M-03 Mini Cooper Restoration Rebuild

[Juhunio 6830]

I picked up an M-03 Mini Cooper off eBay, kit reference 58211. It looked tatty but not wrecked, and the seller was honest enough to say that one of the front uprights was snapped, so I took that as a sign that he had enough knowledge of the build and workings to assume that it was otherwise in good condition, and at £100 was worth a punt as a restoration project particularly as it came boxed with period electronics, original manual and the original unused decal sheet and window masks

Straight out of the box it didn’t look like the shell was in great shape or had been painted with much love, and the wheels and tyres were pretty wrecked

But other than that, and a lot of (expected) gunk, it looked ok!

[Juhunio 6830]

First job was to take it all apart and give everything a good clean

Car shampoo and water for the plastics, a WD40 bath for the metal parts. The MSC and servos both cleaned up really well, and the original MSC manual and switch lubricant were still in the box so I decided I would use them in the rebuild. There was also an Acoms receiver but no transmitter. I gave the receiver away in the Pay It Forward thread, which it turns out probably wasn't the sharpest move (more on that later)

The good news; after a cross check with the manual, all metal parts and plastic gearbox parts were present and correct and in excellent condition

The bad news; at some point the front body posts had been messily bolted to the chassis using those fat 4mm screws top right in the picture above, rather than the 3x15mm tapping screws from the kit. Which meant the body mounts, and the front half of the chassis, were a bit butchered.

Annoyingly, this meant I needed to buy a new chassis ($US8) and C parts ($US9, both from RCMart). On the upside, I got a replacement front upright from a friend of a friend who had used hop up parts on his and donated a plastic part to the restoration!

All nice and clean, though the chassis parts and front body posts went in the bin. Wheels to be kept as bashing spares

[yogi-bear 2321]

that has scrubbed really well. What will you do with the body?

[Juhunio 6830]

Then I tackled the body

Paint removal wasn't pleasant, the paint wasn't behaving like PC paint when attacked with De-Solv it and Tamiya PC cleaner. So, a little bit after the event, I asked the guy what he had used to paint it. The answer was a random can of Halfords car paint he had knocking around  And I reckon he'd used the whole can too. Lesson learned; if buying a restoration project and the shell needs rescuing, ask what it was painted with BEFORE you buy it 

In the end, after a lot of graffiti remover and Tamiya PC cleaner I got most of the black sludge off, but it left the shell very cloudy and some of it just wouldn't budge. I reckon all in this took about 10 hours, an hour here and an hour there spread over a couple of weeks. It was too gross a job, and such slow demoralising progress, to do it any quicker than that whilst maintaining any kind of will to carry on with it  The job also exposed a couple of nasty splits  

But I cracked on with painting anyway, deciding to do the arches, sills and roof black to hide some of the old paint that just wouldn't come off, and the rest Racing Green in the hope it would be bright enough to look clean but dark enough to hide some of the prior abuse. I ordered some replica stickers from MCI so I could keep the original set intact, and managed to get it into a pretty good state!

I guess I should be honest with myself and count the cost of paint (£6 for the racing green, 1/2 can of black was in my paint box already!), stickers (£10) and masking tape to cover not just the inside but also the entire outside of the shell due to it no longer having the overspray film. I probably used about £4 worth across 6, 10, 18 and 40mm plus the 2mm stuff for curves! So, an extra £20. It all adds up!

I couldn't shift some old tape residue off the windscreen and rear window, but it's now in far better shape than when I received it.

A few repairs under the skin to reinforce the cracks, using Tamiya polycarbonate reinforcing cement and repair tape

It could have just been condemned, but I think it will have some semblance of a life again now! I feel pretty pleased with the end result, far from perfect but bearing in mind how hard to find / expensive these shells are these days, it feels good to have breathed new life back into this one and to have given it some of the time and love that was clearly lacking first time around

[Juhunio 6830]

Then this last weekend I rebuilt the chassis, starting with the diff and gearbox. The original parts did clean up very nicely

I also used ball bearings throughout the rebuild, throwing all the old plastic bearings and bushings in the bin. I had plenty of 1150s and 850s in the spares box

It all went together really well. This is my first M chassis build, and there is a lovely simplicity to this M03. Everything fits, feels secure and like everything in its right place

 

[Juhunio 6830]

Then on to the front arms. I wasn't going to bother with shimming, figuring a slightly sloppy build would be in character with its British Leyland origins  

But one side was so far out it took a 0.5mm spacer, let alone a shim! So I added one...

[Juhunio 6830]

Then the front uprights and axles, including the donor part to replace the broken upright

All went back together nice and easily. Some of the screw heads were quite rounded, I think the original owner had used a combination of a Philips screwdriver and brute strength first time around! But I was mostly able to find the original threads and re-use them, with minimal pressure from my Tamiya screwdriver 

[Juhunio 6830]

At this point it was time to break away from the manual and install the servo for the MSC, which had cleaned up really well with the original manual and all parts preset 

I've come to this hobby quite late really, just in the last couple of years, so have only ever known or used ESCs. These old MSCs are quite rudimentary, feel like the equivalent of old mechanical iron and steel instead of clever software. I think it will be interesting to have one in here, for old time's sake and an opportunity to compare the driving feel

[Juhunio 6830]

The rear arms also went together nicely...

[Juhunio 6830]

And then it was time for dampers. I decided to ditch the friction damper things it came with, and use a set of CVAs that I had left over from a TT02 build where I had used aluminium hop up dampers

 

 

[Juhunio 6830]

I had also bought front, rear and servo carbon fibre braces from Fibyre-Lite (£20) to add a bit of strength and support to the chassis. First on was the front:

It adds 2mm extra material to the front, so I added 2mm spacers to the bottom damper mounts to keep the same angles

Then on with the rear dampers, brace and bumper. The Fibre Lyte parts are really beautifully made and fit very easily 

There was just a bit too much slop in the rear arms, so added a 0.3mm shim to each side

 

 

[Juhunio 6830]

Then the last main step of the build was building the tie rods and servo saver, fitting the steering servo and the FL brace

Then attaching the MSC

 

[Juhunio 6830]

Which got me as far as testing the electronics, the point at which my knowledge and logic levels ran out and I fried a receiver! I've asked for help in the 'All things electric' section, so if anyone reading this can give me some advice that would be amazing!

I kind of wish I had kept the Acoms receiver so I could try and find a transmitter for it, from what I can remember it had a dedicated 'Battery' socket for the switch plug, and a BEC (???), as well as the 2x servo sockets, so was probably better designed to safely run the MSC. I am loathe to buy a whole Acoms transmitter and receiver set though, just seems like more ££££££

If anyone has a 'spare' working Acoms radio / receiver from back in the day that they would be willing to part with for a small price to get this baby up and running again as Mr Tamiya intended, please drop me a line!

Beyond that I'm waiting for new wheels to arrive (reinforced Cooper wheels, to work with the black detailing and the slightly rough and ready finish, $US11) and I also decided to treat it to a Dyna-Run racing stock motor that was a recommended hop up in the manual and I managed to win in an eBay auction last week 

[Badcrumble 4203]

Lovely rebuild! I have a Mini with a body in a similar, if not worse, condition.

This shows just what can be done! I like the Fibre Lyte parts - I've been slowly pulling together a Mini for Mrs BC - think it needs some of these bits.

[Juhunio 6830]

5 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

I like the Fibre Lyte parts - I've been slowly pulling together a Mini for Mrs BC - think it needs some of these bits.

They are lovely, you should definitely do it!!

[Doc Hollywood 160]

I Have enjoyed reading through all of the progress on your mini it looks amazing so far and I like the choice of colours on the body I think British racing green is the best colour for a mini  but that's just my opinion. I had to rebuild my mini too it had all of the original bits too. The body was white with bright orange arches and roof LOL. I haven't striped it as not had the chance but I did buy a nice green shell with box and manual as it didn't come with them. They are great fun to drive they tend to wheel spin if the tyres are not very good I did drive mine on ice and snow that was very fun doing massive wheel spins and drifting it. They are great fun I hope you have great fun with yours.

[catman79 346]

great work, a proper restoration! 

[Juhunio 6830]

1 hour ago, Doc Hollywood said:

I Have enjoyed reading through all of the progress on your mini it looks amazing so far and I like the choice of colours on the body I think British racing green is the best colour for a mini  but that's just my opinion. I had to rebuild my mini too it had all of the original bits too. The body was white with bright orange arches and roof LOL. I haven't striped it as not had the chance but I did buy a nice green shell with box and manual as it didn't come with them. They are great fun to drive they tend to wheel spin if the tyres are not very good I did drive mine on ice and snow that was very fun doing massive wheel spins and drifting it. They are great fun I hope you have great fun with yours.

Thanks very much! That original colour scheme sounds....interesting 

[Juhunio 6830]

55 minutes ago, catman79 said:

great work, a proper restoration! 

Cheers! 

[ChrisRx718 4470]

Amazing rescue job on that shell, I was reading through expecting you had bought an alternative one already painted and given up on the previous black one... serious patience! I still have a Porsche GT2 I need to finish 'rescuing'. Sadly some of the Carson paint remover mixed with the 'liquified' paint ran out of the body post holes and is now on the outside of the lexan. Not good.

I've also asked Fibre Lyte for some of those braces off the back of your thread, so thanks for costing me £20!

[Juhunio 6830]

30 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

I've also asked Fibre Lyte for some of those braces off the back of your thread, so thanks for costing me £20!

Ha! You're welcome 

[Grumpy pants 4485]

Amazing save with the shell and a really well put together thread 💥

[ACCEL 2014]

all that Labor, it's stupendous.

wow threads like this proves there's life after death.

 

[Badcrumble 4203]

8 hours ago, Juhunio said:

If anyone has a 'spare' working Acoms radio / receiver from back in the day that they would be willing to part with for a small price to get this baby up and running again as Mr Tamiya intended, please drop me a line!

If you’re not in any hurry, I may have one. I’d need to dig it out and make sure it works. You’d be best to use an existing set in the meantime though!

[Carmine A 2046]

FANTASTIC recovery and a skilled rebuild!!!  Also stirs Memories...

WELCOME to the M Chassis Cars Club!! Hard to stop at just ONE, especially after you've run a few Batteries through it!! 😁  I may have to see now if I can find a dirt cheap M03 Mini Cooper to restore.... I MISS mine.