Hello!
This is Badger, named because his previous owner must have been called Bodger. (he was actually called Alan, but we don't like Alan)
I’m back in the mini game after 11 years out.
Purchased this 1979 850 nearly a year ago, it was bought as a “recently restored” car, unfortunately most of this restoration was incorrect or just hiding bodge repairs.
Because I’ve not been around mins for a while, I completely over looked some red flags when I looked at this little beast so I’m paying the price now.
What I know about the car so far:
1979, originally an 850
Originally brown, As you can see its Orange! Wasn’t too sure on orange to begin with but its grown on me.
Its has a 1275 engine take from an Allegro
Sitting on 10” Wellers
Stupid loud 2” exhaust
Custom Seat Covers
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- In general, the paint job isn’t the best and at least needs a good mop to see if it can be improved.
- Its sill running drums, so Cooper S disc conversion will be on the cards
Engine wise, I will get a Stage one Kit, I also have a HIFF44 carb that needs stripping and refurbishing, and I have a 12G970 head that I will eventually rebuild and put on it.
Because the Engine is out of an Allegro its running a 3.7 or 3.9 final drive which is terrible for anything above 50 Mph so my plan is to get the engine out and give it a rebuild with a lower final drive.
The original plan was to take the car to my dads and get him to help me, but it became apparent it was not going to work having to travel to my parents (1hr) when wanted to get some work done. Luckily where I work we have a Motor Club where I can rent a bay and carry out work there.
This car is full of bodges and I’m a bit annoyed with myself for not seeing them, I think I just was looking through rose-tinted glasses.
I removed the Checkerboard from the roof and its seems the previous owner cut out the vinyl on the roof and there are score marks all over it! Why oh why would you do something like that, boggles my mind. – So rub down and repaint roof with be needed.
I spent a few months tinkering with it getting the Mini running correctly and fixing a few issues, like crushed a brake lines. the fan was the wrong way around which negated the need for the extra electric fan the last owner installed.
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I then decided to strip it down completely because it has oversills on it and some abysmal welding on the inner sills the pictures below are sort of where it started and where I am now.
Great Repair
Engine out
Rear Subframe dropped, lots of old dirt and rust!
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Rear Subframe out, is worst than it looks and it looks bad. Luckily since then i've bought a new one from Stanford Hall.
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On the Jig[/size]
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Thanks for putting Oversills over rust Alan.
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Passenger inner sill patch removed, horrible welding.
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And the over sill removed too, think that 3 sills deep in places[/size]
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Heel board has got a hole
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Plus i found a nice bit of filler masquerading a metal under this "restored" paintwork
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Also i don't have a picture but they decide to put a new doorstep on the passenger over he old one, so i will need to remove them both and reattach.
So that's it ladies and gents, plenty of repairs needed, way more than i first thought, and I haven't really looked at the rear end yet.
Plans for the immediate future:
Headboard repair
Inner and outer sills both side
Companion bin closing panel
Then ill move onto rear quarter repair and doorsteps and all the other bits
Apologies for the sarcasm its my way of dealing with this mess haha.
If someone could give some advice on which order to replace the Heel board end and Inner and Outer sills and closing panel that would be grand, as I want to make sure I do the best job I can.
Many thanks,
Mike
Edited by richardsoniscool, 11 January 2022 - 10:11 PM.
