Just wanted to put up this link to the excellent "MiniFinity Ultimate Buyer's Guide":

http://www.minifinity.com/index.php?...eq=getit&lid=6

The Guide is an easy read (you'll need a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it - click HERE to download it if you need it) and tells you all about the steps you should take when inspecting and road-testing a classic Mini. Also included is a very handy Checklist that you can print out and bring with you when you go to see the car. As a proper inspection can take an hour or more, having the checklist near at-hand will assure that nothing gets overlooked. As any Mini enthusiast will tell you, overlooked corrosion or other issues can add hundreds if not thousands of dollars to the final cost of ownership of your new classic Mini, so it's best to find out everything before settling on a final price.

I personally used the Guide when I purchad my 1992 Mini Sprite and I was extremely glad that I did - it gave me the peace of mind that I was buyuing a car well worth the seller's asking price and identified potential trouble spots well before they could turn into full-blown mechanical failures.


MODS: Please "Sticky" this thread if you will. Thank you!

 

Not bad, but no mention of the most common rust area - the sills. With that, the common bodge repair for them - Oversills....hides lots of problems...

 

Actually, check out p. 4, item #3 - it talks specifically about the sills. Item #6 details the problems with the exterior seams and headlamp area as well.

 

My comment meant that exterior sill rust can easily be hidden by installing the 6" or 9" sill overlays. It will look okay (especially to a novice), but many just tack weld them over the old rusty sills. This leads to advanced rusting which is hidden out of sight.

Original and original replacement sills will have raised vents which are open at the bottom. Oversill have raised sections which are completely closed. Therefore, they trap more moisture.

 

That's an excellent point... And unfortunately true.

 

Nonetheless, it's still a good checklist.

 

Have they moved this file? I can't seem to find it. If you have PDF would you please e-mail it to me?

mike@stlmini.com

Thanks,
Mike

 

+1

 

Sorry guys - they re-did their site and it's totally FUBARed... The article's missing and I can't log in with my user ID to tell them about it. I tried resetting my password but got a "no such email" error, but it won't let me reuse that email or my ID AGAIN either - definitely something got hosed when they flipped the site. I'll try emailing them and see if I have a soft copy on a hard drive somewhere around, and I'll email it if/when I find it, sorry.

 

I downloaded it, I will try to put it on here.

 

Here's a good guide:

http://www.britishminiclub.co.uk/mam...0&topic=3323.0

It's mainly about rust but it has some good tips in it about buying a car...

 

Just a note: don't download the Adobe Acrobat. Total kludge. Use Foxit Reader; free, small, fast. They even have a free downloadable editor that allows you to write and edit pdfs.
http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

-skip-

 

That's it - thanks SO much, Bumble!! I'll email them and let them know hat you have it online there, just in case they think we're trying to pirate their content. They never replied to my repeated mails though, so I don't know if I'm caught in a spam filter or what...

Skip - DLing that plugin now - thanks! On my work PC, Adobe brings everything to a crawl, and I have to view a lot of PDFs in a day - hope it works better!!

 

Matt, much faster. Acrobat is like 20 trillion bytes of junk; Foxit is 2M of things that work. I've used it for a year or two and have never had a problem. And I'm really fussy about what resides on my PC.
-skip-

 

the MiniFinity Buyer's Guide is RESTORED! Click HERE to be taken to the download page and happy Mini shopping all!

NOTE: Here's the URL if the embedded link does not work:

http://www.minifinity.com/index.php?...club&Itemid=19

 

It looks like the link is broken. Has it been moved?

 

see post #10

it opens fine for me

 

Perfect! Thank you.

 

Here's a great index of articles for sorting out all the types of Classic Minis ever produced!

http://www.minimania.com/Mini_Identification