14-05-2013, 09:19 AM
Hi,
Thanks for adding this interesting thread Paul.
It would be good to hear what others think; restore or not restore. My vote would be to bury it because Bron and I owned one of these many years ago and it was terrible. The mini however was a huge step forward in small car design and credit to Sir Alec Issigonis and his small team.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini
I owned one of the first mini's and it was fun to drive and could be chucked around and was as agile as a skateboard; one thing I do remember well is that the first time I ever drove a mini the first bend in the road was a real eye opener; I let go of the steering wheel expecting it to automatically self center again but no it continued going around the bend; anyone else find this out the hard way?
As with most cars of the period mini's were rust buckets and the sub frames were usually the first to suffer; I've changed a few of these.
A totally different design but the Ford Anglia 105E of the same period was also a rust bucket and it was never an happy sight to lift the boot lid to see a pair of cart springs ends poking through the boot floor; also the "A" frames were prone to rotting letting the heavy doors sag.
In those days such cars could be easily worked on at home with a handful of spanners and a few screwdrivers; parts were also cheap and plentiful.
Modern cars are certainly better on rustproofing but virtually impossible to repair at home and when things do go wrong it's a second mortgage job.
Time I got off my backside and do something useful.
Kind regards, Col.
Thanks for adding this interesting thread Paul.
It would be good to hear what others think; restore or not restore. My vote would be to bury it because Bron and I owned one of these many years ago and it was terrible. The mini however was a huge step forward in small car design and credit to Sir Alec Issigonis and his small team.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini
I owned one of the first mini's and it was fun to drive and could be chucked around and was as agile as a skateboard; one thing I do remember well is that the first time I ever drove a mini the first bend in the road was a real eye opener; I let go of the steering wheel expecting it to automatically self center again but no it continued going around the bend; anyone else find this out the hard way?
As with most cars of the period mini's were rust buckets and the sub frames were usually the first to suffer; I've changed a few of these.
A totally different design but the Ford Anglia 105E of the same period was also a rust bucket and it was never an happy sight to lift the boot lid to see a pair of cart springs ends poking through the boot floor; also the "A" frames were prone to rotting letting the heavy doors sag.
In those days such cars could be easily worked on at home with a handful of spanners and a few screwdrivers; parts were also cheap and plentiful.
Modern cars are certainly better on rustproofing but virtually impossible to repair at home and when things do go wrong it's a second mortgage job.
Time I got off my backside and do something useful.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
