MaDSeB
Part of things
Big things in small packages
Posts: 574
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hmm this is a bit of a now brainer, i have put minis back on the road that were in a lot worse state than that. a mini is a great base car to learn on, and a great step on the retro owner ladder. the a series engine is a simple unit that can be tuned quite simply. i say get it, through a little money at it (maybe swap the auto, that are a bit interesting to drive not a hard job.)and enjoy
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You could pay good money, like decent 4 figures, for a shiny one with that much rust hiding in it. Someone has done you the favour of stripping down, finding it all and even fitting up some new panels.
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1937 Austin Street Rod - 1941 Wolseley Not Rod - 1956 Humber Hawk - 1957 Daimler Conquest - 1966 Buick LeSabre - 1968 Plymouth Sport Fury - 1968 Ford Galaxie - 1969 Ford Country Squire - 1969 Mercury Marquis - 1970 Morris Minor - 1970 Buick Skylark - 1970 Ford Galaxie - 1971 Ford Galaxie - 1976 Continental Mark IV - 1976 Ford Capri - 1976 Rover V8 - 1994 Ford Fiesta
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you can stick a manual in an auto subframe, just takes a couple of spaces, flog the auto to a trike owner, usually make £200-ish. I bought an auto Mayfair for my son. Insurance companies all said if I changed to manual it'd be classed as a modified vehicle so they either declined to quote or said the premium would be loaded. BTW the insurers know the original spec from their data base so you can't pretend it was made as a manual. Paul H
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That's not that bad. All the front end stuff has been done and the rest of the rot is standard. Get a half decent Gas MIG, get some old panels to practice on then crack into it. Looks a great little project to me, stick a nice, easy DIY paint job on it, too
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1993 Mercedes-Benz 190e LE in Azzuro Blue.
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you can stick a manual in an auto subframe, just takes a couple of spaces, flog the auto to a trike owner, usually make £200-ish. I bought an auto Mayfair for my son. Insurance companies all said if I changed to manual it'd be classed as a modified vehicle so they either declined to quote or said the premium would be loaded. BTW the insurers know the original spec from their data base so you can't pretend it was made as a manual. Paul H That's where specialist insurance brokers come into play. I had it the opposite way around once, I wanted to swap my policy over from a highly modified mk2 scirocco to a standard vauxhall zafira and they wanted to add over 1k to the cost of the policy because it was standard, so I chucked a old induction kit on it so it was modified and didn't have to pay any extra premiums It's all about about finding the right insurance company for the job, although admittedly that seems to be getting harder and harder as far as young people are concerned
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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It's just the sheer amount of welding that's giving me the willies... Mate seriously, that's a late 80's min, it's MINT compaired to most from the 80/90s trust me that is well savable, i've seen racers spend £400 then weld for weeks to get one in that good a condition You want to see a bad one i'll grab a pic of the one we have coming in in a few weeks if it's still dumped outside me yard and not been fragged by a passing eastern europian scrap man ;D
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Last Edit: Feb 2, 2012 12:23:39 GMT by bortaf
R.I.P photobucket
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As everyone else has said - definatly worth getting. I ran a Mini auto as a daily for quite a while, didnt have any problems with it, If you want a bit more pace it can be manually shifted (1-2-3-D) quite well and they take a bit of abuse from speedy change downs. However if you start tuning the engine you tend to loose a bit of bottom end grunt which makes pulling away a bit sluggish. I eventually replaced my auto with a manual simply because of the fuel consumption, its about double in an auto. I didnt have any trouble in my 88 auto keeping up with a 1999 spotpack cooper (much to his disgust!)
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MWF
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,945
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Bucking the trend I say, unless you are confident, or have a resource who is, walk away.
I've seen one too many amateur Mini 'restorations' that consist of leaving a rotting shell under a tarp for five years.
One of those things hard not to naively picture as a challenging yet enjoyable montage.
Sorry to be the pessimist but I think it's worth balancing the argument.
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clint
Part of things
Posts: 168
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get it easy welding my escort was much worse than that
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smellyferret
Posted a lot
Back in a retro after 7 years!
Posts: 1,121
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Thats way better than average condition for a mini! Back in the 90s the one I drove around was in worse shape than that... Well worth beer money, especially as it seems most of the bits are there.
Learn to weld on it, with the price its cost you, its not like you need to get every weld looking spot on!
Looks like an awesome [potential purchace to me!
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bstardchild
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 14,899
Club RR Member Number: 71
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Thats way better than average condition for a mini! Back in the 90s the one I drove around was in worse shape than that... Well worth beer money, especially as it seems most of the bits are there. Learn to weld on it, with the price its cost you, its not like you need to get every weld looking spot on! Looks like an awesome [potential purchace to me! I agree with most of that apart from the learn to weld on it bit Mini's are made from very thin metal and my experience says that are a cow to weld
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