Hi people, after wanting a mini since 14 years old and having other things getting in the way of getting one, i’ve finally got the time, space, knowledge, tools and a good mate with welding knowledge So i’ve gone and got myself a 998 mayfair with 87k on the clock and plenty of rust to keep my welding mate happy!
Here she is after towing her home, running on 2 cylinders so i didn’t want to drive her (nancy according to her previous owner, and i’ve GOT to keep the name or she’ll string me up!). She’s an MOT failure that needs £1k of garage work to get her through, but by doing the work myself £1k should have a very nice mini with loads of extras (respray money not included!)
Rotten front panel, untidy wings, rotten a-panels, rotten drivers door plus mroe more to come:
The boots been taking in water, i think from the rubber seal, so there’s some rust and a small hole:
With just 87k the engine should be in good nick with just the need for tidying and slight refurb but i’ll decide fully when i get to doing it:
Not an excessively great interior, although hoovers up well it’s not my cup of tea, plus the seats have had it and it’s a bit dirty after 15 years
First full days work on her: aim was to strip the interior and find out exactly what the floor is like. With all the seats and majority of the carpet out, i had to disconnect the bottom hose of the rad to drain the water so that i could get the heater out of the inside of the car so that all the carpet and insulation around hte bulkhead could be removed. The rad is also knackered so needs coming out, but a 15 year old jubilee clip is very stubborn so it took me plenty of time removing the cowling and fan with the rad still in so i could enough space to get a dremmel down there and cut the clip in half - little git!!!
The front grille, bonnet etc also came off:
With the carpets up all was very good, apart from a small patch on the drivers side arch and a slightly bent floor probably from some twonk jacking it up in the place, grrr!
Next stage: get rotton panels off. With the advice of my welding friend Kenny i set to work with an angle grinder:
Both wings off and a mess made of the front panel as i don’t know which panel the brackets belongs to that attaches it to the inner wings
A panel off:
Other one:
After grinding back the wing i could see the scuttle is pretty knackered so i’ll be replacing that aswell, along with the inner corner pieces:
With all the arches off, side windows out and bits removed at the back is where i’m at now:
I may start removing some engine related parts today, worn hoses and clips etc, nothing too heavy as i’ve got a cold The rear subframes got to come off soon aswell which i’m not looking forward to, and i’ve got to take the screens out to get to the scuttle and some rust on the rear…and this is just a small list, there’s plenty left!!!
But i have only had the car 1 week and 1 day so it’s moving pretty quickly really! I’m aiming to have her back fully finished by february next year to replace my Fiesta.
Looks like a great project!! What are your plans for the finished article?
Also, is your engine yellow or gold. A gold engine means its one that has been refurbed. Although just the fact that you can see the engine colour after (just! lol) 87k is quite an acheivement!
crikey you’re really cracking into this! To be honest it doesnt look bad at all from the pictures just a little scruffy. Good project car though! What mods have you got planned?
looks like a good project! and you’re doing it all yourself, which is always good
As Pickup76 says, it doesn’t actually look that bad! For a 15 year old Mini its in pretty good nick, and looks like its been looked after too. Hopefully you’ll cure all the little horrors underneath, and it’ll be a nice little motor.
jammy - it looks more gold than yellow but i’ll have to check. what do you mean by refurb? a factory mass refurb thingy? I assume that 87k isn’t much just because i’ve got a 98 fiesta with 88k on it!
pickup - it helps being currently out of work!
minis - you’re right, apart from the front and couple of bits at the back it’s all pretty sound which is just what you want from a shell! But it’s still got to get worse before it can get better, more stripping is on the cards. I wouldn’t have it any other way than doing it myself, so much better! Apart from the welding as i don’t have a clue, but he’s going to teach me anyway so that’ll be top notch.
To be honest, i’ve never driven a mini before, and i want to see what standard 998 power is before i go improving it. So my first intention is to remove the head and have a look inside and check the bores, it looks VERY clean in the rocker cover so hopefully it won’t need rebuilding yet, then just replace the generals, plugs etc. and check everything else. But i’ve got twin 1-1/4 SU carbs lined up, and i want a better head, either a 1300 mg or a 12G 295. Get an LCB manifold and stainless zorst and see where that takes me.
I’ve got half leather black + red cooper front and back seats to pick up at the weekend, then i’ll probably make my own door cards i’ll see how it goes. Cooper dash hopefully, i’ll see what the money’s like when i get to this stage as it’ll be in for a respray probably in standard rover flame red as it is now, but with a white roof after i’ve peeled off that union jack.
But chances are things won’t go to plan as they never do so i’ll keep this topic updated so you’s can follow my antics!!
Well goldseal engines were engines that were refurb by Rover (might be wrong on that), anyway I know they were factory refurb engines. I believe there were two kinds, goldseal and silver seal. I think goldseal was a total engine rebuild, where as silver seal was engine rebuilt less the gearbox? Hang on, my memory is a little hazy, I’ll go and check it out for sure!
Here we go, taken from this MG site, the same applies for minis though.
> Gold Seal Replacement Engines were primarily offered during the production of the MGTC but there were some offered during the early days of the TD and many of these may have made there way to MGTD’s in later years. During the early days of imports there were shortages of trained workers and parts to perform major repairs or rebuilds to the XPAG engines that MG used. Because of this the factory created a set of spare engines that could be swapped out for the original, instead of repairing it. The factory would exchange your worn out engine with these replacement engines. These engines were painted gold in color instead of dark red and came with a special ID tag designating them as such. The tags were made of brass and were affixed to the block stating that it was an original factory replacement engine. Sometimes these tags were affixed to the same location as the engine ID tag. In later years of TD production the same sort of process was carried out by dealers and engine rebuilding facilities who would have a set of spare engines on hand. In this manner they could swap your tired engine for a rebuilt one and in a matter of hours, or a few days, get you back on the road. Your engine would then be rebuilt at their leisure and wind up on some other MGTD later on. In fact if anybody has my engine, ID 19988, I would appreciate an email.
From the MGCC: A large number of cars with XPAG engines have had BMC replacement engines (Gold Seal) fitted. These usually had no XPAG on the octagonal plate, but instead a letter prefix (A to E have been seen) probably denoting the over-bore sizes, followed by a larger than usual number (E99794 has been seen). With replacement engines, the original number of that engine can sometimes be deciphered just above the octagonal plate, stamped on the block. Be prepared to find, however, that your engine might have started life on a Y-type!
To find out if you have a gold seal post up the engine number and there will be someone who can check it for ya!
cheers for that fella, i thought i remember reading something about that. On closer inspection i’m pretty sure the engine’s painted yellow rather than gold. These pics may help:
First stage of engine stripping with the intention of removing the head and generally checking components:
and some pretty clean rockers from my opinion, but then i’m no expert:
Cheers peeps. Latest update of the work completed over the weekend and today.
The cylinder head is now off, and considering i’ve never done this before i’m well chuffed The rockers look nice and clean with no carbon-like muck, but the head needs a good clean:
I’m not sure how worn the rockers are, maybe someone can give me some idea of this?
Here’s where the head gasket’s gone, which is perculiar because the spark plugs for these two cylinders were of a tanned colour whereas the other two were jet black???
The underside of the head looking a bit rough with nasties in the coolant channels from a knackered radiator.
The Block, maybe someone could also shed some light on the condition of the pistons/bores? The bores appear very smooth, the middle two piston surfaces are covered in black C**p. I’m not too sure how to clean this?
The engine bay after removing the dizzy, alternator, master cylinder. Also drained the oil and filter. Need to get a long 1/2 inch and 9/16 sockets and spanners as i don’t have them and the mini seems to rely on them, then i’ll remove the starter and brake servo. Once that’s done i’m seriously considering taking out the engine to sort it oot. The back of the block is an inch thick in sludge! And it’s leaking oil from the fan belt end, crankshaft oil seal perhaps. That way i can get in the bay, replace the nasty bulkhead sound deadening and de-rust and re-paint. Also strip the front sub-frame and re-paint that too. Fun Fun!
1 rear subframe in one month aint looking good i wont ever get it finished! I’m wanting the engine out but can’t do that until after holiday in two weeks time!
cheers people, i’ve been lucky with the weather so far! I want to get as much done before it really turns sour, and then i can turn my attention to the myriad of parts in the garage!
Its not much work to take out the engine. I’d just borrow an engine crane from some nice person and haul her out of there! Im no mechaninc, but i managed to do mine and fit a 1275! its easy!
But the projets looking great! keep up the good work!
rsroadkilla - cheers fella, I’m gona have to find out a bit more about removing the engine. People have said to drop the subframe, then lift up the body above the engine, and roll the subframe out, but that seems more complicated than hiring a hoist and lifting it out! I may also want to put the engine on to a stand so i can strip it, or if not going that far at least clean it and replace some oil seals.
Here’s a round-up of todays work:
Used my boot to push out the windscreen - easier than i thought! Found out how to remove the speedo cable from the clocks and then could remove the clocks and related brackets, all the sound deadening from behing the dash and the dash itself. Revealing some nasty melted wires which is obviously why there’s a mess of a repair job underthere.
Went to halfords to increase my tools in the form of old measurements sockets and a couple of spanners, and then could remove the starter, brake servo and clutch master cylinder.
Revealed a bit more rust around the screen, will have to decide whether to repair or replace:
Got her up on axle stands, then removed the exhaust, and also drained the fuel in the tank:
Next steps are to remove the petrol tank, remove anything stuck to or through the rear subframe, and get the rotten subframe off! Also to remove the wiper motor and get the wiring away from the bulkhead to remove the orrible sound proofing on the engine bay side of the bulkhead.
Also need to find out the best way of removing the engine, and sort out a MIG welder. Does anyone know how to remove the wiper arms!?
So i’ve gone and got myself a 998 mayfair with 87k on the clock and plenty of rust to keep my welding mate happy!
