so we bought another mini...
So this was how Sophie looked just before we drove her to her new home... According to the previous owner, she had been owned by an elderly lady from new, who had looked after the car well. He had bought the car from a local garage (whom the elderly had sold the car to), where the car had work done, including replacement wings, a panels, re-skinned doors and a rear subframe replacement. The car had not been fiddled around with or made into a 'boy racer' or 'coopered' mini, but instead still had the original chocolate brown seats and interior and even still had its original Austin long wave / medium wave radio, which much to our surprise, still worked!
The drive back from Birmingham was an interesting one. The car wouldn't accelerate over 50mph and kept mis-firing. Every slight corner we drover around, a strange scrubbing sound was heard. It turned out swinging arm pin had seized up and cut an elongated hole in the subframe, thus allowing the swinging arm to move sideways. (I have never felt SO glamorous in my life, working on a car...!)
It turned out that one of the major problems causing the lack of acceleration and misfires was due to a broken stud on the inlet manifold, causing the carburettor to hang loose and draw air in. Another thing causing the car problems was the fact that the head gasket was splitting, which went whilst my Mother was driving the car one day (under my watchful eye.)
Mechanic's hands. I had to re-paint my nail polish after this. Damn.
Whilst at University, the car developed a leak, which was causing the driver's foot well to fill up with water. I got some very odd looks when I was taking the front carpet out of my car from the student village porters. Even more funny looks from them again when I took my charger pack and bonnet lamp inside to charge up. I decided that I quick fix to stop the water coming in would be to use a small amount of filler on the wing join, as there was already a hole there, which was letting water into the inner wing and through another hole (this other hole being too hard to reach on my own without a garage or any decent tools other than what was in my toolbox). The repair stopped most of the water getting in the car, although it didn't stop me from getting very odd looks indeed from all of the other students walking by in the student village, as well as the many taxi drivers and porters. I don't think they'd seen anyone repairing a car there before!
The drive back home from Aberystwyth for Easter in 2014 was a interesting one. I'd already done the drive back home several times before to know how the car would handle it. But this time, the gearbox was getting so tired and worn out from 30 years of hard work, that third gear kept jumping out and in some places, I just didn't have third gear AT ALL. Rather skilfully, I got Sophie and myself home in one piece without breaking down. After this, my Father and I decided that it was finally time to take the old engine out, and replace it with a refurbished engine my Father had built up a few years previous. It only took one day to get the old engine completely out of the car.
The following day, we put the replacement engine in Sophie. The Team effort paid off well, with myself, my Father and my Uncle all pulling together (quite literarily at some times) and we had the engine running by the end of the day.
However, the bits of metal which came out of the old gearbox in the old engine were semi amusing but at the same time shocking...!
However, the bits of metal which came out of the old gearbox in the old engine were semi amusing but at the same time shocking...!
The refurbished engine in Sophie.
Adjusting the brakes and looking at the suspension rubbers.
These rubbers had only just been replaced on the car two years previously and already they were split.
I've never had much luck with windscreens on this car! The first windscreen on the car was only a toughened one and it only took a lorry coming the other way on a road which had only just had loose chips put down to flick a stone at the windscreen and make the entire thing shatter. This was my replacement windscreen which was a shatterproof one thankfully. Although it didn't stop the screen from getting a sizeable chip when I was driving back to Aberystwyth one day. I changed the old screen for a new one when I was back at home again. Hopefully I'll have more luck with the third screen in now!
I attempted to tidy up the repair job I'd done previously at Aberystwyth here... Not sure it worked, really. Ah well, it was never a concours car anyway!
We had a few teething problems with the new engine, including the alternator not being connected properly, which ended up with me breaking down in the middle of nowhere in Wales on my way back from the Hay Festival. And then a fuel pipe fell off and I ended up having to do a roadside repair AND beat the useless RAC to fixing my car (my Mother had called them) and having it running again before they had even told us they were coming. Its a glam glam life owning a classic mini, as demonstrated above! I broke another nail. DAMMIT!
Not sure whether this really goes on 'work and restoration', actually. But its here now. Once my tax disc had run out in 2014, I renewed my tax and decided to have a period tax disc from the year the car was manufactured on display instead. Probably a bit sad, but remember! I am trying to keep the car like it would have been in the 80's as much as possible!
Oh god. A sight no one owning a classic mini EVER wants to see. There had been a whole in the sill which had been getting progressively bigger, and the winter of 2014 had really attacked Sophie. She isn't kept in a garage or anywhere dry, but on a narrow, damp drive, where in the winter days the sun doesn't shine. Not an ideal place for any car, nevermind a mini.
Both the drivers side and passengers side doors were looking pretty bad. They were both rusting and rotting away considerably, although they'd never looked that good in the first place. The drivers door had a huge dent in it after my Father has rolled the car on its side to do work in the garage and it has slipped. My Father had tried to panel beat out the dent the best he could, but it was still visible. I got a newly re-skinned door, rubbed it down and then sprayed it with grey primer, followed by white, ready to then spray up gold.
Upon looking at just how bad the holes were in the sill, we realised the car needed a fair bit of work doing on her, if Sophie was going to go across the Alps to Italy and back. I still think the car shuck in either excitement or fear at the thought of its next mad, mini adventure!
Oh my god. Its getting worse. Although my Father points out that its not as bad as he thought. I'm still worried. My car is actually a rust bucket! We actually have a bucket full of rust off my car... WHAT.
My Father sets to work on Sophie and do the job, as I, looking as worried as ever stand watching with the camera at the ready, as my poor car gets bits cut off her. Poor Sophie. I had a good laugh at his reaction to the further rust under the side panel though, which I managed to capture on a photo...! He turned to me after a day of pulling rusty bits and cutting the remaining metal off Sophie and said "Are you pleased with your car so far?". Honestly, my car had the side and the sill cut out of it, pleased was not the word I was thinking, but more likely to be overwrought and extremely concerned that this was as far as the job was going to go and Sophie would end up in the scrap heap heaven in the sky....!
Turns out that not only was the floor worse than we thought, but also the car had been fitted with TWO doorsteps.
The pile of rust / multiple panels we have cut off so far...
After cutting out both the door step and the side panel, a new one needed to be fitted.
Welding the new sill, side panel and floor strengtheners. It was a bit windy on the drive, hence the cardboard 'wind shield' at the front end of the car. Oh that poor A panel. I am panicking a little about this.
With the new side panel, door step and sill now welded into place, the panels needed to be dressed with filler so they blended in as one. This took some time as the side had to be rubbed down, using an electric sander several times to get the shaping and to hide the join well. Finally, it was sprayed over with grey primer, and then cashmere gold.
The side of the car now painted with Rover Cashmere Gold. This is only a quick and rough paint job to make the car look semi-presentable for the moment. She's getting a full body re-spray after her MOT. The door on the car now is also a different door off my Mother's mini originally. We decided that fitting this door onto the car instead of Sophie's door would be a better idea for the moment - the doors off Sophie were re-skinned doors, whereas Colin's doors were still the original doors from Longbridge. Doing this meant that we could make sure that the car was lined up and nothing had gone out of shape whilst part of the car had been cut out. I am hoping to put on some better doors than these at some point soon, but they are white. Pondering that one at the moment.
The rear window had always leaked a little bit in the car, leaving the interior side panel sagging and mis-shaped. We took the interior side panel out in preparation for fitting a new support / shaping board. The reason for the leaking window, as we found out here, was a hole in the corner of the windscreen. This was quickly fixed with filler. The inner section under the rear window was also rusty from several years of rain and water working its way into the car, so this was sand blasted, cleaned up and then sprayed with grey primer, followed by cashmere gold.
We decided that the white door was a better idea for the passenger side. This was a original door from Longbridge off a 1990's Mini Sprite which has since been scrapped. Its only slightly rusted, so we decided to get the rust out as much as we could and prepare the door ready to be fitted on the passenger side of the car. Its looking like I might be driving with odd doors at some point soon then. IT'S A MINI.
Tidying up the inside of the car.
Repairing the temporary repair I had previously done with the very few things I had at university. Here, we have taken the filler out of the join of the wing, sand blasted down the join (hence the towel over the engine) and have re-sealed the join.
Eric and Ernie wave onwards. (The rear window currently being out of the car whilst we repaired the inner rusted metal.)