15 replies to this topic

[Archie and his Mini]

Hello, my name is Archie and as the title indicates I'm buying a 94 1.3 Mini Cooper on Friday it's my first car. It's going to cost me £3025 and it's in pretty decent condition ill get an even closer inspection upon purchase. 

I went to view it on Tuesday and had a close look around the frame edges, underneath and gave most of the body paneling a good rub and it felt pretty good no noticeable bumps. And the wheel arches seemed good along with the struts so I'm sold honestly plus the interior is in good condition could just do with a little scrub. It is an old car so it's bound to have some faults upon further inspection but I'm willing to fix it and learn how to look after cars. I also took it for a spin it was very fun and I instantly understood why people like these cars.

 

Tl:dr car good me want.

 

The main thing that attracts me in the insurance it's only £1330 which is a blessing to me as the **** hand-me-down Berlingo from my grandparents has a 1.9 and costs £2200! on insurance and is no fun unlike the mini.

 

So what things am I supposed to check that are all in good working order? its had quite a lot of work done on it, "1. New Crystal Halogen E Marked Headlamps, 2. New Radiator, Coolant hoses, thermostat and new fan belt, 3. New Lambda sensor, 4. Bluetooth radio Stereo, 5. 5 new yokohama tyres, 6. Replaced main wiring loom with brand new (£1.2K), 7 Complete overhaul of the front brakes (£1.1K), 8. Replaced all vacuum pipes and new fuel trap, 9. Replaced door seals, 10. Replaced doorsteps, 11. New wiper motor, , I have all the receipts for the above. The previous owner also replaced the engine which now has 12000miles." So as i said what should i check? and what modifications are the best to start with I have a good budget to spend on car parts I've landed a good job and recently got inheritance money so can't complain ;^).

 

And what performance upgrades can I get that won't bend me over the table for insurance.

 

Any advice is welcome I really want to make this my new hobby as the world of cars excites me.

 

Kindest regards,

Archie

 

 

 

 

Attached Files

•  my mini.jpg   57.77K   34 downloads

[cal844]

Looks tidy, get a magnet and go over the whole car(especially the scuttle and front end. Also get it up on a lift and check the floor for rust, or holes... Don't be scared to prod any soft areas

[the.stroker]

£1100 for front brake overhaul.....

[Archie and his Mini]

Yeah its pretty high but he has reciepts lol mechanics nasty here i guess. The breaks seemed to be in good condition when i took it out for a drive.

[FlyingScot]

Is a specialist who did the work on her, or just a local garage?

FS

[Archie and his Mini]

Sorry for the huge delay was having too much fun driving it around the small windy country roads ;) Totally get the mini love and I embrace it wholeheartedly.

 

From reading through the various sheets the previous owner gave me it seems that a specialist had done all of the most recent work that I mentioned earlier, so that's why the pricing in the listing is quite high as it includes the price of working hours. There's also previous work from general mechanics along with another specialist down in Essex.

I can scan some of the documents if you like.

Last weekend I drove it down to my friends on the border and we got it up on the jack and some good bricks of wood and have a look around. The main area of concern is in the pockets by the backseats  it's pretty nasty honestly... (will upload pics later) We didn't get right under for some reason but from what we could see it looked solid in the middle and there weren't any obvious rust spots but you could see some undersealing coming off (is this a concern?). We also gave the breaks a looking over we noticed that the N/S/F brake disc had a larger than expected rust outline, what I mean by this is the area that the brake pads are not touching on the outside of the disc. We tried to take apart the rear drum brakes  but couldn't get the adjuster "square nob" on the backside to budge even the slightest bit so gave up and moved onto the front brakes. Any advice when it comes to these as I would like to get new ones fitted so of course I will have to get these ones off somehow.

Gearbox- I get crunches down into 3rd mainly and occasionally 2nd I'm sure it's partly my fault due to being used to diesel cars (first petrol car I've driven). What's a good shifting rev band? I've been doing some heel and toe to blip when shifting down and this seems to have helped a great deal with the crunching along with double de-clutching. Just some general advice on shifting would be nice, I think I've just about got the hang of it but when self-taught I'm sure I have missed something.

 

And now a quick list of issues.

• Brake lights don't work.....
• FR arch missing (had it on purchase not sure when it came off...)
• Left side indicator is not working (the small rectangle one on the side of the car)
• Right side indicator is white (also the small rectangle one)
• Reverse lights are temperamental
• Windscreen leaking in top right
• left and right windows leaking
• rear right window leaking at bottom back corner (probs due to the clamp being a bit loose will check)
• Bottom of doors leaking
• Rust
• Brakes
• Gearbox crunch
• Interior fixed up
• rim rust
• 2 small dents in rear bumper

 

 

I'll get some close-ups of the rust etc today and upload them later.

 

 

Here's a little teaser video me and my friends made on Monday.

I intend on making this a well looked after mini and will keep the build updated on here hopefully and definitely on youtube, still deciding on a channel name let me know if you have any ideas to plagiarise. ;^)

Could always stick to Archie and his mini but I do intend to extend to other cars so in the long run not so great.

 

Let me know what you think I should do and how to go about it.

[THE ANORAK]

Well you certainly have the right roads for a mini !!! Nice video.car certainly looks the part. You will find loads of little problems in these old cars. Best advice i can give is just work your way through the problems and try to spend your money on safety things first, like brakes etc. The cosmetics will come in time. Good news... those little side indicators only cost a couple of quid

[some1158]

If you need a specialist Mini garage for anything there are two in East Lothian: McDonald Minis at Wallyford, and Miniworks just on the A1. Clark McDonald at McDonald Minis has been working on the cars for decades and is a real expert, especially where the transmission and mechanicals are concerned.

[Archie and his Mini]

Hello again,

 

Fixed the break lights it was the brake light switch behind the pedal just replaced that and they work :)

 

 

so this is the brown death that resides in the back pocket area.

 

I've been considering buying a new dash as it's not too much and there are some really nice ones.

 

Considering getting this in red

and then have this red dash also.

 

But also considered a lovely wooden interior... It's hard to choose between all the options as they all look so good.

 

And now I'll talk about the rust, So as you can see the N/S/R is pretty rugged, there is a crack/hole near the wall and its just rusty n crusty down there. The other side isn't as bad but still work to be done. 

 

I'm also fitting some speakers in the doors whenever it is they arrive, so will most likely make a video for that hopefully sooner rather than later but I'm an avid procrastinator.

 

Please suggest anything that would be smart of me to do im here to learn.

 

 

 

 

Attached Files

•  NSR2.JPG   53.12K   18 downloads
•  OSR3.JPG   60.68K   9 downloads
•  OSR2332.jpg   75.72K   8 downloads
•  NSR3.gif   364.89K   13 downloads

[spiguy]

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but when I saw your video the first thing I noticed was that your car has oversills, also known as coversills. This generally means that someone has fitted them to cover up rust issues, and from your latest pictures that would appear to be the case. When you look inside the rear bins as you have, and have photographed, what you are seeing is the inner sill (bad name for it) or floor. This part and the outer sill make up the box section of the lower side of the car. That is alot of rust you have in there, and I suspect that you probably have a real mess under those sills.

 

If you intend to fix this properly, you will need to remove the oversills and deal with whatever lurks beneath. This is likely to involve many repairs, possibly running the whole length of the car, maybe also heelboard repairs (where the rear subframe bolts to) and so on.

 

Sorry to be negative, but it is quite possible that whilst your car looks good (and it does) it has been tarted up somewhat, and actually requires or will require some considerable welding in the near future. I also noticed from your first pictures that it looks like the seam between the wings and the front panel is not visible - it might just be the picture though, hard to tell for sure. This is often done if that area has been tarted up with filler to hide rust, so you might want to check in behind the headlights to see how it looks.

 

Depends what your plans for the car are, but I have a suspicion you are in for a bit of welding....

[some1158]

Here's more on oversills and the problems they can cause: http://www.theminifo...-to-avoid-them/

[THE ANORAK]

My advice... dont worry about cosmetics (dash etc)... save up your money and get that rust sorted. That is quite bad and im sure most people on here would have walked away from a car with rear bins like that. But it can be sorted.... welcome to the joys of minis

[Archie and his Mini]

Well I'm prepared to get the rust treated and I know it's the main thing to deal with before other things, I just love to do some window shopping  . I'll be taking it the one of the specialists earlier mentioned by some1158 and see what they think, I'm willing to delve into the depths of my wallet for this car anyway.

 

All advice and suggestions welcome!

[THE ANORAK]

There's nothing wrong with spending your money on cosmetics its just a matter of priorities. My new buy could do with a facelift but as its just about sat doing nothing for ten years it needs some mechanical TLC first. Your blessed with a car that looks great already and remember... rust spreads. The sooner you deal with it the better.

[sonikk4]

Sort the rust out before anything else. There is a lot of work to do there so spend wisely, get a decent job rather than a half arsed one and once the bodywork is sound you can then spend on the mechanical upgrades.