Hello All
I am the proud owner the last Austin Mini 1000 HLE (1982) on the road today (that we know of). We dubbed her Molly The Mini. She seemed in very good nic for a 32 year old car with no real issues to note while buying her. As a enthusiastic Mini fan for many many years and this being my first Mini i tried to be as thorough as possible but I am sure I missed a few things, which I will get into more detail later. During the trip home (142 miles) with keys in hand I did pick up the following:
1. A knocking sound from the right front suspension while you drive.
2. It smelt strongly of petrol inside the car.
3. The wheels were over 15 years old
4. Under bracking she pulled right then suddenly left. Scary!
I have provided some pics of the lovely lady below:
Front
Interior
So proud!
So as always I started making lists of things to fix and change to may liking. As the first step I wanted to fix all the "little" nags listed above before taking on more major challenges when the weather got worse.
As a first step (1.1 for those following) I wanted to sorted the suspension and brakes. As this was my first real project car and long awaited Mini I dove under the bonnet. What awaited me was a mountain of rot hiding behind the right front shock mount which was coated in rubberizing. As an amateur mechanic I started hacking away at the rust and ended up with the following hole. O dear... is a savory way of describing my findings.
Front Right Suspension Support
I am still figuring out how to approach this fix and plan to follow a forum I found on here:
http://www.theminifo...t-repair/page-3
On a good note the brakes seem in good nic with only the back plate needing to be replaced as the adjusting nuts have been stripped.On the bad side all the rubbers on the cars seem shot! I will therefore need to replace the rubber cones and associated rubbers. I do like a delivery full of car parts.
The engine and gearbox seems to have reacted well to a good old service, engine flush, radiator flush and good clean. I then proceeded to take some pics of cylinder 3 with my boroscope.
Cylinder 3
I am no expert but she seems to have some serious scorn marks. She drove well and has ample power for what she is. She does idle a bit fast but I am sure to set the carb before taking her on the road again.
In the future I plan to take on the following to make Molly truly mine:
1. Center console conversion
2. Seats need to be reupholstered or replaced
3. New grill
4. New Tires
watch this space as they say...
Following the discovery of a lot of metal rot it was best to use a donor car to transplant Molly's soul into a revivable car. See page 4 for the details.
Edited by StefanPieter, 08 March 2015 - 08:49 PM.