mini cooper refurbishments !!!! Help

ianc929

Hi everyone!
For the past few years i have had a huge interest in refurbishing a mini cooper. Unfortunately i have not been able to begin my new hobby for a variety of reasons.

This summer i believe and hope it will all come together. At the moment i am building up funds for the project, whilst this is happening i am trying to gain knowledge about the project and draw up a plan.

I have not yet purchased a mini but have sourced a spot in a garage. My knowledge of cars is very limited but i am handy with bodywork.

This thread is basically an attempt to have a few of my questions answered. I have far to many questions so i am going to do a bit of a brainstorm and hopefully you can give me a bit of info on the topics.

How to select my mini.
Cost of mini.
Condition of the mini.
Costly problems with refurbishments.
Common mistakes with this type of project.
What needs to be done on the mechanical side.
Cost of total project.
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Thanks for your time and any reply.

Bigus

I think you should go and drive some good ones that are for sale before you make any decisions. Are you going for a real 60's cooper with twin tanks or a more ya 80's one ?
Check out some mini forums and carandclasssic.co.uk

darragh o meara

Ok I have been looking at getting one too and Ive done a lot of research into them. I had a few in the past but gave them a break for a while when the rallying bug bit hard

Heres a few things to know about minis:

1. A good thing that was said to me a few years ago when I first got a mini was : If you buy a mini, you also need to buy a welder, a haynes manual, and a spare parts catalogue!!

2. Minis rust everywhere and general rule of thumb is buy the best you can afford and go look at a few before you decide to spend your hard earned money!! There are a lot of lads claiming to have lovely solid cars for sale, As recent as yesterday I enquires about one up the country, The lad selling it told me it had a few small patches of rust starting to come through but nothing major and that the car was very solid. The pics of the car looked well and it looked like a winner until I asked him for few more pics by email!! the little patches of rust turned out to be a major infestation of rust in the front panel and the wings, it was so bad that if i hit a speed bump or pothole I would have probably lost most of the front end of the car!!!!

Places to look for rust in particular:

Front panel
Wings
Scuttle panel where wipers stick through
Front A panels between the wings and the doors
Bottom of doors
Sills both inner and outer
Floor pan
Roof rails
Boot door
Boot floor
Panel underneath the boot door that it hinges onto
Subframes front and back
(they really suffer badly from the rust worm)

3. If your buying a classic ie. one thats pre 1980 and has cheap tax and insurance, ALways check that the logbook is the right one for the car, Two or Three have popped up in the last few weeks claiming to be 1978,1968 and both are nowhere near being that old, 1978 one had fuel injection engine ( only around since 1995 ) and an airbag!!! (not even invented back in 78 iirc) The 68 had factory fitted seatbelts in the rear and loads of other signs of not being what it claims to be!! SO check before you buy a lot of lads buy 90's ones and stick a 70's plate on it to escape the tax and NCT.

In answer to your questions:

How to select my mini.

Look at lots of them and look at a few ones that are outside your price range to get a feel of what a good one is like, Get talking to people in the owners forums and see if they know any of the prospective cars, These lads eat drink and sleep minis and in the most part are only happy to help you get a good one, They're also based all over the country so some will be willing to go look at one with you.

Cost of mini.

Costs vary from 500 euro for a shed to 6-7000 for a good restored one, BUT I must point out that there does a few good cars pop up at very good prices from time to time, I Missed out on a 1275 GT this week that needed a small mechanical repair (brakes issue) that went for 2 grand!! So keep an eye on the forums,donedeal etc and have your money to hand in case a good one pops up!! If a fixer upper is what your looking for you will pick a decent enough one for 1-2 grand and maybe a bit cheaper. At the end of the day you pay for what you get!! BUt dont let your heart rule your pocket!!

Condition of the mini.

If your starting out get as good a one as you can afford to buy and repair, All mini panels can be bought very reasonably in the UK and there is evena few mini specialist starting to appear over here too. A half decent one can be bought and driven with a few bits done to it and you can tap away at the rest as you get a few quid together but please dont drive any car thats not fit for road use

Costly problems with refurbishments.

Body work is costly to get done right, If your handy with a welder you should be able to do a lot of this yourself, but if your not sure then set someone who is to do it. Big engine mods can rack up the euros but these are a really enjoyable car to drive as is.

Common mistakes with this type of project.

buy a shed and thinking that it will be ok with a few panels, Yes if you have a heap of money to throw at it why not, a lot of the very early mini restoration projects started out in a very bad state and are now mint but have cost the owners a lot to get it into that condition!

Another mistake is to think you can just buy a welder and start into it with no experience!! This does not work and very few people are gifted with a welder straight off!! I am one of those people who thought that welding was easy until I met a fella who could weld properly and he showed me the strenghth of my welds needless to say I was shocked between my poor welds and his proper welds!!!!

What needs to be done on the mechanical side.

Mechanically these are a simple engine to work on and Ive seen lads changing head gaskets on minis at the side of the road on a mini run!!! If your buying an early one with points ignition it would be wise to familiarise youself on how these work and how to set them up, its not too difficult when you know how but a bitch if your stuck somewhere and trying to fix them for the first time. Get used to doing some routine maintenance on the engine and youll quickly learn the basics, A Haynes manual is a must buy for any mini and it has a step by step account of doing most jobs on the cars!!

I would consider replacing the front brakes to discs if brake drums are fitted, you will get a better responce to the brakes and they are a bit safer too. Another popular brake upgrade is the brake servo unit from the 90s on mini this again helps with braking power and delivery. If your going back to original in every way obviously you will be sticking with whats on the car.

Cost of total project

Really a how long is a piece of string question, Ive seen some lovely minis restored for 1-2 grand but that involved an awful lot of self labour. It helps if you can do most of it yourself, mini specialists charge by the hour and the costs can quickly mount up. If your able to do most of the work yourself youll save a lot of money. My next mini I hope to do it all myself except the paint as I want a pristine job done on that

Hopefully this will help you in a some part in your quest for a mini. Have a look at the Irish owners forums and ask any question you like, somebody will be able to answer you.

Enjoy, Youll love your Mini

MorrisCooper

Ian,

Darragh's advice is sound. I would also suggest joining the likes of the Irish Mini Owners Club or at a minimum browsing their forum www.irishminis.ie/forum where there are regular posts on restoration issues and cars/parts for sale. There are other forums out there but the IMOC one is exclusively for Minis 1959-2000.

Hope it helps.

ianc929

Thanks a mill for all the advice I have the book ordered.
Im sure it will be a huge help.
If anyone is interested in spliting a project please post.
Thanks.

dougie-lampkin

http://mini.dougie-lampkin.500servers.net/

Here's my project website, for an idea of the type of restoration you could be in for. Mine was sitting up on a driveway for a couple of years before I acquired it, so the rot had started to spread. Darragh's post is spot on with the places to check for rust, 90% of those have either needed replacing or are showing signs of rust on my car.

Common mistakes are not replacing anything that's rusting when you're doing your restoration. If everything is not replaced, the rust will spread again in no time. Ensure the complete underside, wheels arches, sills, etc. are undersealed before the car touches the road, or it'll rust from the bottom up in no time. The floor pans will also tend to accumulate water due to bad door seals.

On the mechanical side of things, there's always something that needs to be done on your Mini :rolleyes:. Your restoration is never totally finished :pac:

ianc929

That website is great Dougie, well done.
Im sure i will be refering back to it again.
I think the shell is always going to be worse than what you think before purchase but how can it be assessed on the day if its painted over ?