In article ,
ian wrote:
An elderly relative has just given me a an Austin Mini 1000 City E,
First Registered in April 1986 and with only Nineteen Thousand miles on
it. This is genuine since it comes with old MOTs. Only one previous
owner and she bought it from new.

It has been in a dry garage for the last three years and has only done
887 miles since it passed its MOT in 2004. It currently starts and runs
without any trouble.

Since I'm a bit short of cash at the moment I would like to sell it
straightaway, but am unsure whether to sell it as it is (some surface
body work in places, see car front on website photo):

http://i5.tinypic.com/6jakcph.jpg

Or to try to smarten it up myself. I dont have experience of doing work
like this and don't really know how much time and work would be
involved. So I'm wondering if it would be better just sell it as it is.
I've looked at various other sites to try to find out how much to sell
it for, but cannot find anything in a similar situation to compare
prices. Grateful for any advice on this.

Get it in for an MOT. If it fails on minor things probably worth getting
them fixed. But even if more the MOT results will help a remote buyer
(Ebay etc) decide on what they're willing to pay. Don't do any more than
just clean it up. Anyone wanting this sort of car will likely be happy to
do the work themselves rather than pay for a patch up job.

--
*Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
ian wrote:


Get it in for an MOT. If it fails on minor things probably worth getting
them fixed. But even if more the MOT results will help a remote buyer
(Ebay etc) decide on what they're willing to pay. Don't do any more than
just clean it up. Anyone wanting this sort of car will likely be happy to
do the work themselves rather than pay for a patch up job.


I've restored many minis and agree with all the advice given with regard to
getting an MOT and not doing work yourself.

Most minis of this age will need welding and a clean example such as this is
far easier to assess and work on.

Pricewise, I would usually pay around £500 for an average condition one of
this year, but I would expect to pay more for a good example such as this.

A private buyer could well pay a hell of a lot more.

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:54:45 GMT, "Mrcheerful"
wrote:


"ian" wrote in message
...
An elderly relative has just given me a an Austin Mini 1000 City E, First
Registered in April 1986 and with only Nineteen Thousand miles on it. This
is genuine since it comes with old MOTs. Only one previous owner and she
bought it from new.

It has been in a dry garage for the last three years and has only done 887
miles since it passed its MOT in 2004. It currently starts and runs
without
any trouble.

Since I'm a bit short of cash at the moment I would like to sell it
straightaway, but am unsure whether to sell it as it is (some surface body
work in places, see car front on website photo):

http://i5.tinypic.com/6jakcph.jpg

Or to try to smarten it up myself. I dont have experience of doing work
like
this and don't really know how much time and work would be involved. So
I'm
wondering if it would be better just sell it as it is. I've looked at
various other sites to try to find out how much to sell it for, but cannot
find anything in a similar situation to compare prices. Grateful for any
advice on this. Thanks.


put it in for an MoT, don't try to do any bodywork, put on ebay and say the
status of the MoT whether it is a pass or a fail and list any known faults,
describe it honestly and wait for the bids, I would guess at 500 to 1000, if
the mot is a pass then 600 up

Lucky to find any sort of MOT'd Mini for under a grand now. I paid £600
for a T&T'd 1978 1000 two years ago, and that had no headlining at the
time. Even then I thought I'd done well.

That car looks bloody good for its year. With an MOT it's worth about
£1200 I'd say.

Like others have said, don't try and do anything to it - the time and
cost to do a proper job is more than you will get back. A bodge job will
not enhance its value.

On the other hand, advertising it on some ot the Mini forums like
Minifinity and The Mini Forum will cost you nothing (other than a couple
of minutes to register) and you'll be advertising to the right market.
--
Regards, Chris (Please take out my car to reply by plain text email)
---1967 Riley Elf---1978 Mini 1000---1971 Mini Clubman---
----1972 Mini Clubman estate----------1979 Ford Capri----

"Meteor" wrote in message
...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
ian wrote:


Get it in for an MOT. If it fails on minor things probably worth getting
them fixed. But even if more the MOT results will help a remote buyer
(Ebay etc) decide on what they're willing to pay. Don't do any more than
just clean it up. Anyone wanting this sort of car will likely be happy to
do the work themselves rather than pay for a patch up job.


I've restored many minis and agree with all the advice given with regard
to getting an MOT and not doing work yourself.

Most minis of this age will need welding and a clean example such as this
is far easier to assess and work on.

Pricewise, I would usually pay around £500 for an average condition one of
this year, but I would expect to pay more for a good example such as this.

A private buyer could well pay a hell of a lot more.



In my opinion, the early Mini's were the biggest load of crap ever to be put
on the roads. My first Mini (1961) had single leading shoe front brakes
which were hopeless in heavy braking The gearbox was rubbish, not helped by
the two foot long gear lever and the handbrake cable route must have been
designed to seize. The CV joint rubber covers and drive shaft couplings
were located under the constant oil drips from the engine and so rotted away
and failed. The suspension constantly squeaked until I had to replace all
the plastic cups, and I could almost hear the car rusting in my dad's
garage. The push button start on the floor was quite innovative at the time.

My second MIni was a Clubman - a great improvement, but still subject to
rusting. I did a magnificent job on a rusty door bottom - you literally
couldn't tell the difference and I sold it at a very good price. I also had
an Austin Maxi at the time, but that's another story! However, both my
Mini's were great fun to drive and I have many, many happy memories.

The new BMW Minis look nice, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be interested at an
entry level of £11.625. My first Mini cost £360 new. I trust the new ones
have power assisted front discs these days! Mine didn't even have a radio
and just a recirculatory heater.

Terry D.

"Terry D" wrote in message
...

"Meteor" wrote in message
...

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
ian wrote:


Get it in for an MOT. If it fails on minor things probably worth getting
them fixed. But even if more the MOT results will help a remote buyer
(Ebay etc) decide on what they're willing to pay. Don't do any more than
just clean it up. Anyone wanting this sort of car will likely be happy
to
do the work themselves rather than pay for a patch up job.


I've restored many minis and agree with all the advice given with regard
to getting an MOT and not doing work yourself.

Most minis of this age will need welding and a clean example such as this
is far easier to assess and work on.

Pricewise, I would usually pay around £500 for an average condition one
of this year, but I would expect to pay more for a good example such as
this.

A private buyer could well pay a hell of a lot more.



In my opinion, the early Mini's were the biggest load of crap ever to be
put on the roads. My first Mini (1961) had single leading shoe front
brakes which were hopeless in heavy braking The gearbox was rubbish, not
helped by the two foot long gear lever and the handbrake cable route must
have been designed to seize. The CV joint rubber covers and drive shaft
couplings were located under the constant oil drips from the engine and so
rotted away and failed. The suspension constantly squeaked until I had to
replace all the plastic cups, and I could almost hear the car rusting in
my dad's garage. The push button start on the floor was quite innovative
at the time.

Some things were improved as time went on, but not many :-)

My second MIni was a Clubman - a great improvement, but still subject to
rusting. I did a magnificent job on a rusty door bottom - you literally
couldn't tell the difference and I sold it at a very good price. I also
had an Austin Maxi at the time, but that's another story! However, both
my Mini's were great fun to drive and I have many, many happy memories.

The new BMW Minis look nice, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be interested at an
entry level of £11.625. My first Mini cost £360 new. I trust the new ones
have power assisted front discs these days! Mine didn't even have a radio
and just a recirculatory heater.

The later ones had disc brakes, but usually NOT power assisted. Made life
even more interesting.
Plus the fact that pads and discs last for ages due to the inability to put
enough pressure on them to wear!

Meteor wrote:

[...]

The later ones had disc brakes, but usually NOT power assisted. Made life
even more interesting.

Later ones than the OP's had twin leading shoe front brakes. These were
acceptable for the standards of the early Sixties.

Early Coopers had non-servo discs with a hydraulic booster; they were
hopeless!

Plus the fact that pads and discs last for ages due to the inability to
put enough pressure on them to wear!

Funnily enough, I've owned cars from that era that had non-servo disc
brakes. I always found pad wear to be horrendously high due to the fact
that very soft friction material was needed in order to minimise pedal
pressure. One of the vehicles was lucky to make it to 6,000 miles on a set
of pads...

Disc wear on more modern cars appears to be related to the introduction of
friction material that doesn't contain asbestos.

Chris

--
Remove prejudice to reply.

"Terry D" wrote in message
...

" My first Mini cost £360 new."
----------------------------------------------------------
Must have been a van then @£360.
Iirc the launch price of the car was a shade under £500 in 1959.
Mike.H.