Mini Cooper Sport
One of the projects IK Sport Classic recently finished was a late original Mini Cooper that had been bought by gentleman for his wife’s 50th birthday present.
The Mini did manage to be driven to the workshop (unbeknown to the lucky lady of course) but was in need of a large amount of attention both bodily and mechanical.
The Cooper was inspected and a report handed to the owner who instructed us to go ahead with the restoration as we saw fit.
As normal we started by completely stripping the car down making sure that all the components/parts were carefully cataloged and safely stored, with notes made on which areas required attention.
The body shell was the first area to receive our panel beaters skill with all the usual corrosion points being attended to, these included replacing the front panel, both front wings, both “A” post panels, the top scuttle panel, both N/S & O/S inner and outer sills, the rear valance and replacement of both door skins and boot lid skin. The shell was then prepped and painted in the original colour scheme ready to be rebuilt.
Whilst the body shell was being attended to in our bodyshop the mechanicals were also being attended to in the workshop. The engine was completely stripped down and re-build including the gearbox also being refreshed. All the suspension and brakes were stripped and rebuilt with all unserviceable components being replaced as required. It was also found that the rear subframe had areas of corrosion so this was replaced as the car was being put back together.
The one thing that didn’t warrant replacement was the interior trim which only required a good deep clean, apart from the dash board panels which had damage and were replaced.
Once the car was rebuilt and tested it was handed over to a very excited birthday lady who promptly set off and had a trouble free trip around Scotlands NC500 sending us lots of pictures of the Mini on location around the Highlands.