It's not an immediate thing, just I need some basic info for a potential project I might be looking at doing with a few friends.
Basically we want three minis. We are each buying seperatley. But it would have course be great to share spare parts for a long road-trip (I'll get onto that.) They must look relativley italian job.
1) Which models can we find the cheapest. We are all skint.
2) Are these reliable?
3) What will go wrong on them?
4) Are spare parts pretty interchangeable between the cheaper models?
5) How much would a potential respray be?
Thanks, I don't think I need to know any more than that at the moment, this won't be Q42011-Q12012.
1) It's getting more and more difficult to find cheap project Minis, the scrappage scheme did untold damage, 5-10 years ago you could pick up a running mini, that needed a full strip down and clean and some minor work to the body shell for a couple of hundred notes. Very difficult to find anything that won't need a complete restoration for less than 500 quid now, a decent condition and maintained mini will cost 1000 minimum, for a "mint" example you are looking at anywhere from 2500 to 6/7 k.
2) Looked after yes, but as with any car that shares oil between the engine and gearbox they tend to leak, but they are relatively easy to fix.
3) RUST, if you want a project Mini and dont want to pay someone lots to fix it learn to weld, you can pick up a more than adequate mig welder for 2-300 quid, between 3 thats reasonable. any cheap project you will get will likely need large areas of the floor pans and body work chopping out and relacing. Main thing to watch for is ensure that the shell isn't bent as that is costly to put right.
4)Parts tend to be similar between the marks but there are some differences, but if you get 3 cars of roughly the same age and same cc there will likely be lots of interchangable parts, but there may well be some differences.
5) Respray will be expensive as said about a grand for a decent one, as there are three of you thats 3k, i'd club together get a compressor and gun for 3-400 quid, there are plenty of guides on how to spray a car on the net, and it will save you a bomb, you may not get the finish that a top pro will give first few times, but there are plenty of examples of people who have taught themselves how to spray at home and got pretty damn good finishes on their cars.
If you are only going to do this once, then you may as well just spend more and get a better example of a classic mini, but if you are likely to keep the cars and want to keep them in good condition or even do another one in the future then it may well be worth getting the tools required and doing the restoration yourself.
