Irish Mini Owners Club

I'm just about to start the renovation of my daughters 1983 city (shes only 13 months old so I've got a bit of time!!)
I'll be needing lots of help and the first question is:
Where do I get the body dipped to remove all paint, bearing in mind I live in Ballina, Mayo

I'll try to keep you updated on how I get on, may take a while as I work at sea, 2 months on / 2 months off

Cheers Jed

if you dip it to remove all the paint you would want to paint it by immersing it fully in primer and paint again? think of all the closed box sections which are painted? (sills, firewall?)

are you going to paint it yourself or have a paint-shop do it?

if paint-shop, talk to the guys there and see what level of prep they like. when i re-painted mine, (in 1981) i rubbed it all down, filled and smoothed, blocked down ready for primer/paint. It was down to metal in some places, primer in others and blocked down paint everywhere else.

if i were to do it again i'd probably soda bast it.

If you were to dip it the painters would want to be be seriously good to get it ALL sprayed again! Like Keith above I think it would make life a lot easier if you were to go the sand/soda blast route. It will remove rust and paint and paint and will only get the places that you can spray.

Thanks guys, never thought of the hard to get at places. I just remember a tv show where they dipped to get all the paint off but remember they then dip primed it after!!
OK here's my next question then, any clues on where to go for soda blasting round my way, I'm fairly new to the Emerald Isle and haven't heard of anywhere round here.
I'm willing to travel a fair way but would prefer closer.
I've got a small compressor, anyone tried the cheap shot blast kits with one? I don't think ive got enough ooomph to get one to work well.
Any other ideas to get panels clean, I've a lot of rust to remove and would like to see what I'm doing..
cheers again for the replies

you could also use Nitromors, it's a paint stripper and it works quite well,
all you have to do is give the surface some scratching (P40 or P80 grit paper works) and then just paint it on liberally,
leave it their to do it's job and then just scrape away the paint that it has lifted, you may need to re-apply in some areas but it'll get rid of the paint which is what you want,
it can be gotten from most DIY shops

As far as I know and unless it has changed in recent times paint removal by dipping is not available on these shores.There are companies in the UK who specialise in this process.Take a look at the classified ads in Irish Vintage Scene for soda blasting companies as this is a new and eco friendly way to remove paint or as Macker said get out the Nitromors.

macker wrote:you could also use Nitromors, it's a paint stripper and it works quite well,
all you have to do is give the surface some scratching (P40 or P80 grit paper works) and then just paint it on liberally,
leave it their to do it's job and then just scrape away the paint that it has lifted, you may need to re-apply in some areas but it'll get rid of the paint which is what you want,
it can be gotten from most DIY shops

This is what Nitromors does! Strips it right back!

prefer the imp next to it tbh...

where bouts was that pic taken, looks like the imp thats in sligo???

The Marcos Graveyard wrote:

This is when I took it to the vintage show in Rooskey this year.

The Marcos Graveyard wrote:

Who owns it?

I bought it for Mrs.TMG.