Mk1 Mini Cooper S restoration

[bert]

Took a week off for a holiday but still progressed.

Rolled it onto it's side to give the underside some epoxy primer before filler work

Once that was done it got seam sealed along with some spray sealer over the big seams.

Then some Mipa Protect

After an hour I put on some tweed grey direct gloss.

 

[Bobupndown]

Lovely! Are you doing the full restoration or only the shell and paintwork?

 

[marlinspike]

Very impressive work. I'm not a big Mini fan but I've read lots of restoration threads over on the Mini forum just for inspiration for my own project. When I see the way you Mini guys save these badly rusted cars it makes me push on with my car.

I had never heard of Mipa Protector but a quick Google suggests it's a bed liner type product along the lines of Raptor - but 25% cheaper. It looks like a nice finish and from what I read you can apply it with a shutz gun or roller it on. If I ever get to that stage with my car I'll maybe give it a go.

What brand is the direct gloss btw?

 

[bert]

Lovely! Are you doing the full restoration or only the shell and paintwork?

Yes full restoration

 

[bert]

Very impressive work. I'm not a big Mini fan but I've read lots of restoration threads over on the Mini forum just for inspiration for my own project. When I see the way you Mini guys save these badly rusted cars it makes me push on with my car.

I had never heard of Mipa Protector but a quick Google suggests it's a bed liner type product along the lines of Raptor - but 25% cheaper. It looks like a nice finish and from what I read you can apply it with a shutz gun or roller it on. If I ever get to that stage with my car I'll maybe give it a go.

What brand is the direct gloss btw?

Thanks, yes Mipa protector is just like raptor. The gloss is also Mipa, every product apart from the seam sealer is Mipa.

 

[DuncanCallum]

Nice job.

I'll be bugging you when I do my spi.....

Presume you'll know Tony ennion and do you know Jim Brindle

 

[Onoff]

Is it true you can slide a scaffold pole lengthways through a Mini shell to act as a rotisserie shaft?

 

[bert]

Early ones yes

 

[Onoff]

Loving the work done here. If my Lotto numbers come up tonight you've got the job of reshelling SWMBO's one above!

We're obviously talking decent money to do this sort of thing. Is the customer base generally loaded poshos trying to get in the wife's good books as she had one as a kid sort of thing?

 

[bert]

Nice job.

I'll be bugging you when I do my spi.....

Presume you'll know Tony ennion and do you know Jim Brindle

Big away, I think my next one is an SPI before the cooper I did a 35 as well

 

[bert]

Loving the work done here. If my Lotto numbers come up tonight you've got the job of reshelling SWMBO's one above!

We're obviously talking decent money to do this sort of thing. Is the customer base generally loaded poshos trying to get in the wife's good books as she had one as a kid sort of thing?

Cheers, a reshell where I work is 20 to 25k dependant on the amount of mechanical or rebuild of subframes std. Last one I did was a cooper sport 500 which was iirc 21k but included a new rear sub frame and a load of mechanical work done too.

 

[bert]

Customers vary but most have owned them for a long time and don't want anything to replace them. The gent who owns this Cooper S has owned it since it was 2 years old.

 

[Onoff]

Cheers, a reshell where I work is 20 to 25k dependant on the amount of mechanical or rebuild of subframes std. Last one I did was a cooper sport 500 which was iirc 21k but included a new rear sub frame and a load of mechanical work done too.

I have to say that sounds reasonable.

 

[Bobupndown]

It's reasonable on an S that's maybe worth twice that, less so on a standard mini. You can buy virtually zero mile sportspack minis for 25k. On a standard mk1 850 hard to justify the cost being more than its worth - unless sentimental value.

 

[bert]

I wouldn't pay more than 6k for a mint sports pack maybe 10 for a cooper 500. I've seen some of the 25k ones up close and all of them still need properly restoring.

Some people look at spending 25k on their old mini is less than buying a new car

 

[DuncanCallum]

Later coopers are worse rot boxes than anything from the 70s

 

[Mick Annick]

We had a ‘98 cooper, very low mileage, always garaged, rotten as a pear at 10 years old

 

[bert]

Painted the interior this morning

 

[bert]

After many hours of flattening the primer she went into the booth for some top coat

 

[bert]

And here it is with some colour.