well for the people who cannot afford to replace the whole front end, this is an ok solution in my opinion........i would have loved to just pull and replace all the panels.......but it can be very expensive............anyways......all the rusty crap was cut out and we patched in new metal today........

 

Thats much better

 

you can tell in the pic that it is a very light coat of bondo that was sanded down to a really smooth surface......

 

Sorry, Norm but I disagree. The whole front end of a Mini is what? $600 or so? Even at Minimania which is usually the most expensive..



Remember, you can't make chicken soup out of chicken poop!

 

and then how many hours of labor.........this is why people dont post restorations on these site's........im not on here to get ridiculed or for anyone to nit pick on how my restorations are done........not to say that you dont have valid points, but i do things the way my customers are happy with....... i have never told any of my cust that replacing a whole panel is not an option......but i do give them options.......options reflecting there budgets and how far they want to go with it........Believe me im not tryin to be a butt about the whole thing, but i do not wanna be on here defending myself or what i do for a living.......almost everyone on here has seemed to be very appriciative for my postings of restoration.....If someone wants to question why i did something a certain way, try a Private Message, it's alot more respectful than blurting out "I Disagree with your way of doing that".........(also im not angry, im just trying to make a point, because this crap happens on threads all the time)

 

What's up with the crooked seam in the last pic, Norm? Was the car tweaked in an accident?

 

the car seems to have been in some sort of something.....lol.....owner has no history on the car.......car had no seam covers on it either.......kinda odd......there will be work done on them to help fix the prob.....

 

Covers will help, visually, yeah...

 

Didn't mean to anger you or be hyper-critical your methods. They are after all one approach. I am also appreciative that the customer is the one who finally decides how much work, how it gets done, and how many dollars get spent. There are "repairs", "rebuilding" and "restoration" as different levels of fixing a car. The customer & his wallet decide which one's appropriate.

And yes, it's easy to armchair quarterback and second-guess on a message board. But, remember you're posting your business methods on a public message board and must expect others may respond publicly with differing opinions. That is all part of the interchange of ideas and processes which help educate other Mini owners about their cars. We all have varying levels of experience from which to draw. In this instance, I felt that (imho) it would actually be less work and quicker to do the panel replacement. Sometimes the $$ spent on panels up front wash out versus the labor & time to do good patches. But, I defer to you since you're there, and I'm not.... Good luck in your efforts. I'll make no further comments.

 

All this makes me want to know what's going on under my paint job... sorta.

 

LOL same here.

 

I agree, it's one of those things where I'd almost rather not know.

 

QFT...

 

Hi Norm,

Thanks for the informative post. I'm curious, how much will this type of restoration end up costing the owner (rough estimate)?

Also, Norm and Minimad, Very classy way to agree to disagree. So much better than flame wars (imho).

 

Ditto!

I've been following a restoration thread on a mini pickup in the UK. It's really amazing. I don't think there's an original panel left (I'm not kidding). This guy has the knowledge and the right equipment to perform such a massive rebuild. It seems that each time he prepares to replace a panel, he discovers rust hidden inside yet another panel, which couldn't be seen until cutting out the previous panel... and so on. His truck, which looked very nice when he bought it, began to show rust surfacing through the paint just one year later. This prompted him to replace panels, and it the saga continues.

Hats off to you guys with the skill to sculpt and mend these little breadboxes.

I appreciate the time and energy spent on posting words/pictures of these works in progress. Keep at it.

 

Norm, I think you are being just a bit too sensitive here. Minimad wasn't out of line, IMO.

 

i dont think so, but i've known minimad for about a year and a half, very smart guy and really know's his minis, and he has always been helpful to me, .......but anyways it's over and done with it, and i think (as stated above) we handled it in a very nice manner.....

 

As the owner of the car being discussed, I did want to weigh in and say that Norm has incredibly professional about the entire re-build. As we uncovered new issues in what appeared to be a very solid car, he always discussed the options that are available and then gave his recommendations. Even though i am not doing the actual work on this part of the restoration, i have been involved and feel like i know what is going on all the time.

I cant wait to get the car back and feel confident that when it comes back to me i will be getting a solid car that should last me for a long time.

Now i just have to wait till i can afford to get the interior redone / restored. Fortunately the seats, dash, etc arent in too bad a condition and can wait a bit.

For me the worst part of having bought this car is that i am having to do my rebuild / restore in stages.
1st was the mechanics
2nd is now the body / structure
3rd (hopefully by next summer) will be the interior

Unfortunately that will also be just about the time my older son is getting his license and by the time i have all this done, i probably wont even get to drive it!

 

Norm's a good guy and it's great to see that he includes you in all apsects. That sure helps the process when the owner knows exactly what is happening at all stages.

Regarding the interior. That is actually a good home project. You can buy upholstery kits for the car. It isn't too hard to fit (especially a Mini). It is a good father /son project. I rebuilt an MGB with my son at about the same age. He drove it for 5-6 years.

 

how do the seat upulstry kits work.......do you just remove the old material and slide over the new and fasten.........i usually send my stuff to a local shop.......would love to just do it at home......

 

If CR is looking to save some money, recovering the seats should be a good DIY project. My g/f (JerseryGirl) bought seat covers and replacement foam for her Spitfire and did the entire restoration herself. The results turned out very nice and she had never done upholstry work of that kind before.

 

Where do you get these kits? Anyone got a link?

 

It looks like Mini Mania sells them, but the website is a bit confusing... and the prices seem really high... The OE-style vinyl/cloth covers and new foam for both Spitfire seats were less than $500 from an online vendor (Spitbits). I haven't had the need to research Mini parts sources as much.

 

HERE is an eBaylink to a lady in the UK that everyone on the Brit forums RAVES about... From the pics, it looks like good work, you can get any color combo you like (check out the cool stripe action!) and people that have used her say that the covers hold up very well. She also does door cards and shift/ebrake gaiters, all at very reasonable prices.



The only drawback is that it costs abuot 50 GBP (about $100) to ship from the UK... but seeing as how she's not too expensive to begin with ($160 or so for front and rear covers, plus another $40 for all 4 door cards plus another $30 or so for the gaiters) then the extra $100 doesn't kill the deal for me - that's STILL a lot cheaper than the Newton Commercial cover kits (although hers are not restoration-grade using the original material patterns or anything).

I'm finalizing my deal with her as we speak, then she needs to ship them to me, of course, but I'll be sure to document the installation process and resulting interior for everyone to see. If anyone knows of a LOCAL (USA) source for these with the same quality and equivalent price, I'd love to hear about them.

 

awesome.......love to see how that turns out