1991 Mini Cooper Rebuild (Previously owned)
Discussion
My second car, a 1991 Mini Cooper 1275 on a carb. I bought the car from Silverlake Salvage in 2003. I rebuilt this whilst I was driving my black convertible Mini in my dads garage. I kept it for a long time after it was finished, I bought a mk 4 Golf 1.6 eventually as I was commuting 50 miles a day but kept the Cooper in the garage as I didn't want to part with it! It even went to uni one day and was filled full of balloons for a "guess how many balloons are in the Mini" competition!
This is how it looked when I bought it. It had suffered from light fire damage which was melted the headlining, dashboard and ruined the wiring in the bulkhead.
I decided to take the engine out to give it a good clean up and coat of paint. It was very low mileage, but I can't remember what it was! I figured this was probably the best way to do that! Never removed an engine before....
New and shiny!
More to come...
This is how it looked when I bought it. It had suffered from light fire damage which was melted the headlining, dashboard and ruined the wiring in the bulkhead.
I decided to take the engine out to give it a good clean up and coat of paint. It was very low mileage, but I can't remember what it was! I figured this was probably the best way to do that! Never removed an engine before....
New and shiny!
More to come...
The wiring was then sorted, unfortunately I don't have any photos of that, but it was a mess! It was all melted together and nothing worked. I had to rewire most of the car. Good practice seeing as I was studying electronics, my dad used to be an electrical engineer so he helped out too.
I then decided to strip the car and have it painted at a local bodyshop. That was a bigger job than I thought! The car had quite a bit of rust and I wanted it mint! I didn't take many photos but I have these halfway through stripping. It looks like I was starting lots of jobs and then moving onto something else halfway through! Half peeled stripes, lights half removed!! Not sure what was going on there. Anyway, I finished the stripping and started to treat the rusty bits. I then realised the rust was pretty bad so I gave it to the bodyshop to sort out.
More to follow...
I then decided to strip the car and have it painted at a local bodyshop. That was a bigger job than I thought! The car had quite a bit of rust and I wanted it mint! I didn't take many photos but I have these halfway through stripping. It looks like I was starting lots of jobs and then moving onto something else halfway through! Half peeled stripes, lights half removed!! Not sure what was going on there. Anyway, I finished the stripping and started to treat the rusty bits. I then realised the rust was pretty bad so I gave it to the bodyshop to sort out.
More to follow...
Thanks, I still miss it like crazy after all these years! Wish I could have afforded to have kept it but couldn't justify two cars at uni. They were great for learning mechanics on, I hadn't had much experience before owning them, but after a couple of years owning Mini's you feel like you can tackle any mechanical job!
Yeah, that Fletcher belonged to me and my dad. Great fun little boat, it was the boat that first got me interested in boats. We've had a few Fletchers, I'm now a sports boat and RIB broker and I have a 2009 Avon Adventure 580 RIB!
Yeah, that Fletcher belonged to me and my dad. Great fun little boat, it was the boat that first got me interested in boats. We've had a few Fletchers, I'm now a sports boat and RIB broker and I have a 2009 Avon Adventure 580 RIB!
Edited by danyeates on Wednesday 2nd March 13:52
soad said:
They like to rust, don't they?
Love the finished article!
Yes, they certainly do! It was probably 12 years old when I got it (I think it was about 2003) so it wasn't really that old. The finished article was my pride and joy! I think it's one of the best guises for the Mini, an original carb 1275 Cooper in British Racing Green, Cooper arches (not the big sportspack ones) and the original Minilites. Love the finished article!
danyeates said:
I think it's one of the best guises for the Mini, an original carb 1275 Cooper in British Racing Green, Cooper arches (not the big sportspack ones) and the original Minilites.
Agreed, probably the best all rounder they ever made. I had a 91'cooper breifly and apart from the rust it was very well packaged/presented.It hurts when you look back at old minis you owned......
not long now mind....
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