Mitch's 1990 Mini 998 - Budget Resto - Project Completed.

So once recovered from a 14 hour drive fuelled by filthy burgers and 2manyDJ's, we got to the Skunkworks and brought in the Mini (now termed "Batman" by Mitch... this title is still under negotiation...)



So, what is this wee car all about? Well, it appears to have been a stolen recovered car, and a Cat D. Then at some point in the past 4 years, its been partially recommissioned by someone, and I assume its the previous owner. Here we see the evidence of a chap who is stronger at some disciplines of automotive repair than others.

Electrics is one area that classes as "others". The front engine bay is a blatant fire hazard. The car does run, but is not charging its battery. A quick examination of the alternator to starter loom presents a worn loom sheath contacting the front grille panel. The headlights are wired by twisted sheaths and no single bit of insulation... Yea, it needs taking out and starting again.

Its had wings put on it, and somewhat rushed. The flange from wing to front grill panel isn't a great match. This may be from non heritage parts, but as it is to be hidden by arches we wont need to worry about it too much. There is a powerful quantity of filler in the bonnet recess on the wings, which may or may not be hiding some sins. Underneath the car seems pretty solid with evidence of floor repairs. There is only one area for rectification, and that's due to a poorly welded repair rather than excessive unchecked rust.

By far, the worst tinworm issue is the rear subframe...



Fairly self explanatory rot on the lower spar. Unfortunately its spread up to the vertical gussets so may be a fairly involved repair... Mitch is on the auction scrounge to see if we can get a solid replacement subframe for a cheap price... Is there anyone here that could help with that?



The subframe was taken off regardless. I hate welding upside down so for that reason alone it was worth pulling. Since focusing on it we have found the OS drum is seized, so that needs a look anyway, plus I'll run new copper lines for the brakes while its off anyway... Gives it a fighting chance.

Got some more progress last night...



Bill the electrics goblin has been pushing the rewire forward to a tremendous standard. All the front loom has been basically pulled out and started again. Some proper sheathing has been used too, so hopefully it wont end up in such a state again too soon.



Conversely, Mitch and myself have just been finding more problems. We have stripped the rear subframe completely on the basis that a weld repair would be attempted. Sadly, there are just too many sheared bolts to make this a viable save, especially with those below being captive nuts and rather integral suspension mounts.



I think at this stage a replacement unit may be better. There is a local seller who has a stripped unit for a reasonable price, so we charged on and took all the transferable items from the old frame.



Mitch has also powered on underneath and prepared the lower shell where the subframe mates for undersealing. Once I had the frame stripped we gave it a proper going over to see just how bad our rust patch was...



Yea... lets just replace that...

Yeah, I thought that when I stripped ours down. It still needs a good clean but the rust looks to be minimal.



Really enjoying following this project, we're bit further on, but working at a much slower rate.....

Hard to put into pictures when there is progress on this, simply because its loads of little bits being addressed that would bore the life out of everyone. Little bits of bodywork at that. For some reason the car came to us with filler patches everywhere, including all down the A pillar seam and all inside the bonnet recesses in the wings. After closer inspection it was deemed that this was useless as having been exposed to the elements for so long it basically peeled off. Time to chip back and start again.

While we were at it (and waiting for a new subframe to arrive) we went on a rust hunt. The rear window had some bubbling around the rubbers so...



Out it came. Luckily its a chip with water ingress, still mostly solid metal underneath. While we were pulling windows out....



The front windscreen was a must for removal. The ganky filler that had been spread all over the car was also the only coating running under the window rubber here. I suspect this was a quick refit of the windscreen to weatherproof the car...



While we were on the subject of removing things, it seemed prudent to whip the doors off. We will be undersealing the front wheel arches and I wanted to examine the A pillar mounts for the doors as these are always fun for rust. Luckily they look in rude health, although the door bottom on the drivers door has seen better days. The frame has rotten out but for some reason the skin itself seems fully intact. That will be a fun little technical repair that shouldn't break the bank.

So the only real report is that the filler is gone and the bare metal has been given a protective blast of primer...



I can't see the wee thing holding any more surprises now. We have been in about every hiding place it has. We have a few weld patches to do, a bit of paint, some rudimental engine servicing and then a refit with new parts where possible or necessary.

Aye, all solid there. Just the lower door frames to patch up. I think the doors may be the first parts finished just out of simplicity and convenience...

Nice! My last mini came from Bootle as well, 14 hour round trip in total.

Liking the idea of sheathing the exposed loom there, I've been using some thing similar, but plastic. There is a firm that makes plastic inner arch liners to keep the road gunk out of those intricate areas of the inner arch, mine have been made from trailer arches but do the same job. If you didn't know they existed thought I'd mention it.

Do you ever have small wins that feel so much more *satisfying* than big wins?

For example, nabbing the last biscuit in the tin... clipping the apex perfectly in a 2 tonne Shogun doing 20mph with a trailer... catching that annoying snotter with the pinky on first try.... etc.

Well, last night was a small win in the eyes of many a more competent builder of cars, but for me I took great satisfaction in nailing it perfectly. The win in question was the shaggered thread on the captive trunnion bolt on the otherwise perfect condition rear subframe. You see, the front trunnions have removable bolts that "capture" the bush and secure with a nut on the internal part of the subframe... see below for example:



In this case, I have refitted the trunnion with the lovely new poly bushes, all ready for refitting. Well, on the rear end trunnions the nut is on the outside, with the shaft of the bolt captive and welded in the subframe itself. Much harder to sort without chopping it all out and welding in a replacement, and the thread as mentioned was totally stripped on the new one to the point where I had to spiral chop the nut off.

So last night, I attacked the chewed out stump with emery paper for somewhere close to 40 minutes until it was perfectly smooth, not ovalled, and to-size to accept an M10 tap. Not since my apprenticeship have I had such a laborious and thankless task. All the same, I got it...



BOOM! This is a lock nut, just to be clear. I didn't have any M10x1.25 nyloc nuts in stock, so it will be replaced once the order comes in. So much meagre win, but hey ho.

Anyway, whilst Mitch was under the car napping and hammerite-coating the floorpans, I bust out the new paint to trial a part of the rear wing... honestly, just to see how good/bad/other the chosen paint looks on the car. Here's the result:



Personally, I really like it. Very purposeful, and with the white roof and some chrome accents around the car, I think it will set the whole thing off very well. Here's a wee reflection shot to show how the light hits it:



Not the greatest, but I love how you get that gradient grey to white reflection on satin black cars.

Up next, Subframe rebuild and refit!

Looks like your in the same situation as me

I am currently restoring a 1990 Mini, slowly slowly and little bit at a time, it will be 2 years by time its complete but its rock solid and I have learnt so much!



Next up some paint and start to put things together

Always good to get to a landmark point in a build. Last night was one such event. After pondering my bracket that would not align, I stripped it all back down and cleaned . greased up the radius arm mounts. Seems to have worked as we now have this:



Ready to mount subframe! Ran all new brake lines on the rear to complement the new Goodrich flexi's. Still awaiting proper slave cylinders but these can be fitted with the subframe on the car. On that note...



...the subframe is now on the car! It took a bit of wrestling to get the holes lined up, but that was really the last big job to be done.

All we need to do now is..



Paint prep, and paint prep, and paint prep, and paint prep, and paint prep, and paint prep....