327 replies to this topic

[DaveJH]

Back from the welders, not a good job done though! Had a massive amount of hassle from the guy, threatening to smash my car up unless I paid him £250 regardless of the fact he didn't even cut out the rust, he just plated quickly over the top He even damaged the car in places!

Then at the MOT station the car failed to start, turns out I have some wiring issues that are going to be looked into tomorrow. If this all takes too long I might not be able to take him back to uni with me

[jinjrich]

You need to follow that up mate, call the police for him threatening to damage your property, and trading standards so it doesnt happen to anyone else. Sorry to hear of your troubles.

[myredmini]

Such a shame about the welders. Out of interest are you keeping them rear seats in ? im looking for some thats all.

Thanks
Dan

[DaveJH]

Somehow I missed your posts, thanks for commenting. I went to the police and Trading Standards, they both said there was nothing they could do. The police said if he threatens me again I can file for harassment (has to threaten at least twice and I have to give an official statement), Trading Standards could only write him a letter explaining the situation. Given his threats I doubt that would have made any difference! The problem was that he was that my Mum was very effected by it, she was quite scared. Considering they want to retire where we are currently living I decided the only way we could move on was to pay him off and forget the whole situation.

Anyway, I've finally had it back from the auto electrician who found out the relay box (?) that the fuel pump wires run through had been cracked open in the past and not sealed properly. He cleaned up the board and resoldered some dirty connections and the problem is sorted. Cost me £120 though, and had I known that was the problem I could have done it myself.

Took the car in today for the MOT, I called to book it on Saturday and called again today an hour before dropping it in to confirm the MOT (which is booked for Tuesday - tomorrow), when I got there I was told it can't be done until Wednesday! I'm going back to uni on Saturday and need it back to sort whatever it fails on - now I have one less day to fix it while juggling my 9-5 job. I then also realised the spare tyre had disappeared. ATS say they don't have it which means it must be at the auto electrician's garage but he is impossible to get on the phone so I doubt I'll ever see that again.

Everything is going wrong I highly doubt he'll coming back to university with me now. I'm devastated! I've spend about a grand on the car now and half of it was on rubbish jobs or easy jobs.


@Dan: they're out at the moment because I can't find the bloody screws to fit them back in and I've failed an MOT before for not having back seats properly secured so I though it was safer not to have any! I do want to put them back in though. If I change my mind I'll let you know, they're in great condition. I'm looking for a new driver's seat but I doubt anyone will split a set for me, and I doubt I'll find a good one!

[DaveJH]

Here's a couple of recent pictures I took while cleaning the interior.




State of the driver's seat:


Halfway through the passenger seat:


With some help from George.

[DaveJH]

I'll be honest, there have been so many disappointments with this car that I've even been considering selling him once the MOT is sorted (if it ever gets sorted) and getting something newer and more reliable. I'm no longer excited when I get behind the wheel, I just think of all the things that have gone wrong. Even the new wing mirror I ordered turned out to be the wrong one when it arrived. The windscreen washer pump seems to have packed in, though I can't test it because it's at the garage waiting for the delayed MOT, the fog light has stopped working and I'm too scared to remove the fuel tank to fix the broken fuel gauge for fear of seeing the awful job the welder did to my car.

[DaveJH]

...Just had the call from the MOT guys, they did manage to do it today (a nice surprise). The car failed (as expected), the list isn't too bad if you ignore one thing. My mini has failed on the welding work I was threatened into paying for. I'm £250 out for welding that needs to be redone, I leave for uni on the weekend and I have nothing left in the bank. As I'm at Oxford I am working 24/7 and have no time for anything more than a one-night-a-week bar job which pays £25 a week. Upshot? Once again my pocket, my car and my dream of taking my car to uni lose out. I honestly don't know what to do now.

[bcjames]

Hey Dave,

Minis and the mini scene are both brilliant. Keep your car positive in your mind, show it a bit of love, and all will fall in to place In theory anyway! I think as great as anyone's car looks, we all have issues along the way, but after going round in circles for a while things settle in to place and the Mini becomes perfectly reliable for everyday use. Mine has driven me to despair through crap repairs and filler bodges, and although I've threatened to throw it all in quite a few times, she's still here in my garage, and she's a tidy little car now!

Great job on cleaning the seats up. I did my headlining recently and was shocked what a difference removing 15 years of muck made! I have a Charles who is good for cleaning the cars interior but I wish I'd got a George for his extra features.

[DaveJH]

Thanks for the encouragement. The seats actually look a lot better than pictured above, they were still wet in that picture so they look darker than they are. I'm very pleased with them. I only wiped the headlining with a wet cloth so that isn't quite at the same standard.

I think the next step is to work out where to keep the mini while I go back to uni and when I can afford to get it done properly. Hopefully I can do it myself (with a mate) as I have a good welder, the issue is having adequate working conditions as we don't have a garage or even a spare shed. I wish we did, I'd have done the work myself to begin with!

[DaveJH]

Update time! This is a little photo bomb for anyone who might still be reading.

First up, here are pictures of some of the shoddy welding and some of the holes he managed to miss!

Missed: rear driver's arch:


Passenger's sill and rear of floor:






Driver's rear floor:


Rear bins:




A couple of his horrible welds:
(I started painting over this one)




Overview of inside the car:






And finally, some shots of my removed stuff:




Labelled properly:


Finally, I thought this looked quite good:

But perhaps I'm wrong. Too late, you've seen it now.


Next step, decide what to do next. I'm hoping to not only have a big update in a couple of days, I also hope to have my thread updated quite regularly(ish) from now until christmas. More on that later.

Edited by DaveJH, 30 September 2011 - 06:48 PM.

[minimat]

That weldings terrible he hasn't even done one plate on the inner sill all the way round! seen much better on here from people who say they have never picked up a welder before!!

[bcjames]

Hey man, that welder did a good job didn't he

Good to see you keeping the work up on it. Have you got someone else in line to sort out the holes properly? What's the plan?

I very nearly bought an SPi much like this before my MPi appeared for sale. Same colour and trim.

[jinjrich]

I am gobsmacked at that welding. How can he charge anything for that?

[sonikk4]

That welding is awful and to be honest it all needs to come off. It's not even finished at one end on the inner sill and would fail the MOT for that alone.

Was this a proper garage or some fly by night joker??

[olds_kool_lews]

i wasnt expecting to see that on the inner sill on the passengerside! thats awful! you see better welding in banger racers!!! if i can do the welding for you mate, it wont be for a few weeks yet, as im on holiday next week, then the week after im moving house, so things are gonna be abit hectic for the next month or so until were settled in and sorted, i hate when people claim to be a welder, and churn out poop like that! shocking!