i found a 1977 mini panelvan for sale,

its the clubbie body with a roundie front, it has disk brakes, new carpet, new alternator, immob fitted, twin su's on a 1100 motor, 12" mini lites and rego till 8/2007. the colour is purply blue but could use a respray and there are tiny rust spots on the car, he's selling for 2,900 but he will take 2,400.

according to the guy it is a nice lil car and the motor was reconditioned not to long ago ( not sure on kms) he also said he use to be a member here and went on a few cruises with the group, has anyone seen this van?

my main question is would this be a good buy? the buy is maybe for my friend or my parents to use a delivery van for the printing business

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Joe
As described, its worth the money - its only about the right price though. What disc brakes ?? if they are dinky di mini brakes then thats a bonus, if they are modified Hondas or something similar then - well you have read all the other threads. !!!

Sutiable for a delivery van - naw - its not. Its a heritage car and now fairly old. Fun yes but wont last the distance without constant work and repairs. For the business buy a cheapy jap van for $500 - flog it to death then buy another to replace it.

yeah true, well i was thinking to buy the van for myself but juz dont know if it be worth my while

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Considerring Tiny seems to be taking up a lot of your time and finances at present are you sure you have the resources etc for a 2nd mini ? It sounds reasonable for the price though but check the brakes as Mike mentioned , also see if you can find out if the motor was rebuilt and by who . A "rebuilt" motor can be anything from a full , proper rebuild by a licenced mechanic to new rings by a backyard enthusiast , either way can be good but the full rebuild will last longer .

I agree with Mike too , definitely not up to delivery duties for a buisiness , especially if your parents have employee's who are likely to drive it hard rather than look after it .

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Cant make up your mind for you but it may be a good buy - it is currently registered and thats a bonus. You have seen and you are learning heaps about mechanical issues with cars and especially minis at the moment.

If I was you I would go to the place with $1500 sticking out of your top pocket so its clearly visible. Walk around the van and note every single fault and quote a price to fix each fault. Deduct that from the asking price saying it only adds to what it ultimately costs to make it a road worthy vehicle. Then take the money out of your pocket and hold it, again clearly visible to the seller. Offer him $1500 and say its all its worth considering the work needed on it. Tell im its not a restoration project for you, just a vehicle need to get reliable quickly. You just simply like minis.

its not that horrible blue van in geelong is it? with the bull bar and bonnet nostrals.

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real men race downhill - keiichi tsuchiya

dont thinks so man, i like the way u think mike, and i know what ur saying sports850 my resources are struggling atm but if i do by this second mini i can take tiny off the road for a while to do a full resto on him when i have the money, and use this van as a run around cause tiny lately has been giving me nothing but troubles

ill ring the guy up and talk to my parents about it, i want a van cause i like the panelvans juz as much as the saloons i might go see it this weekend and take some pictures and post them up

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

Bascially just be careful of getting yourself and your resources stretched too thin trying to have 2 mini's on the road (while they're both registerred) and end up dissilusioned with mini's like others have . If it's all good then it sounds like a good buy but go into the whole thing with your eyes open .

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well put it this way i pay $245 a month for tinys loan and i pay another $100 for the insurence a month full comp and i pay $600 for rego a yr and i earn $475 a week which is about $1900 a month, thats the sorta figures im playing with at the moment, would it be wise to get a second mini with these figures?

keep in mind that the panelvan may come in handy when i need to do some odd mechanical jobs around with friends and family

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower

tiny,

I have had more than one car since I was 19. The best advise if you want to head down the path of multiple car ownership is make sure one is not a mini.

When I only had minis, I never had all running together except for the odd show. This meant that I was always fixing at least one of them. I borrowed money and bought a 3yr old suzuki at 21 and never looked back.

Daniel
PS - to make money you need to buy new for depreciation, old cars need maintenance and though you can claim this expense, you can't make money with something in a mechanics shop!

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Videos - Turbocharged A-Series on Dyno & at Wakefield
Mafs waz not my strong subgeckt at skkol

NO!

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Your silliness has been noted.

I'm with Doz on this bit as well , Multiple mini's are fun but it does mean a lot more work and money . I had 3 mini's registerred when I was about 23 , the sports 850 was going onto club rego when normal rego ran out in 4 months time , my next road mini had just been registerred and I bought a South African Mini Vanden Plas that came with 6 months rego . The record was all three running properly for a week , normally one or the other needed something or the Vanden Plas spat the dummy and dropped the center main thrust washers again (bad clutch master cylinder ...) . Not long after I bought a 10 year old Ford Courier ute as an everyday car/recovery vehicle and played with the mini's when I had time (and put the sports850 on club rego) . Remember I was also doing 90% of the servicing , maintenence and engine builds myself so while it was very time consuming it was cheaper .

Tiny might well be a fun car to drive etc but he may not be the car to start an all out resto on yet as a lot of things have been changed on him . You might be best to keep him going as your road car and find a fairly original mini that's been sitting in a shed for a while and rebuild it as you have time rather than one you have to chase most of the interior and trim for to get it back to orignal .

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that is true, i do have another car though that is not a mini but i dont pay the rego or the insurence on it cause i share it with my dad the car is a 94 ford laser that we have owned since brand new and still runs like new to this day, dad will be buying a van for the printing business aswell very soon which means the laser will be a recovery car incase of any break downs, in case of emergancy and i cant use the mini's, tiny i know i said resto lol but i didnt mean for back to original i should of said it better i juz want to strip tiny get the rust taken out and resprayed properly thats all as for the interoir im having it made up by a friend who has offered to make me a new dash and door cards, the van i was gonna use to run around with and juz swap between the 2 mini's has everyday drivers from time to time but if it's wiser to juz keep tiny for now then i might be better off doing that. yeah?

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oil leak?..what oil leak..that puddle under the car is just sweat from all that horsepower