210-110 Book: Haynes Restoration Manual for Mini Filled with everything. All Classic British products are warrantied to be free from defects in material and. Your AutoClassics Austin/BMC/Morris/Rover Mini inspection checklist. Trim is available at reasonable prices to restore any Mini cabin to better than new.

1. Austin Mini Restoration Guide
2. Classic Mini Restoration Manual

All joking aside, this is one of the most important questions you will have to ask yourself when owning and buying a Mini. Do you want a car that will be a fun, cheap budget banger that you can drive around?

Do you want to turn it into a hot street car with big wheels and tuned engine? Do you want to restore it lovingly back to its original condition? Do you want to make money buying, welding and re-spraying in order to turn a profit and sell on?

All the above relate to one question, what do you really want to do next? For me this is mini number nine. My first mini broke down the day I bought it for £350 with an electrical fault and didn't even make the journey home. I ruined another by putting 13' inch wheels and not looking after it. I've had a '94 BRG Mini Cooper SPI that I did 500 miles a week up and down the M6 until the piston went through the block and the diff blew.

Austin Mini Restoration Guide

This will be my final Mini. My plan is to resotre it and keep it for years to come (unless a MK1 mini comes available then I may rethink)! Preferably before you part with your hard earned cash, establish your end game.

I wanted a car that I could keep for myself for years to come as a second car. I want to use it only to go out of the garage in the summer and on dry, none salt caked roads in the winter. Set yourself a budget and a think about your purchase carefully.

Read the forums, buying guides and all the rest that is available on the internet. I'm not going to tread the well beaten path of buying a mini here. Create a Roadmap or project plan. I make no apologies for coming from a commercial background and when I say this but, roadmaps and project plans are everything.

That is for a very good reason, to manage costs, timescales and expectations for completion. Please do not think that you can rock up with your car, throw it into the garage, attack it with an angle grinder, weld it up, be able to have it passing its MOT and on the road in a week and all for a fiver - you are wasting your time and you will also end up with spiralling costs and lose interest. If you don't think about your costs and what you can do, your pride and joy project will eventually join the countless other classic cars of all varieties where the tag line on eBay reads 'due to lack of time.' Or 'lost interest' or '90% complete project, just needs finishing'.

Create a proper plan for your restoration I can assure you now that my Mini will cost me more than I thought it would cost when I picked it up in July. But, I do have a spreadsheet with current costs from suppliers that I update as I go through the stripping phase of the car. I did also create a budget of how much I was prepared to spend in order to restore my car.

I should however have done more with hind sight. It’s not just about the money! A plan can help you understand the costs and how they change as the project or restoration progresses.

A project plan however is not just about the financial implications, it can give you an idea (given other commitments such as a Wife, Husband or Kids, Family, Weddings, etc.) how much time you realisticall have to work on your project. Set yourself a goal of baby steps allocating time to do the job properly rather than 'a quick hour in the garage'. Trust me unless your a class mechanic engine removal doesn't take an hour! This is important for 2 reasons. Firstly, it helps you understand what you can achieve and sets your expectations around when you can expect to complete your project (important if you are planning on going to a Mini run such as the London to Brighton for example or you want to sell it or get it on the road for the summer). Secondly and probably more importantly, it helps you keep the faith!

Trust me there are times when your fingers are bleeding from banging your hand on bodywork because of a stuck nut or the gear linkage pin took 3 hours to remove. It can be rewarding but equally demoralising, this way you can re-adjust your times and re-assess where you are. What does a plan look like? I will at some point share with you my project plan so you can see how to set one out. Create a spreadsheet and have 1 tab with a step by step plan from taking the wheels off the car all the way though to putting the wheels back on the car at the end of the project or restoration. The other should have your costs. This is important because you will quickly find when you think about it what challenges and steps lay ahead. An example of such is such as not being able to remove the engine without removing the exhaust or not being able to remove the fuel lines under the car without removing the front and rear subframes as the lines are under the subframes against the body.

Think about the steps you have to go to resolve the problems you have before you reaching for the angle grinder or a spanner. That being said, as in my case i needed to take the window out to investigate the seriousness of the issue.

But, plan to do that in the plan and adjust accordingly. A plan is not a point in time to forget about it’s an audit of parts!

If you only take 2 or 3 things away from this website please take planning and updating your plan as 2 things, auditing your parts should be the other. A plan is not there to be drawn up and forgotten about, it’s a moving changing document that will be added to as you strip the car down for restoration or rebuild. For instance, as you start to strip the car you may uncover more issues that, in turn, can occur more costs. As part of the rebuild this cost will need to be added to the cost and the plan will tell you when you need to get the money together to buy that part. A simple example is a new headlamp. It’s one of the first things that came of the car and it will be one of the last things that goes back on. What I didn't do though is budget for the fact that it is too rusty on inspection to put back on the car and will need replacing. Same for the countless bushes, seals, nuts, bolts and chrome trim that on inspection really needs renewing.

If you have no plan, this is the hidden cost of restoring a car or doing a project that will add significant costs and time to the project. A Final Point Think about what you want to do and what you want to get others to do. Welding, respraying, engine and gearbox rebuilds etc. All these can be done by others with knowledge and they can do it quicker.

I will be doing things i've never done before, thats part of the passion BUT be realistic. Don't consider respraying a car if you don't have the patience you will waste your time, money and you will lose interest (plus it will be rubbish). Even what may be considered a small job in the scheme of things like changing the valve stem oils seals. Consider what is required, the parts needed and the tools. You may need to buy three tools plus the parts to do a valve stem oil seal change youself and cost £100. If you later find out someone could have done it for £85 and you have not checked the costs out becuase you assume its cheaper to do it yourself. The result is a major false ecomomy of your time and real costs for doing the job. Overall.my advice?

Classic Mini Restoration Manual

PLAN IT, AUDIT YOUR PARTS, UPDATE YOUR PLAN AND BE REALISTIC OVER YOUR TIMESCALES AND WHAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE.

Whatever the level of restoration required for your Mini we'll undertake it but at The Real Mini Company we will not compromise on quality, using only the best parts and tools for the job. Our unbeatable interest free pay-as-you-go installment scheme allows you to spread the cost of your Mini restoration work over a timescale designed to meet your needs.

With FREE collection (if within 100 miles) and FREE storage for the duration of the restoration, whatever the project, whatever the requirements, there's only one Mini company to call - The Real Mini Company.