Project BMW MINI One
Rob wraps up our series with a few final jobs to get the MINI ready for handing over to its owner and reflects on the model.
This has been a strange and challenging project car to cover, but thanks largely to a pandemic rather than any particular foibles with the MINI. As a result of this, I’ve been unable to follow jobs at workshops as thoroughly as I’d like to, and even something as simple as taking a car for an MoT test was delayed. However, with the help of other magazines, namely Car Mechanics magazine and its editor Martyn Knowles, the MINI One project has been completed and successfully MoT tested.
All of the repair work on this car was conducted in advance during the latter half of 2020, allowing plenty of time for plans to change and things to go wrong before the project series appeared in print here. Consequently, anyone wishing to check the car’s online MoT history will discover it was successfully tested on 30th December last year, and thanks to the MoT extension on the previous ticket, this one is valid until 22nd January 2022. This was after the brakes had been repaired, which was covered in last month’s instalment.
So in an attempt to bring you up to date with the MINI One, this final episode covers several months. Back in December, the situation with the Covid pandemic was deteriorating and I had been told to shield again, but the MINI One was pretty much finished and ready for an MoT test. Martyn Knowles was intending to collect the car, so we hatched a Covid-friendly plan that involved him delivering a car to me to feature in Car Mechanics magazine, and taking the MINI One back home – he is, after all, the car’s owner! Each car would be de- contaminated, and in the case of the car being delivered to me, that would also be left in my garage for several days.
Prior to the car swap, I test- drove the MINI locally on several occasions to make sure there were no further issues. On these tests, the nearside front indicator had good and bad days – sometimes it worked, other times it needed a waggle of the bulb. Even a new bulb didn’t fix it, so maybe the holder has a problem – I tried spraying contact cleaner inside it, but the jury is still out on whether that has done the trick and effected a cure. On the other hand, as the rear brakes started to bed in, I became more and more reassured that they were now finally and completely fixed. And the handbrake was noticeably better, too.
I conceded that the dodgy-looking paint on the bonnet would have to remain for now as I couldn’t access a bodyshop to cover this repair, but I realised I could do something about the faded exterior plastic. Meguiar’s came to the rescue with a cleaning solution and a black plastic revival potion. The cleaning solution certainly helped to remove the dirt, while the black plastic revival gel made a huge difference to the wheelarch trims and the trim along the bottom of the bumpers. It even revived the roof gutter trim, but the utterly faded nearside door mirror cover was perhaps too much of a challenge. I tried my best and applied the treatment several times, but I
guess that there is a point of no return and that this mirror had gone beyond it.
On the day of the car swap, I discovered the MINI One’s battery was flat, despite it having been OK a few days previously. Jump leads attached to my Audi A3 soon had the engine fired into life, and I left it running for half an hour to help recharge the battery. Mysteriously, the battery hasn’t done this again, so it seems that it’s only mad4mini (see last month) and me that are unlucky enough to share this problem.
When Martyn arrived, we swapped keys and cars at a safe distance and he was soon on his way back home in the MINI One. Thankfully he made it home without any problems and I breathed a sigh of relief. As I mentioned earlier, he managed to get the
MINI MoT’d on 30th December and texted me the good news that it had passed. So the hard work had paid off, although – as is typical on a 20-year- old car – there will always be a job to do and potential problems to look out for.
I asked Martyn to periodically check inside the boot to see if any water had returned, and it hasn’t. The offside front indicator managed to behave itself and work properly for the MoT test, but the temperamental operation has since returned, so a replacement bulb holder is the next plan. As for the noise from the auxiliary drivebelt area, this hasn’t returned, so it seems that my lubrication fix has worked. And the faded black plastic? That is still looking good, except for that wornlooking nearside door mirror cover. At least the brakes are fully operational, the engine servicing is up to date, the steering doesn’t feel clonky and the new suspension bushes have restored the car’s ride quality.
Buying this MINI One from auction without viewing it was a bit of a gamble, but it seems to have paid off. In this case it’s shown a new set of unforeseen problems to the usual rust that can turn many a car project into several weeks spent welding in repair and replacement panels. Maybe the next generation of classic cars won’t have so many rust issues to put right? However, the issues that we have covered – such as brakes and suspension – are nothing new and are only to be expected with such an age of car. Certainly we could have been unlucky and found major engine and gearbox issues, but it does seem as though we got away with the gamble.