By Dean Sprague

This is a continuation of my oldest son Jason’s recent acquisition a 10” wheeled classic Austin Mini. It was his long-standing dream to acquire one of these. The car looked a little rusty but otherwise solid so he bought it. Later, upon further inspection you know the part where you actually remove the interior, wheel flairs etc. a little rust became a lot of rust. The overall health of the body actually created concerns about the safety of even sitting in it let alone driving it. We labored over the potential of welding in new panels and sub-structure verses starting over with another car or body. Finally we decided that repair was futile (or at least not practical) so it was time to seek alternatives. I know the Brits would probably just over plate the body and push a little more life out of it and they did with this car but Jason intends to keep it forever. This is not my definition of “forever” which usually entails waiting for the next guy who wants it but a “real” forever. Unlike myself when you have clarity of focus and know what it is you really want forever can be forever. I don’t possess these qualities but when you do you can make long-term investments because your ROI (rate of return) can be measured over a lifetime not just the weekend like my “investments”.

First option, sell the car as is and move on. We both decided that you couldn’t sell a car as a running usable Mini that may actually be dangerous to drive. It feels dishonest and besides it’s just not right. The second option, buy a new British Heritage body from the UK and start over. The tub can be purchased for about 10-12 K but the shipping and duty is another issue. This quickly became a cost prohibitive solution. The third option, find another car with a good body at a fair price. This became problematic since we couldn’t find one much better than his for any reasonable money. The final options find a good body and convert it into one good car. This was becoming more difficult to find than another good Mini. We finally decided we would have to make the existing car safer to drive in the interim while we instigated a quest for a permanent solution.

I remember in the old days when I was young and a bit poorer I had a similar rust problem with my first car, a 1955 TR2. I had a friend whose father owned a yacht building company. He took pity on me and gave me yards of cloth, gallons of resin and some hardener. He showed us how to use it and we basically recreated the lower half of a TR2 body in fiberglass. I shared this short-term solution with my son. He immediately saw this as an opportunity to drive his Mini safely while we looked for another body (his preferred solution).

Jason took a Friday off and my friend David Ault (now fellow car club member) and myself allocated three days to conduct the fiberglass marathon. Jason limped the car to my house on Thursday night and Friday morning we began by pushing my Volvo P1800 project off the lift to make room for the Mini. We removed the Mini’s interior, rear bumper and wheel flares and dove in. Jason began with a wire wheel mounted to a right angle grinder. The rust fell in multiple piles on the garage floor until the floor pans were barely connected to the sills at all. It was much worse than predicted. With the extreme loss of metal and pounds of filler removed we began our project with a blank canvas. It was time to reconnect the parts and contours with fiberglass. You know what they say about house repair “caulk and paint makes it what it ain’t”. I think it must also be true for cars just add the word fiberglass before caulk and paint.

When the sun was setting on Sunday (our third day) we had consumed yards of cloth and over a gallon of resin and two cans of foam sealer and undercoating plus two rattle cans of paint to cover it all up. It’s hard to believe but the over the counter Ford white was a perfect match! Now before us was a classic Mini that looked great, well from 10 feet away anyway. The car is now quieter and thanks to multiple layers of fiberglass cloth is tighter and safer to drive.

Now it was time to seek acquisition of another body for that more permanent solution. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Jason is working with the folks at Mini-Tech in Georgia. You see he wants to convert his Mini into a pocket rocket by installing a Honda V Tech drive train with an upgraded suspension and brakes. According to his calculations when converted his Mini will have about the same power to weight ratio as a new ZO6 Corvette or a Cruse missile, you decide. This concerns me a bit but that’s another story. While he was sharing his rust problem with BJ at Mini-Tech he found that they have a contact in Vancouver, Canada that buys Minis from New Zealand. These cars are generally much better than the rust prone UK cars and unlike the US they can be imported into Canada much easier. They don’t all have titles. When they don’t he parts them out. You guessed it he has a beautiful untitled Black (with a white roof) 1980 Mini. He has agreed to ship the body to Mini-Tech and leave the glass and headliner intact for significantly less than the price of a new British Heritage bare tub alone. Jason also gets to keep the glass and headliner, which he also needs. He has sent them a deposit and with an invoice in hand we anxiously await its arrival.

This may create a new dilemma however. It seems the existing paint on the New Zealand body is also excellent and could be used as is. However this may not be the windfall it seems since Jason’s favorite color is not Black (that’s one of my favorites). The jury is still out on this until we get the body but I know red was always the original plan. Oh well, it would be amazing if the black paint is actually that good anyway.

This is becoming an interesting project. We started with a RHD 998cc UK Mini which will get a complete new interior including Mazda Miata seats, instruments, sub-frames (front and rear), complete suspension, upgraded disc brakes, new hydraulics, new wheels and tires, wiring harness, bumpers, lights, glass, all new chrome, left hand drive steering rack and pinion and of course the new body and, complete new drivetrain. The remaining parts that could to be transferred from the original car are the fuel tank, steering column and maybe the dash? This sounds like the old joke about the repair for the tired car. All you need to fix it is to remove the radiator cap and slide a new car under it. Well, I guess it’s really OK when forever is actually forever.