1988 Austin Mini 'Mutley'

[Icey]

Brief History

Mutley was bought in October 2004, with the intention of driving him for a few years until I wanted to start him as a 'project'. However in April 2005 we found that this was not possible due to POS (previous owner syndrome) everything that was supposed to be solid was actually a lie, but being new to mini's we didn't realise this, I now know alot more and kick myself daily for the amount I spent on Mutley MK1. The ends of the scuttle where stuff with newspaper, and fillered over at one end, the other had a plate of metal welded in with 3 inches thick of filler and fibreglass. Lots more of this kind of thing continued throughout the car. However much it dishearted me, I didn't have the heart to give up.
We come to present day, when I have just picked up Mutley MK2, simply because it is a much solid shell - and a lot less work is to be done - it's basically a bit of tidying, plus who could refuse at the tidy sum of £65 (INCLUDING DELIVERY!)

Pictures

Mutley in October 2004 (the day he was bought)




Some of the things we found










The day he moved from my Mums house to my pad


The Boys together


Mutley MK2






Tasty Wheels


Plans

Few of the plans on the cards, I've forgotten most of it, but I'm not surprised - new ideas come up every day with 'Mutley'.

Aiming to have a water-tight shell by the end of the summer (which hopefully will be painted!)

Tidy bodywork & strip yucky sound deadening
E16SE Turbo
Dakota Digital Dials
Bodywork to be finished in Volkswagen Brilliant Orange & Fiat Broom Yellow
Mutley MK1 to be made into trailer
Lots lots more!

[jdmini]

that's bad luck about the car mate, when i had my mayfair restored i got it back and all the rust came through...my scuttle was filled with similar curse word to yours.

stick with it, and it'll be done in no time.

it's a good idea stripping that sound deadening stuff...i had a go at mine today and found a whole in the inner sill

[Icey]

What a pain in the ass - but stripping it is deffo worth doing - it's horrible stuff!

I've found the best way to strip is with a blowtorch - heating it up and then scraping it off.

[skoda_norman]

are you aiming for the same look ? coz that blue one looks great.

[Icey]

Yeah, Mutley MK1 is a stunner ;D

I guess he will look similar - just in a different colour scheme.

His 'original' is Lipari Blue

[ratty]

So are you re-shelling or doing both?

[dollywobbler]

Very nice. But now I'm wondering how much newspaper there is in our Mini!!

[Icey]

ratty said:

So are you re-shelling or doing both?

Re-shelling - and then making a trailer out of the Mutley MK1 shell ;D

[MiniDan]

Very nice!!! ;D

Oh, not the rot... thats a bit of a curse word

Mini trailers ;D ;D ;D when do right... There fantastic!!! Was going to make one myself a while ago. I think I've still got the plans if you want them or haven't got them already?

[J.P]

Hello Icey! Remember you from MR. Glad to see your still at old Mutley!

[Icey]

~Minidan - That would be fantastic if you could send them to me, have been doing some digging around the web and found some useful websites - but if you have some plans - spot on

Hey J.P!

[MiniDan]

No problem ;D I will have a look round and see if I can find them.

[grizz]

Holy Feck !!

Pole-Shaft ?

Kudos to you for making it right.

[Icey]

Well, just to prove that there is no slacking going on, I'll update a little. (I'll try and explain so you understand, but I'm never good with words!)

The new outer sill wasn't welded on very well (previous owner) - so tidying of the bird poo welds and re-welding the panel properly has been started, and general tidying up and sorting out. Not much really left on the drivers side to do, few little bits really, and the most major part is part of the rear arch (outer). Which is a lot less than we'd have had to do on Mutley Mk1, most of the rear arch would have needed replacing. So it's saved time and money on that front.

Anyway, picture time!

Rear arch section that needs replacing, shouldn't be to tricky, and this is the most major bit we have to do, which is nice. You can see the old sill inside the new one - I'm not sure what has gone on here, I think it was to do with them lining up the new one?! You can also see that huge bare metal patch... it was covered in filler - but nothing underneath - panel is totally straight as well - again not sure what's going on there?!?!?!?!



Tidying the sill and drilling the wholes to weld it on properly, I'm really pleased how clean this shell is - just minor bits and bobs to do really.



Ready for spotting - I was feeling a bit artistic at this point, can you tell?



I think we are on target to finish and get the shell solid before the end of summer, hopefully even before the end of summer. Fingers crossed!

I'm getting excited about the prospect of seeing 'him' sprayed and looking lovely - as I have been doing lots of bits and bobs with trim etc.

Hopefully I'll have another update during the week - with half a mini! TRAILER TIME! ;D

[Rob M]

Did you ever consider taking said rotten mini back to its previous owner and raming it up his curse word?
Total respect to you for sticking with it, you know that you will win through in the end!

[trg1984]

i would of been quite tempted to going back to who u bought it off an punching them in the face.

the moral of the story is "never go to look at a mini without a magnet"

u did well to get a mini 30 shell for 65 quid. i would of thought theyd be quite sort after

[Icey]

Yeah I didn't do too badly with the new shell.

Anyway....

UPDATE TIME!

This won't be a very interesting update - but I'm doing interior retrimming - I'm wondering why I don't do this for a living??!! HAHA!

Total spent on material: £12 (for a 3 sheets that would carpet several living rooms)
Total spent on foam: £7 (for a sheet that would carpet several living rooms)
Total spent on machine: £FREE!

I work this out to be cheaper than getting a company to do it for you, I found that one re-trimmed sunvisor was £25!!!!!!!

My weapon of choice, a Singer 748 (has a sticker saying 1300SPM!!!) this was a free machine from FREECYCLE - got to love it!



I cut some card from a Strongbow box - I'm an alkieholic! hehe! Good excuse to get another box maybe? The layers worked out as:
Foam > Card > Metal Frame > Card > Foam



I'm not hot on this sewing machine stuff, it was my first attempt since school, the top one is the second and the bottom one is the first.



Then I glued all my layers together with Industrial Spray Mount, and tried to work out how to get the layers into my material pouch?!



Little bit of a push and struggle I got them in....





Now I just need to work out how to finish the top off and it'll be done (oh and I need to spray or sort out the holders either end.

I'll probably update later again as some metal work is being done outside ;D

[Icey]

Okay, so you didn't like my sewing babble, so here are some metal work pictures instead

Here is the "Companion bin closing plate' welded in and done.



Door step complete, and you can just see the template to make that rear bit, as they don't do a 'repair' panel, you can only buy a huge lump including the sill.



Door fits nicely!

[J.P]

Coming on brilliant Icey! Fair play for tackling the retrim. That repair never seems to be a nice or easy one.

Keep at it!

[trg1984]

were the doors easy to line up, mine well out of line on mine