not sure what holly paid for it but it wasnt a lot, but yes i certainly have my work cut out on the welding side, good thing is dispite her age she is quite a capable mechanic, so i wont have to do the prep work if i dont want to.
This will be an on going project over the next few months, really as time allows me to do the odd bit of work on it. Im trying to get her to use the sub-domain off my site to create a journal of what we have done and how it progresses
That is the easy way get somebody to do the prep work, mind you are teaching Holly to weld in the process.
Would like to have the room, time and money to play with an old banger. Mark 1 Escort would be my car of choice though.
Mate has one on chassis stands, but he has also got a face lifted Lotus Sunbeam. Briiliant car with no brakes! His bike is an ex police Norton Commander, would be nice to have a really well paid job.
Hi, to be honest it doesn't look too bad at all. The floors look fairly original, however when you remove the wings you will usually find a bag of nightmares as the inner flitch and air vent panel on late 80's minis rot very well indeed!!! Drivers side is usually the worst.
There is a repair panel available for the lower 1/2 of the rear lights, this includes the hinge panel and bumper lip.
If you haven't got one I would recommend getting a copy of the Hadrian Catalogue and the Sommerford Mini catalogue.
I had a mini like that (mini city mine was) when I was 18 planning it as my first car,
I took off all the wings etc and it was duly rotted underneath, new inner A panels, lots of bulkhead replacement, floorpan, rear subrame and the usual other regions.
Took me ages to do it all with new pattern panels and letting in new steel from a sheet where needed, using my trusty gas welder and right near the end of the rebuild someone broke into my crappy council lockup garage and comprehensively vandalized it in temper with what we assume was a axe. I had a bike chained to it using it as a ground anchor that I presume said pondlife were after and that had suffered the same fate but was still firmly chained to the mini.
After that couldn't bear to go through it all again so scrapped it and got a complete chevette hatch instead with which I had much fun, like everyone else, reckon you've got your work cut out there, but not insurmountable...
Looks like you are going to be busy. Ref. photo No.8, I have seen a twin tank Mini, but never a twin battery one!
See if you can pick up a copy of "How to modify your mini" (ISBN 0-912656-47-6) BY David Vizard, might give you a few tips / ideas or just makes interesting reading.
Regards, Stuart.