A little bit of Rust Proofing

This past weekend I decided to try out some rust proofing coating a friend gave me while I was still in North Carolina. This was some potent stuff! I'm pretty sure it curled my nose hairs.



It looked kind of old. Hopefully it still works. I will find out! It was free and I can't argue with that!

I put it on the bumper seam and the rear body seam.



It turns the rust a dark color. It says that it reacts with the rust and totally seals it, stopping it from progressing. Sometime next week I'll paint over it with some primer. If it doesn't screw the primer up I think I'll be in good shape.

I also removed the right hand rear quarter window and weather stripping to see what was underneath.



It looks pretty good. Just a really small spot of rust. It will get sanded and treated with some more rust-proofer.

Presidents Day Weekend

This past weekend was a nice extended one thanks to Presidents Day. Here is some work I was able to do on the Mini.


I took out the rear windshield and right rear seam cover.


The rear seam is in good condition. I'll put some rustproof on it.


The rear glass looks good too.


The rear glass rubber and strip do not look so good. I'll have to buy new ones.


I welded up some holes on the boot lid.


Then I put the angle grinder to the welds.


Here's the bootlid with afterwards.


The boot is pretty rusty. It is solid in most areas but will require some patches. I'll put a coat of RustBullet down on it too.


With the rear windshield out I can use the rear parcel shelf as a tray to hold my beer. Driking and driving is a no-no, but drinking and rebuilding...


And I always like to be safe when grinding and welding.

FAST FORWARD

Okay, long story short just to get you up to speed:

-Bought Percy Summer of 03
-Discovered all of Percy's problems Fall of 03
-Stored Percy Fall 03
-Bought Winston Spring 05
-Sold Winston Winter 07
-Took Percy out of storage fall 08
-Trailered Percy to Colorado Winter 08

So that brings us to now. Here are some pics bringing Percy to our new house in Colorado. We moved from North Carolina to Colorado in November. This is my first garage and now plan on tearing into the Mini to get him back on the road again.

Here is Liam and I going into the storage yard to get the Mini.


Here we are hooking up the trailer.


At the house ready to down load.


Mission accomplished!!

A New (to me) Mini

So, I found out that $3800 can buy you a Mini, a Mini Money Pit. Percy sat in the car port for quite a while. It sat while I gathered parts and tried to figure out what to do. I had no welding or body work experience so I knew I couldn't make the repairs myself. I new if I brought it to a body shop that the work would cost a very pretty penny.

So about a year and a half came and when while I was trying to figure out what to do. In 2005 my wonderful wife, Nikki, had a great idea, find a better Mini! Booyah! It sounded like a good idea to me. So in early 2005 I was in a position to score another one. His name was Winston. I found him on Ebay and he cost $5500.

This was a really great Mini. The body was in pretty good shape, much better than Percy. I spent 2 years working on him making improvements here and there. He ran like a champ and looked pretty good too, huh?

Well, it was not to be. Bills forced the sale of Winston. In December of 2007 he was gone. Once again, complete suckage.

The Begining

Let me start from the begining. I saw my first Mini while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. I was sitting in my Honda Civic at a light and a Mini in the opposite direction turned right in front of me. I couldn't believe how small and just plain cool it was. I knew then I had to have one.


It wasn't until a couple of years later when I had come back to the States before I could get one. I found one in South Carolina for $3800. We called him, "Percy."

Here is a couple of pictures of me cleaning it up after getting it home. The date is June 2003.

I soon found out I should have not bought this Mini. I had never had a classic car before and didn't really know what to look for. I should have done some research because this mini turned out to be a real basket case. Rust and bondo was everywhere. I really had no business buying this car.

I soon discovered that the rear subframe was rusted through and collasped on the ride home. In this picture you can see it leaning. A rear subframe that is as strong as a wet paper bag will do that.
When I started to take off the rear suspension is when I discovered some real problems! Where the rear subframe mounts to the body was all rusted and had no strength at all!



Complete suckage.