started on mates mini today.
heres a before.


heres where i got upto today.






plans are to put new panels on.
front panel,pair of wings,a panels,outer sills,scuttle panel,door step's,repair roof,front floor,a post, full respray.
engine check and paint. new window rubbers.

bit more cutting done today tracing the rot and cutting it out

cool, ide love a mini project

Nice one, there's only one way to do this!!

bit more done today






got the door step and sill tacked in place ready for seam welding and cut the rot out and plated it and painted with zinc weld through primed before welding. hopefully it will help stop any further rust.
scuttle trial fitted will be welded tomorrow and cut the a post and door step and outer sill off on offside. and offside floor trimmed back ready for new floor pan.

yer cut the rot out is the only way to do it properely as just cleaning it up it'll just rot again in the same place.

I'm fearing doing my sills I tell you. Get some weld seal!

wish I had that sort of skill, and be that brave....

Looking gud

My mates part through doing his mini up. Just had a clubmam flip front fitted with a normal bonnet built into it. Looks mint.

only got that amount of skill from years of doing my own and other people's cars. saying that it's a case of having too the price garages charge.
nothing about brave as it's not my car it's my mates lad's who is only 17 and has a 1275 mini after passing his test first time
and i got the lovely job of rebuilding it back to better than when it was new.
i've had a clubman when i was 18 so a few years back loved it and i've now had 4 mini's and still got 2 off them both waiting for me to sort them out but hope to have one of them done ready for MINI 50 celebration's this year.

i think your doing a good job there mate

is that sierra going to be for sale anytime soon?

yep sierra will be for sale just got to fit new fuel tank and pump and mot it then maybe use for a couple of weeks as i have missed driving it then it'll be up for sale was going to do a couple of show's first but with work and having my mini to do i'll probably just do mini and show that instead.

good, i`ll keep an eye on the sale section

got the near side fully seam welded today.

and cut the offside door step and a post out and tacked the new one in.


weld through primer before fitting new panel.

no worries ste.

Have you broken another or is it still the one from aug
(joking matey)

Is there going to be much of the mini left

nah i don't break car's unlike some we could mention lol. yep it's still on the drive since aug. yer will be loads left just cutting all the rust out must of parked it too close to a nissan S13 at sometime. lol
good thing with mini's is you can buy any panel you want to replace and even buy a new shell in steel,fibreglass,fibreglass shell with spaceframe even a carbon shell all depends how big your wallet is and any engine any power you want.

Jez from Horsham was sayin he drove a mini,that scared him,with a LS2 TURBO engine!(Chevy V8)...think Jez mapped it to more than 600bhp and it was still street legal

Power to weight ratio of 1. hehe

Yes please.

z cars built a hayabusa turbo with more than 400 bhp 0-60 in less than 3 secs and the miglia race cars run 140+bhp from an A- series and do 0-60 in less than 4 secs and top 140 mph on a track and could be done as a road car what fun that would be beating most moden cars of the mark.
there is a 16 valve head of a motorbike that fits the A-series and can push out a reliable 180 bhp doesn't sound like much but mini's only weigh 600-700 kg's so power to weight is really good.

there are a couple of mini's on ebay with bike engines in at the mo.one of the best i've seen was in a mag (retro cars i think,still got it somewhere)fibreglass shell an a honda v-tec pushin bout 180 bhp, that gotta be fun!

yep mini's are loads of fun there was a mini clubman estate for sale the other month with a 2 litre vtec turbo in it pushing 415bhp through the front wheel's think it would be a bit too much for fwd.

A BIT TOOOO much???

well done some more today after having yesterday to have a look at the sierra fuel problem and yep tank has got to come off.
well offside door step and a post seam welded

near side doorstep and sill in primer


engine removed ready for a rebuild



scuttle fitted and seam welded just got to fit scuttle closing plates.

offside sill to be fitted and waiting on floor pan to be delivered and fit front panels. soon be ready for paint.

done a bit more today.
offside floor part cutout and outer sill welded on and scuttle closing plates welded on.

Coming along quickly

keep us posted

yer not bad will keep you all posted on the progress got some work to do after tomorrow so will be weekend's and the odd evening

got some more done today but is the last day till the weekend due to work commitments.
front end tacked on ready to be fully welded.

well it was the weekend got some more done.
Brake servo and master cylinder and clutch master cylinder have been removed and cleaned and painted primer under the bonnet.
Offside front floor has been cut out and a new floor pan has been fully seam welded on top and underneath plus got a section made for the roof just got to grind the weld's down and finish with a flap wheel and fill.
Front end has now been adjusted and fully seam welded. Every panel that has been repaired or replaced has been seam welded for strength unlike when new every panel was spot welded.
roof repair

floor section

done a bit more fabricated repair panels for a pillar



roof ground ready to fill

rear end started today found more rot in boot floor,rear valance,offside rear arch



new valance on order. fabricating boot floor and valance closing panels and rear arch.

did you expect that much rust?

Lookin good so far, welding skills need improving though lol

no not as much as we found. welds are getting ground down and the metal on the a pillar is very thin kept blowing threw.
i'd like to see your welding skills joe.

Joes a welder at Lairds (mmm maybe)

Haha my welding skills are utter crap. My welds look like bird poo.

rear valance and boot floor,inner arch,valnce closing have been welded

at last all the welding on the shell has been done and have ground all the welds down ready for paint.






5 litres of stone chip have been applied everwhere so hopefully no more rust ever.
car has now also had first coat of primer and we are in the process of sorting a couple of dents out and then another couple of coats of primer and then base coat apllied so by the end of the weekend will be in basecoat.
just got to change one door skin and prep the doors,boot and bonnet and then paint in primer and basecoat and laquer the car as one.
car is going to be in the original british racing green with white roof and bonnet stripes.

Looking really good

This is gonna look superb when its done.

Keep up the good work mate.


The welds dont look bad tbh

welds are fine now we've ground them back. hopefully look better than new and should last a lot longer now as there is no rust in the car anywhere.
hope to get the paint on friday and finish prepping and priming ready for some base coat this weekend if all goes well but it's a mini so i won't hold my breath. LOL

whhooppee its green again.
got the basecoat on today got to paint the roof white tomorrow plus door's,boot and bonnet in grren and clear coat next week then fun begins putting it back together very carefully tryingnot to scratch it.

got some more done now have a white roof and prepping the door's etc and new door skin is ready to be fitted.

pmsl that picture 17th Mar - missed it the first time - steering wheel and keys in ignition - nearly ready to go

nah look back it's even been a flintstone mobile as floor was cutout LOL.

nice one bud, Its a shame turbo mini stu doesnt post any more about his mini....

https://www.wikiwirral.co.uk/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/166419/1.html

Looking class already

had murder trying to dry it without an oven used a few oil filled radiator's did the job.
bonnet now has stripes painted on

doors waiting to be laquered

rear subframe back on with poly bushes

in the garage drying



what it look like in the light not bad as was only done yesterday





fun times have now started putting it all back together without damaging the fresh paint