First post on here, looks like a cracking forum, hope you don't mind a Mk2 interloper amongst you!
I have recently become the proud custodian of a rather special little car. Registered in Jan 1969 in Dudley (West Midlands don't ya know...) and having had only 4 previous owners in the last 52 years, it's come home to the Black Country to hopefully live a peaceful and pampered retirement with me.
With it being a 1969 model that places it in the last year of Mini Mk2 production, (running from 67 - 69) so it retains a lot of the Mk1 Mini looks, sliding front windows, external door hinges, swing mounted rear numberplate, along with some features that were on the Mk3, namely larger rear window, larger rear lights etc.
My car is an 850 Super Deluxe, meaning a whole 34BHP, but it at least had some better standard kit than the basic Mini Saloon.
The previous owners purchased it in 2012 and had the vehicle restored professionally in 2015 at eye watering cost. Having done very limited mileage since then it's pretty much how it left the restorers.
So what am i to do with it? In short the plan was absolutely nothing, but having got the car home, certain things stood out as needing doing.
I'll get to the wish list of what's needed in a moment, in the meantime here's some pics of it as it arrived.
Now at home, the other half loves it!
The plans.....
Looking at the paint, it's obviously had a complete repaint inside and out, but was suffering with a number of swirled panels, and looked a little jaded in places.
Full wash and decontamintaion saw it back to bare bones, I then clayed the car with Bilt Hamber Auto Clay medium which removed very little.
I quickly established that the paint was rock hard, imaging 2000's VAG paint plus 20% so i decided to correct the paint using initially the Rotary and 3M Fast Cut Plus, then switching to the DA with Lake country orange pad, followed by the Megs DA correction system. I had to use the 3" shine mate DA for the tighter areas as despite being a small car, these Mini's are fiddly!!
Initial results were good. I'm not looking for a glass smooth mirror finish, more a respectable depth of shine, with limited defects. Bearing in mind the finish on these cars when new wasn't the greatest!
I continued round the car, and decided to remove the rear badging as they had reused the 52 yr old original badges and they have aged badly. I also removed the rear number plate swinging hanger, and have sent that off to be blasted and powder coated. Rear bumper also came off and it was much easier then to get the rear paintwork corrected as well.
Correct supplying dealer rear window sticker sourced and fitted..
The rear bumper was showing signs of pitting and was missing the overriders, so i have ordered new front and rear bumpers, new badges, set of overriders and some correct font number plates from Framptons.
I'll have more pictures soon.
Cheers
Matt
SHOWROOM NEW 
well done.
