Its been a few years (like 10 ) since I last built a mini, which I still have and has gone through serval evolutions since then. Having watched the prices of minis rocket over the last few years I was intrigued to see a build on youtube (simpsons classics) where they tried to get a mini to a painted rolling shell for £1500 including buying it. This clearly planted a seed and in the summer a good friend had the remains of a mini he had in for breaking. He had removed about all he wanted from it and it was going to go to the crusher and I was telling him about budget build. "So why don't you do one then?" came his challenge, you can have the remains of that if you want.
So there it was, the sad remains of a mini, how could I refuse
Bit of poking around and looking at what came with it, we had 2 options we could go. Really cheaply and get a used fibreglass front end, keep the oversills and plate up and rot, or do it properly with new 1/2 inner wings, full steel front end and replace the sills with proper ones and repair the floors as necessary. We decided to do the latter.
So a panels shopping list was drawn up and over the summer I kept an eye out on ebay and facebook for panels. As it was a budget build, all the panels will be non genuine with the exception of the scuttle panel (the magnum panel is terible). Now £500 lighter, I have the major panels that I know i'll need, but once its rolled on its side and re start poking I expect this will grow.
So for a bit of a boost before it is stripped completely bare, I wanted to see how well (or badly) the mis mash of panels I got for the front end would be
Not too bad, plenty of fettling needed for sure, but for a few mole grips and things not fully trimmed back, I'll take that.
Thats where its at for the minute, in the new year the front and rear subframes will be coming out and I can roll it on its side to cut out the oversills (and see how many original sills still exist) and attack the floors and the heelboard.
So there it was, the sad remains of a mini, how could I refuse
Bit of poking around and looking at what came with it, we had 2 options we could go. Really cheaply and get a used fibreglass front end, keep the oversills and plate up and rot, or do it properly with new 1/2 inner wings, full steel front end and replace the sills with proper ones and repair the floors as necessary. We decided to do the latter.
So a panels shopping list was drawn up and over the summer I kept an eye out on ebay and facebook for panels. As it was a budget build, all the panels will be non genuine with the exception of the scuttle panel (the magnum panel is terible). Now £500 lighter, I have the major panels that I know i'll need, but once its rolled on its side and re start poking I expect this will grow.
So for a bit of a boost before it is stripped completely bare, I wanted to see how well (or badly) the mis mash of panels I got for the front end would be
Not too bad, plenty of fettling needed for sure, but for a few mole grips and things not fully trimmed back, I'll take that.
Thats where its at for the minute, in the new year the front and rear subframes will be coming out and I can roll it on its side to cut out the oversills (and see how many original sills still exist) and attack the floors and the heelboard.
The prices have gone nuts over the last 2 years, but hopefully at least the prices of project minis should be dropping and become accessible now.
