The Red Rover Mini Restoration Project... Part 2 (Cars)

After respraying the front I decided the back needed some attention as the paintwork was in very poor condition. Some of these first pictures should give you a general idea as to how poor the paint surface was...



Sanding and stripping the back. The boot particularly had a lot of bubbles in the paint.



Filling and kurusting holes and prepping for spraying (Masking tape and brown parcel wrap used).




Grey primer, and red primer sanded smooth. Lots of sanding and priming done on the boot due to all the bubbles in the paint. Sprayed inside of boot with primer and Flame red (89) as well.



Final coat of red and rebuilding. To "finish" the paint I sanded with 1500 wet and dry, T-Cut, and then polished with Zymol Cleaner Wax. Once ready I took it for a drive and charged the battery and made sure all the lights were working.

You can follow the Mini Project Log at Hexus, and view large photos in the Red Mini gallery (on joshwaller.co.uk).

The Red Rover Mini Restoration Project... Part 1 (Cars)

So I'm very very slowly bringing the Mini back to it's former glory. So far I've beefed up the sound system with a subwoofer, and front speakers, although I do need to mount these all properly, so this is just at the testing stage at the moment. The head unit is very nice though - a Sony GT420U - with USB and AUX in it supports pen drives, and USB hard drives!



I've also been looking at the front of the Mini as there's a lot of surface rust under the bubbling paint. Very little of it has gone through so with some elbow grease and some sanding it should smooth out okay, ready for a respray. I've also decided to respray the rocker cover, as that was suffering from some rust.



Here's the before and after shots of the rocker cover, now that it's been painted red. I've sanded the rusty bits with a B+Q Mouse Sander, and covered the rusty bits with Hammerite Kurust from Halfords. Next I should be able to fill any dents, and smooth ready for the primer.



Most of the front of the car now smoothed and sprayed with two coats of primer.



Once the front was put back together, I changed the oil, and took it for a drive. When it got back, I decided it was time to do something about the back of the car, follow links below for pics.

You can follow the Mini Project Log at Hexus, and view large photos in the Red Mini gallery. (originally posted on joshwaller)

Asahi's Original Brew - Asahi Premium Black Imported (Ales)

5% with a "Rich and Smooth taste", Available from wagamama and probably elsewhere... this is a dark ale with a taste like it's a mix of stout and lager. Not as thick as a stout or bitter, but with the taste of stout. Well worth trying if you can find some, as apparently it's not very easily found.