Sean' Mini!

[seanos]

Well I got my first mini in May and since then i've been working on it, When i got
the car it was in perfect road worthy order. Just abit of cosmetic things and a
personal touch needed to be added.


When I got the car.

Started off by stripping the car to literally a bare shell, and had a poke around to find all
the rusty spots.




Some of the repairs done:



(the floor well was tidied up much better than this pic afterwards)

Ended up replacing the Passenger door, bonnet and P/S A-Panel.
The car must have been parked against a bush or something because alot of the rust was
only on the Passenger side.

During its respray:


And this is how my mini looked when I got it back on the road. (September 2009)

(Myself and Dylan's Mini's, Picture by Dylan)

For the interior I put in:
Black carpet
Retrimmed the doorcards and dashrails with black leather
Retrimmed the back seat black
Red cobra bucket seats w/ Silver 3 point harnesses
Black leather speaker board w/ 6x9s
3 gauges on the dash in a chrome holder

Outside:
Resprayed in a custom Purple
13x7's
4 spotlights
Matt Black Grill
Chrome Arches
Detachable Bonnet
Headlamp Peaks
Gas Shocks (Koni)
Stage 1 Kit
Cold Air Feed w/ a custom stainless steel filter housing



Then in and around March 2010 I decided I wanted a cosmetic change to the mini.
I sold on my 13x7's to Kenneth and picked up
12x6 Matt Black Revo's
Group 2 Arches
Black twin clock dash
Hi-Lo's
Black trim for around the body
Chrome Grill (Thanks Dylan)
Roof Bars




At this stage I was really happy with my mini, it looked really well and 'dark'
When the really hot summer came around I started to notice some really bad cracking in the
lacquer on the car and quickly got worse. I brought it back to the guy who sprayed it and as
usually he had some excuse for it saying the paint and the lacquer reacted making them not
bond. So in september 2010 I took the car off the road when my tax and test ran out.

I currently have the car stripped back down to a bare shell.
What needs doing now is:
New Driver side A-Panel (rust)
Patch of rust removed on rear valance
Surface rust on the bottom of Drivers Door
Respray!!

Plan is to spray the car Matte Black, wrap the bumpers, mirrors, light surrounds, arches and a
few other bits in a carbon fibre look.

So far, i have the A-panel removed (waiting to get a new one)
The interior is stripped sanded, sealed and sprayed black
And I sprayed the bootlid and a test run!

Will get some more updates up as I get going on it, hopefully the weather picks up because
its too to be out in the garage lately.

Cheers for looking lads!
Sean

[seanos]

Just thought i'd add, I also had to pick up a new bonnet and passenger door.
Got them from Macolm Skelly, have to say thank you to him and he couldn't be a nicer person!

[The Marcos Graveyard]

I don't think your harness bar is a good idea, ideally you want the anchor point to be lower than the shoulder height of the driver.
The most common place to locate the anchor points would be at the base of the rear seat panel adding extra strengthening to spread the load on the boot side at the same time.

[seanos]

Removed*

[seanos]

Oh forgot to mention the car is over getting a full body re-spray!
hopefully i'll have some pictures tomorrow!!

[rhys mate]

looks like a good job bet its gonna look mint

[seanos]

Serious amount of updating needed here, car was finished and changed alot appearance wise! Will get some pictures up tomorrow.

The car is off the road again now had serious problems with the paint so it's in need of a full respray, this time I'm doing it myself.

Like they say, If you want it done right, do it yourself

Watch this space!

[seanos]

First post updated!
Enjoy

[neasha]

Looks great here... What happend the chrome arches? They looked deadly. Keep updating!!:D

[seanos]

Still have the chrome arches in the garage, just preferred the group 2's.

Bit of an update.

The car is striped back to a rolling shell and i've started sanding it down.
Have the rear nearly done as far as the doors.
Next thing its to get some fillers to touch up some little imperfections in surface.

I've got galvanized primer for the car, its a bit strange its a silver colour and its
made by rawplug, but its really good stuff, has anti rusting stuff in it and it stops
rust from continuing to eat the metal.

Gonna give the car a few coats of that then start painting it

Will get some pictures tomorrow

[seanos]

Alot done today and last night!
With the help of my girlfriend, I got the roof sanded and painted with galvanised paint

All the doors are now of the car and half of the sanding is done on them.
The front end is a disaster zone, the guy who sprayed it last (And made a BALLS of it) filled in the joint between the front end and the wings so I spent near 2 hours trying to removed the fillers and straighten the lip on the right hand corner, pretty happy with how it looks but theres a nice bit of surface rust on it, so plan is the sand it back to bare metal and get a coat of galvanised paint on it straight away.

Getting there slowly but surely, will take some pictures tomorrow, hate bring my camera out to the garage with all the dust and that.

Sean

[st3e]

Hey man your mini looked slick in the photos above!!
There is no doubt that the matte black will set it off!! Sounds like you got a lot of work on your hands!!
Cant wait to see some pics of it when you get it done!! It'll be nice to see another matte black mini!! =)

[seanos]

cheers man!
I was really happy with it but the paint broke my heart and going matte black is the cheapest option right now.
I'll get some pictures up soon.

Update.

Have the engine all resprayed and rand ready for a service.
Need to get a front panel and a drivers side a-panel, Macker has a front panel there for me but i'm the worst in the world for getting to people to get parts. Working abit so I can really complain as i need the funds!

Next up is get the front panel and a-panel onto the car, block down the primer, some fillers, then paint time.
Hopefully get that done over the next 2 weeks

[seanos]

Right! UPDATE!

Ordered my front panel and A-Panel today
Also ordered new gaskets for the thermo stat, water-pump, manifold and rocker-cover.
Oh, and 2 clear glass early type indicator units.

Whats been done....

Well, I've finished the engine, stripped it back, all nuts and bolts ultrasonically cleaned.
Starter and Alternator refurnished.
and all the brackets and bits and bobs sanded, primed and sprayed.
Will get a picture of the engine finished but here's what it looked like before:


Here's the Master Cylinder all cleaned up:


Have the engine bay coated with Waxol, hoping this will deaden some of the road noise:


Have all panels filled, sanded and reprimered to keep an even colour all over for the final coat of paint.
Have the matt black paint ready to go.
Next thing to do is get the sound deadening sorted.

Here's some more pictures, really need to keep myself more organized in the garage,
next thing to do is get the place tidied up for welding and painting:

(Door before blocking)

All C&C welcome!

[CLUBMANGT]

Your starting to get there now alright , are you going to clear over the matt black ? it markes real easy if not

[seanos]

I don't plan on lacquering it, if I can get a matting agent lacquer I will.


UPDATE.

Right so all the panel work is done, have the a panel and front panel fitted, car is sprayed (almost).
All the new engine seals I bought are fitted and the engine is ready to go back in.

Next things to do are:

Sort out the wiring loom
Finish off sound proofing
Tint windows
Carbon wrap the bumpers and other bits
Put it back together


I'll get some pictures later, it's really starting to come together

[seanos]

UPDATE.

Right so, the car painted, almost back together.
Got need doorcards made up in a matt black finish to match the dash.
I've relocated the battery cable to the inside of the car, still have to install a killswitch on the cable under the seat.

While putting back in the lights I managed to fix my full beams don't ask me how...

I bought a set of early type indicators for the car from minispares.
Theres only one wire coming form the back of the light where as the old ones had 2 wires (green and black)
What do i do to the wires to set them up?
Do I earth the green and put the black onto the light?
Help!

Will try get some pictures up tomorrow!

[Kenneth Murphy]

black is earth colour is live

[mustard]

on the early indicator lamps, if i remember right, the wire coming off the lamp is the live, and she is earthed through the lamp....

someone will correct me if im wrong...

[seanos]

what do i do with the earth on the wiring loom that used to hook up to the lamp?
I'll give it go tomorrow and see what happens

[seanos]

ITS ALIVE!