That hot pink and rusty Mini

[Ben_O]

Hi all.

 

Some of you may remember a thread about a rusty pink Mini on here a while ago.

 

 

It belonged to jackytwoshoes of this parish.

 

Well it ended up being for sale and I bought it. I have had it a while now and it has sat in storage untouched since and it may well have ended up staying that way for the foreseeable as I just couldn't find any spare time to do anything with it.

 

Anyway, I have now decided to allocate 1 day a week to this car and finally get the ball rolling with the restoration.

 

I am no stranger to Mini's and restore them for a living among other classics so am planning to do a very through restoration to a concourse standard so it will be going back to original.

 

I have decided Monday's are the best day for me to work on it so i dragged it out of storage and into the workshop ready to begin next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I plan to document the progress here in this thread if people are interested?

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[mercrocker]

Rust, Lucas treachery, BL cost-cutting, de-pinking.   You bet we're interested....

 

Anyway, how come it still has floors?

[Timewaster]

That does look suprisingly solid.

 

More more!

[Mr Laurence]

I'd definitely be interested in seeing how this progresses. That's a really solid base for a resto, especially for an MPI - it even looks like it may have slightly less rust in some areas than mine does...

[Ben_O]

 

Anyway, how come it still has floors?

I literally have no idea! I have seen plenty of Mini's that haven't sat on wet grass for years with less floor than this has!

Either way, I expect it will be getting an entire new floor. Ill decide once I get it stripped and on the spit.

[500tops]

Please, continue...

[crapcarcollector]

Bookmarked. I likes a good restoration I do.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ben_O]

Seems like plenty of interest so ill keep the updates coming.

 

Ill start stripping it out Monday so expect an update Monday night.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Great stuff! More fettling, less blather, that's the way to a happy bo11ox

[trigger]

My interest in this thread has been expressed. God speed.

[tul66]

I've driven a few Mini's but never owned one. Good luck with the resto.

[danthecapriman]

+1 for continuing a resto thread.

Looks a good car despite sitting. Please tell me your going to paint it back to red, or any other colour than pink though!?

[Mally]

I've owned a few. One had no rust holes but 2" of water in the rear foot well. Which transferred itself to the front when you braked.

We have also crashed a few. On the Ovals and unintentionally on the road.

Wish my garage floor looked like yours.

[Parky]

Definitely, definitely, definitely keep us updated on this. I love these things

 

Please can you make it look like this and then sell it to me for £250?

[Asimo]

Please keep it pink. 90s Minis are a pink sort of a car.

[Ben_O]

+1 for continuing a resto thread.

Looks a good car despite sitting. Please tell me your going to paint it back to red, or any other colour than pink though!?

It's going back to Red with a white roof, bonnet stripes, mirrors and pin stripes/laurels.

Everything will be completely as original and as it left the factory but just with more paint on it and no bare metal...

 

Wish my garage floor looked like yours.

I have been wishing it looked like that for the past 3 years.

It was all freshly done last week. 

 

Definitely, definitely, definitely keep us updated on this. I love these things

 

Please can you make it look like this and then sell it to me for £250?

 

Ha ha 

I wish as much as you that they were still that cheap.

Ill finish this resto, do a season of shows in it and then see what happens. It will probably end up a keeper but I don't want it to be a trailer queen. Too much fun to be had for that

[tooSavvy]

Who said 'spit'?

 

Scaffy Pole, shirley...

 

 

TS

[Parky]

Any initial thoughts on rustproofing Ben O? Looks like your place knows what it is doing so what do you normally use on these?

[matt27]

Looking forward to watching this. Finished* restoring my own about 6 years ago (in time to use as our wedding car) but it wasn't really finished....and still isn't! Must get back out to the garage...

[Ben_O]

Who said 'spit'?

 

Scaffy Pole, shirley...

 

 

TS

I have a Mini specific roll over jig which ill use for this.

 

It has seen some action but makes things much easier

 

 

You don't have to cut a hole in the rear bulkhead to use it either which is appealing 

[Ben_O]

Any initial thoughts on rustproofing Ben O? Looks like your place knows what it is doing so what do you normally use on these?

Usually, its a case of zinc primer in all seams and weld edges epoxy primer on the body, good quality sealers and a good coating of stonechip underneath, making sure that everywhere is painted properly and then all cavities filled with waxoil.

I haven't had any problems so far but as I am going for a concourse finish on this one, the finish has to be perfect and although stonechip can be attractive if done nicely, It's not very original looking so ill have to get my thinking cap on.

 

I am considering using no stonechip underneath and instead, paint it body colour so I end up with a shine and finish that is as good as the top side but if I actually want to drive the thing, it's not very practical.

 

Ill decide later. 

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[Datsuncog]

Blimey, that looks surprisingly solid for a 90s Min left standing in grass for a bit. My Clubman was parked up on hard standing and still ended up with panels the consistency of cottage cheese... very much looking forward to seeing this one resurrected!

 

[mercrocker]

I have a Mini specific roll over jig which ill use for this.

 

It has seen some action but makes things much easier

 

 

You don't have to cut a hole in the rear bulkhead to use it either which is appealing 

 

When did they do away with the Rotodip hole in the rear seat bulkhead?

[Rusty_Rocket]

^^^ around 1972!

[mercrocker]

Ah, well, apart from a brief dalliance with a Mayfair, I only ever had Mk1s!

[mk2_craig]

This has the makings of an epic thread, I bet you're going to uncover some heavy duty grot once you start unpicking all those panels. Looking forward to Monday!

[Talbot]

Anyway, how come it still has floors?

 

This.

 

Also reminds me of the time a friend had a 1983 mini in the mid '90s, which he'd bought with a fresh MOT.  I am somewhat suspicious of that MOT, as when it rocked around to 11.99 months later, and it was shoved in for an MOT, the tester poked a dozen holes through the sills and a few more in the floorpans.  I had a look at it, and realised it had had "repair" sills just attached over the original rotten sills.  The new sills had about 5 tack welds top and bottom, and were mainly held on with underseal, painted over the joins.

 

I pulled the repair sills off by hand, starting them going with a spatula.. the tack welds just snapped when you pulled at the sill, and a significant percentage of the car then fell on the ground.  And then the floor fell out.  The floorpans and the sides of the car were detached from the front of the sill all the way to the back.. the only thing holding the floor together was the centre tunnel and a slack handfull of tack welds.

 

"Can you repair it?"

 

*runs away*

 

We shoved the front subframe, engine and box into the front of another mini that was in much better condition, but that was the most rotten I have *ever* seen a car that had been on the road with valid* MOT.

[mercrocker]

It wasn't unusual to find three or sometimes four "outer" sills as they were laughably known tacked over the remains of the original structure.   "Floors" pop-riveted over the rot were quite common, as well.   I look forward to seeing the shell of this pink one when its stripped - it would be interesting to see how rotten it is despite the sound appearance so far.....

[Ben_O]

This.

 

Also reminds me of the time a friend had a 1983 mini in the mid '90s, which he'd bought with a fresh MOT.  I am somewhat suspicious of that MOT, as when it rocked around to 11.99 months later, and it was shoved in for an MOT, the tester poked a dozen holes through the sills and a few more in the floorpans.  I had a look at it, and realised it had had "repair" sills just attached over the original rotten sills.  The new sills had about 5 tack welds top and bottom, and were mainly held on with underseal, painted over the joins.

 

I pulled the repair sills off by hand, starting them going with a spatula.. the tack welds just snapped when you pulled at the sill, and a significant percentage of the car then fell on the ground.  And then the floor fell out.  The floorpans and the sides of the car were detached from the front of the sill all the way to the back.. the only thing holding the floor together was the centre tunnel and a slack handfull of tack welds.

 

"Can you repair it?"

 

*runs away*

 

We shoved the front subframe, engine and box into the front of another mini that was in much better condition, but that was the most rotten I have *ever* seen a car that had been on the road with valid* MOT.

I see this all the time.

 

I repaired this 1275GT Mini in 2016. The owner bought it with MOT and there were no advisories...

Looking back through the MOT history showed that it hadn't had any advisories for several years and no mention of rot or substandard repairs..

 

This part of the floor came away just by me trying to remove the rear subframe

 

 

The whole floor was in a terrible state of poorly attached 'patches'

 

 

 

And like you said about your mates one, it had the dreaded cover sills and beneath them was interesting

 

 

Some people really shouldn't wield the welding torch 

 

There is only one answer with this type of rot and bodgery

 

 

But it all came good in the end

 

 

 

 

 

I'm doing a 1969 Cooper 'S' at the moment that has cover inner sills braze tacked over the rusty remains of the old inner sills.

 

It really is crazy what some people consider an acceptable repair.

[Ben_O]

It wasn't unusual to find three or sometimes four "outer" sills as they were laughably known tacked over the remains of the original structure.   "Floors" pop-riveted over the rot were quite common, as well.   I look forward to seeing the shell of this pink one when its stripped - it would be interesting to see how rotten it is despite the sound appearance so far.....

I honestly don't see this one being that bad. I think it really is a case of what you see is what you get.

As far as I can tell so far, it's only ever had an A panel and front panel in it's life.

Everything else looks original and there are no patches or other welding anywhere at all