45 replies to this topic

[mini-mad-mark]

After seeing the topic where the PO fitted the grille with rivets making it semi-permanently fixed, has anyone else found any bodges on their mini? (Hopefully with pics!) - Can be funny, clever, interesting or even downright dangerous!!

 

 

Here's some from my minus maxi build thread that I've already posted

 

 

 DSCF1937.JPG   236.33K   2 downloads

Using ball joint covers on the suspension knuckle (Just plain "No" - fool !!!)

 

 

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Bending the subframe down to get a spanner on the brake hose (Use a socket - idiot !!!)

 

 

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How do you expect the separate fuses to do anything if they are all joined together with a spindly little cable (Get a fire extinguisher - dumbass!!!!)

[Gaz66]

Years ago my mate chocked his radius arms with wood wedges covered in mud to get through the MOT.

[Icey]

Lots of fiberglass, it was 'restored' by someone that apparently knew about Minis. We were very naive when we bought it but learnt pretty much everything about Minis sorting out the bodges on this one car.

[Steam]

Yep, you just got to love POB's.
Oil drain sump plug stripped out and repaired with a helicoil, which was done crooked so PO used an O ring and a large sqeeze of siicone as well as the copper washer to try nd sel it.

[sonscar]

I am reluctant to berate ' bodges' by previous owners.They kept the card running possibly with little tools or budget.If the answer to the problems was a 'professional?' the nett result could have meant a scrapped car,possibly the one that you now have.Now a 'professional' bodge may be a different matter but even here we do not know what the customer was willing to pay for.Steve..

[bpirie1000]

Baked beans tin cut in half and jubilee clips each end to extend a scafolding pipe on for an exhaust.

[Spherix]

The A panel on my first Mini wasn't folded over and welded, it was glued in place. When the MOT tester pulled off the chrome wheel arch strip, the panel popped out..

[mab01uk]

'MK' electrical junction box hidden under the rear carpet, used to extend the wiring to a 1970's Smiths aftermarket rear window heater element....

Edited by mab01uk, 29 April 2022 - 08:25 AM.

[SolarB]

Oh dear, this starting to bring back memories of what I did to a few cars back in the '80s.

Bake been tin, jubilee clips and some exhaust past was a regular task to get the exhaust through an MOT.

I also got through quite a bit of filler

[sonscar]

I think that more than a few of us of a certain age have done their fair share of a expedients repairs.Tools were not as widely available and expensive.The thought of owning a welder or compressor was the stuff of dreams.When I needed welding done you were introduced to a world of surly chaps in greasy ovvies emerging from dark caves.They sucked through their teeth and growled' Gonner costya'usually resulting in a really bad job but another year MOT.
Not everyone was like this.Steve..

[mab01uk]

Oh dear, this starting to bring back memories of what I did to a few cars back in the '80s.

Bake been tin, jubilee clips and some exhaust past was a regular task to get the exhaust through an MOT.

I also got through quite a bit of filler

 

In the 1960/70's when MOT's were not so strict or computerised or the days when a mate in the 'garage trade' could get it passed, it was quite common to bridge a hole in the inner or outer sills with some fibreglass matting & resin, then skim some filler over, followed by a thick coating of underseal. Also got one of my first rusty Minis through its MOT on a tight budget in the early 1970's by pop riveting on some oversills and a thick coat of Halfords black bitumen underseal brushed all over.....

Edited by mab01uk, 29 April 2022 - 12:20 PM.

[Gaz66]

Another mate who is now the owner of his own garage had a mini estate with rotted out boot floor at the rear doors area.
A plate was fashioned and stuck on with silicone with the icing on the cake being a continuous bead of silicone round the plate which when undersealed looked just like weld!

[alex-95]

This reminded me of a few bodges on my ritz, A rust hole in the inner sill covered with a stanley blade and some sticky rubber stuff and a rear wheel arch welded over another arch! and one I done which lasted well over a year until I could be bothered to get a new one, stitching the diaphragm with cable ties.

 

[Chris1275gt]

Previous owner fitted new front shock absorber top brackets and rammed unc nuts on the unf bracket thread, and not really a bodge but there was no Clevis pin connecting the brake pedal to the master cylinder and strangely enough only found it after driving it around for 3 months as the master had started leaking.

[panky]

Not on the mini (all those bodges are all my own work ) but on my minor traveller

 

Front spring hanger almost held together with rust and filler

 

 

I can't find the pic but there were sections of floor with SEVEN layers of patches on rusty patches

 

A big box of bodges

 

Edited by panky, 29 April 2022 - 10:23 PM.