Just wanted to say hello to everyone in the club. I'm a newish member, but I've been here before. I have a '76 Austin Min I bought in August 2004. I drove it daily for about a year.

In August 2005 I actually started poking around the body and discovered a lot of rust in some key structural areas. So I started on restoring my car and worked on it for a couple years before becoming a dad in 2007. Since my son was born i haven't worked on the car much.

I've been talking w/ Doug Travis when i run into him every now and again. It seems there are a lot more classic minis in town now. Very exciting to hear! I even saw an orange mini van drive by me last week. It got me very excited. I miss driving mine. Which brought me back to the club.

So here I am. I'm planning on pulling the engine this spring (April or May) so i can roll the body on it's side. With the car on it's side it'll be easier for me to patch up the problem areas on the underside. So, if anyone is interested i could use the help and expertise of anyone who's done this before. I'm an amateur mechanic with very little experience in this. But i like to tinker and i have tools. If you want to just watch, have a beer, and offer encouragement, that would be great also.

I figure if i can surround myself with like-minded mini (and Bini) people my car might have a chance to get back on the road before my son turns 16.

If you're interested, i have poorly documented my restoration here.

Thanks!

-Alden

 

Well, I don't have a classic MINI but the title of this thread is awesome! Welcome to NAM?

 

I understand why you want to roll it on it's side, but I'd be very concerned that in doing so you might damage something else or even tweak it such that nothing would fit again when you went to put her back together, depending on how much swisscheese you have to remove to get to good solid metal.

It would be better in my mind to get the car up high on something solid that will keep it square and give you good access - even a couple of good strong sawhorses might work, depending again on how much metal you're going to have to remove. I 'd also recommend buying the best quality repair pieces you can find, cheap metal is more trouble than it's worth, and the results always look poor. If you're going to do it, do it right. Also, if you're going to replace large areas of metal, weld in some braces first to hold everthing square till all the new metal is welded in and solid.

Check out my Cardomain page to see what I did to my Jag E-Type for inspiration, if I could do it, you can! http://www.cardomain.com/ride/505677

 

Wow, thanks for your link. Nice work on the Jag. I'm not replacing large panels like you did but i might reconsider. May well be worth doing it now while it's all stripped. Bracing the shell was planned and now i want a rotisserie!

Moxiemini, U can never go wrong w/ a Simpson's quote!

 

Welcome to the club!