Irish Mini Owners Club

Hi all,
I'm only new to this forum joined it when i seen the bit done on Darran in the irish vintage scene, a very nice selection of mini's.

I bought my first ever mini a couple of weeks ago as a project. It's a '93 Mini Rio i was going to strip it completely and change nearly everything but i just found out there was only 750 rio's made but not much more about it, so i suppose im woundering if it would be bad not to bring it back to its original design as there was so few made. the only change on it so far is the roof sprayed white the radio and minilite alloys. so what do ya'll think

Mini_reo wrote:Hi all,
so what do ya'll think

we all think you should ad some pictures so we can see

Hello and welcome to the forum,

As Macker said, stick some photos up. You will find directions on how to post photos in the For Sale section.

Is your Rio turquoise or black?

Its pearlescent Caribbean blue and I'll have pic's up shortly

I have this one on my phone its not great tho.

Welcome Mini_reo.

Having a rare car I would personally try and keep it original.
Others will tell you Mini's are unique anyway and change everything.

So in conclusion, it's your car and you should do what you feel like doing with it.
You'll have critics no matter what you do even if you leave it exactly as it is now!

If you do change it though, make sure you keep the unique parts in case you ever decide you do want to bring it back to original.

Good luck with the project.

Welcome to the forum lad
Im doing my first project too Goodluck man

here are some pic's of the car before i started the improvements

http://s1148.photobucket.com/albums/o562/Mini_moran/

Some serious rust there .

Ha tell me bout it ah if it were easy there be no point in doing it

That looks very much like the car I sold to Stephen R last year

CLUBMANGT wrote:That looks very much like the car I sold to Stephen R last year

That's because it's the same one Tony, wasn't going to get around to doing it anytime soon so passed it on. Had the car sold in about 6 hours, sad to see it go but better off with someone who's going attack rather than with me putting it on the long finger. It'll be a lively little car once the body work is sorted.

Mini_reo wrote:Hi all,
I'm only new to this forum joined it when i seen the bit done on Darran in the irish vintage scene, a very nice selection of mini's.

I bought my first ever mini a couple of weeks ago as a project. It's a '93 Mini Rio i was going to strip it completely and change nearly everything but i just found out there was only 750 rio's made but not much more about it, so i suppose im woundering if it would be bad not to bring it back to its original design as there was so few made. the only change on it so far is the roof sprayed white the radio and minilite alloys. so what do ya'll think

Good to see you signed up. The roof looks white but is an off silver colour. As far as I can make out only 250 Rios were made in each of the three colours. My plans were just to add new panels and keep it as it was but it's your mini now so really it's your decision on what to do with it.
Keep us posted on your updates, I'd really like to this back on the road

Hi all just a quick update I know it's been a while and still nottin to show but was trying to gather up tools nearly there now tho, so far I have took out the interior and next week I'm off work so weather permitting I'll have the car stripped to a shell and can start the repairs, fingers crossed

And I even had my nephew helping me out today he mad into cars already the longest I see him sitting still for is when we're lookin at a car is reborn of wheeler dealers.

Good to see your resto is now under way . keep us updated you will overtake me soon the way things are going

Ya no problem I'll keep taking the pictures as I go. Hopefully I can get a good run at it next week as I'm weather depended have to work outside no shed to work out of.
But got my latest toy yesterday I love this welder it works brilliant on all 3 functions mig - tig - and stick

Nice how much

I paid €750 for the welder, mig torch, 15kg spool of wire, box of welding rods, auto helmet, and can of anti splatter spray, got a deadly deal on it as my dad and shop owner are good friends, but normally it's €730 including vat for the welder an mig torch.

Got another bit done this evening put it up on axel stands removed most of the bright work and started removing the wiring loom

Next to remove the back lights, bumper, boot, bonnet, and front and back sub frame, then start grinding and welding a couple of fine days would be nice now