Mini Cooper S7- Restoration (P5)

Hi Mini fans & Automab blog followers,

Thanks for joining me in my blog, a blog I created to bring you my story about my Mini Cooper S7 restoration. This is definitely the right time to do it as many of you would known, 2009 is the 50's year anniversary of the world's smallest and most popular cars since 1960's.

I hope my blog will continue to entertain you while feeding your euthusias in car mods.

As of March, my restoration story ended at introducing SPSS motorsport as the workshop that will take over the modification of my Mini based on the design I forwarded to them.

The mini bodywork mods was not done immediately as many have expected. In fact after the mini was sent to them, it was kept in there shop for almost 5 months. This is before, my mini required a major modification works and Mike would to clear the other projects on hand before starting mine.

Finally, it was after February 2008, they cleared the workshop and started my Mini. Mike assigned one of his best handy man to work on the Mini. At this point of time, I was rather busy visiting them to ensure the person understand perfectly what I want from all aspects. Besides that, this routine visit and review on the bodywork also allow me to check and confirm whether my design on paper will produce the exact synchronize effect that I wanted. After all, a two dimensional design may not be as accurate as the three dimensional outcome. In fact, that is how I spend most of my Saturday and sometimes week day for the next 6 months. 

Below are some interesting picture on the progress of the mods:

There will be more posting of the modification progress in my next posting, showing you even more detailed works on the Mini Cooper S7. 

Stay Tune!

Mini Cooper S7- Restoration (P4)

Dear Mini fans,

Now its going into 3rd week of Mac, almost 2 months after Chinese New Year. How are you being doing, I hope everything is fine and the economy downturn did not affect you. 

Even though I have posted 3 times on my blog, in fact I have just launched this blog to the public. How? Well, I have posted the Automad.alx at the rear of my mini cooper S7 bumper and also display it in a few recent mini cooper outing in Amcorp Mall, Kompleks Belia, Shah Alam & Sukan and Titiwangsa classic car exhibition.

Also, back in December, this mini also participated in the Extreme Motorshow in Bukit Jalil. I shall share with you some photos in the later part of my posting.

As of now, let me continue the journey of my restoration of this mini cooper.

From the P3, I mentioned that the Mini actually done the first street run, a first outing to the public after the restoration of the engine. Here are some angle of interesting photo shoot;

Even though there is still not much to view for the external body shell aside then many rust and aged body paint, it manage to attract many to come forward as soon as I open the engine compartment. Some even take picture on it. Wonderful experience!!

The mini was later drove back to my resident in Shah Alam where it was getting ready for body restoration. Yes, at this point I have decided to do the below two approach;

1) Get a mini specialist to restore the body to its original condition according to the BMC specification- I chosen Mini Specialist (Mr. Rosli) in Subang Industrial Park as my restoration master for this. Mini Specialist is a well known workshop for restoring all model of Mini for many years. They help many Mini lovers to restore, maintain, repair,  buy and sell theirs Mini.

2) After that, send the mini to somebody that is good in body modification to the specification that I want and must be in metal instead of fiberglass. I have selected SPSS Motorsport, Subang Industrial Park to do this part of essential work for me. Mike, the owner apparently can understand my concept of the design well and have the same wave length in modification as me. I have shown him my own design and to gather some essential input on the practical work needed as. 

As the only metal based body mod workshop around, here are some of the amazing work SPSS Motorsport have done.....

Mini Cooper - Restoration (P3)

Hi dear Mini fans, Happy New Year 2009 and for you that celebrates coming Chinese New Year, I would like to wish you and family Happy Chinese New Year, the year of the Ox will bring your many happiness and prosperity. In my last posting, I shared with you on the dismantling of the Mini to clear the old engine and dashboard. I was pretty much involved personally to clean the engine compartment, clear the rust and repaint it with anti-rust. Yes, this efforts have taken me almost 3 weeks to prepare the engine compartment for the new engine. In the process, I even done some welding on the key structure of the Mini to clear the rust and strengthen the engine compartment.

With a complete reconditioned engine compartment, Ah Ping, the key mechanic for my mini restoration project @ Ah Sun workshop start assembling the clean and serviced 1.3 Mini Cooper engine. This has taken him a week or so to ensure all parts are properly install without faulty.

With the major engine parts installed well into the Mini Cooper body shell (which is still very much rusty and in bad shape), I started my work to redesign the engine compartment to something more modern and functional. Many accessories and engine apparatus were purchased and modified to fit into the now clean and good conditions 1.3cc engine.

Wah La! the outcome of hardwork, we have now a revive and energize Mini Cooper ready for more restoration and transformation to something breathtaking.

After 3 full months of cleaning, reconditioning, welding, installing, redesigning, this how the Mini look likes;

Its nothing yet compare what you see on the final product of my Mini Cooper S7 that I posted in my first introduction, huh! 

In my next posting, I will share with you the first street run of this Mini and how it has manage to attract many peoples' interest when I open the bonnet.

Until then, See Yeah!

Mini Cooper S7 - Restoration Continues (P2)

Hi Mini fans,

In my last posting, I shared with you my first visit to check out the Mini physical state. The Mini was really run down and in bad shape. In fact, the owner, Ah Fei was very pessimistic about the possibility of recovering the Mini as he himself have planned many times but failed.

It took me a week to consider taking on the restoration project as I realized that I will need a huge sum of $$ to restore and make it into the Mini that I like. Lastly, I decided to take up the challenge and I went to discuss with the owner to get a best deal for this Mini.

Two days after the deal was sealed, I got a tow truck from my mechanic Ah San Motor and head all the way to the location to tow the Mini back to his workshop. It was pretty exciting as I know, given me the time, I will change this Mini into an amazing car.

Here are some pictures of how the Mini look like when reaching the workshop. 

The amazing thing about this Mini is that when the Ah San pour in some petrol into the tank, put in a fully charge battery, the 850cc engine actually started and run nicely. Besides the brake that is faulty, almost every other stuff on this old and tired Mini works.

The Mini then was left along for a week or so waiting for space in the workshop to park.

Meanwhile, I was not taking things easy. I was planning with the mechanic in Ah San Motor called Ping to search for a right half cut engine for this Mini. What I wanted was an automatic 1300cc Mini Cooper engine with all the wiring and gauge to enable the engine restoration more simplier and realible. He make many phone call to check around in Klang Valley. We were out of luck as there is no such engine available in town, most of the engine was 1000cc and its not what I wanted.

About two weeks of hardwork searching around, we finally got a positive answer from one of the Kedai Potong in Sg. Besi. Things was getting more exciting now we got a potential engine. Without much delay, me and Ping quickly drive our way there to look at the half cut while Ping checking the mechanical parts of the half cut.

With sufficient time inspecting the Mini Cooper 1300cc half cut, I confirmed it is what I wanted. After much negotiation for good pricing, we sealed the deal and managed to get the shop to chip in a MPI fuel tank and a carburator (the half cut is a MPI - multipoint injection engine).

The next day at the workshop, dismantle of the Mini was underway to clear the old engine and dashboard. I have to do this almost everyday after work to clean the engine compartment, clear the rust and repaint it with anti-rust to ensure it will last for a long-long while.

At this moment, its already end of June 2007.

There are many more exciting story to follow in my next posting. If you are interested to read on, please visit me again, see Ya!

Happy New Year 2009 to you & family too:))