43 replies to this topic

[Lsurt95]

25 a year? thats cheap. im waiting for a garage to rent before i can buy my first mini. all i can do is wait i suppose.

[AndyMiniMad.]

I dont want to put you off restoring your own Mini, but its as well that you know what you are getting into, As Cooperman has said, his sons car looked fine, but they ended up doing a major restoration on it...

This also looked great when I bought it for £1500..





I was just going to tidy it up chuck in my 1380 and run it over the summer....This is how it looked two weeks ago after I started to find the rust..



My plans changed a tad! Im looking at a two year restoration..I have all the tools required and a really good man cave to work in..this is not my first major restoration either. Im reckoning on spending £2-£3k on this.. so basicly what im trying to say is.......Be carefull what you buy and be prepared for a long haul!!

[Cooperman]

No one loves the Mini any more than I do or for as long as I have, but it has to be remembered that the Mini is an old-design classic car. To keep a classic on the road requires either a lot of serious money or the ability and facilities to do the majority of the work yourself. I know I'm fortunate to have a large workshop and, being retired, as much time as I want to commit to Mini work, but I do feel sorry for young Mini enthusiasts who want to run a classic car but don't have the facities for doing the work themselves. It's not so much a question of technical capability - that's what we are on here for - but simply a suitable place to do the work and the necessary tools, welding gear, electrical supply, etc., to do it.
For example, my Grandson's MPI decided to break its exhaust on Friday. The short flexible piece just in front of the cat fractured. So we just put it in the workshop, jacket it right up as high as it would go, dropped the manifold and I welded up a repar using bits of pipoe of 3 different diameters all nested together. If we couldn't have done that it would have cost around £140 for a new manifold and over £100 for a garage to fit it all. Then we fitted Hi-Lo's to the rear in the afternoon - cost about £45 for the parts and nowt for the fitting.

[Binzo94]

Yehh, i know what you mean


Also with regards too the garages did you just actually walk too them and see if there was a sign or something as there is a few where i live but nothing on the internet :/

Cheers for the replies guys

[Noah]

Yehh, i know what you mean


Also with regards too the garages did you just actually walk too them and see if there was a sign or something as there is a few where i live but nothing on the internet :/

Cheers for the replies guys

Well mine was a case of My dad is the chairman of my synagogue (I'm a jew) and they use the garages along there to store chairs and such. So i asked him for their number. and they sed 25 pounds a year.

[CLM]

how much space etc..
thanks

Well, they don't take much space at first... But they do tend to multiply, my "one" mini turned into 5 so far.. >.<

Chris

[Mini Cheddars]

If you're looking to rent a residential garage, have a look at your local council and housing association's websites. My housing association don't do garages, but another local one does and for people that don't rent homes from them, the garage rental is £36 a month I believe. It's a bit less for people who rent from them.

[Black.Ghost]

I have a Mini Cooper in a garage that I rent and a 1l Auto. Ones a full resto and the auto doesn't need too much to get it back on the road. I'm now gonna sell everything and just keep a few tools. And then I'm going to buy one that someone else has done the hard work on. The cost of the garage, the cost of the parts etc is big. You need to be able to do so much yourself for it to be worth the cost.

When I own my own house and have a garage, I'll buy a resto project. Until then, I'm steering clear.

Just think about it long and hard. I honestly think you will be better off buying a nice 1 litre and look after that. Learn how to service and carry out small jobs on that. Your knowledge and confidence will build slowly but surely.

[Binzo94]

Hmm , yeh ive been looking around and if i was going too do it get a 70-80% complete project and then go from there , one with little too no rust, and then maby attempt a little restoration, just putting it all back together maby .. As with getting a little 998 ive already had one and it was fun but id really like something with at least a little bit of power so was maby thinking of getting a 1275 engine and seeing how hard it would be to do a few things too it after i read a nice thread on here about tuning the a series i really liked the sound of it.. i hope that the insurance will be okay for a 1275 too if not illl have too rethink.. After reading around and looking at some restoration threads the things that seem particularly scary is the wiring loom and wielding stuff like new pannels (thats why id proboly have too go with something with minimal rust) as i too dont have a welder and im guessing one would be pretty expensive + the time learing how-to .. But looking at some reastoration threads looking at empty engine bays full of random wires .. Where do they all go :/ .. when swapping a engine Say a 998 to a 1275 do you need to change anything on the wireing loom or does it just simply bolt in? .. There just seems so much too learn ;)

[Cooperman]

Very few Minis are 'rust free' unless you have done a full body restoration or pay a lot of money for a 'mint' car.
Wiring loom is easy as you just use a wiring diagram to identify which wire goes where from its colour coding.
There is a lot to learn, of course, but keep on reading up on it all.
For a young person there is a need to be able to tackle most of the usual Mini jobs, including welding, or to have a lot of cash.

[jeff-jeff981]

Firstly I defiantly agree with others that they multiply. I started with one when i was 17 and now 2.5 years later there’s 4 and one written off :S


You seem to want what I did when I was 17, a project which has had quite a lot of work already done to it. So I’d start looking on the classifieds on here and eBay (but be more careful on here as there’s a lot more rotter’s) at what’s available maybe have a look at one or two. At this point try and decide how much work you're willing to take on e.g

engine rebuild, buy a good engine, good engine with project?
do you want to weld (remember more money on equipment but a good skill)
Pro job ££££ or spray it yourself + body work? I would read about this a lot before you decide. You can get good results if you follow the guides that are out there and follow them!
What mechanical jobs do you want to take on? The majority can be done by following the Haynes and reading what people have written on here

I basically removed front sub frame and engine (no rebuild), I avoided welding as I didn’t have the time to learn, fitted 90% of parts, and fixed a good proportion, I bought a new wiring loom to avoid trying to trace electrical faults (with fitting I asked a member from here to lend a hand so we could use his car as a template. The fact he knew what he was doing was very useful) and I sprayed the car as I couldn’t Justify the cost of a pro re-spray.

At the end it looked good and I learnt so much it took me about a year but I didn’t get much time on it as i worked a lot. So in a summer if you’re willing to put some man hours in and not take on something too big it should be doo able. If I’m honest add at least a couple of months on to whatever time scale you have! It cost me £2000 to get it on the road, but as always you still spend money on them lol. I got lucky and got alot of tools with my car and the body work was fairly good to begin with :)

As for tools id find a friend with a Halfords trade card and get yourself a Halfords professional tool set (lifetime warranty), jack 2.5 ton I think, axel stands, torque wrench (you could get the jack, axel stands and torque wrench elsewhere but read up about them first and dont buy cheap crap)

If necessary compressor, welder, welding clamps, air tools if u fancy splashing out, spray gun. Then specialist tools like ball joint splitter, cone compressor e.t.c if you need to buy them or just borrow them of a friend :)

Have fun do some reading and get stuck in :)
Jeff

Ohh I forgot id highly recommend setting up a spread sheet and price everyting up, listing the jobs you think need doing read about them and alocate a time for it.
then double what ever figures you come up with or maybe tripple!

Edited by jeff-jeff981, 17 June 2012 - 11:52 PM.

[Cooperman]

Good advice there Jeff-Jeff.
I would add that I've only very rarely seen a Mini resto which did not still need a bit of welding. I've just bought a 1964 850 Mini project and the shell was 'fully restored and welded'. However, looking in the rear side boxes I immediately noticed that the important structural members running fore & aft are badly rusted and so the new sills will need to come off to gain access for a proper job to be done. At first glance the shell looked completely done with new wings, a-panels, front panel, etc, but when one looks closely it's a different matter.

[AndyMiniMad.]

Good advice there Jeff-Jeff.
I would add that I've only very rarely seen a Mini resto which did not still need a bit of welding. I've just bought a 1964 850 Mini project and the shell was 'fully restored and welded'. However, looking in the rear side boxes I immediately noticed that the important structural members running fore & aft are badly rusted and so the new sills will need to come off to gain access for a proper job to be done. At first glance the shell looked completely done with new wings, a-panels, front panel, etc, but when one looks closely it's a different matter.

Sounds familiar!!

Edited by AndyMiniMad., 18 June 2012 - 01:40 PM.

[Binzo94]

Firstly I defiantly agree with others that they multiply. I started with one when i was 17 and now 2.5 years later there’s 4 and one written off :S


You seem to want what I did when I was 17, a project which has had quite a lot of work already done to it. So I’d start looking on the classifieds on here and eBay (but be more careful on here as there’s a lot more rotter’s) at what’s available maybe have a look at one or two. At this point try and decide how much work you're willing to take on e.g

engine rebuild, buy a good engine, good engine with project?
do you want to weld (remember more money on equipment but a good skill)
Pro job ££££ or spray it yourself + body work? I would read about this a lot before you decide. You can get good results if you follow the guides that are out there and follow them!
What mechanical jobs do you want to take on? The majority can be done by following the Haynes and reading what people have written on here

I basically removed front sub frame and engine (no rebuild), I avoided welding as I didn’t have the time to learn, fitted 90% of parts, and fixed a good proportion, I bought a new wiring loom to avoid trying to trace electrical faults (with fitting I asked a member from here to lend a hand so we could use his car as a template. The fact he knew what he was doing was very useful) and I sprayed the car as I couldn’t Justify the cost of a pro re-spray.

At the end it looked good and I learnt so much it took me about a year but I didn’t get much time on it as i worked a lot. So in a summer if you’re willing to put some man hours in and not take on something too big it should be doo able. If I’m honest add at least a couple of months on to whatever time scale you have! It cost me £2000 to get it on the road, but as always you still spend money on them lol. I got lucky and got alot of tools with my car and the body work was fairly good to begin with :)

As for tools id find a friend with a Halfords trade card and get yourself a Halfords professional tool set (lifetime warranty), jack 2.5 ton I think, axel stands, torque wrench (you could get the jack, axel stands and torque wrench elsewhere but read up about them first and dont buy cheap crap)

If necessary compressor, welder, welding clamps, air tools if u fancy splashing out, spray gun. Then specialist tools like ball joint splitter, cone compressor e.t.c if you need to buy them or just borrow them of a friend :)

Have fun do some reading and get stuck in :)
Jeff

Ohh I forgot id highly recommend setting up a spread sheet and price everyting up, listing the jobs you think need doing read about them and alocate a time for it.
then double what ever figures you come up with or maybe tripple!

thanks really good advice wich I will try and take on board when making a descision :)