Hi all,

This is not a plug for a business but just some information regardings prices and details as I know that the soda blasting aspect get raised here now and then.

I have recently been talking to John Crabtree of sodablast.com.au and he gave me details/quote on the soda blasting process. They charge $400.00 per hour and they can typically do both the inside and outside of a mini and all areas I mentioned (ie 5 rims and subframe) EXCEPT the underside in two hours.

Direct Quote
"If we can do the underside of your car within the two hours then we will go ahead and complete it. Otherwise we will call you at the 2hr mark with a progress report and you can instruct us to stop or continue at that time.

Interestingly, we thought that we were blasting a Leyland Mini a few weeks ago until we revealed a stamp on the roof that suggested the steel came from Australia. Any other form of paint removal would have lost this information for ever! I have attached a photo (the erased section has been sanded or grinded)

We have a drive-in facility at Taren Point in NSW and you will need to allow 3hrs from the time you drop it off to pick up. We currently need one week notice."

I am planing on getting my LS1275 worked on and repainted sometime early next year and will bring up the mini frame on a trailer from Canberra. A 3 hour turn around time is great for me as I don't have a need to either stay overnight or have a return trip back to Sydney at a later stage.

The next challenge would be to decide on whether I should repaint her in the original gold or go with another colour scheme At least Canberra has a dry environment and I also have an empty spot in my 2 car garage so repainting her will not have to be hurried.

Now I need to work out what will need to be done with the engine.

Cheers,
Rob.

Think this one through.

If you have an original LS then it is a rare and potentially valuable car. It potentially will have a value of around $20K within very few years. The moment you start changing colours and indeed taking it away from original you detract thousands of dollars from its value and take away from its intrinsic historical value.

There are plenty of clubbiy shells around that you could use if you wanted a personalised car.

Just my opinion.

Keep it the original colour, a 1275LS is definitely worth keeping in its original state.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

I am getting my mini sodablasted on the central coast. Shell, bonnet, boot and doors plus etch primed for $1,000.

Taren Point is where GT (Anton) got his clubby GT done

I only emailed those pics to John Crabtree this morning!

The stamp on the roof was on my in-laws 850. The details of that stamp and the stripping process on that car will be in a future issue of The Mini Experience

For what it's worth, and I owe nothing to the Sodablast guys, it is THE BEST paint stripping process I have seen.

They are nice guys too.

Alright we all wanna see original cars preserved but 20K seems a bit ....well optimitic(maybe 10-15 years from now)?

Yeah - I am in a real dilemma about the paint colour issue.

I certainly understand the preservation aspect for this mini (I am an Archivist by profession) but my wife will have my nuts served on a plate if I chose the gold colour for this car as we already have a Toyota Corolla in exactly the same colour.

What are people's views on repainting her (the car, not my wife ) Hi Ho Silver instead of gold?

There is no possibility on getting another shell either as my wife's reaction will be the same!

At least I have a few month's to think about things and she will be going away for 4 weeks overseas next March. How brave can a guy be...?

Cheers,
Rob.

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Cheers,
Rob.

Opinions vary A LOT, but mine is this:

If you want to repsray a car a different colour, fine.

If you want to repsray a collectable car a different colour, not so fine.

If you must, and I can understand why (as Nugget Gold is NOT my cup of tea), then Hi-Ho Silver is your best choice.

Paint it whatever colour you want, it is your car.
If you paint it Hi-Ho you need to change the seats from brown to red.

If the 1275LS eventually gets to be worth $20,000 in 10 years you can always paint it again. (In 10 years it will probably need another paint job)

I have a 1275LS in my shed and there is no way that it will come out painted Gold. Once I fix all the rust there will be no gold left.

As Jesse James said when they chopped up that El Camino hot rod, it's same same as ripping up a Mickey Mantle baseball card - it makes the other ones worth more. So paint it whatever colour you and your wife want, unless other people are going to chip in for you to paint it the correct colour.

Paint colours have come a long way and there are some modern cars which have colours which would look nice on a Mini, principally the green, aqua and blue metallics of some of the small Hondas and Nissans - discreet but very attractive.

And it's been mentioned above - it's only paint.

there is a 1275LS on the MCCNSW website for sale, that isn't original paint colour. Looks pretty decent I reckon.

http://www.miniclub.com.au/trader_sales.html