Bnicho's 87 Mini Mayfair - Was DVLA UK Rego Details

[bnicho]

Moved to Members Cars and Projects, as this seems to be a more appropriate home for this now.

[Tim]

It seems as though your seller was pretty naive, I guess its hard for us Aussies to understand how quickly cars rust in the UK. I wonder if he paid to have the car inspected before he bought it and exported it? It also sounds as though he wasn't really up to doing the work himself which is also unfortunate. I do feel sorry for him, he got burned pretty badly, but on the bright side his loss is your gain. You've picked up a bargain worth 2-3 times what you paid in parts alone.

All those good bits would bolt underneath your Traveller quite nicely.

Tim

[bnicho]

It seems as though your seller was pretty naive, I guess its hard for us Aussies to understand how quickly cars rust in the UK. I wonder if he paid to have the car inspected before he bought it and exported it? It also sounds as though he wasn't really up to doing the work himself which is also unfortunate. I do feel sorry for him, he got burned pretty badly, but on the bright side his loss is your gain. You've picked up a bargain worth 2-3 times what you paid in parts alone.

All those good bits would bolt underneath your Traveller quite nicely.

Tim

Judging from his accent he's a UK ex-pat. Nice guy that has been taken for a ride. He told me he felt a bit of a fool. Just decided one day he wanted a Mini so he went looking on the web. He didn't find any in Australia, so he looked in the UK. Liked the look of this one and the details in the advert. He asked a few questions and got the right answers. So he bought it and shipped it to Aus, trusting the seller at his word.

He still wants a Mini, just wants to put off the purchase for a while. I told him to contact me when the time comes and I'll help him find a good one.

Still fighting with photobucket to get all the photos up.

Add me in Facebook and you can see the pics anyway.

[bnicho]

Finally photobucket allowed me to upload some pics without error.

Arriving home.





The windscreen is on the rear seat, removed to allow access to the rusty screen lip. Hence the temporary cover.

Looks quite good from this angle.



But it's a bit odd under that door.





MG Metro engine.



Now for the rust! This is where the sill should be!



Ouch!! You can see daylight through there.

[Luxobarge]

To be honest that doesn't look bad at all by Mini standards, I think given what you've said about the challenges of re-shelling in your country I'd go for welding it up. At least they're easy to work on these, and all the repair panels are easily available.

[Tim]

Yes I agree, it should be able to be repaired. By Australian standards though, that car is scrap. Rust repairs are very expensive here (unless you DIY) because they are so rarely needed. It still surprises me how much more badly cars rust in the UK. I guess its the salt.

Tim

[bnicho]

Tim is correct.

If that sill was the total extent of it, I'd agree that repairing on a DIY basis would certainly be viable.

But this car also has the following, wich makes it pretty borderline:
- Multiple holes in the floor.
- The scuttle (panel between the screen and bonnet) is holed at both ends and has been crammed with filler.
- The rear subframe mount at the heel board on at least one side requires replacement.
- The roof gutters, rear valance, boot floor, inner front wings near the air vents and both screen surrounds are showing signs of rust.

It seems a bit of a waste to repair all this when there are probably better shells around. For example an Aussie Clubman shell from the 70's has different doors, side and rear glass, but everything else would bolt in. Or the engine/box/subframes would all fit my Traveller, which was always intended to look stock but be fitted with 1275 and discs.

The car came with the following (with receipt from Minisport):
- New outer sills for both sides
- Door step repair panels for both sides.
- Windscreen corner panel repair panels for both sides.
- Spare LH rear flare (already painted to match the body).

The fact that the panel shop ordered the sill panels for both sides indicates there are issues with the driver's side similar to the passengers. I will know more when I get it into the shed and off the ground so I can have a poke around with a screwdriver.

I have to say I'm pretty disappointed with the MOT standards in the UK. A car with rust like this would never get an RWC (Roadworthy Certificate). I have the MOT in front of me and there is no mention of body rust. The advisory section lists the following, all of which would fail an RWC here automatically:
- Slightly corroded brake pipes.
- Worn steering column bush.
- Exhaust noisy. (No joke!)
- Play in ball joints.
- Missing ball joint dust cover.

[Willy Eckerslyke]

Hmm, receipts for parts that have never been fitted plus a seemingly dodgy MOT does make me wonder if that's the same car that was put through the test.
I suggest that you look up the MOT history here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/Ow ... G_10020539
It should show you all the advisories, etc, and may help build up more of a picture.

[bnicho]

Thanks for the link. I am constantly amazed at the history that can be found on UK cars. Gleaning any information from the Australian authorities is nigh-on impossible.

I can see the MOT history back to 2005. Interesting that there is plenty of the usual mechanical issues found on old cars, but no mention of rust or bodyshell issues on any of the old tests, passes or fails!

The sills were purchased from the Aussie branch of Minisport in Adelaide by the panel shop the previous owner took it to for rust repairs. They are lying loose in the car now.

What I meant was the UK advert mentioned the sills had been replaced when clearly the passenger side at least had not.

Cheers,

[bnicho]

Well, I had a good look over the weekend. Basically everywhere I poked a screwdriver at, it went through. In some cases, all the way through and fell on the floor.

The hanging panels, A-panels, front panels and drivers side outer sill are fine. Just about everything else in the bottom three inches of the car is rust. Boot floor, subframe mounts, rear inner arches, companion boxes, seat crossmember, patches of floor, drivers inner sill and door step are all just rusty lace. Many of these areas are also showing signs of previous repairs.

I'm sure it could all be fixed, but there's got to be 50+ hours of work to do it all. It makes the Mini John Simpson is restoring in the mag seem like a new car.

I'm afraid this shell is probably dead.

Having problems posting pics again. Will do so as soon as I get the issue sorted.