32 replies to this topic

[s2ulk]

Until you take them off you can't really make a judgement on the amount of work required, just have to see what's underneath there. Could just be crispy and brown in one place, could be all the way along

Unfortunately it turns out there was plenty of brown crispy stuff and holes hidden by the oversills. Currently looking at about £5k cost to replace outers/door steps and repair inner sills - a lot more than I had anticipated. May have to write the car off sadly or store it until such time that I have the facilities to do the work myself.

[sonikk4]

 

Until you take them off you can't really make a judgement on the amount of work required, just have to see what's underneath there. Could just be crispy and brown in one place, could be all the way along

Unfortunately it turns out there was plenty of brown crispy stuff and holes hidden by the oversills. Currently looking at about £5k cost to replace outers/door steps and repair inner sills - a lot more than I had anticipated. May have to write the car off sadly or store it until such time that I have the facilities to do the work myself.

 

 

Welcome to the joys of oversills. That is a serious chunk of change but then its a lot of work. Mainstream garage or a specialist??

 

So if you decide to store it then think about taking some welding courses, or  buy a cheap welder and learn yourself. A lot of us on here have done just that. So then when you have the time you can rip into the car yourself. It will also give you time to acquire other tooling, clamps, grinders, welder, welding mask, intergrips, clecos etc.

[bpirie1000]

Could also consider buying a spot welder. Would need a couple different types of arms but certainly something to consider.

[s2ulk]

I would definitely be up for doing the welding myself if I had the facilities - it’s just weighing up getting what needs done done now so that I can actually use/enjoy the car straight away rather than waiting for an opportunity to do it myself which may take several years before it comes around. The garage is a specialist with a good rep but a lot more than I was anticipating for sill replacement.

[sonikk4]

I would definitely be up for doing the welding myself if I had the facilities - it’s just weighing up getting what needs done done now so that I can actually use/enjoy the car straight away rather than waiting for an opportunity to do it myself which may take several years before it comes around. The garage is a specialist with a good rep but a lot more than I was anticipating for sill replacement.

 

As i previously mentioned this particular sort of work is not easy and needs decent access especially behind the companion bins. So quite a bit of prep work involved. Garage costs have gone up like everything recently. I find £5k to be excessive but then i do not know the garage in question overheads.

 

Where my lad had his respray done,they had a decent bodyshop guy there who worked his magic on a lot of things from all over the world. They had a Triumph Spitfire there, full resto and it cost £30K!!!!! This was circa 2010. So not cheap. BUT it did look the nuts and not a blemish in sight.

[s2ulk]

As I’m sure a lot of forum members have seen, the Bangers and Cash resto of a MKII Mini Cooper, carried out by Mini Sport, came in at a cool £53k….. (link below for anybody who hasn’t seen). No doubt a lot of work but with the £16k purchase cost, that’s £69k for a mint MKII. I would buy a garage and do it myself 😂

https://m.youtube.co...h?v=r5EJqHkuSBU

[Cooperman]

If you get the M-Machine inner/outer sill sub-assembly for each side, most of the difficult welding is already done for you.
Allow 3 hours to cut off the old rusty stuff and prep for the inst of the sub-assembly, 3 hours to weld each one in and linish back the welds, then a bit for painting.
If new door steps are required, fit the sill sub-assembly first before cutting the frame for the new step.
I reckon 7 man- hours per side plus a few hours per painting, so around 18 man hours.
Even if you had to buy a Mig welder, angle grinder and clamps, etc, it would still be far cheaper than your quoted figure and you would have the necessary kit for the other inevitable Mini bodywork jobs as they occur.

[s2ulk]

Thanks Cooperman, that’s helpful info. I would love to do it myself and think I am competent to do it too but have nowhere to do the actual work. I have looked into renting a garage but most come without electric access and so would need one heck of a battery to power a MIG.

I’ve been quoted 40-45 hours labour to strip the interior, remove the floor, front and rear subframe and engine, fit and seal the floor and refit engine and subframes. Does that sound about right? And does a new floor come with a new Cross-member?

Thanks

[Cooperman]

Do you need just inner and outer sills plus a bit of floor next to the sills, or do you need a complete floor assembly.
If the latter then it really is a huge job.
Maybe you could post some photos.
I noticed removing engine and both subframes is mentioned. In other words a total shell rebuild which will cost thousands unless you do it yourself and even then you need a comprehensive workshop.
I have just done sills and a new RH front floor, with a couple of patch repairs to the rest of the floor. I didn’t count the hours, but it was somewhere around 12 hours.

[stuart bowes]

number of hours is like length of piece of string though isn't it, depending on your setup, tools, experience etc

 

Cooperman's 12 hours might be over the course of say 3 or 4 days or even just the weekend.  Someone else might take the same 'time' but spread out over 3 months of getting bits of time in here and there 

 

or then someone like me with less experience might take twice as long because I didn't like how it went so I cut it off and start again.  or the 'fettling to fit' stage just takes me way longer.  and again that would be spread out over a number of months because I work and have young kids like a lot of other people might have

 

so asking how long will it take, no one can really answer that for you I don't think unless they know you personally and have 1st hand experience of what you can do and your life circumstances

Edited by stuart bowes, 21 January 2025 - 09:35 AM.

[s2ulk]

Do you need just inner and outer sills plus a bit of floor next to the sills, or do you need a complete floor assembly.
If the latter then it really is a huge job.
Maybe you could post some photos.
I noticed removing engine and both subframes is mentioned. In other words a total shell rebuild which will cost thousands unless you do it yourself and even then you need a comprehensive workshop.
I have just done sills and a new RH front floor, with a couple of patch repairs to the rest of the floor. I didn’t count the hours, but it was somewhere around 12 hours.

I don’t definitely need a full floor. Need both outer sills replacing and both inner sills need repairing. Various other holes also need to be repaired and the heelboard needs doing. Cross member may also need fixing. When that’s costed up, it’s not much less than replacing the whole floor. Hence I’m thinking that instead of various repairs, a replacement floor may make more sense.

Edited by s2ulk, 21 January 2025 - 02:45 PM.

[s2ulk]

number of hours is like length of piece of string though isn't it, depending on your setup, tools, experience etc

Cooperman's 12 hours might be over the course of say 3 or 4 days or even just the weekend. Someone else might take the same 'time' but spread out over 3 months of getting bits of time in here and there

or then someone like me with less experience might take twice as long because I didn't like how it went so I cut it off and start again. or the 'fettling to fit' stage just takes me way longer. and again that would be spread out over a number of months because I work and have young kids like a lot of other people might have

so asking how long will it take, no one can really answer that for you I don't think unless they know you personally and have 1st hand experience of what you can do and your life circumstances

Totally agree with that based on DIY-ers but my question relates to a professional garage and I would expect them to work at a similar pace to each other. So question is whether a full floor taking 40-45 hours sounds right for a garage and sounds like it probably is based on the work involved.

[stuart bowes]

ah my bad, I clearly missed the point of the question

 

that being the case then I wonder if you could help them get the hours down by doing a lot of the interior removal yourself?    if you took it down there with a bare floor and just the one drivers seat in place that's some hours of messing about they don't have to deal with (for example)

 

in terms of whole floor vs. repair though surely that's not just about cost of parts .. when you cut the whole floor off you have to brace the car up, check all the alignments and get that all spot on.  if you just take off the outer sills and do some repairs to the floor before replacing them, nothing else changes.  similarly for the cross member

Edited by stuart bowes, 21 January 2025 - 04:10 PM.

[sonikk4]

I cannot see why they would need to take the engine and front subframe out for a full floor. Leaving that in place will help position a new floor. All of the spotwelds are accessible from inside the car.

 

Removal of the brake lines, fuel pipe / pipes depending on what model of mini and the power cable would need to be removed.

 

The rear subframe, now this depends on what floor assy you get, one that is bare or one that comes with crossmember and heelboard. If its the latter then taking off the rear subbie make sense other wise just a bare floor would not need the subbie removing.

 

Companion bins would need to be removed.

 

You can take out the interior as this would be one hour max.

[s2ulk]

I could certainly take out the interior to lower the cost a bit but I expect that accounts for little of the labour cost overall. £5k for the floor/sill repairs (if not going for a full floor replacement) and I’m still left with a lot of resto work to do above floor level - and that’s assuming the £5k covers the floor repairs it as I’m told they may find other work they need to do as they go (which I’m struggling to get my head around as with outer sills removed, surely you can see what needs doing other than perhaps what may have got under the companion bins).

So may be better off cutting my losses, fitting just new outer sills (not over sills) to get it through the MOT, sell it as an MOT’d project and find a Mini which doesn’t need major work for now (whilst I don’t have facilities to do my own work).