixed after it decided to give up on life so i cannot take anymore photos right now. But as soon as its fixed and i get it back ill make sure and update straight away. As of now i have finished off my workshop (Well enough to get the mini in!) and have started to strip down the mini. Shes looking not to bad so far so fingers crossed for the rest!  

[Elliskwleisk]

So I thought I'd upload the photos I've already uploaded the Photobucket way in case it doesn't work for some people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this works...

Edited by Elliskwleisk, 02 September 2013 - 11:01 PM.

[Archived4]

Love how you transported it!

[rally515]

Looks a smart mk3 for its age, one thing that bothering me is not the mini but ...HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET IT IN! haha

 

Cheers,

Cliff

[Elliskwleisk]

Love how you transported it!

 

 

Looks a smart mk3 for its age, one thing that bothering me is not the mini but ...HOW THE HELL DID YOU GET IT IN! haha

 

Cheers,

Cliff

 

I honestly laugh every time I see the photo. You should have heard the moans and groans the lift made as we lifted it up, was just waiting for the shiny new shelf to snap! But it managed to hold thankfully. Once we got the lift right up we then lifted the back of the car and sat it on a small set of ramps so we didn't have to lift it as high and then with four of us we managed to just lift it and shove it in! And that was the easy part because when we got to the other end there was only two of us to get it out of the truck... Fortunately we managed to find a mound of earth at the local farm, dropped the lift down to the height of it, rolled the rear of the car on to the earth, chocked the rear wheels, inched the truck forward and lowered the ramp a bit several times until it was on the ground and then pushed it about a mile home until we got fed up and just towed it, wonky wheels or not! No pictures of the unloading unfortunately! Anyways I have a big update to do tonight, better get cracking! 

Edited by Elliskwleisk, 02 September 2013 - 11:37 PM.

[Elliskwleisk]

So I finally got around to borrowing someones phone so I could take a few photos for an update! Progress has been slow as other things have taken up most of my time but I'm getting somewhere at least... 

 

Firstly, I've pretty much stripped the whole car now. I've only got the positive battery cable, fuel line, brake line and pedal box to remove as well as stripping down the front sub frame ready for sandblasting and powder coating. 

 

So as far as the floor goes, its not looking too bad, definitely salvageable. I've had a few people commenting saying that they believed several of the panels are original but I'm not sure so I wont make any claims! The near side is pretty rotten inner and outer sills as well as the near side end of the cross member but perfectly fixable. The drivers side has had a small patch or two on the inner sill but I think I'll just replace all 4 sills and both floor pans. 

 

 

 

 

I was amazed by the condition of the doors, they are practically pristine on the bottom! Certainly a lot more sound that my other mini, and it has an MOT! I think ill change the skins though. 

 

 

 

Boot floor has some slight rot but easily sort able, apologies for the lack of quality in the photos.

 

 

Engine bay isn't looking too bad, subframe looks in pretty good nick... 

 

Got the rear sub frame out without any issues, love my impact gun!

 

I think it looks salvageable, what do you guys think?

 

 

Couple of wee questions now, firstly I'm finding all these plugged holes in the floor and boot floor, I know there's supposed to be two in each floor pan but are there supposed to be two in the boot floor? and about six in the rear floor? 

 

 

Finally, what do you guys do when you're restoring your mini and you see surface rust behind the top piece of metal in the inside of the roof that the looms runs behind? Do you cut it off and re weld it? Does it actually serve any useful structural purpose other than to hold the headlining poles? Ideally I'd get the car dipped but its just too expensive unfortunately...

 

 

 

That's all for now! I've already dropped the front sub frame, just a few other pieces to take off and then get it away to sand blasting with the sub frames. Hopefully get some more pictures up soon. 

[rally515]

Best bet for the rust behind the roof strentheners is to drill ALLLLL the spot weld out for the roof panel so you can treat it properly to paint and primer without missing any that would put your nice paint job to waste in a few years down the line maybe

 

Theres a guy on here who got a build thread that shows just how much rust can be hidden away so be sure to take a good look at "Petrol"s build thread

[Elliskwleisk]

Thought I'd throw in a photo of the interior as I got it.

 

[Gremlin]

I'll buy the steering wheel, pm me if interested

[Ben_O]

Fascinating so far mate.

I love how you transported the car! I was going to do this with my 25 to transport it from Kent to the Isle of Wight when I got it as a luton van was much cheaper to hire but I didn't think we would be able to lift it in so ended up sending a guy to pick it up for me. When I moved house again I put it in a luton but it was just a bare shell so we just put the arse of the car on the tail lift and just held the front steady as the lift went up and slid it in.

 

Anyway, those plugs in the floor are the correct amount for the Mini only I noticed you have rubber bungs whereas originally it would have been proper caps that are sealed in and have grips on the back which hold them tightly and permanently in place. I would be worried about rubber ones as they would easily flick off and let water in.

A lot of people remove them altogether and weld up the holes but I personally will be reinstating the original bungs for originality.

 

The metal piece inside the roof is actually called a cant rail and is very important structurally so needs to be kept. As Cliff said, remove it, de-rust it and then refit it. Bit of a pain job but worth it unless you can get to the rust you see and are confident that that's all there probably is and take the chance of just doing the bits you can see.

 

Good luck mate

 

Ben

[Elliskwleisk]

Fascinating so far mate.

I love how you transported the car! I was going to do this with my 25 to transport it from Kent to the Isle of Wight when I got it as a luton van was much cheaper to hire but I didn't think we would be able to lift it in so ended up sending a guy to pick it up for me. When I moved house again I put it in a luton but it was just a bare shell so we just put the arse of the car on the tail lift and just held the front steady as the lift went up and slid it in.

 

Anyway, those plugs in the floor are the correct amount for the Mini only I noticed you have rubber bungs whereas originally it would have been proper caps that are sealed in and have grips on the back which hold them tightly and permanently in place. I would be worried about rubber ones as they would easily flick off and let water in.

A lot of people remove them altogether and weld up the holes but I personally will be reinstating the original bungs for originality.

 

The metal piece inside the roof is actually called a cant rail and is very important structurally so needs to be kept. As Cliff said, remove it, de-rust it and then refit it. Bit of a pain job but worth it unless you can get to the rust you see and are confident that that's all there probably is and take the chance of just doing the bits you can see.

 

Good luck mate

 

Ben

 

So far, the transportation of the car was one of the best moments, but I'm sure there will be many more! 

 

Really? Even the two right behind the cross member on the O/S when there is only one behind the cross member on the N/S? Could you send me a link to a parts supplier that supplies the original caps? 

 

Hmm, It wasn't serious rust, just a bit of surface rust that was attached to a piece of old sponge that was pulled out of there. I wondered about just squirting tons of waxoyl everywhere in there I can get to. I know it's the lazy option but what do you guys think, think that would be suffice? 

[Ben_O]

It doesn't look like you can buy the original type ones anymore but I have most of mine to put back. Unfortunately that doesn't help you but I had a look around and these guys http://www.scparts.co.uk/index/lang-2/lkz-195/markenid-4/katnr-45/kat_sprache-2/hrubnr-1238/rubrik-3452/index.php?tpl=clickable_vertikal.tpl&artikeldetailtop=-500  do a plastic one that you could bond into the hole. It also seems that rubber grommets are also favoured by lots on here but personally I want to be able to put sound deadening over mine and paint as per original spec. 

At the end of the day, you can just fit what ever suits you I only wrote what I wrote before as I don't personally think rubber ones would look right.

 

As for the cant rail, you could just remove all visible rust and wax the cavity. I can't guarantee that it would stay rust free forever but what mini will?? It all depends on how much you are willing to put into it.

 

Cheers

Ben

Edited by Ben_O, 04 September 2013 - 09:38 PM.

[rally515]

I have all my metal floor grommets you can have for postage price ;)