Respray

[Flately79]

Sorry if this has been asked a million times...
I want/need to get a respray (just the outer will do me to save ripping the whole thing apart). I imagine some dots of rust are starting to bubble underneath what I have but minor enough as the body isn't too bad.
Has anyone ever done this in the last couple of years or so and what was the price? Even if you got it stripped and resprayed I'd love to know the price of that too. And where you might have gotten it done if it's in or around Dublin.
Many thanks indeed

[Billy]

It's a tricky one. The reality is that all Minis rust. Spraying over the few bubbles for the sake of keeping the cost down is a false economy because you're guaranteed that those bubbles will keep growing and you're back to square one. The only real way is to have the rust properly removed either by cutting out and patching or by replacing the rusty panel.

Here's where you really run into problems. If you take any car built in the last 30 years, replacing a wing just means unbolting it and bolting back on a new one (over-simplifying but you get my drift). With Minis, the wings are welded on so a panelbeater has to drill out spot welds and weld on the new wing, all of which is very time-consuming compared to the modern cars that most panelbeaters make their money from. Essentially that means that finding a panelbeater who will take on bodywork on a Mini is not going to be easy.

To give an idea of cost, properly removing the rust, buying replacement panels if needed, and getting a decent respray could cost anywhere between 5k and 10k, particularly in Dublin.

If you like, put up a few photos of the rusty areas and we might be able to give you an idea of what you're looking at. I'm not in the trade myself but I've had plenty of Minis restored over the last 30+ years.

Good luck with the project,

Billy

[Flately79]

Sorry Billy,
Only saw this now - thank you so much. Great info.

It's a tricky one. The reality is that all Minis rust. Spraying over the few bubbles for the sake of keeping the cost down is a false economy because you're guaranteed that those bubbles will keep growing and you're back to square one. The only real way is to have the rust properly removed either by cutting out and patching or by replacing the rusty panel.

Here's where you really run into problems. If you take any car built in the last 30 years, replacing a wing just means unbolting it and bolting back on a new one (over-simplifying but you get my drift). With Minis, the wings are welded on so a panelbeater has to drill out spot welds and weld on the new wing, all of which is very time-consuming compared to the modern cars that most panelbeaters make their money from. Essentially that means that finding a panelbeater who will take on bodywork on a Mini is not going to be easy.

To give an idea of cost, properly removing the rust, buying replacement panels if needed, and getting a decent respray could cost anywhere between 5k and 10k, particularly in Dublin.

If you like, put up a few photos of the rusty areas and we might be able to give you an idea of what you're looking at. I'm not in the trade myself but I've had plenty of Minis restored over the last 30+ years.

Good luck with the project,

Billy