Soldato
- Joined
- 25 May 2008
- Posts
- 4,042
- Location
- North Wales
My grandmother turned 92 the other week, while i was over seeing her she mentioned she was going to stop driving as she thought it was probably time. After a talk with my dad about it and him basically wanting to get rid of it with as little hassle as possible for her i agreed to buy it.
£200 for the car, £241 for a years insurance (not bad as i didn’t have any no claims to use on it) and it was mine.
Its a 1998 Mini Classic MPi (Multi point injection
), 1275cc, half leather interior which is immaculate, 46k on the clock and one lady owner from brand new.
Mini just as we got it home, as you can see my missus is very impressed by it.
Gave it a good clean with some snow foam and then jet washed off all the green slime that was on the sills etc. Gave the rest of the ‘fleet’ a wash too while i was at it!
There’s quite a bit of rust on the drivers side door, i wire brushed it back and turns out there’s a fairly sizeable hole in the door, there’s also a patch underneath the drivers side headlight but that wasn’t as bad so that should fill. Overall the bodywork isn’t bad, a few other small patches to rub back and fill but nothing major. The paint on the other hand is pretty shot, the lacquer has peeled off the passenger side wing and has crazed on the drivers side so it’ll be going for a full re-spray once i’ve finished with the mechanical bits.
Nice big present to myself from MiniSport.com
Lots of shiny things plus a drivers side door skin which isn’t in shot.
Battle with locking wheel nut, the removal tool worked a treat and got the nut off in no time at all but getting the nut back out of the socket was a right headache. Had to crack dremel out and cut 2 slots in it so i could get a bar slotted in and un-wind the socket off it.
Had to start somewhere so started on the rear drivers side, took the suspension off and rebuilt the radius arm as i was there. One of the seals on the arm had broken and there was grease everywhere so no idea if any grit had got into the moving parts hence the rebuild, plus the whole rebuild kit was only £9.72...
Lots of life left in the rear shoes, in fact the braking system is all in very good condition.
Cones in good condition so a wire brush to remove some surface rust and a lick of paint
Going to underseal the whole car so wire brushed it all back and the frame was in better shape than i suspected just the edges starting to rust so gave it a good coat of underseal. Gave the drums a coat of high temp paint to make it look fresh.
Before: Wire brushed back to remove road grime and surface rust.
After: but still yet to fit the shock absorber and cone back in
Got a set of 12x5 minilite alloys on the way for it to replace the rubbish rover alloys and to fill the new arches better, got a few shiny bits for the engine bay and bushes for the steady bars.
Will update when i get chance to do more, if the weather is ok i hope to do a bit in the evenings when i get back from work otherwise it might have to wait till the weekend.
£200 for the car, £241 for a years insurance (not bad as i didn’t have any no claims to use on it) and it was mine.
Its a 1998 Mini Classic MPi (Multi point injection
), 1275cc, half leather interior which is immaculate, 46k on the clock and one lady owner from brand new.Mini just as we got it home, as you can see my missus is very impressed by it.
Gave it a good clean with some snow foam and then jet washed off all the green slime that was on the sills etc. Gave the rest of the ‘fleet’ a wash too while i was at it!
There’s quite a bit of rust on the drivers side door, i wire brushed it back and turns out there’s a fairly sizeable hole in the door, there’s also a patch underneath the drivers side headlight but that wasn’t as bad so that should fill. Overall the bodywork isn’t bad, a few other small patches to rub back and fill but nothing major. The paint on the other hand is pretty shot, the lacquer has peeled off the passenger side wing and has crazed on the drivers side so it’ll be going for a full re-spray once i’ve finished with the mechanical bits.
Nice big present to myself from MiniSport.com
Lots of shiny things plus a drivers side door skin which isn’t in shot.
Battle with locking wheel nut, the removal tool worked a treat and got the nut off in no time at all but getting the nut back out of the socket was a right headache. Had to crack dremel out and cut 2 slots in it so i could get a bar slotted in and un-wind the socket off it.
Had to start somewhere so started on the rear drivers side, took the suspension off and rebuilt the radius arm as i was there. One of the seals on the arm had broken and there was grease everywhere so no idea if any grit had got into the moving parts hence the rebuild, plus the whole rebuild kit was only £9.72...
Lots of life left in the rear shoes, in fact the braking system is all in very good condition.
Cones in good condition so a wire brush to remove some surface rust and a lick of paint
Going to underseal the whole car so wire brushed it all back and the frame was in better shape than i suspected just the edges starting to rust so gave it a good coat of underseal. Gave the drums a coat of high temp paint to make it look fresh.
Before: Wire brushed back to remove road grime and surface rust.
After: but still yet to fit the shock absorber and cone back in
Got a set of 12x5 minilite alloys on the way for it to replace the rubbish rover alloys and to fill the new arches better, got a few shiny bits for the engine bay and bushes for the steady bars.
Will update when i get chance to do more, if the weather is ok i hope to do a bit in the evenings when i get back from work otherwise it might have to wait till the weekend.
That was a bargain, and you should easily see profit if you ever want to sell it on. In fact, I'll give you £250 for it 
