I have a '79 Mini 1000 that I am going to tear down and fix up. Mechanically its in good shape and the body for a UK car is actually decent. It has been resprayed in its life time (same color). I am going to have all the necessary body work done by a shop and have it painted, however to save on the overall costs I am looking at doing at least some of the initial work myself. I have primitive body work experience - actually only some rust removal, basic bondo, sanding, and spraying on my college car - a Pinto.

After I have have the car torn down, my first question is how best to start working on the body so that I know what I am dealing with in terms of rust/body repair/etc? Is it best to have the car media blasted, is it best to strip the paint, or should I just start sanding the paint down? What are the pros and cons of each?

The car is orange and I have not decided if I am going to change the color. If I do it is most likely to be blue, white or tradition BRG.

I am planning to take it down to the shell for painting - remove the interior, pull the engine, take off the subframes, etc. This car will stay in the family long term so I want to take proper care of everything, however I am not planning to show the car. My comfort zone is more of the mechanical than anything else.

Lastly, their is some undercoating in the wheel wells. What is the best method for removing any underbody coatings?

Thanks for any help you can offer

well....the biggest thing to know is that the key to a great paint job is great body work.....some shops wont warrenty the paint work unless they do the body work and prep themselves, that way they know it was done right......by stripping the car down and bring them the shell, you should save you enough money to not have to deal with the hassle of even doing body work to your own mini.....as far as the undercoating.......scrape scrape scrape.....the hardest part of that is that it is much easy to use a product on it if you have a lift, some people use wire wheels, wire brushes, but it's a brutal fight till the end

You can sand it all the way down (lots of work/dust) or strip it using aircraft stripper (messy but efficient).

Or you can have it media (not sand) blasted.

why not sand blasting Minimad....lol....i know it's not funny....

If I may jump in for MM

The process is the same but the 'abrasive' is different and you can think of it as the difference between 40 grit on a DA sander vs 400.

Sand is classic but very aggressive. While it attacks the rust you are often left with swiss cheese. So what did you save if the left metal is so porous as to warrant cutting out anyway?

Using a softer blast media lets a good operator get the rust while causing less damage - ideally no damage - to good metal. Common options today are glass beads, ground pecan shells or baking soda. These take away less good metal.

just for the record, when I needed to strip ship decks, sand just wasn't strong enuf. Our blasters shot 'stainless bird shot' and recovered it for re-use; but we typically had original thickness of over 1/8 inch to work with. After a few years we'd blow thru tho)

yeah, the reason i said it is because Minimad's Cooper S got blasted to hell by a drunkin sandblasting employee.....the guy cause more damage than was originaly there.....warped panels and all....

Hi..Okmini use a good chemical paint stripper and take it rite back to bare metal then wash with detergent and dry in oven and and prime then cut out old rusty metal and weldin new then fill and reprime then take to body shop so they can do there own preping..................

If you have the car media blasted, I have heard some people say that it it will be prone to quickly developing a surface rust condition. Is that the case and if you are turning it over to a body shop for final repairs and painting, does it really matter?

some places prime it directly after blasting it, i think......

I'd check with the shop you plan to use anyway. It may not be that much cheaper for you to handle the stripping and they may cut you a better deal for them to do it all. I know I don't like walking into someones half finished project at my day job.

You need to have it primed immediately if you have it blasted. If the air is damp enough you will can get visible rust in 15 mins.

If you do it the old fashioned way and sand it down invest in a few rattle cans of self etching primer and spray a thin layer as you're done with a section.

There is also plastic media blating that only removes paint...

Please keep in mind that when you start digging in, your probably going to find even more then you thought. I seem to have heard it before, "It was a spot about this big, then I had to send it out for panel replacement".

It's not funny, and it's often true with these little buggers. I just completed mine and was truly surprised to find all the issues (rust) that I did.

As for stripping the cars finish, if you insist on a DIY, then try Aircraft stripper. One panel at a time, as it can get messy. Doing it that way will allow you the time to get better at it. Please note, when using AirCraft Stripper, it must be neutralized, that way it stops working. Use a good grade of laquer thinner. Detergents don't actually neutralize the chemical in it, they just kind of give a false sense of clean.

Once your panel is thouroughly stripped of all paint and stripper residue, be sure to put on a nice coat of an epoxy primer. It's the best rust inhibitor I know of, and most bodyshops with any knowledge of the primer know, that repairs (dents etc.) can be applied/repaired right over it. In fact, it's recommmended by most epoxy primer companies to do just that, as it's a great adhesion promoter for plastic fillers.

If you want any advice from me for any other phase of your project,it won't cost you anything, just shoot me a PM. I'll be happy to advise.....

John

Another thought

Check around at local adult education. While living in the Norfolk area I stumbled upon the local High School VoTec programs which also offered evening adult education classes.

They offered a full body shop full of tools, a paint booth, a teacher and several old farts who'd take the course every semester just to work on their project...which I did for several years too.

It is a great way to get inexpensive access to tools and expertise AND FREE HELP if you are lucky enough to find such a deal in your area.

If you have access to military bases (a vet) that may be an option too. The local Air Force base has a large auto hobby shop including all the special tools and a paint booth and a complete Sher' Williams paint mixing system...and again those old farts hanging around willing to share their experience.....

(HS VoTec and some community colleges are a place to find welding classes too)

{and yes, anything you strip to bare metal you need to prime soon. Rust begins to form IMMEDIATELY, so if you do it in sections...prime as you go to seal the metal and later you can sand & apply a coat of high build primer end to end to level things out.}