bruneimini

Sunday, July 23, 2006

MINI HALF DONE PROJECT




Hello everyone,i know its been a while since i last updated my mini blog. Life has just been hectic. i have recently returned from my 8 weeks holiday in Brunei, yup...my hols was that long. i didnt waste any time back home though. As planned, i spent most of my time haunting the workshop supervising the restoration project of my white rover mini. i wish i could show you the pictures of how messed up the mini was at the very beginning. i took all these nice pictures on my camera phone but technology decided not to cooperate with me on that day and i ended up with no pictures whatsoever....arggghhhh....i am still absolutely gutted about that. sometimes, nothing beats old fashioned technology such as a bog standard camera that you can actually ensure that pictures would've been taken when one presses the button (provided that you've actually put film in the camera, of course!). But rest assured, as you can see, pictures of the finished product is available for your viewing pleasure.

The project started with the cumbersome job of towing the mini into the workshop for a paint job. This took about 3 and a half weeks to get completed. It wasn't a case of simply splashing on a dash of paint. The body of the mini was so battered and bruised that the body surface required a lot of TLC in filling up and straightening. This was done to my exacting explaination on how i envisioned (and wanted) the end result of the paint job to be. thankfully, once the body surface had been addressed, it didnt take long for the undercoat and the painting and all the finishing to be completed. the paintwork wasnt perfect but i was happy with the end result. this whole thing set me back around BND$850.
Then i had to tow the mini to another garage to have the engine installed. this in itself was a time consuming phase of the project. the engine that i acquired was a 1.3 auto which didntcome with the inner driveshaft. lemme just remind you guys that the mini i bought was a mere shell of a car only with no engine,interior or whatsoever. the only thing it had was a floor!!!! to get all the stuff i needed for this project, i had to go to miri. i ended up going to miri almost every week that i was in Brunei. thankfully my mini headed cuz Ahmad Izzat was there to drive me around in miri and with his help and excellent bargaining skills i managed to locate and buy an engine along with some of the other stuff needed for half of the interior.....pheww.....all in all, those trips cost a bomb as well!
once the engine was installed, i was raring to have a go at mypet project. however, i then found out the braking system of my mini project was totally useless. being an old car (ehem....old shell would be a more appropriate description) i had to change the entire brakes system. This ended up costing me $500. By the time the braking system was finally fixed, it was time for me to say farewell to it as i had to return to UK. after 6 long, hard, stressful weeks the car was sort of completed-ish. what i mean by this is that i managed to finished the exterior and the mini which started out as a hunk of metal can actually be driven around in instead of being towed and is able to brake as a car should. but i still have a lot of plans for this pet project of mine such as the wiring,and interior,but that will have to wait until i next get back home. however, i am halfway in creating a mini that i wanted that shell to be........a white rover mini cooper.
OK.....here are some of the pics of my latest project,my white rover mini cooper. to all you mini enthiusiast out there, i will be truthful, the project had its good and bad moments and i will not deny it but when i look at what i created, it has been worth it. but i will truthfully say that this project has also been a lesson to me...NEVER TO RESTORE A CLASSIC CAR AGAIN...
Enjoy the pics..

P.S.:all the stuff i bought fitted nicely without requiring any modification....