Ok, so Im 20 years old and go to school and work, i live in georgia and its rather hard to find classic minis here specially for that price, and i found a Classic Mini for sale, its 3k but from the pictures the guy has sent me it has a lot of rust spots and its a 1972 Austin Mini 1000. and he says also that the floors have rust too but didnt send me a picture so i dont know how bad it is. So i was wondering if this would be a bad buy for me? i have a car my parents passed down to me that runs great but i am in love with classic minis but i dont have much money to put in it since i am a student. I would love to buy it and as the years pass by put more and more money into it maybe even put a vtech engine in it. So i need advice guys. Im new here too by the way

 

start by reading the many threads on this very topic

as recent as last week https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ssic-mini.html

in short, no don't buy it

for $3000 it is very very unlikely this car is very good shape and will require care and feeding that seems beyond your means at this time. For starters unless you have a garage, this car sitting in the weather is just going to rust more. And what ever rust the owner is admitting to, you can be pretty damn sure there's plenty more.

consider this a 'tough love' reply

 

also you need to decide what route you wish to take your mini.....
why spend money on a mini with a motor if you are planning to replace it with a honda unit? i would rather just spend my money on a good roller instead.

 

I would start researching the kind of $$$ Honda VTEC swaps cost. If you're having trouble stomaching $3k for a car, you should prepare yourself for the $$$ that the typical quality VTEC swap costs. I know there are forum members here with 1st-hand experience (of which I'm not one) that can give you a better price expectation, but I would say $20k would be reasonable for the VTEC swap alone ... that excludes the cost of a Classic Mini.

Trust me ... that won't be a problem. You can throw as much money at these cars as you want.

Good luck in the hunt,
Jeff