Hi All,

I am new to the mini scene and got my first mini (1978 Clubman) a few months ago which is currently under a bit of a rebuild.

I am wondering if anyone out there can point me in the right direction to get the front grill refurbished? By this I mean polished back up and the painted sections redone. I am Brisbane based, but can ship elsewhere if need be.

I am not interested in doing it myself as I have no space where I live and even less enthusiasm these days. A professional is what I am after....Many thanks in advance for any help.

Grats on your new mini , my only suggestion would be to just keep an eye on ebay in case someone puts up a refurbished or at least a good one.
Or perhaps some classic car restoration place near you might be able to help.

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Project Pickles is ALIVE!!!!! Click Here!
Success is so much sweeter after the struggle

Why don't they make them new like every other bloody grill! Did they ever make them without the cutout for the front bonnet release lever?

Im guessing that square nosed ones were only in australia ? and all the other grills are copies of the original uk supplied ones ?

Not sure any one else know ?

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Project Pickles is ALIVE!!!!! Click Here!
Success is so much sweeter after the struggle

would one of these do?

im in brisbane and just started rebuilding my 1975 clubman also,

how bad is your grille?

There are lots of grilles that are no longer made. The Mk1 850 one, for example.

In general terms the grilles that are remade are mainly for the more recent UK models and the earlier ones that were made in large numbers. In the UK the Clubman was only a small proportion of the overall production.

If you do a bit of googling you'll get a few hits of places around the world that have them. Its the old problem of them not necessarily being hard to find, but they are hard to afford!

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Hi Main Wheel,

Welcome! If itis pretty straight and not all bent up, try and polish it yourself using a wool or cloth buff some kero and chalk. Than prepare it for painting! wipe over with grease and wax remover, take your time and tape it up and paint in the Black accents! Weather it's the Gt, SS, S or Leyland look! There are a few different styles. Or just take a photo of what your looks like and refurbish it!

It's just one of those little jobs that takes time!

Ben

took me a few days but it came up the goods, Yes it still has some chips etc but i wasn't trying for a show grill.. A little elbow grease and patience is all it takes. It looks awesome compared to how it looked when i got it so I'm happy with it

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If its got tits or wheels its gonna cost you

1973 Solid side Leyland Mini Panelvan 1100 in Hairy Lime(Elma)
1976 Clubby project in progress
1966 Morris Mini Deluxe in need of a full resto
1971 Mini K Garden Art

Beautiful job Nicho ....... i hope mine comes up that good

_________________
Project Pickles is ALIVE!!!!! Click Here!
Success is so much sweeter after the struggle

Thanks for the replies. I bit the bullet and did it myself. About $50 worth of products and a bit of work. Here is the finished product. I spent quite a bit of time bending the grille back into shape.

Looks good, well done

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1964 998cc Cooper
1971 Mini K x 2
1972 Clubman GT

Nice one Dave, that looks schmick!

Cheers Shane

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If it's not a Cooper S, the mini was designed to be modified!

Looks great, I will have to do mine if you have the before shots, could you post them up, would be great to see the transformation.

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Cheers

Dave

Great work looks fantastic , gives me hope for mine as she's a bit dinged up as well.

Edit : Did you take any pictures during resto ? or perhaps you could do a Howto for it with materials used etc ?

Cheers:
Bill

_________________
Project Pickles is ALIVE!!!!! Click Here!
Success is so much sweeter after the struggle

There you go...It was easy really. It appears to be some sort of anodised aluminium alloy so is quite soft and easy to reshape by hand back to the shape it should be in. Autosol metal polish to clean up the exposed anodised sections (*Note* - the stone chips from 30+ years of driving will not polish out. Only replating will take care of them, but I am building a daily driver not a showcar so I was happy with polishing only). Once polishing is complete paint strip back to bare metal. Mask up the non painted sections (I bought a roll of painters masking tape to ensure a sharp paint edge. $10 very well spent!) and use a scalpel to cut aout the tape from the fiddly areas. Then spraypaint away applying a few light coats. I did 4 coats of each colour. I matched the red at a model shop to get as close to original as possible.

The most important thing is patience. I restripped and painted the centre emblem 3 times till I was happy with the result, and the headlight surrounds twice.