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Long-time LBC fan and Bugeye owner. Have decided that I absolutely need a Mini. There's a 1970 for sale in my area, an import from German so it's LHD, has 12"' wheels. The plan is to dimantle it thoroughly and rebuild it as a hot street yet stock appearing Mini. Can any of the experienced Mini owners here give me a top ten list of things to look for, beyond rusty sills and oil leaks? Plan is to redo the motor with many of my on-the-shelf Sprite performance bits, beef up the diff and other gearbox internals, strip to bare metal and proceed from there. Thanks in advance, BuggerAll.
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Newby needs advice
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dklawson
Yoda
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Being a Bugeye owner the A-series part of things will be familiar to you. The gearbox will be a bit different but it's still a BMC design and won't be too strange.
Because the Mini remained in production so long, bits can be mixed and matched over the years (with care). What remains true though is that regardless of the age of the car, fixing and painting the shell remains a singularly expensive proposition, particularly going to bare metal. Therefore, look for and avoid rust. Get the most rust-free Mini you can find. The mechanical bits are less expensive and easier to deal with. Beyond the sills look at the front floors. Lift the vinyl off the bottom of the rear companion boxes and look for rust. In the boot, look for rot along the back edge where the hinges are. All of those can be complicated repairs if the rust is severe. The rear subframe bolts to a surface just below the back seat. That area can rust and it's also expensive to fix. The rear subframe itself can rust and it has to be replaced, there are no off-the-shelf patch panels for it. The front subframe is usually well protected with oil. However, up front, look for any signs of rust on the scuttle panel in front of the windshield extending down to the front wings. That's another complicated repair. Roof pillar repairs can also be tricky. On cars with sliding door windows, look for rust along the bottom of the door frames. Expect the sills to be bad but pay attention to where the crossmember connects to the inner sills. On cars with sliding window doors, the A-panels where the hinges are on the car body are 2-layers thick. If you see rust bubbles anywhere on the A-panels they will need to be replaced as part of your bare metal respray. They aren't too hard to do but fitting them with the wings in place can be a challenge. All of the body panels can be bought somewhere or scavenged from a donor car. It's not that there's a shortage, just a lot of work. Choose a car requiring the least amount of bodywork. Quality panels come from Heritage, M-Machine, and there are still some NOS Rover parts around. The generic pattern panels have a reputation of requiring a lot of tweaking to get the fit right. Your time is valuable so getting quality panels in the end will save you time and therefore... money.
As far as the go fast bits, the 12" wheels will allow you more options for brakes. Standard Minis came with drums all around. The Cooper had 7" front disk brakes reported to be only equal to (or lesser than) the drums. The Cooper-S added 7.5" disks that were better. When the 12" wheels came about they could squeeze bigger 8.4" disks under the rims. If your would-be project has drums and you're going to change or beef up the engine you may wish to consider buying and converting to the 8.4" brakes.
Good luck with your project. Let us know what you decide to do.
Because the Mini remained in production so long, bits can be mixed and matched over the years (with care). What remains true though is that regardless of the age of the car, fixing and painting the shell remains a singularly expensive proposition, particularly going to bare metal. Therefore, look for and avoid rust. Get the most rust-free Mini you can find. The mechanical bits are less expensive and easier to deal with. Beyond the sills look at the front floors. Lift the vinyl off the bottom of the rear companion boxes and look for rust. In the boot, look for rot along the back edge where the hinges are. All of those can be complicated repairs if the rust is severe. The rear subframe bolts to a surface just below the back seat. That area can rust and it's also expensive to fix. The rear subframe itself can rust and it has to be replaced, there are no off-the-shelf patch panels for it. The front subframe is usually well protected with oil. However, up front, look for any signs of rust on the scuttle panel in front of the windshield extending down to the front wings. That's another complicated repair. Roof pillar repairs can also be tricky. On cars with sliding door windows, look for rust along the bottom of the door frames. Expect the sills to be bad but pay attention to where the crossmember connects to the inner sills. On cars with sliding window doors, the A-panels where the hinges are on the car body are 2-layers thick. If you see rust bubbles anywhere on the A-panels they will need to be replaced as part of your bare metal respray. They aren't too hard to do but fitting them with the wings in place can be a challenge. All of the body panels can be bought somewhere or scavenged from a donor car. It's not that there's a shortage, just a lot of work. Choose a car requiring the least amount of bodywork. Quality panels come from Heritage, M-Machine, and there are still some NOS Rover parts around. The generic pattern panels have a reputation of requiring a lot of tweaking to get the fit right. Your time is valuable so getting quality panels in the end will save you time and therefore... money.
As far as the go fast bits, the 12" wheels will allow you more options for brakes. Standard Minis came with drums all around. The Cooper had 7" front disk brakes reported to be only equal to (or lesser than) the drums. The Cooper-S added 7.5" disks that were better. When the 12" wheels came about they could squeeze bigger 8.4" disks under the rims. If your would-be project has drums and you're going to change or beef up the engine you may wish to consider buying and converting to the 8.4" brakes.
Good luck with your project. Let us know what you decide to do.
Thanks for the sage advice. I've seen a lot of restos in Miniworld where the tinworm took a lot of chasing and don't know if I'm up to the heroic measures some people have taken. The car I'm looking at does have a couple of major perforations which don't put me off, but I will most certainly take my floor jack along when I go look at it. Car already has the disk brakes, so that's a plus, I'll have to locate the specs for German-market export cars. One thing I must say: checking prices in the Moss catalogue vs, Minispares and the other Brit vendors (have been buying some nice bits with the now-mighty dollar recently) is quite a shock. Example: Moss wants something like $400 for the generic vernier cam/crank sprocket & chain set which you can get now for less than $100 including shipping from the UK. It's not practical to order massive bits of body tin that way, but really! I've ordered the standard works on restoration of minis from Amazon and should have them soon, so I'll try and do this in a level-headed fashion. Again, thanks for all tips.
dklawson
Yoda
Offline
Perhaps you can post some pictures of the worst rot you've found on this car. Almost all panels are available. Some are just harder to install than others (like the heel board under the back seat and the scuttle below the front of the windshield).
I buy some parts from the U.S. suppliers when my items are not expensive and when I can wait for parts. I do want to keep vendors like Seven and Mini Mania in business. Mini City is available on the east cost but they aren't the most responsive and their prices aren't great. I have the Moss catalog... they would be a distant 4th choice among the U.S. vendors. They are simply too expensive... but they do publish a nice printed catalog which the others don't. For big ticket items or when I'm ordering a bunch of parts I contact Mini Spares. The prices are lower and shipping to me on the east coast is faster. Being in MD you're likely to find the same. There are other U.K. sources I use infrequently like DSN Classics and MiniSport. Once you set up a relationship with one or more U.K. vendors it's generally a good experience.
You said your car was a German spec Mini that eventually ended up here. That's interesting. My '64 is a Swiss spec Mini that found its way to Germany and then eventually was brought to the U.S. by a guy in the military. If your car is like mine there should be an aluminum plate riveted to the front of the RH door opening. The plate will have the VIN # and gross vehicle weight stamped on it... all with German text. I think there were a few minor changes to the German vehicle's wiring and lighting but otherwise they shouldn't be too different from those cars sold in the U.K.
I buy some parts from the U.S. suppliers when my items are not expensive and when I can wait for parts. I do want to keep vendors like Seven and Mini Mania in business. Mini City is available on the east cost but they aren't the most responsive and their prices aren't great. I have the Moss catalog... they would be a distant 4th choice among the U.S. vendors. They are simply too expensive... but they do publish a nice printed catalog which the others don't. For big ticket items or when I'm ordering a bunch of parts I contact Mini Spares. The prices are lower and shipping to me on the east coast is faster. Being in MD you're likely to find the same. There are other U.K. sources I use infrequently like DSN Classics and MiniSport. Once you set up a relationship with one or more U.K. vendors it's generally a good experience.
You said your car was a German spec Mini that eventually ended up here. That's interesting. My '64 is a Swiss spec Mini that found its way to Germany and then eventually was brought to the U.S. by a guy in the military. If your car is like mine there should be an aluminum plate riveted to the front of the RH door opening. The plate will have the VIN # and gross vehicle weight stamped on it... all with German text. I think there were a few minor changes to the German vehicle's wiring and lighting but otherwise they shouldn't be too different from those cars sold in the U.K.
The car is on the private sellers list of the Minimania site, with a link to a set of shutterfly shots which show the visible rot. When it's poped through at the front of the rear quarter panel I suppose it might mean sills, likely more. It's in VA with a listed price of $6000 - and thanks again for the insights.
EricG
Jedi Trainee
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Doug has given some excellent advice! One thing to add-try and find a local and impartial Mini owner who can point out the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Mini you are looking at. No reason to settle for a particular car that needs lots of $$$$repairs when there are many other Minis available and some of the best deals are word of mouth amongst other owners.
Good luck! Eric
Good luck! Eric
the car is located in Chantilly VA. I'm not afraid of thw ork - in fact, that's why I want a mini. I can't think of anything else to do to my bugeye (except finish the 1360cc motor to replace the 1312 unit which only has several hundred miles on it) and runs like a bull, especially since I installed the Megajolt. BTW I think the megajolt is a fine product, there are a lot of posts about it on the British Miniforum, got a lot of tips for myinstallation from them. Back to the subject at hand: replacing sills, bits of floor and panel not a problem for me, also want to paint up a nice mini with the almond green c/ white top of the old Coopers, make the car my own. Just want to have a reasonably solid foundation for the project. Again for DKLawson: I can't make it any more specific than to say that the car is listed on the MM site, under private sellers, it's on the first page about one-quarter of the way down. Thanks to all respondents for the advice -
dklawson
Yoda
Offline
If this link works, it should be to the car you're looking at. It was the only one in Chantilly, VA.
https://www.minimania.com/web/id/8209/Cars4Sale_Detail.cfm#mce_temp_url#
Here's the additional picture link site:
https://classicmini.shutterfly.com/
I've posted the links and a query at a board in the U.K. I frequent. Once they confirm or deny my suspicions about this car I'll post back again.
https://www.minimania.com/web/id/8209/Cars4Sale_Detail.cfm#mce_temp_url#
Here's the additional picture link site:
https://classicmini.shutterfly.com/
I've posted the links and a query at a board in the U.K. I frequent. Once they confirm or deny my suspicions about this car I'll post back again.
