823 replies to this topic

[minimk1]

hi I have recently measured the wheel and it is defiantly 6 x 10 but i don't know how you can tell if they are magnesium or not as they have the original cross-ply tyres on but the paint on the wheel is to poor to see any codes on but i had no idea that they are rare how could you tell ?

[1977 Loud_Mini]

Well you say they are from the year 1968? i'm pretty sure that 10x6 in magnesium and the thick flange rim type are pretty rare as most either have a little lip on the outer edge of the rim, or have sort of filleted radius outer rims, yours appear to be flat (meaning they are termed as thick flange ones as now replicated by minilife). If there are no markings on the outside part of the wheel near the spokes (so names like minilite, 10x6 etc) then they are most probably genuine minilite and magnesium type. If you can get a close up pic of a wheel where the paint has flaked then i may be able to tell if they are magnesium. They will be sort of rough and may possibly have lots of little dimples over the surface as most maglites i've seen do have.

Evan.

[minimk1]

thanks for the help i will soon post the pictures of the wheel on but i had a good look and i could see no markings anywhere on the wheel so i am pretty sure they are the original magnesium minilites and would this add value to the wheels also being magnesium would it be harder or more expensive to get them refurbed and once again thanks for the information.

[minimk1]

got some close ups of a wheel to sow the bare and painted metal condition

[1977 Loud_Mini]

Going by the pictures you posted i would say they look like the original magnesium minilites and being 10x6 i'm fairly sure they're quite rare as i personally haven't seen a set, only the 5.5" wide ones as used on some works mini coopers. They also look to be very nice condition, bit better than mine infact on the outer face. On one of the pictures it does look a bit shiney like metal (2nd pic) but by the ageing effect on the wheel with the dimples etc looks like oxidisation from the magnesium. Whether they're metal or magnesium you've got a great find.

Regarding the refurbishment, i'm not that sure as to what to do as i only recommended what the previous owner of my wheels did to them, which was plasticoating or something and then powdercoating. Some people say don't powedercoat magnesium as it will trap air underneath but mine seem fine.

Evan.

[minimk1]

thanks for the infomation on the wheels as i have found it very useful as i had no idea they were rare and magnisium as this infomation comes in handy to add to the history and originalality too thank you

Edited by minimk1, 15 July 2011 - 09:13 PM.

[LTSwaby]

wow thats a lot worse than mine in places although my drivers side ploor pan is not connected to the outteredge of the shell at all and mine has little bits of rot in the most anoying of places

[minimk1]

wow thats a lot worse than mine in places although my drivers side ploor pan is not connected to the outteredge of the shell at all and mine has little bits of rot in the most anoying of places

so not realy that bad in comparison what age is ur mini ?

[minimk1]

realy got cracking on the mini in the past few days and the first major thing done was the seperation of the subframe from the engine then later on dad removed the rear subframe from the car to leave us with a shell so dying to discover the condition of the underneath of the car we rolled her over onto a few matresses



after not working on the little mini in a while we thrived for some progress so dicided as the boot floor was in need of desperate repair we would give that a go so we cut of the old metal and tacked the new panel in place by rivits but as we are in the process of buying a welder that is as far as we could go with that panel

[minimk1]

yesterday evening was a great sucsess as we were going to be working all over the mini for a while i was in need of a jig as allways ebay threw one up for a reasonable price it was located in london down a small alleyway off a fantastic guy called adrian who is just peicing up the clubby estate he had chocen to restore he had great advice and taught me alot in the short time at which i was there allso adrian was part of a band so a shout out to burnt toast !!!!!!!!



seeing the mini in such a vunerable position my dad thought it was time to crack out his right hand man the angle grinder he loves this thing so he got cracking on the passenger side door step and sills

Edited by minimk1, 22 December 2011 - 11:00 PM.

[minimuk]

how many sills where that on the offside??

[minimk1]

how many sills where that on the offside??

there were three including the inner sill

[minimuk]

that seems to be the number, restoring old mini's always have 3 or even 4 in certain areas, one wonders why they never replaced the old rot, but just covered it!!?? MOT comes to mind

[minimk1]

that seems to be the number, restoring old mini's always have 3 or even 4 in certain areas, one wonders why they never replaced the old rot, but just covered it!!?? MOT comes to mind

yeah they just do it for a quick and easy fix when they could put a bit more effort into doing a proper job this is also the case of when a massive whole is filled in with filler this can be dangerous as this was done to the whole n my roof pillars where there was more filler than metal

[minimk1]

update not much work done today but hey ho its progress as me and dad removed the other sill to find more holes and more historic screws buirried umong the rust in the old sills and definantly set on building a very fast road 1098 aiming for at least 80 bhp but i want to lighten the mini as with the roll cage and other bits adding weight and fast and easy ways of doing this that are preferbly not too expencive ? anyways here are the pics