Hey guys, I'm a bit of a lurker around here tend to read a lot and never comment. I don't own a mini yet but am constantly browsing the market for one. Poor students can't afford much as I am sure many of you know.

This brought me to a question that I've been discussing with my family a bit. A lot of mini's I see on ebay and other sites have a fair bit of rust. I was wondering how many of you it has been an issue for and how much you'd expect to pay to fix it up?

One of the cars I was looking at was this one

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/121052886577?_trksid=p5197.c0.m619#ht_500wt_1414

It often puts me off taking the plunge and investing in a mini because I worry that I couldn't afford to fix the rust off early on and I'd end up just having the car fall apart in my parents garage while I try to save up enough to fix it.

I'd love to get some thoughts and opinions on the rust issue that I know comes up with a lot of minis over time.

Sorry if this is the wrong section to post this and thanks for your input!

Personally i find it best to get yourself a welder and have a go at welding new panels in.

Panels are cheap and most places are straight-forward to repair.

So generally not to bad if your willing to have a go yourself.

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Hey, well the first thing about rust is there is always more than you first think, i thought my mini had minimal rust when i got it but slowly i discovered more. Also you need to watch out for dodgy repairs, for example in the pic of the roof there is a bit of cracked bog so the job is bigger than you might first think.

How much it will cost to repair the rust depends on what you want to do with the car. You could just fix what rust you can see and then blend some new paint with the old. Or you could strip the whole car to bare metal and do your repairs from there. The second will cost alot more but you end up with a better car.

So about actually fixing the rust your options are diy, send it to a mate or a pro shop. If you are going to diy you are going to need a mig welder, it isnt that hard to pick up mig welding but i am fairly new to it myself. A decent mig setup will come to around $800 after you get a trolly, jacket, mask, gloves, gas and wire. If you could borrow a welder from a friend then you avoid having to invest in these tools but i doubt many people will lend out their welders.

Giving your car to a mate who can weld is another option, you can prepare the areas to be welded and do the cutting and then hand the car over, let them do the welding then you can grind it back and go from there. A pro shop will give you a better result but will cost a lot more. Whatever you do make sure rust is repaired with new metal in all structural places.

The mini you have linked looks nice in the photos but yes, it does have rust, your best option would be have someone who knows old cars well to have a look over it for you.

Also another thing to remember is that if you are trying to do a mini cheaply you are going to want disc brakes so you will need to add another $1000 for them into your budget.

I hope this answers your questions and i'm sorry if i went a bit off topic but yer, thats my 2 cents

Edit- if you really have to you can get alright welds with a cheap gassless welder but having tried gas and gasless i find the gas much nicer to work with.

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77 mini sunshine: the slow build continues
http://www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=70699

Thanks heaps for the responses, very enlightening.

I think the most likely option for me is to get a shop to do it, as I haven't got any weldery friends and definitely can't afford a welder myself.

Its great to have this information while looking so glad these forums have such a wealth of knowledge to gather from.

Thanks again.

My experience from working in panel shops is that rust is expensive. Its messy work that lots of shops try to avoid as much as they can. That's why they quote rust fixing so expensively.

My opinion is that if you don't have that much money, don't get a car that needs restoration.
A restoration , even if you do lots of the work yourself, will cost much more than a decent complete car.

I would be surprised if very many restos end up costing less than 10k (i know mine hasn't). So once you have a look thru the for sale section and see the quality cars for under 10k, sometimes even under 5k, it is easily the cheapest way to go.

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Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850

QFT

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1965 Mk1 Cooper S Sprint/Hillclimb/Rally Car
2012 Land Rover Defender 90

If you're a student and don't have much cash to throw around, then I wouldn't look at getting a mini till one at least of those circumstances change - preferably the money side.
It's not just rust thats the problem, if you buy a car that's not well maintained you could be up for a fortune to get it back to a safe and reliable standard. Parts are expensive for good quality ones and labour is expensive if you can't work on it yourself.

Parts are very cheap compared to any modern car.

But yeas labour= $$ if you cant do it yourself

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Old minis equal welding, but it's not rocket science and it's a great way to learn something new and do something constructive that you're proud of afterwards.

Some rust can be cut out and new steel patches welded in without much strife, or you can replace entire panels for example wings, A panels and sills. Minis' external seams make it about as straightforward as it gets.

The other thing to bear in mind that paint will probably cost more than a welder and new panels. And you'll need a fair bit of space if you respray it yourself - I struggled in a single car garage but the end result is impressive enough (although I can see many small flaws that no-one else would notice).

The eBay mini in that link looks likes a good price and I reckon it has the potential to be a great car ( wish I had garage space to buy it and stick it away for 'a one day' project), BUT, some times photos make a car look better the it is in the flesh and I think it would end up costing a fair bit more than the purchase price to get sorted. I was quoted $7000 just for a paint job, and my mini only had three spots of rust once it was bare metalled down.

I like to think I am reasonably handy but have still had to outsource a fair bit of mechanical work to ensure things are done properly and it adds up quickly. I have spent over $6000 not including the purchase price of my car and it is still not all sorted. I could've bought a totally sorted mini for my total spend AND been able to use it, whilst my car has had long periods with the engine out, at workshops etc....

Perhaps you could consider buying a reasonably cheap car until you're a bit more financial? There is a reasonable mitsubishi mirage for $2000 with rego rwc down the road from me. I think you would enjoy mini ownership much more if you could afford to keep it running/ pay for repairs. Plus the parents get cranky very quickly when a broken down car is sitting in the driveway!

I dont mean to be overly negative, but i have been there, done that and it is not a goood feeling realising you have a bigger job ahead of you then you initially thought once the excitement wears off.