Hi all mini fans,

I watched minis for years and just been a big fan. Im looking to get my knowledge up to speed cause in a few months i want to spend about $6000 on a Mk1. Im guessing this is the place to ask questions. Im not a mechanic and i have never built a car, but i want to know as much as i can about the car before i get one. Any suggestions, or links

Suggestion: Minis are very expensive. Don't quit your day job.

LOL true that!

$6000 can get you a decent mini. Why a mark 1? they are old and slow And good examples will cost you dearly. What you want is a nice round nose Mk2 Mini 1100 K or 998 Deluxe. Buy one for around $4000 or under and make sure the body is in top condition (look very hard!, I did ) and spend the rest fixing her up mechanically.

Good luck!

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

Hey mate. Where in Aus are you?

I hope you have a spare $20K or so if you are going to do a ground up resto. You could buy one some has already done for $8K-10K, but then you have to trust the seller on how good the worksmanship is.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

Well, you've certianly come to the right place. THE best source of Mini related info and plenty of Mini enthusiasts here at ausmini! *cue theme song*

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Jonathan
http://photobucket.com/albums/y64/FatMaserati/

$20,000!!! What are you gold plating instead if chrome plating?

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Lillee - 1969 Morris Mini K

white gold maybe?

The car to start with - $500+ ($500 being for a rusted hulk) but you are probably looking at more like $2000+

Bare minimum stuff is like:
Disc brake front end and new lines all round - $2000
Engine rebuild - $2000+ (the sky is the limit)
Gearbox rebuild - $500
Body work - $1000-$2000 (more if the rust is REALLY bad)
Paint - $3000+ (again, the sky is the limit)
New brake and clutch MC's - $300 (I can't see the point in a reco of 40yr old cylinders)
Wheels bearings for the rear - $150
Bushes all round $150
Sandblasting and painting subframes - $400
New shocks - $300+
New ball & cup kits - $100
New seals for doors, windows, wtc - $500

If you aren't mechanically minded, add thousands more in labour.

Breaking the $10K mark is a piece of piss, it isn't much of a leap to get to $20K when you start doing other things. You can do rims, interior, seats, HiLos, carbies, extractors, etc, etc.

Don't mean to put dcucuzza off Mini's, but no-one ever said car restoration was cheap.

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Morphias.
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If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space...

BTW....if you want to learn...it's spelt KNOW, not NO

Minis can be expensive, and some projects are more or less doomed to be expensive if the shell is rooted (rusted out) and you don't know how to weld and can't get free panels.

But they can also be cheap.I presume you want to learn about cars, maintenance and tuning. So I reckon you can;t go past a mini. You can hunt down cheap parts (still possible), but everything is available. Some other cars (Capris for example) are become very scarce and trim especially is like hens teeth. Okay, so a Alfa Junior might be a nice car, but who wants to ring every breaker in Italy to find a swivel pin? At least you can, at a stretch, understand people from Leeds

And you don't need to fit a set of disks to the front, and tune the motor to 1440. In other words, if your basic car is sound, then you're fine. Learn a little at a time, using all the usual resources: This and other forums, your basic Haynes manual, Lord Vizard's tech books and most importantly, your local mini club. Also a great source of reasonably priced parts - at the very least they won't rip you off.

BTW, why not recondition (resleeve) a master cylinder? It's cheaper and hardly a part people notice. See? Just the difference between building a show car (still a fine pursuit), and having a daily driver on the cheap. Then when you win the the lottery, order a brand new CLUBMAN shell from the UK and open the catalogues...