'79 mini 1000

shielsy68
That 126 looks great! I almost bought one round the corner from me as my first car as I was really struggling to find a mini in budget. It was a terracotta sort of colour and had the later plastic bumpers.

I had a mate growing up that had a vw bay window bus in a similar green

The postman delivered this morning so today I can make some progress.
1 boot floor, a new bottle of hydrate 80 and a new angle grinder. I put new brushes in the old bosch one and it's still the same. I may have a further look into it, it's lasted 6/7 years so wasn't a bad grinder. The new one was £27 from tool station. They don't do the one recommended anymore and this has some good reviews so we'll see how we get on.


One new genuine boot floor. Isn't that a thing of beauty!



Now I have a grinder ill be going round all the seams this will be welded to and applying some hydrate 80. It looks like in most areas I never rust treated them after removing the floor, just splashed some paint over for protection

Most of the seams if you look closely looked like this. Basically I'd cut the boot floor out and chucked a load of paint over the exposed metal. That was probably at least 5 years ago and, to be fair, it's done an OK job.
All needs sanding back though



Where there were unnecessary or torn holes, they were welded up. I use a thick copper bar clamped behind to give something to weld against and absorb some of the heat







There was also an area that must have had a big mot style plate welded to the inner wheel tub. I'd cut too deep with the grinder by the look of it





Once all the miff-naff was dealt with it all got a coat of hydrate 80 and then a lick of weld through primer



A trial fit revealed that a wheel arch repair I'd done was slightly in the wrong place. Just a case of removing the boot floor and dressing it back. It may have been bashed during its many moves.

With the boot floor refitted it lined up nicely.


Over an hour of fettling happened now.
Minis have certain strategic holes in the shell to aid alignment. Here's one under the back seat. If you put a 10mm drill bit in the hole, the back seat will be at the right height if you press it against it.





Nothing for it but to get welding. I haven't welded in a while and initially made a few stupid mistakes. Got in my groove eventually though.









It's weird seeing it with a boot floor and back seat



Does anyone know what these stickers are supposed to look like? I might get them re-made

Drivers side rear floor


Drivers b-post


Cheers

Oh and just to add, that cheapo grinder I bought has soft start. My god that makes a difference! How have I gone this long without it. My wrists feel great

Yup you'd be right about the rear valence. I had a different idea for foglights with my Mayfair - I had the rear valence done and had an earlier one fitted. I then fitted twin Mk1 Fiesta rear foglights as they match the curvature of the valence. They looked great

Difficult to see here but it's the only picture I could find. The car was dusty because this was a year after I'd sold it and the new owner emailed me some pics.

I mounted a round central fog light on mine. Looks much better than the usual blocky thing.

jjeffries

They are expensive. You can get pattern parts for some of the items but they're not that much cheaper and in my experience, they're of such shockingly poor quality you're better off either shelling out for the genuine bits or just making them yourself.

The roof panel is £500 😭

skodacious

I should think a fair amount of the cars strength is in the roof. Its spot welded to the guttering but that is it. There's no cross bracing or anything, it's just a skin.
I'd like to properly check that seam anyway as the guttering can hold a lot of water.

I'm not going to be buying these panels all in a oner due to the cost. It'll be a case of getting one or two a month. There are other repairs and paint stripping I can be getting on with as well

@retroscott

That mk3 mini looked great. I don't know why but the mk3s are my favourite shape. Before they went all 80s and plastic.

As for reputations certain car brands have, I reckon its all largely bo***cks.
Plenty of young car journalists around in the 70s and 80s trying to make headlines by rubbishing whatever brand was unpopular at the time. Try finding a 70s audi or datsun. They all rotted just the same