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Part 1
The beginning of the story, a 1983 Mini 1000, which had been pushed sideways, halfway round a roundabout by a large truck. I would have replaced the damaged panels, but corrosion problems in the floor pan & bulkhead dictated the need for another shell.
Dashboard, seats, interior trim, glass & carpets are easily removed in an hour or so.
Another couple of hours sees the engine & gearbox, hydraulic cylinders & wiper assembly out of the way. Personally, I do not disconnect the front suspension joints to remove the driveshafts, having given the pot joints a tap to free the clips, I find it easy to ‘buttonhole’ them out of the gearbox, as the engine is raised. A lot of people disagree with me on that but whichever way you find easier has to be best for you.
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Now the time consuming work begins, refurbishing all the re-useable components, as an example, here’s a ‘before & after’ shot of the rear brake pressure reducing valve. I’ve previously seen shell changes where all the components are just swapped from one to the other, in whatever their condition happens to be, but in my mind, it doesn’t do justice to a beautifully prepared replacement shell.
The engine & gearbox, waiting to be separated, as there was a weak synchro On 2nd gear, the opportunity was taken to fix it during the rebuild. I had rebuilt the engine about 7000 miles previous to the accident, so that just needed cleaning & was sealed in bubble wrap until the gearbox was fixed.
Engine & box re-united & treated to some nice new paint. Note that the clevis pin on which the clutch release arm pivots, has the split pin, (or in this case. An ‘R’ clip) facing upwards. If it is ever necessary to remove it in the future, it’s so much easier. The missing end case bolt, to the left of clutch release assembly is intentional, it’s the one that’s a pig to get to if you need to change a clutch without removing the engine.
The shell eventually arrives, loosely sitting on it’s frames for ease of transport. This is a refurbished shell supplied by a local Mini Centre, originally intended for Rallying, (I was first told it was destined for Miglia Racing) beautifully prepared & very strong.
The first thing I did was to clean all the dust out of the engine bay & give it two good coats of Hammerite, not only does it look good, it does wonders for the life expectancy of the inner wings & bulkhead.