Hello all,

My name is Rick, from Florida. I have been lurking here for a bit. I have wanted an original Mini since the first time I laid eyes upon one. I have finally found one, though I have not yet taken possession of it.

My Mini (which I will be obtaining sometime before the end of January) is a 1995 1275 SPi, with the steering on the "right'' side of the car (I wouldn't have it any other way). The car is a bit of a project, but does run and drive. It has a bit of rot that needs to be taken care of, nothing too bad. Needs the A panel on the passenger side replaced, and there is some rust along the seams where the front wings meet the front panel (someone tried, unsuccessfully, to put filler over it. I will be repairing it the proper way). The floors are fairly solid, but will eventually need to be patched. The drip rails are perfect! Also, the boot is a little wrinkled from a previous owner backing into something, very minor though.

My plan is to repair the worst areas of rust, give it a fresh tune, detail, new wheels/tires, etc., and use it as a daily driver until I have the funds to do a full restoration on it.

Here are the pics I snapped when I went to go look at the car. Looks worse than it really is, it has been sitting for a little while. The gentleman who owns it has a repair shop locally to me. He is from the UK and goes back there quite often and brings Mini's back with him.



I know that it does not look to pretty, but she does run!


Seats and interior are in really good shape (yes the door panels and carpets are there, they have been removed to look for hidden rust).


Here you can see the rot on the A panel, and the seams for the front wings.


I am still learning about these wonderful little cars, and any advice would be very welcome. The cars on this forum are an inspiration to me, and a great guide to repairing and restoring a Mini.

 

edit.

 

what are you willing to pay?

I would never buy an SPi (or MPi) - find someone who can work on them. If you find a mechanic, I'll change my mind. (maybe I should say experienced vs willing)

I'll sell you mine for $11,000 and you'll have much less pain. (do you realize a 1995 is a grey market car)

look to SunShineMinis.org for a Mini person local to you to scope this car b4 you buy .....

'danger Will Robinson ... DANGER'

****

unless you have your own welding equipment and experience in body work I suggest you walk away.

 

This car is local to me, and I have been to look at it twice now (put a deposit on it today). Yes, I do realize that it is a grey market car, and I actually want an SPi. I do all my own work, both mechanical and body. I have never had first hand exp with Rover injection, but I have had way more than my share of complicated injection systems, and this is far from complicated.

Besides, anything that I may not be able to handle, I can always take it to the guy I am getting it from (owns a local shop, specializes in Brit cars, mostly Minis)

It actually doesn't need a lot of body work compared to other Mini's that I have looked at. It is a fairly solid car, runs and drives, and everything is there. Plus the owner of the shop has just about every Mini part that anyone could ever need. Plus I am only paying $3k for it, so that leaves $8k to put into it before I even get to the $11k mark. Plus I don't have $11k to spend right now, haha.

Besides, I am the kind of person who likes a car that needs work, I have never, nor will I ever buy a car that needs nothing. Working on a car and fixing them is what I love to do.

 

Welcome to the obsession!!!!!

 

Thanks! There should be more pictures up soon, I posted more yesterday around noon, but I am still waiting on that post to be approved by a mod.

 

Welcome aboard and we all would love to see before and after photos even if they come every few months when you do any major changes to it.

Thanks,

 

moved to PM

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not doing a show car, nut and bolt resto. This car is a daily driver only. Plus I do all my own work. Sure labor isn't "free" but it wont cost me any cash. I have dealt mostly with older Mercedes over the years, which, believe it or not, have even more primitive fuel injection systems than Mini's, haha. You cannot even adjust the idle on the old Mercs. Also this all wont be happening at once, this is one of those projects that I will spend a couple years on.

IF something does happen to the injection that I cannot figure out, it's not that hard to put a carb on it.

I did not mean to sound rude, but I will not have to put that much money into it. This is not my first major project. Like I said, I do everything myself, so my only costs are parts and materials. The only shop that my cars go to, is the shop I work at.

And also, I would not have bought the car if it was junk. The guy who has them can sell them cheap because he imports them himself. By the time he buys them, gets them here and gets all the import docs and fees taken care of, he ends up having only about $2300 into each Mini, and he doesn't buy them unless they run and drive. He restores most of them, but he sells a few of them for a reasonable profit with out doing much to them.

 

Stopped by the seller's shop earlier this week to take a second look at the car and leave a deposit on it. Got to hear it run for the first time (tank was out last time) and it sounds fantastic!

Has a little more rust than I noticed before, nothing too bad though. Floors are solid, rear quarters, window frames, and rain gutters are perfect! it will eventually need a new drivers door, but still in good enough shape overall to start driving.

Has 83k on the clock, and even has the factory Rover alarm system AND the remote for it! There are a few things that have been unplugged and it may take a little hunting to find where they all go.

Anyway, here are a few pics from the visit. We rolled it out, had to adjust the rear drum, as it was stuck. We put a little fuel in it (after we put the tank back in) popped a battery in and fired her up.

83k on a very optimistic 110mph speedo


Pretty solid floors with just some surface rust-


Anyone know what this is for-


Random pictures-
















And the wheels I plan on getting for the as of yet un-named Mini. 12x7's!

 

Car looks like a fantastic project! good luck.

 

Did some more work on the car today.

Last time I went to work on it, we couldn't get the car to run on its own (we had to keep spraying starter fluid into the throttle body). I went and did a bit of work today, got the tank back in the right way, got the fuel pump working, and she starts and runs beautifully!



Idle is a bit high in that video, but it was just caused by a slightly sticking throttle cable.

After I got the fuel system all situated, I had to change the belt, as the old one was trash, and all I can say is that I am glad that I have small hands, haha. Found this connector hanging out down by the pedals, I can't seem to find where it goes, looks like it is possibly for a relay?



I got to drive her for the first time, and it was fantastic! Even with mis-matched tyres, bad shocks, and no interior, the handling and feel was great. I had to resist the urge to go tearing down the dirt road one street over. I need to wait till I have everything situated before I give her too much abuse.

After driving her and getting to know her personality a bit, she now has a name. Meet Flur. I know it's an odd name for a car, but she is an odd sort of car, so it works.

 

Also, "Flur" basically has no dash, and instead of buying one, I thought I would make one myself. My problem is, that I have come up with 5 designs so far (well I've come up with more, but these are the only 5 that I liked). I keep going back and forth in my head, so I thought I would see what you guys think. All of the following sketches are done to scale (for the most part, haha)

Option A is the most expensive and most difficult one-


The center section is actually from a new MINI. The centre gauge is a 5'' Autometer tach, which I already have. Left and right of the tach, are Autometer fuel and water temp dials (which I would still have to buy) and the speedo (would also have to buy) would be mounted atop the steering column. The main part of the dash would be a faux carbon fiber and the MINI center would be silver.

Option B-


The center section in this one would be custom made, but based on the new MINI look, the layout of the dials would be the same as option A, and the speedo would still be column mounted, I just didn't draw it in this time. Color layout is still CF/silver. No glove box this time though.

Option C-


Option C utilizes the existing gauges (repositioned) , and just adds the 5'' Autometer tach. No glove box, only radio. CF background with the new gauge surround silver

Option D-


Again, uses the existing gauges, but this time adding the Autometer tach to the center of the dash. The trim piece to the left of the tach is actually the glove box mirroring the gauge surround, same color layout as the rest.

Option E-


I didn't take the time to color this one in or draw on the gauge faces, but you get the idea. Option E is one of the more expensive ones as it would involve all new gauges.

So far C and D are my favorites (and also the cheapest ) I do like E a lot also, but I'm not sure I want to fork over the cash for all new gauges.

What do you guys think?

 

You could always try your hand and make one like this

 

I'm handy with building stuff and a bit of fabrication...but I'm not THAT handy! haha

 

Went out to work on Flur for a bit today. I was pleased that after a week straight of just sitting there, she started right up without hesitation. Mostly just worked on little things here and there. I straightened out the rear panel a little bit, so that I could get the boot lid to fit (it was previously rear ended and it got pushed in a little). The boot lit fits now, for the most part, but will still need some tweaking, but at least it's on there now! I forgot to take pictures of it though.

I also started working on refitting the interior-




I still need to get a carpet for it, as the one that she came with was basically trash. Anyone have an old carpet that they want to sell? I don't care about color or stains, as long as its not torn or full of holes! Haha.


Did a few other things... fixed the hood latch, reattached the hood.

Also hid some rust from view. (don't worry, patch panel is already on it's way, I just didn't want to look at the rust hole anymore!) I thought I would have some fun with it-

Before-


After-


Took Flur for another drive today. I put my foot in it a little more this time, now that the seats are actually attached, and I now feel confident in the condition of the drivetrain. I still can't get over how much fun it is to drive her. Spent about a half hour tearing up and down bumpy back roads at 55-60mph was fantastic!

 

Well since this is a budget build, I thought I would share one of my money saving solutions with you guys.

The replacement boot lid that I have for Flur has no handle/lock. So instead of spending $60 or so dollars on a replacement one from an online vendor, I decided to let ingenuity have a chance.

Took a trip to Lowes and got this-


It's a handle with lock and key for a garage door. Looks very similar to the actual handle, just sticks out a little further (which I kinda like) and even uses the same kind of square peg for the lock, I just have to shorten it a bit.

Here is an actual Mini boot handle for comparison-


Price comparison- Original style $55 + tax + shipping from GBcarparts, Lowes budget version- $9.98 + tax.

 

Just realized that the Lowes budget handle looks like the mk1/2 boot handle... kind of a cross between the two-

 

I really like option A Dashboard.

 

meetch-
I like A too, but after taking a closer look at the center section from the new MINI, it is just going to be too much work to make it fit and look right, so I am afraid that A is off the table. I think I have narrowed it down to C or D

 

 

In that case I would say option C... I think its very clean and functional look with the benefit of a radio. Since no glove box is intended in your design do you have any other ideas for small storage?

 

Not really sure on the storage yet. I may add some door pockets. But I also don't really plan on needing a lot of storage in the car. Even if I went with D, there would still be a radio (can't live without that) it will just be hidden away in the glove box.

 

Not much of an update, but an update none the less.

Did a little work to Flur today and she is finally starting to look like a Mini! Got some used wheel arches to put on her, and painted the steel wheels silver for now, until I get some real wheels, just so she doesn't look bad with the dirty mismatched steel wheels. Also went under the car today with a wire brush and some rust converter just to stop all of the surface rust from becoming a major problem. Also under coated the whole car today too.

New brakes on the rear-


Made a scary realization... I think I could park Flur inside my SUV, haha-


You can see some of the damage to the rear end in that picture.

Unfortunately, while I was under the car, I found a small coolant leak. It's not a big deal, I was planning on redoing the entire cooling system anyway, I will just be doing it sooner rather than later.

I didn't get any pictures of my garage/boot handle experiment on the car, because my phone died, BUT, it fits perfectly, no modifications needed at all. The mounting holes on the handle line up perfectly with the holes in the boot lid, and the square peg is the exact same size as the correct boot handle, so the garage handle works perfectly with the original latch! 4.gif The only thing I will have to do is trim the peg a bit.

Took these pictures earlier when I was testing to see if the two parts would work together-




And finally, the obligatory photo shoot edits ;D

 

I cant wait to see the final results. Keep up the great write up.