A Little Long-Term Project

Don’t mention the wet/dry thing! I asked the sellers of the subframe and the arms whether they were dry ones and they both said yes so I really hope I haven’t inadvertently bought hydrolastic versions of both! The subframe can be converted but the arms can’t, really want to drive the 40 miles to check now! The plates could well be to replicate the lump in a converted frame, my mind is playing tricks with me on whether the new frame has them or not. Annoyingly I don’t have any pictures of either parts at the correct angle to see. I can see that the subframe doesn’t have the little tabs pressed into the cone holder that wet ones have so may just have to swap those alloy rings over.

That’s going to bug me all week now!

Tbf 99% of kits dry

It was just a random thought that’s all.

Oh if your going low as in LOW get braided hoses n move the union on the steel pipe as they can crush

Only really a big issue on very low stuff

Won’t be going low so no issue there plus I already have braided hoses fitted all round. Although the rear hoses were so filthy I didn’t think they were until I removed them!

Right, disaster averted. Both the arms and the subframe are ‘Dry’ items so that’s all good.

That meant putting it all together. Which threw up an issue. The shock bushings are completely corroded onto the original arms! Too late now to get new ones so it’s a quick check of the brass bushings and bearing, which are thankfully fine but obviously not new, and the fresh arms are put to one side as spares. Bolt everything together and you end up with this:

Which then meant putting it back under the car. That was a mission and a half. Line up one bolt only for another to be out of whack, repeat for a solid hour! Doesn’t help that each bracket can move on the rubber mounts too so it’s like controlling a toddler on a bouncy castle. Got it in eventually though, thanks to pure luck more than anything. Time to reconnect the exhaust, handbrake, battery main cable, fuel lines, brake lines and bleed everything. A quick run up and down the lane later and it all looks good for the MOT. Which was 4 days ago.

Driving up to it was fine except that about a mile before I got there I had to drive over those yellow bumps you see on dual carriageways. As soon as I crossed them there was a loud banging from the rear on each one! I genuinely thought the rear was about to fall off! Pulled over and had a cursory look underneath but couldn’t find anything loose or obvious so drove gently to the MOT station and awaited the result.

A clean sheet! On a 33 year old Mini that has never been restored. Doesn’t mean she’s perfect but I’m still proud of it. So it’s buy the Tax online in the car park and off for a celebratory drive. First stop was the petrol station which made that bang noise happen again as I went in. While I was fuelling up I realised what it was: I hadn’t checked the ride height with the new subframe! The gap between the rear wheels and the arches is a good 2 inches more than it was previously, as I have short stroke shocks it’s topping out if the rear gets airborne ever so slightly. Easy to solve with the AdjustaRide trumpets I’ve got so no biggie, just means I’ll be taking it easy for the time being. Still, time for a celebratory ice cream at the Usk Reservoir while letting Georgie take in the view and fresh air.

So that’s all ready for another summer of adventures. Well, once I’ve lowered the rear a few inches anyway.

Top result mate

Still no idea what those things where on the old frame!

My guess is that one of the previous owners tried to make the rear suspension more linear as the metal cones add progression. Don’t know why as you can get a similar result by softening up the adjustable shocks! Probably done at the same time as it was adjusted to be running on the bump stops like it was when I bought it.

Still trying to find that “Like” button!

Not a bad result! Looking forward to further “adventures”.

Managed to find a bit of time to adjust the rear suspension back down to a sensible ride height today, half an inch higher at the rear than the front when measured from the sill seams.

Not the most scenic of shots but then I only went for a 5 mile run just to check things were good. Was more than long enough to put a giant grin on my face though so all is good!

On to the first adventure of the year, hopefully in the next few days.

That looks great!!

Yes it does, like lots.

I’ve had a small unofficial list of little trips I want to do with Georgie before the full bodywork adventure starts, managed to tick two of them off in one go on Sunday! One intentionally, the other completely by accident.

The intentional one was to take her to a car show and as there was a small one happening at Chepstow Racecourse and the weather was good I went to it. It was just a general meet with a small autojumble and a few catering vans, nothing pretentious or large. Got close to there and ended up following another Mini to the entrance where we were greeted by a sign saying Cars straight ahead and Classics in through a gate, which we went through and were directed to behind the main building. It was at this point that we realised we were in the main show area so asked for directions to get out to the main car park as we thought we were just going to a separate car park for non-showing classics like a lot of shows do. The guy said it was fine and sent us into the main show where we were lined up with all the main cars!

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The row in front was full of people with big displays of their restoration work or the history of the car, we were just there with fly splatters all over the front and in my case a bit of dust all over for good measure. Didn’t matter though as we were quickly greeted by the other car owners and stories were shared readily. A really good atmosphere and ticked off another thing off the unofficial list: Get her in a show. I might revisit this though as a little display of her story so far with me would be fun and would save me telling it to everyone who asked over and over again 🤣

Had a good look round the other cars in the show too. Saw an original Jensen CV8, a car that I’ve never knowingly seen until Retropower started building one so it was good to see what their starting point was.

There was also plenty of the usual MGB’s, Austin 7’s etc but there was a very tidy MK1 Golf GTi that had been owned by the same family all its life and only down 37k miles. Lovely thing.

There was also this:

a Mustang Mach 1. It’s one of the few American cars that I would love to own, the other being a Corvette Stingray and maybe an original Challenger. Was in great condition and sounded properly epic when it started up! Never going to own one but still great to see one out and about.

The only hiccup all day was that the indicator relay stopped working after hitting a big bump on the way there, this will be the third one to fail so far! A little bit annoying but not the end of the world. I did solve a little concern I’ve had though, the temperature gauge works but once up to temp it seems to just stay at just under halfway regardless of how hard I drive etc. Well as it was a properly hot day on Sunday I managed to get the needle to move up to the halfway mark! Just proves to me it does actually work, which I was a little worried about! Always good to learn something new each trip. Oh and a small black car that’s been in the sun all day is hotter than the surface of the moon when you go to leave!

Right, on to the next trip soon.

Be glad its not black vinyl trim.

As a kid our mk3 used to burn the back of my legs.

Can still smell the burning flesh

good to see you’re having fun with the new toy

Quick question, as I’m not that familiar with minis and restoration projects (I never got much further than home spannering and swapping around the suspension bits on my fiesta, although I did have an RS2K for a few months before stupidly, very stupidly, selling it).

Is it possible to buy every part these days? Like, right up to a new shell?

A fortnight ago I did a bit of exploring, driving round the newly rebuilt Forest Drive at Cwmcarn. It was way too hot to go riding for a second day in a row so by car it was! Felt really weird going past very familiar bits of trail without a bike!

Although judging by the amount of sweat on the riders I saw it was the correct choice 🤣

They’ve actually done a good job of the rebuild, plenty for families to do in addition to riding bikes. Even found some of the new Enduro trails that have popped up since the first lockdown, some look doable for me so a bike explore will be done soon.

Completely forgot that some of the views up above the treeline are spectacular, not bad for a pretty crappy bit of Wales:

More adventures planned for this bank holiday if the weather holds!

@mrmonkfinger – completely forgot to reply to this, sorry!:

Is it possible to buy every part these days? Like, right up to a new shell?

Yes, every part including a shell is available. Some are reconditioned like engines and gearboxes but the likes of Mini Spares and MiniSport have found the old tooling for the most random bits and even made improved tooling for some parts, the steering column shroud is one example. Helps that there are so many Minis still around and that a lot of the parts were used on other BMC/Austin/Rover products too.

Oh and I have a little update to do at some point this week, been out and about on the Bank Holiday.

Oh and I have a little update to do at some point this week, been out and about on the Bank Holiday.

Anticip….

🙂

Crap, forgot I hadn’t updated this!

Have just declared her SORN for the winter so will do a proper update ASAP, when I have the time to upload pictures etc.

Nice write up. My first car back in the 80s was built up from a non runner by me and my dad. Could only lock it from the passenger side and when it rained you got a wet arm from trying to keep the wipers moving

Daughter must have it in her blood as she has just finished restoring a 92 Eunos

Not content with that she bought a 98 Evo 5 at auction in Japan and had it shipped here for her next project. Keeping my dad happy in his 80s

Nice, good to see younger people getting the bug for mechanical mucking about. Guessing your dad played with stuff to from the old grilles on the wall? Although it does remind me that, despite being into photography for ages (mostly landscapes) that I very rarely took photos of any of my old cars and projects! It just never occurred to me to take pictures as I went along for some obscure reason and the ones I did take got lost when an old computer died.

Time for an end of Summer update then.

Haven’t done many trips with Georgie since the Bank Holiday for various reasons but the ones I did do were full days out. The first one was a car meet that had been advertised at the Chepstow one and as that weekend was gloriously sunny I decided on a whim to go along as the roads nearby are great for a bit of ‘spirited driving’ if you can avoid the traffic! It went very similarly to the Chepstow one actually, arrived behind another classic car and got invited to park in the main show, this time for free entry! So somehow I ended up slap in the middle of the show surrounded by lots of vastly superior cars feeling like I was a proper interloper, again.

girl names that mean white

A nice little venue, at a cricket club near Trelleck. Which was bugging me all day for some reason. Star of the show though was this:

popular boy names 1970

A genuine racecar car that had been made road legal, An Alta. It was looking at this car that I realised what had been bugging me all morning: @marko has offered me a special socket and he lives nearby! Sod’s law I had no data signal so couldn’t send him a message. Oh well, kicking myself slightly on that one.

Left the show and went home via the Wye Valley, chasing a few other cars that were out too. Perfect weather for a bit of fun and the odd ice cream.

The next outing was a trip to a car show at a place called M4 Karting north of Chippenham where I did the same trick as the last two shows, this time ending up sort of gate-crashing the local Mini club’s stand! They were absolutely fine about it though and I saw a ‘Mini’ that I never knew existed, a fibreglass Estate called a Phoenix.

This one has had the Rat look treatment by a previous owner but also has an engine fitted from a Suzuki Swift Sport. Never knew such a thing existed and that’s down to there being so few ever made, roughly 70 of which only a few survive.

My ‘show’ luck did come to an end though when I went to the Frome County Show, had to pay to get in to that one and park in the regular car park. That was more a general show though and I only went along to peruse the autojumble and to see the RC car show that was attached to it in a barn. Still took the long route home though via Caen Hill locks near Devises, somewhere I’ve wanted to look around since the first lockdown and someone on here recommended the Paul and Rebecca Whitewick YouTube channel. I drive past the locks pretty regularly with work but sadly an 18t truck doesn’t fit in the car park so I’ve never timed a lunch break to explore.

The final trip of the summer was up to Aberystwyth. I had bought a second-hand RC car via eBay and the weather was decent so I took Georgie for a blast instead of the daily driver. I completely forgot that it was the weekend that all the uni students were arriving so when I parked up on the seafront I got a bit of attention, especially from the girls who thought it was incredibly cute. It did look tiny though, parked between an Audi Q7 and a BMW 4×4 (one of the really ugly ones), forgot to take a picture of that!

On the way back I took all the scenic roads with a final run along Llangattock and Laangynidr Mountains just above my parent’s house. It’s regularly used by TV shows and YouTubers for filming (it’s the South Wales equivalent of the EVO Triangle up north) so there’s usually a load of interesting metal blasting around but that day there was hardly anyone, saw one Porsche and a VW camper in the two hours I was up there (half of that taken up by eating another ice cream…). It includes one corner where a certain Chris Harris got into a little spot of trouble with Harry Metcalfe quite a few years ago, something even I didn’t know until a friend pointed it out to me on facebook! Internet points for anyone who can recognise the corner and know what Harris did on it:

So that was the last trip out for Georgie this year, she’s now tucked away back in her garage and has been put on SORN. Despite the delay to the beginning of the year due to having to replace the rear subframe to get an MOT and no big trip this year I’ve done a lot of miles in her, just over 1400 miles! Amazingly the only thing to go wrong in all of that was the indicator relay blowing on the way to the show at Chepstow, really pleased with that. Considering all the little issues I had last year when I did just over 1600 miles I’m very happy that mechanically I’m well on the way to getting her to a standard where it’s just wear-and-tear items to take care of.

Which brings me on to the List for the winter.

Three things I need to do before next spring:

* Investigate a clicking sound from the front left when pulling away or feathering the throttle. It doesn’t happen every time but is enough to check out. I suspect a wearing CV joint as the suspension is all tight and it’s also the side I had to clean out and fit a new CV boot due to it being basically perished. It may also be the cause of the noise I get from that side when going over really rough ground which I’ve never found!
* Actually get round to doing a full carburettor rebuild! The idle is erratic, varying between 800 and 1100 rpm plus there is the odd time where she stutters under partial throttle for a split second. Having had the carb full of crap from the tank last summer and having to change the fuel filter once so far I’m presuming some dirt got in there and had either got stuck or a seal is in need of replacement.
* The heater has started to make a really annoying rattle at anything over 30 mph, the selector lever is also stiff. Most likely I put it back together wrong when I fitted the new heater matrix last year, easy enough to take it back apart and can be done when I change the coolant as it’s due anyway.

So that’s everything fully up to date. I probably won’t do any of the work for a while though, maybe around Christmas time and the New Year. I am trying to get a trip organised for next year that I was meant to do with my original Mini but it decided to no longer stay cool 3 weeks before I was due to go and was when it got parked up for over 5 years before I sold it. It’s the last thing I have on my ‘Must Do’ list that I want to do while she’s still road legal, hopefully to do it again when I’ve rebuilt the shell and she’s as I want her. Time to start saving up the pennies again!

I don’t know what happened there but I thought I recognised the corner, I’ve got a similar photo of my own.

(Car now sadly sold to fund more sensible needs)

I’ve never stopped on the corner, been too busy leaving my own lines around it in the rwd stuff we’ve had 😂.
On the way back down its getting ready for no brakes until the last corner before the junction 😈

Reluctant,thanks for a great end of summer post,sounds like you and Georgie had a lot of fun.
Went to a few car shows myself over the summer and had some excellent ‘old blokes reminiscing ‘ moments 😆
Happy hibernation 😆

That’s the corner @appltn, has become a favourite for pictures with a lot of visitors.

@timber – a girl I went to school with used to live in the house by that corner at the bottom, many cars have ended up in her driveway when they misjudged it! Another lived in the house on the outside of the first left-hander on your way down, plenty of cars would smear themselves along the garden wall too. The likes of you leaving marks around it is one of the reasons it’ll never be resurfaces properly, give it a few days and it’s covered in black lines before the council cover it in tar and chippings to stop it happening.

Went to a few car shows myself over the summer and had some excellent ‘old blokes reminiscing ‘ moments 😆

Been plenty of those, at shows and at petrol stations! Usually over the most mundane cars too, who would have thought an ex-BSM Metro at a show would get more interest than the Camaro that was parked nest to it 😂

I must be bottling it, not had any close moments, certainly not by those places but can see why.
You’re right, don’t think that corner has been resurfaced since we got rid of the Porsche, so about 6 years? There’s plenty more like it about.
The motorbike magazines use the corners near the Llangattock turn on that road for knee down shots.

Edit to add some show appreciation for Three Cocks Vintage Show.

Far better to be sensible and smiling than sending it and smearing it! It was mainly the boy racers that smashed it, they didn’t understand the not braking all the way down wasn’t the same as burying the throttle all the way down. Especially on a Friday and Saturday night.

The answer to the Harris/Metcalfe/Corner question:

What Harris did:

Why he got into trouble: (at 36.30)

Ironically someone binned it on that very corner last night trying to do the same thing, one bent M3 was taken away this morning apparently!

Well, she’s back out of hibernation so time to do a post-storage update.

Sadly I haven’t got that much work done over the winter, other pressures with work and family have had to take priority so progress has been glacial at times. So much so that from when I parked her away in September to March all I had done was put the battery on a quick charge on Christmas Day!
Fast forward to March then and it was time to sort out the regular maintenance. This year that meant a new cap and rotor arm, new plugs, oil and filter. While checking what plugs I spotted two issues that had cropped up: one of the plug leads had small cracks appearing at a bend and that there was yet again a small amount of brake fluid on the cardboard underneath the engine. New leads were added to the parts order and upon checking the source of the leak, which originally looked like the split joint on the front circuit again, I noticed the clutch slave cylinder looked decidedly poor and had a small amount of fluid at it’s lowest point. Sure enough a quick press of the clutch pedal sent more drips down to the cardboard. A new cylinder is added to the order.

A week later and this lot have arrived:

Lots of shiny stuff! The plugs are a step cooler than I had fitted before as I have noticed that the engine runs pretty cool compared to others, presumably as the cooling system is all new. Add in that I run her on mostly E5 fuel when I can and that runs a bit cooler than standard stuff and it’s worth trying. The clutch cylinder I went with one that’s made using the original tooling, they are reported to last a lot longer than the later ones so for the sake of a few extra quid it seemed silly not to.

Brand new is a lot shinier than 33 years old stuff, the camera struggled to get the white balance good enough to see it!

The rest of it all was easy enough and went fine. I checked the plugs coming out and they looked healthy enough, a little hotter on No1 cylinder but still well within range of normal.

Final job was to change the coolant as it’s two years old. I was not looking forward to this one bit. Normally you’d just pull the bottom hose off but on a Mini it’s buried between the gearbox, inner wing and subframe. Some aftermarket radiators have a drain plug fitted to help with this but, of course, mine doesn’t. Looking at alternative methods I went for the all-in one: remove the whole radiator.

The stuff that came out was in really good condition so I’m happy that the copious amounts of flushing of the block I did with the engine out certainly helped. I was expecting some crap to come out as I removed what seemed like half the block in sediment the first time but seeing only a few tiny speckles made me very happy.

One bonus job was something I’d forgotten about. The gearknob has always been a bit loose and I’d bought a replacement one last summer but never fitted it. While doing the clutch bleed and checking it was disengaging the old one came off in my hand one time too many so I fitted the replacement:

It’s a little larger in diameter than I thought but in use it’s fine. It might stay, it might not when the full rebuild occurs but for now it suits the whole aura of the car ie every journey could throw up nothing but good times or an issue could make itself known. The original ideas I had back in 1998 had an 8 ball on the dipstick so this isn’t deviating from the end goal.

This led up to the first weekend of April and time to get the first run of the year underway. Only a short one to drop off a dress for my niece that she had left behind at my parent’s but any excuse to go for a drive! On arrival my niece saw her dress in my arms, said “Thank You!” then legged it out the door screaming “Georgie!!”. Pretty impressive recall for a 4 year old! Of course she had to sit in it and declare it her car now, at least I know who to leave it to in my will when the time comes.

The drive went without a hitch so that’s a successful release of Georgie back into the wild. The engine was pulling really, really well and definitely the best it ever has under my ownership. The slightly erratic idle speed is still there but it sounds fine, it’s only looking at the rev counter you notice it. A friend of the family has offered to have a look at it if I can pop it by his workshop sometime, he restores vintage cars for a living so knows a lot of little trick and common issues.

Over the Easter weekend I did take her out to the Elan Valley as I was going to a small RC crawler meet at Cwmystwyth Lead Mine, somewhere I’d been meaning to explore for a while. Didn’t take any photos though as the place was heaving so no opportunity to get a shot of the car by the water or anywhere pretty really! The only issue all trip was when I left to come back home. She needed a bit of choke as the engine was cold and I was straight into single track roads, pulling over constantly to let gormless camper drivers and the like get around. That meant I forgot to put the choke fully in so when I got to a bit of open road I was met with a load of stuttering and the odd backfire. Thinking something was wrong like a loose lead I did a few stops and checks before I spotted that the choke was on at the carburettor. I initially put it down to a sticky choke cable but on getting back in the car I saw the choke still out an inch, whoops! It took a good 20-30 mins of driving to get the plugs clear again and running smoothly, no damage done as I was happily chasing a Porsche 914 between Builth Wells and Talgarth.

There is one other bit of news though. Late last year a distant cousin of mine who lived in Mexico passed away. Via a convoluted series of events the family decided to pass the inheritance down through the generations as the main beneficiaries are all well into their 70’s and above. This means I unexpectedly had £9k come my way with instructions to use it for something to make my life better. Add this to the small fund I already have built up and I seem to now have enough to start making moves to get the body restored! I’m hoping it will be enough to get all the bodywork and a repaint completed but even if it’s just enough for the bodywork only I’ll be happy, I don’t mind getting a small loan if required. I haven’t started looking further into this just yet as I envisaged it being a good 2-3 years in the future at minimum but it does help push the project along quite a bit! Although it does introduce a problem: finding a reputable place to do the restoration work to a standard I’ll be happy with for my budget. A nice problem to have though.

Got an adventure or two planned for this year first though.

Mixed emotions on the windfall!

Id ask on the mini forum ref bodywork

Paints no good if its just over bad prep work. What do you think needs doing to it?

Must sort mine out

Great to see Georgie back out on the road 😃

Instructions to use it for something to make my life better.

Excellent. 👍

Has your car never had an MOT, doesn’t show up on the database as ever had one? Seems a shame if it’s been tucked away for all that time but at least it’s in the dry and warm.

Paints no good if its just over bad prep work. What do you think needs doing to it?

Exactly, I want to get the metal all done correctly to avoid having to redo it in a few years. One or two places I’ve already visited after recommendations locally have had cars there ‘ready’ for paint with obvious rust still visible in a few spots, one even had a bare shell standing outside in a drizzly day!

As for what needs doing? Current list is:

New whole front end, both wings are bad underneath and all the seams are a bit crusty. Easiest to just replace the lot and probably cheaper.
Driver’s footwell has been jacked up on and pushed back down then had a small bodged patch done. Replacement panel there but possibly a new floor.
New sills each side as it has over sills on it currently. Inner sills are most likely crusty o depending upon how far into the floor it goes it may mean a new floorpan, which will be annoying as 90% of it is near-perfect.
Scuttle need replacing as part of the front end, depending upon cost I may just get a new front panel fitted as the windscreen aperture is a bit rough in places. I’ll discuss that with the body shop when the time comes.
Both doors need reskinning, can get exchange ones for £250 each if that’s more cost-effective.

Sounds a lot but most of it is just normal Mini areas. Worst case scenario is a reshell at £15k plus paint but I know of cars that were much worse than mine not having to go that route so I’m pretty positive my budget is realistic for the work required.

As for the windfall, I had never met my aunt but from what I can tell she had lived a full and happy life. She moved to Mexico decades ago and never hinted at leaving so I’m happy the money has come from a good place.

Er 2006 mine was last taxed and the one behind 2005….

Been busy but new workshop just need to get it tidy and crack on

The cooper needs a chunk but it’s odd it’s solid in od places etc.

Hers is all welded up n needs painting. I rebuilt all the suspension etc but bet it needs new rubbers by now.

Need to knob work off and just do my hobbies

That would be why then, just before the switch to digital records was finished. A bit jealous you have two Minis to play with and a lot more room for activities than I have! Although paint and the reassembly part is usually what takes the most time from past experience, always harder when you want things done right and to avoid scratching anything 🤣

Well a fortnight ago this happened:

Parked in a field in Cheam with nealy 1000 other Minis (including a few modern ones):

Then drove down to Brighton seafront:

show me the closest

The trip I wanted to do with my original Mini 24 years ago but couldn’t as it came over all BL and went on strike: the annual London and Surrey Mini Owners Club London to Brighton Run.

I wasn’t going to do it until I had made Georgie a lot better but there is a very strong threat that the ULEZ expansion later this year could stop the event happening again, especially in it’s current format. I had the time off available so it was an easy decision to just do it. A lot of the participants there said the same thing hence why it was quickly a sell-out!

The actual drive itself is pretty boring but what makes the event is the camping the night before and the atmosphere at the end when all the Minis take over Madeira Drive on Brighton seafront. Such a chilled atmosphere and was just as good as I hoped it would be. Sadly the amount of cars needing to be parked on Madeira Drive and the cordoning off of the metal trellis meant there wasn’t room for the usual show stands and entertainment (has been the case for a few events I think) so it was just the main stands and the cars but still great seeing the vast variety of modded and standard cars in all shapes and sizes.

I even found two cars that combined would make my original Mini!

The base exterior trim and that red with the rather rare base interior was the cheapest combination you could get and as everyone would always spec up a bit it’s very rare to find it on one car, I’ve never seen another! Mine also had the older 15″ steering wheel but I’m unsure whether that was added to help my aunt turn the steering at a later date.

The experience was every bit as good as I thought it would be, literally nothing went wrong at all. Weather was perfect, no breakdowns (for me!), loads of people out waving along the route and just a happy few days. A really good way to sign off this part of the project.

Time for an end of summer update:

The MOT ran out a few days after the London To Brighton Run and I haven’t put her through another. That’s because I didn’t have any more plans for this summer (other parts of life are a priority currently) and I feel it’s time to focus on the next stage of the project: The Rebuild.

Over the last few months I have taken her, via low loader, to a few restoration places to be fully inspected. The main focus being on the bodyshell as I want to have that part done professionally as that is something that is not in my skillset and is very expensive to rectify if I do make a mistake! On the whole every inspection has brought up the same amount of work which also tallies up with my expectations so no surprises there. They have also all been in the same rough ballpark, which again is encouraging. A few places have been pleasantly surprised at how much of the shell is original too, it definitely hasn’t had a rebuild in it’s life just repairs as they’ve been needed. One or two of those have been bodged a bit, namely the oversills and a rear arch repair that is good but makes things tricky as it’s a whole repair panel rather than a patch, but other than those it’s just the usual bits that go rusty. It does have most of them though! The front is by far the worst with all but one place recommending just replacing everything forward of the bulkhead but then I knew that already. Basically if you draw a line from the front scuttle down to just above the rear bumper everything below it needs work.

So, the big question. How much will it cost to get the shell from it’s current state to rust-free, painted and ready for reassembly?

£13-16,000.

A little bit spicier than I was expecting. But then that is for a shell that will be much better than new and should easily last a decade or more without needing any work, especially as the car won’t see any salt and minimal amounts of rain. I can’t see any areas where I could reduce costs as the estimates are based on me stripping the car down myself, that saves £2-3k on it’s own, and the paint scheme and colours I want aren’t expensive so no real way to save money there (plus not getting what I really want will always annoy me!). The one option I did explore was a reshell but that would be easily into the £18-20k area once you have prepped and painted, plus I want to keep as much of the original car as is practicable so that’s a no-go.

The mechanical side doesn’t throw up any surprises, all stuff that I knew and was planned to do while the shell is away and the car in bits. The cost shouldn’t be any more than £500 plus any upgrades I make along the way as a lot of the mechanicals I have fixed already. That doesn’t include new tyres though as that’s just running costs, plus I haven’t fully decided whether to stick with the 165/60R12 size I have now or change to the narrower 145’s, that will depend on my choice of arch width but that is a long way down the line.

So that’s the current situation. I don’t have the funds to commit to the work as of now, currently just under the £10k mark (was more but I’m currently between jobs so some of it is being used for day-to-day stuff) and I would like to have a bit of a buffer too so realistically I need to be in the £16-17k mark before starting the work. I do have a preference for where I want the work done too, they have a roughly 6-9 month wait on work and were estimating in the middle of the prices. What makes them my top choice though is the work they turn out and having spoken to the guys who actually do the work they ‘get’ that I’m looking for a solid useable car rather than a show car, something that one place in particular had trouble grasping (they estimated at just under £19k!).

I do still have the option of getting her through another MOT as the work required isn’t hard (rear brake work thanks to a weeping joint, a local rust patch in the rear and a new CV boot) and running her for another summer but I have the whole winter to consider that. If I do though it’ll eat into the budget slightly and also run the risk of breaking something! Provided I can find a new job in the next month or two I should be able to get the funds together in a year or so, not a long timescale by any means but I always knew this would be the frustrating part!

I did put Long Term in the title for a reason.

At this rate, Binky will be putting out more frequent updates than you!  😀

Just kidding, it’s great to have an update and an insight into what’s next.

I’m well ahead of the BOM boys this year for updates , they promised a load of updates in the coming months back in April and they’ve only done 1 since 🤣

Plus back at the beginning I was paying catch-up, now I’m into real-time reports and anyone who’s done any kind of project knows how things have a habit of taking longer than they ever thought. To be fair though, if I hadn’t had to give up my job last month I would have been ready to get the shell done early next year and this winter would have been the strip down ready for that. Sodding real life getting in the way of play time.

The thread about the Moke has relit a bit of fire in me.

With family events taking over a lot of my life poor Georgie has sat under her cover in the garage untouched for over a year.  I had a sort-of plan running in my mind earlier in the year to get her roadworthy ready for a car meet called Rustival, organized by a few YouTubers who celebrate the non-concours cars and their owners.  I have booked a place at the show already, with the idea that I can either take the Mini or my daily driver if things don’t work out (the show doesn’t discriminate, any car is welcome).  So this weekend I plan to give her a good looking over and see what’s required.

So there might possibly be an update to follow in the next few weeks.

I think you’re still ahead of BOM 😀