Irish Mini Owners Club

Right lads as promised, my build thread.

so first things first we got her up nice and high do drop the engine and subframe out from underneath. We have no fancy lifts or anything like that so had to use any means possible but it seemed to be nice and sturdy and worked well. The pics really speak for themselves. After one weekend we had the car stripped to a bare shell. also the engine had been degreased and cleaned so we go about painting it when the time comes. I thought it was funny that the engine was yellow. I have also seen green and red mini engines, can someone tell me why certain models had different colour engines and a bit of info about that maybe. we are not sure what colour to do the engine either, the car will be metallic blue and of course the subframes will be painted black. The only rust we found was behind the dash which is also visible from under passo side wing. it is rotten through and will need a new piece welded in. but so far no more rust to report anyway enough chat i will let the pics do the talking and try and keep this thread updated as much as possible. all thoughts/opinions/advice welcome and appreciated. p.s pics are a bit muddled and not in order sorry about that.

Good work, the shell looks reasonably good. Keep us posted with any updates

DaveC wrote:Good work, the shell looks reasonably good. Keep us posted with any updates

Thanks for the reply. Yeah the shell is in pretty good shape. It is all there The previous owner had it resprayed red and it was a poor enough job. As you can see the original grey colour behind dash and in places of the engine bay where they didn't bother pulling dash out or anything it was just a quicky paint job. I will defo keep this thread updated thanks for your interest

Looks like you've done well with a good shell. Most of the old A-Series engins were green then when they went to A+ the 998cc and 1098cc were yellow and the 1275cc were red. Mpi engins are black and gold was for factory reconditioned engins. There were also some blue engins in there somewere .

Best of luck with your mini project Benny

woody wrote:Looks like you've done well with a good shell. Most of the old A-Series engins were green then when they went to A+ the 998cc and 1098cc were yellow and the 1275cc were red. Mpi engins are black and gold was for factory reconditioned engins. There were also some blue engins in there somewere .

Thanks for the info man

minicac wrote:Best of luck with your mini project Benny

Thanks mate

If that tractor is anything to go by the mini is in good hands.
Good luck.

Dylan8660 wrote:If that tractor is anything to go by the mini is in good hands.
Good luck.

Thanks man appreciate it

Few updates on this. She has been down in the panel beaters a week or so now and we went down yesterday for a check in. He has the boot lid and doors sandblasted and had our front subframe sandblasted and primed. No pics of the subframe unfortunately but i got a few of the doors and bootlid. Also got a few pictures of a mini done in the colour we are going for. If I'm not mistaken the colour is a rover colour called, Trophy blue. Il let the pictures do some talking now. When he sandblasted the doors the dreaded rust holes did show up but this is what we want to see, so to speak I just mean we would rather know what she needs than have someone do a botched job on her. I have seen replacement bottom plates for the doors on the mini sport site, What do you lads think about them or have you had any experience with doors like this.
... Right pics...




This next one is where the previous lad who painted the car had hammered in rust holes so his filler would stick.




Next few pics are of a different mini this man has done and the colour we are going for, trophy blue. We are also going to go for these arches, i believe they are rover special arches? open to correction on that lads.




That is it for now. All opinions/ideas/advice, good or bad welcome

Sorry lads I moved pictures around in my photobucket albums and they seem to be gone from here and I kind of forget which ones I moved. Sorry about that.

Anyway the car has been at the sprayers now for close to 3 months at this stage. We decided on almond green with old english white roof and bonnet stripes. Let me know what ye lads think.
Should have the shell back this weekend and the subframes and all are ready to go back in.

Very nice!!! I'm liking that well done

Thank you Purplehaze, appreciate it. The lighting is a bit weird in the pics but that is just my phone camera and the lighting in the shed. I will do my best to get more updates in the future.

This colour has to be one of the nicest colours that ever rolled off the production line

joeyfinneran wrote:This colour has to be one of the nicest colours that ever rolled off the production line

Thanks Joey. It sure is a lovely colour.

What are your lads thoughts on the old english white roof and stripes on the bonnet. We were thinking it was the right choice as normal white would look weird with the almond green.
We were also contemplating leaving the stripes off altogether but glad we went for them now. Thoughts?

If those bonnet stripes are painted then top job, well done. I have to agree with Joey the almond green is one of the absolute classic mini colours.

Dylan8660 wrote:If those bonnet stripes are painted then top job, well done. I have to agree with Joey the almond green is one of the absolute classic mini colours.

Cheers Dylan. Yes the stripes are painted old english white to match the roof. The guy that is spraying it for us is very good.

Bit of an update. The car is home and rebuilding is well under way. Few pics.

Car looks great, Paint is lovely aswell

Stuie.91 wrote:Car looks great, Paint is lovely aswell

Thanks Stuie

Haven't updated this in a while. So we got cracking on the engine and got her in anyway. Let me know what yous think lads. Still a few bits and pieces left to touch up.

Shes coming along nicely, love the colour!

CB_Phil wrote:Shes coming along nicely, love the colour!

Cheers Phil

She is running at last.

Loads done since the last update. Feel free to leave feedback good or bad I don't mind. Only a few bits and pieces to do and she will be right.