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I'm working on the door of my 1960 Mini and decided to take the door skin off.

On revealing the inside, one of the many things I noted was that there are drain holes in the window glass channel, with a rubber tube that feeds water into the door bottom.

Thing is, the door bottom has no holes to enable the water to drain out.

Is this a fault of design? Or perhaps poor door bottom repair (it does have a new door bottom fitted by the prior owner).

Thanks

My 66 SDL has a short metal tube in each corner sticking upwards. The rubber drain hoses fit inside these and water then exits through holes in the underneath.

Early 59/60 cars didn't have drain tubes in the bottom of the door pockets if you have the original doors still fitted..the early car doors drained out the rear of the door frame through square hole above the door catches as shown on the '1959 Mini Register' website here:-
https://1959miniregister.com/variations-doors/

Later Minis from around mid 1960? onwards have two rubber tubes from each end of the sliding window channels going down to holes/tubes in the bottom of the door.

For reference on dates, my original May'60 doors do have the hoses, stub tubes, and exit holes at the bottom.
Mike.

CaliforniaMk1 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2024 4:01 am For reference on dates, my original May'60 doors do have the hoses, stub tubes, and exit holes at the bottom.
Mike.

Thanks, Mike. My early August 1960 Mini has hoses and stub tubes. However, the prior owner replaced the door bottom and seems to have neglected the drain holes. I'm so glad I asked, otherwise imagine the situation first time car was out in the rain!

That said, does anyone have images of the holes in the bottom of the door, as well as hoses connecting to same? I'll have to try and retro-fit them to my car but have no reference, so any reference material would be very helpful.

whistler wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2024 9:32 am My 66 SDL has a short metal tube in each corner sticking upwards. The rubber drain hoses fit inside these and water then exits through holes in the underneath.

Thank you. Sounds like mine, so the style must have been in use for quite a few years. I've got to try and find a reference now so I can retrofit the drains at the bottom of the door.

A couple of photos below with the 2 rubber drainage hoses and 4 metal stub tubes visible with the old outer door skins removed which may help as a reference. The drain hoses are black rubber but have grey primer overspray on them in these photos.

mab01uk wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2024 10:34 am A couple of photos below with the 2 rubber drainage hoses and 4 metal stub tubes visible ...

Hugely helpful! Thanks @mab01uk

To be honest, even if your car is original and without drain holes, you'd be mad to not fit some means of draining them while you've got the doors apart/stripped. Just being caught in a shower will get the rain down inside. Just my view of course.....

Peter Laidler wrote: ↑Fri Nov 08, 2024 12:20 pm To be honest, even if your car is original and without drain holes, you'd be mad to not fit some means of draining them while you've got the doors apart/stripped. Just being caught in a shower will get the rain down inside. Just my view of course.....

I'm completely with you on that. My doors suffer a number of issues:

• The rain channel is rusty
  The door skins have been poorly fitted
  The lower door repair has been poorly fitted and poorly welded
  The lower door repair has no drain holes
  The door bin has been poorly fitted and welded
  The door hinges have too much play

So, I've ordered a pair of new heritage doors and a door hinge kit from MS

And everytime I do it, the theme tune for 'Only Fools and Horses' plays and Trigger starts talking about his broom

Then again, when you look at resale of classic Minis, for all everyone goes on about conservation and patina, it's the fully restored ones that do better (at least in my experience).