Some of you may remember this thread: https://www.theminif...d-is-this-rust/
As explained in that thread, I ended up buying the Mini. It arrived in the US 3 weeks later and cleared customs last week. This morning, a friend (who has a TWIC card, required by the Department of Homeland Security to enter port property) and I went to pick it up at the Port of Los Angeles.
We meandered through the massive port (the largest port in the US) until reaching a guard shack at the correct lot. We were directed to the used Japanese import section of the port storage lot (the other sections are reserved for new OEM vehicles imported from Japan), where lots of various JDM imports were parked. Even from the guard shack, I could see the Mini poking its happy little pug-face out from the crowd.
Enhance... Enhance...
We were cleared and went to the car. Around it was everything from Daihatsu Midget to Veilside Supras to Skyline GT-Rs to Japanese campers and off-roaders.
The car started immediately, despite sitting for weeks on a ship and another two weeks at the port.
We went to grab some breakfast at a nearby marina.
I parked at the marina and got out. Unfortunately, I was so excited about this first drive that I forgot to set the parking brake and the car slowly began rolling toward the ocean. I almost sunk my own battleship 10 minutes into ownership!
This was almost its watery grave:
The car drives like a go-kart. It's... Amazing. Very different from my Mk7.5 Golf GTI and even my 993 Porsche 911... Obviously 
.
It's not without its flaws, however. I discovered that the passenger side window regulator barely works. There are lots of wires and relays just kinda hanging under the dash. Unfortunately the seller's family member had a stroke two days before the car was to ship off, and he was unable to finalize preparations. In fact, the car arrived with his tools, his money (500 Yen!) and his cigarette butts (eeew!). He apologized, of course.
Also, the best inspection I could do at the time was via Zoom and photographs as his village was hundreds of miles from my Japanese friend's place. The Zoom inspection and photos obviously failed to provide me with sufficient info for a correct assessment about rust.
First, the good: All but one of the posters in my linked thread thought the car had oversills hiding rust. It turns out that the sills are OEM, with the vent holes. No rust at all underneath.
Now for the not so good: There is more surface rust than expected, especially in the area of the front bumper. Here's what I've spotted so far:
Under the rear bumper, a couple of spots that I previously knew about. The previous owner was a salt-water fisherman and had a habit of resting his fishing poles against the rear of the car (per many, many Instagram pics of this).
The buckle basically looks like it's spent 3 years under water:
I thought the roof gutter was 100% free of rust, but I found this spot:
I knew about the fender rust, but not about the rust near the mirror/decorative strip:
The hood (bonnet to you guys) has a small break/rusty area on one of its sides:
The front buckle is also completely rusty.
Finally, this part (behind the front bumper) is very bubbly:
Also, there is a kick to the firewall when the motor lurches (downshifts or not-so-smooth shifts). A mini expert I talked to thought it was the engine steady, but the seller said he changed it 10 years (and 3,000 miles) ago, but that he used very hard bushings. He tried to get rid of the knock by changing out the steering box, downpipe and many other components, but the knock was always there, so he put it down to the solid bushings. I'm going to investigate further this weekend.
So, Mini Forum.... Thoughts?
. Then again, I used to own a RHD Skyline, so this isn't new to me 
