123 replies to this topic

[Richard_]

Poor Bertie!
It may possibly be written off as you say- but it looks repairable to me.
I've been reading your thread recently and it's been a real inspiration. Now this! Such a shame.

Good luck and don't give up on Bertie!

[MiniCarJack]

Good news, Bertie was collected on a transporter this morning, and repair work has been authorised by the insurer, so it hopefully won't be long before it's all fixed up and I can get back on the road again. There's even another almond green Mk1 there for company, albeit in far better condition than my one 

 

[Quinlan minor]

I don't mean to pour cold water, but based on experience, has it gone to a Mini specialist?

I've had an "Approved Insurance Repairer" put half an inch of filler on top of the existing paint in a dent (not even rubbed down) and painted over it.

If it's not too far away might be worth dropping in to see how they're getting on with the repairs, if you know what I mean?

 

Mine started to bubble through after about nine months and, after a bit of wrangling, the insurance company had it properly repaired.

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Edited by Quinlan minor, 27 April 2021 - 08:43 PM.

[MiniCarJack]

I don't mean to pour cold water, but based on experience, has it gone to a Mini specialist?

I've had an "Approved Insurance Repairer" put half an inch of filler on top of the existing paint in a dent (not even rubbed down) and painted over it.

If it's not too far away might be worth dropping in to see how they're getting on with the repairs, if you know what I mean?

 

Mine started to bubble through after about nine months and, after a bit of wrangling, the insurance company had it properly repaired.

 

I was very particular with where I was willing to send the car, which is why it's gone all the way to Poole - the repairs are being taken care of by Nidor Bodyworks, they do a lot of high-end restoration work so I'm confident that my car's in good hands. I've been speaking over the phone with Martin there, the green Mk1 in the last photo is his personal car and it's an absolute minter!

[wingnut]

Excellent news!

[MiniCarJack]

All the new panels and parts have turned up at the bodyshop which is good news, they've got a couple of ambulances in for urgent repair today but once those are sorted they should be able to crack on with carrying out the repairs to the Mini. In the meantime I've not been able to resist a bit of shopping! A friend sent me a Facebook listing he'd found for some period '70s/'80s car audio bits yesterday, and I pretty much drove straight down the road to buy the lot...

 

The first item I got was this as-new Radiomobile K240 head unit, still in its original packaging with the instruction manual and all the bits ready to fit to a car. I reckon this will look perfect in the 1100 Special centre console I plan on fitting, and since it's a spindle-mount type I won't have to butcher the console itself. I think that the 1100 Specials would've had Unipart radios, but this is of the same period, and really looks the part so it should complete the console nicely! I like the box design too, reminds me a bit of the Mini Neon branding 

 

 

 

Annoyingly I only realised after getting home that it's a 24v unit, but I was thinking of just mounting it for the looks, and hiding a more modern unit or Bluetooth amp to actually drive the speakers and allow me to connect my phone so this shouldn't matter anyway. On the topic of speakers...

 

 

I never even knew that Lucas did their own range of aftermarket speakers! But lo and behold, here's a box of two NOS Lucas parcel shelf speakers, like the radio these were just bought and never fitted so have been sat around since the early 1980's. 

 

 

Much like I've already done with the centre console, I might actually fit modern speakers inside these pods for a high quality yet retro-looking setup, then fit them in place of the current speakers which are mounted in the parcel shelf holes (which I'll need to cover with a new MDF panel). It might seem a bit weird to forego the factory holes but I would prefer this for a few reasons - 1) I won't have ugly speakers sticking out when I open the boot any more, 2) It might actually sound a bit better as the speakers will be enclosed, and 3) I like the earlier Mk4/Mk3 look, which is the "theme" I'm starting to head toward with the whole car.

 

It'll be nice to treat Bertie to some cool new parts once all the major surgery is done!

 

[Junior Mini]

You could build or buy a charge pump and boost your 12v to 24vdc if you really wanted the head unit to work?

[MiniCarJack]

Getting close to being back on the road now which I'm very excited for! As nice as it's been to have been given a modern hire car with such exotic luxuries as power windows and air con, I do miss driving the Neon.

 

Martin has been excellent at keeping me in the loop and has shared lots of photos as the bodywork has progressed. First up the rear was stripped down, and the car was put on a jig to get it pulled straight again before panel work could commence.

 

 

Because the rear quarter was pushed into the drivers' door, that's going to need repairing and repainting as well as the rear. My door wasn't in the best shape beforehand however, so along with a couple of other bits such as a new battery box as a "may as well replace that while we're in there" job, we've opted to fit a good second hand door with a brand new skin.

 

 

And here are the other nice new panels which turned up from Minispares:

 

 

As some of the old paint was stripped off, it revealed quite a substantial amount of filler in the rear quarter - it looks like the car has had a side impact previously in its life, and rather than take the dent out properly, it was just covered with copious amounts of filler! This might also explain why the door was in a poor way...

 

 

All of this filler has been taken out and the old damage will be beaten out properly before a much lighter skim of filler is applied to smooth it out in preparation for new paint.

 

 

The second hand door was reskinned and now fits in the hole much more nicely than before.

 

 

Meanwhile the old mangled metal in the rear was cut out ready for fresh panels to take its place.

 

 

Internal repairs done in the boot floor with new repair panels and a battery box all fitted

 

 

And now it starts to resemble a car again! Rear panel being spot welded in...

 

 

New valance fitted

 

 

And first fit of the boot lid!

 

 

At this point there are a few jobs that still need finishing off before it's fully prepped and painted, but hopefully it'll be ready to go early next week. I've also opted to go another step further and have the bonnet replaced & repainted, again as a "may as well do it now" sort of job. Obviously the bits like this I'm paying for myself as they aren't covered under the insurance work, but it makes too much sense to do it now rather than separately at a later stage, given the paint will already be getting mixed up and a lot of this work can be done in parallel to save time and money. But what this means is I can finally "de-stripe" the bonnet and boot, and tidy up the car just that little bit more. I'm very excited to see it finished now!

[cooperd70]

Can't wait to see her finished....even better than before with those old accident sites sorted as well 😊😊

[g111mds]

Making great progress, and nice to see it being repaired,

[Richard_]

Brilliant - it looks like you have managed to turn a negative into a positive.

[Quinlan minor]

Now would be a good time to get the wiring in for a high-level brake-light, while the back window is out.

[wingnut]

This is going to look fantastic when its finished, i bet your excited.Are you having the whole car painted now then?

[MiniCarJack]

Now would be a good time to get the wiring in for a high-level brake-light, while the back window is out.

 

That's a great point about the high level brake light wiring, not something that had crossed my mind actually!

 

This is going to look fantastic when its finished, i bet your excited.Are you having the whole car painted now then?

 

Unfortunately I can't quite justify a complete respray - the front will remain untouched apart from the bonnet, as will the majority of the passenger side, and the roof of course. To be fair the existing paint isn't too bad, it's not to a mint standard but when polished it looks good. Plus if I were to opt for a full respray I feel like I'd end up paying out for more panel work to get the front wings etc in a closer-to-perfect state, as I'm sure there is quite a bit of filler on the passenger side in particular. Basically, I've had to draw the line somewhere to prevent this becoming a full resto job 

[wingnut]

Makes sense, you don't want something your scared of scratching, just something you can enjoy all the time