578 replies to this topic

[cooperd70]

Simply amazing...jealous as all hell. My 'Nini' a 998 cooper conversion will have her time ???

[floormanager]

Well, after just over 2 months, today I drove my mini home from Mill Road, after load of work undertaken by Ben.  I cannot recommend enough, Mil Road and Ben to fellow mini owners needing some TLC on their mini.  Many thanks Ben, Roger and Kirsty for looknig after the car and me!  They even met me off of the ferry!!

 

Merry Christmas

 

Paul

 

[panky]

It's a breath of fresh air to see this, all the horror stories that go around with cars stuck in 'restorers' workshops for years with nothing done. Then Ben turns this beauty round in a couple of months while working on another car at the same time, simply brilliant.

[Ben_O]

Had a bit of 911 Targa action today.

 

This started off as a small hole barely big enough to fit a finger through which seemed like a nice quick easy repair but on further investigation, it seems that it will be a bit more involved

 

 

Before that was taken, I had just run a grinder over it as it had some fibreglass bridging filler in it and then gave it a gentle tap with a hammer once I noted the frilly edges

 

I cut a bit more out to get a better idea of what was going on

 

 

Half of the kidney bowl (reinforcer) was missing and the other half had rotted away. Someone at some stage had attempted to reinforce it by tacking in a piece of inch box section behind the kidney bowl.

 

More chopping revealed the entire story

 

 

 

You can see the piece of box section through the rusty holes

Better get it rebuilt then

First off the remains of the Kidney bowl needed to be removed and I took the jacking point out too as the rust had got under that. Ill remake my own

 

 

 

I then chopped out the rot from in there

 

 

And made and fitted a new piece including the beginnings of a new jacking point

 

 

And then tried out the new kidney bowl for size

 

 

 

I only have that panel, a new B post and a piece of quarter panel so will have to fabricate a new outer sill myself.

Ill tell you what, we are spoilt with the prices of Mini panels, I was shocked at the prices of porsche panels, even pattern parts!

 

Cheers

Ben

[rich_959]

Fantastic work as always Ben. I had an old 911 a long time back and it was a nice solid car (coupe) but many of the Targa's and Convertibles seem to suffer in similar spots to that. Assume it's water getting in to places it shouldn't? 

[Ben_O]

Fantastic work as always Ben. I had an old 911 a long time back and it was a nice solid car (coupe) but many of the Targa's and Convertibles seem to suffer in similar spots to that. Assume it's water getting in to places it shouldn't? 

This one is not a great example.

Besides this work, I have rebuilt the leading edges of the wings below the headlamps as they were bodged with filler and FG.

The whole car has had a really quick rough blow over in the past but you can see the original metallic green in places and the horrible council house blue that it was before the grey.

There is rust bubbling all around below the rear window trim and it's generally quite poor although looks very nice from 10ft away.

 

I expect that it was water that caused the issue as the back edge of the sills are open to the elements from inside the rear wheel arches which isn't a particularly good design IMO.

They are very well coated from the factory with sealants and stonechips but over the years, it's all dried up and gone brittle which had caused it to chip off and let the water in by the looks of it.

 

I expect ill have the other side to do next year as that's starting to go.

I feel sorry for the woman who owns it as she bought it having been told by the previous owner that it had had lots of work done including new front wings (which it hasn't)

 

Ho hum. I just wish she wanted it fully restored as values are increasing and this could be a very nice one indeed.

 

Cheers

 

Ben

[floormanager]

Ouch, German metal rusting like old British cars!  How are yo going to rebuild the sill, from a repair panel or from sheet steel and a lot of bending?

All the best,

Paul

[KTS]

mini panels may well be cheaper, but then we generally need to use a hell of a lot more of them

[Ben_O]

Ouch, German metal rusting like old British cars!  How are yo going to rebuild the sill, from a repair panel or from sheet steel and a lot of bending?

All the best,

Paul

Hi Paul.

The new B post forms part of the step at the back and the quarter panel repair section forms a part of the sill too. I just need to fill in the gaps with my own fabricated panels. The shape is very basic and will be easy to replicate.

You can get everything for these but when I ordered the panels for it, I hadn't anticipated how much of the outer sill I would need to remove as it looked and felt sound from the outside. The inside was a different story.

Cheers

Ben

 

mini panels may well be cheaper, but then we generally need to use a hell of a lot more of them

This is very true.

I wouldn't like to make a guess how many panels this car would need for a full resto but I imagine quite a fair few!

Cheers

Ben

[floormanager]

Can we have a picture of the entire car, just to see how it looks from the top?  Always loved 911s, especially the 80s ones.  Cannot afford one, especially now as the prices are going silly.  Do not want a Targa but a photo of the reasonable looking outside, now knowing what horrors lie underneath, might cure me for life!!!

[Ben_O]

Can we have a picture of the entire car, just to see how it looks from the top?  Always loved 911s, especially the 80s ones.  Cannot afford one, especially now as the prices are going silly.  Do not want a Targa but a photo of the reasonable looking outside, now knowing what horrors lie underneath, might cure me for life!!!

Yeah, sure.

Ill get the repairs finished and get it painted and then once it's back together, ill get some photos for you.

All of the front end trim is removed at the moment.

Cheers

Ben

[Ben_O]

The Porsche is now done, I just haven't had a chance to get the pics up!

I don't have every picture though unfortunately so there is a chunk missing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I rebuilt the step and the sill too but no pics?

 

Here is one of it in paint

 

 

 

I also repaired the front edge of the passenger door which was twisted from a broken check strap and a gust of wind

 

 

The wings were also repaired beneath the headlamps

 

 

 

 

And back together

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Ben

[JXC Mini GT]

Great work Ben, you would never know it has been repaired.

[KTS]

nice job as usual Ben - hopefully you'll be seeing that one again for a bit more care and attention in due course

[Ben_O]

nice job as usual Ben - hopefully you'll be seeing that one again for a bit more care and attention in due course

It needs quite a bit more to make it nice.

The worst bits now are rust beneath the rear window seal which is bubbling around the edge of the trim all the way round and the bonnet is quite bad, There is some outward dents all over it where it's been closed onto stuff. Also the paintwork is very tired and where its been painted several times in different colours, it's thick which causes loss of definition in some areas.

I haven't met the owner as it's come in via a friend who looks after it mechanically but he seems to think that she will soon want the bonnet done which I think is sensible as that's what most lets it down now.

Cheers

Ben