I have a 1976 clubman that has rust and I want to purchase a new body, without rust.

Where should I be looking?

Cheers
Ian

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Ian - My Ve SSV Ute - Looking for a Mini

British Motor Heritage in the UK do them, but at 2,830 less VAT but plus shipping and GST, it would be prohibitively expensive.

A better option would be to buy a newer Clubman without rust, which thankfully there are plenty.

Where would you find them?

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Ian - My Ve SSV Ute - Looking for a Mini

mate, nearly all minis have rust by now and the ones without rust are usually complete cars

i spoke to a mini place about a shell, and they reckoned if they had a nearly rust free shell, they'd make a whole car out of it because they make more money that way.

Ok, I am going to look around for unlicensed mini that has better body than mine..

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Ian - My Ve SSV Ute - Looking for a Mini

Where is the rust

Put up some pictures

There are new panels available

You might not need a whole shell (a whole shell could have different problems to yours......anyway )

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"Show me the Mini!"

http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21032

Look there for pics

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Ian - My Ve SSV Ute - Looking for a Mini

Thanks....lots of good advice there...

You need to sand back that front wing area to see just how deep the rust goes...if there is daylight then it needs to be repaired (welded) or a new panel grafted on..

That sill is shot....and the other side is probabley suspect as well....live near the beach do we ....new sills are available but unless you are going to do a TAFE course or have some kind person like AWD show you what to do....I would just save up and let an expert do it.

If all that sounds too hard....look around for another Mini in better condition....revert to your Plan B

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"Show me the Mini!"

Thanks for advice going to look at 2 tommorow, one with yellow sticker and a blown head gasket and one in roadworthy good condition...

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Ian - My Ve SSV Ute - Looking for a Mini

dont buy one with any problems, spend more than you can afford to get a good one

dont do a 666 and go through 4 cars.

Don't expect any 1978 models to be rust free.

Wasn't there a clubman body, like new for sale a while back ? South of Sydney, the resto for the son who had grown too tall ?
Didn't a regular buy it but had to sell it again ?

Your a few weeks to late, JAM had that rust free body that went cheap.

The only way to go with 2nd hand cars, not just mini's, is to work out your budget, take 1-2k off that then find the best car you can for that money. Once you have the car, use the 1-2k to fix it. This doesn't mean buying bling seat covers, mags wheels and sik ice for it. It means, having it serviced, brakes adjusted, tuned etc etc, and fixing whatever other issues arise. One you have a car that is worth driving, then you can put in whatever bling you want.

What i woulld do if i was you, is to buy another running car and get it sorted then strip your old car of it decent bits and swap them for not so good bits on the new car. Then sell everything else off the old shell. I mean strip it bare. Sell the lot. Cars are worth more as parts. I bet you couls even sell the whole stripped shell for more as panels. I sold a clubby shell with a rear subframe only on ebay for $76 and it was a decent shell. If i had cut it up and sold the panels i would have made more.... Food for thought....

Cheers
Aaron

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Thanks Aaron, I will go and look at some today.....

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Ian - My Ve SSV Ute - Looking for a Mini