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[Serith]

My '93 Mayfair is an unfinished project car I bought from a friend earlier this year. 

 

It looks in pretty good nick, and has apparently had all the rust sorted out already (new inner and outer sills).

Here it is after we pushed it down the road and into my parents garage, please ignore the excessive number of bicycles...

 

 

So, lots to do, you might have noticed there is no engine under that bonnet.

I plan to strip it down to bare shell and have it professionally repainted inside and out. The old 1275 engine is resting up at the back of a mechanics workshop along with the brand new 1400 fast road engine which was bought to replace it.

 

Now the bad news... 1400cc is a bad idea as 74MM pistons leave no room for error... or metal between the cylinder wall and the oil ways. The hole in the block was enough to make the previous owner give up on the project for a few years, but I have a plan!

 

Take the old block, junk the rest of the old engine, get new (more reasonably sized) pistons and put all the lovely fast road bits together to make one complete working engine.

 

The next couple of updates will bring us up to where the project stands now.

 

[Serith]

First think to do was strip off the remaining brightwork and trim, then rip all the interior out.

 

Interior in...                                                                  Interior out...

 

The floor looks rusty and terrible but it is just dust and dirt, the metal is sound.

 

 

Uhoh... what's this...

Yep, no mini is rust free. The rear window must have had a leak. When I took out the bottom of the seat pocket the board was warped and water stained and the metal below had been replaced with rotten biscuit.

 

The strip down continued with the torn headlining coming out, followed by the dash and loom. I took pictures of all the wires before unplugging anything, and labelled  most of the ends with pvc tape and marker pen.

    

 

With no space to keep the old parts the roof was my only option!

 

Once all the wiring was out it was time to get the metal work fixed while I could still roll the car about on its wheels.

There were a few other bits apart from the seat pocket which needed attention. The front headlight mount on the drivers side was rotten so that was replaced, and somehow the bulkhead was completely detached from the panel below the windscreen and the dash rails had some pretty poor repair work which needed some attention. Lastly the lip above the rear valance was crumbling away on one side and needed patching so the bumper could be bolted back on.

 

You may have been able to guess from the topic name, I am a complete beginner when it comes to mechanics and I didn't fancy buying all the gear and teaching myself how to weld so I had the work done professionally. Also, it is amazing what can be done with some adjustable spanners and a 30 year old socket set. No fancy expensive tools required!

 

There is a bit of a gap in my photo records here, so the next update will cover the work done after getting the car back from the welder.