It was originally intended to be a quick refurb - a fibreglass bodied car to replace my 1971 1275 GT (which you will probably find in the 'For Sale' section sometime soon). I looked around for minuses (minae? How do you pluralise minus anyway!?), and FRA shells, but had no luck.
And then this Domino HT appeared on ebay: for a grand less than a new shell, I could get a full car, engine and all! Of course, it was too far to go and check out before the end of auction, but this wasn't a mini: I'd find no rust on the body. How much work could a fibreglass car need?
Photos from the auction
Not exactly my cup of tea, I thought. Bodykit style sideskirts, big arches, and a pig-ugly rear end. But still... fibreglass...
Yes, you've guessed it. I took a chance, bid on, and ended up buying it. Hooray for me! And a few days later, it arrived.
Up close, however, it quickly became clear that there was a lot more work to do than I had first expected. Parts of the body were chipped, paint was cracked and, in several spots, coming away from the body, the sunroof was a wobbly mess of silicone and that never-setting windscreen sealant stuff and the doors (a combination of metal inner and fibreglass outer) threatened to fall apart whenever pulled open.
'Luckily', you could only open one of them.
On the inside, the headlining was stupendously baggy, and the dashboard totally non-existent. I don't even think the speedo cable was connected.
Underneath, the exhaust was rotten, the rear subframe was worryingly buckled and the engine sounded less than healthy.
And to complete the deal, it wasn't even correctly registered as a Domino on the logbook.
Some of these points, I admittedly knew about. Some.
So the work began!
The car was completely stripped, loose paint chiselled away, and the whole body was sanded down, repaired (three cheers for King Milliput!), and readied for new paint. The sunroof was removed and the hole patched, as was the crazy-ugly Domino filler cap recessed area-thing.
What a beautiful view
At the same time, I began communicating with the DVLA to get the logbook changed. It took a while, but they were a more helpful than I had supposed they would be, and after being allocated a new chassis number and having an inspector visit to check things over, I was allowed to keep the original 1969 registration: result!
The car then made its first of many visits to the awesome ML Motorsport, where the engine was checked out and declared thoroughly worn out: 1380 block worn beyond 73.5mm, crankshaft bearings worn through to copper. Even the valves in the head were so large as to render it virtually unusable.
Old engine going... going... gone
So, engine removed, new engine (1293) ordered and rear subframe replaced, the Domino returned, ready for painting.
I originally attempted to spray it myself... with spray cans. This was a mistake, as I eventually discovered. Maybe it was the paint, maybe it was the conditions in the garage or maybe it was the fibreglass. Either way, the paint remained soft permanently.
Wet-sanding the whole body. In the end, a complete waste of time
Thankfully, I discovered a spray place charging a reasonable price just down the road from me... and so off to KR Motorsport(at Meopham railway sidings) it rolled (literally)!
Stripped of my own weeks of work and properly sprayed in a retro Marina Blue (actually an old VW colour), the car returned, and I began piecing it back together. New headlining and doorcards arrived from bert998, a flocked dashboard from smudger, as well as countless other parts from other forum members, Minispares, DSN Classics and Car Builder Solutions.
From memory, the polycarb quarter lights were from digi-cars.piczo.com, replacement bonnet from Body Stylist, the 7.5 S disc setup from who_loves_the_mini, thus facilitating the 10x6 split rims from fastcarl. Thanks to all of you.
Back to ML Motorsports, and Andy dropped the new engine in, fitted the front and back windscreens (not easy - as I discovered - when the shell is several times the thickness of a standard steel) and got it tuned and running for Southern Mini Days, just a few days later. It even appeared in the SMD round up in September's Mini Magazine (although unfortunately with no mention of MLM). Bottom-right, page 47!
TADA!
That's the story for now, but although I'm now driving it to work daily, I wouldn't call it finished (can a mini truly ever be?)
Next jobs are:
A MegaJolt ignition system almost ready to fit (need to sort out the trigger wheel),
Replacing the doors: the steel inner / fibreglass outer nature of the doors is simply not a good long term solution. Sure, it makes fitting the windows, locks, etc easy, but despite doing a lot of work on the doors when they were first removed, they're already cracking around the joins. I intend eventually to replace them with fully fibreglass doors and polycarbonate windows (not totally straightforward, since they'll need cutting down, and the Domino sill 'bulge' thing adding).
I'd like to get some new (preferably vinyl) seats, and generally the interior needs attention (not least the numerous leaks that spring whenever it rains - fibreglass may be good at resisting water - but when it gets in, it's also very good at holding it!).
And the wiring generally needs tidying up.
Perhaps I'll update this thread with any significant progress. But for now... thanks for reading!
