My new project - Berry Mini T lots of pics!

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Mon Nov 30, 2020 9:36 pm

Hi All!

I was the lucky recipient of a 1960 Berry Mini T. I’ve always wanted a project and I though what the hell, let’s do this!

The kids love the car obviously, and it will be a good activity for us to do together.

The yellow color was slathered on there. The scope of the project was to strip the body, and do a nice repaint. I wanted to get a new steering wheel, and do the seats in a brown diamond stitched leather, and body painted a dark blue metallic. I started to remove the seats, and oh boy did I bite off more than I can chew..

There is rust everywhere. The floor pans are rotted to hell. Every inch of this car needs to be addressed, and it looks like a weekend project is turning into a year long resto. I’m not upset about it, it’ll just give me more quality time with my pirates.

Would love to know from you fine people if there is a good source on instructions for removing body from frame. I wasn’t planning to, but after discovering the true condition of the car it’s the best plan of action.

I will document the build, and want to know where would be a good place to get a rebuild thread going?

And I will be asking a million questions.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GotManx · Post by **GotManx** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 6:07 pm

It looks like you just about have it torn down. The body should just be bolted down to the pan round the outside edges and possibly a couple a bolts at the back of the pan. Once you have the body off, replacing your rusted pans is not that difficult as long as you can weld and have some fabrication skills. You do not have a shortened pan, so just the off the shelf replacement will work: https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/Deta ... 111701061M It looks like you are in California and you have the CHP vin tag on top of the tunnel, make sure to protect that as it is important for your registration. The body will be much easier to prep and paint off of the chassis. Good luck and have fun with the kids.

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 6:20 pm

GotManx wrote:It looks like you just about have it torn down. The body should just be bolted down to the pan round the outside edges and possibly a couple a bolts at the back of the pan. Once you have the body off, replacing your rusted pans is not that difficult as long as you can weld and have some fabrication skills. You do not have a shortened pan, so just the off the shelf replacement will work: https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/Deta ... 111701061M It looks like you are in California and you have the CHP vin tag on top of the tunnel, make sure to protect that as it is important for your registration. The body will be much easier to prep and paint off of the chassis. Good luck and have fun with the kids.

Awesome thank you for the advice!! I am 6'4 and getting in there to work is tough. I have located all the bolts holding the body down, and it looks straight forward. My two questions are:

1. How much of the wiring stays with the frame, and how much stays with the body? I'm assuming I have to unplug all the wiring from the body to lift it correct?
2. Where is the correct place to disassemble the steering wheel? Do I disassemble at the wheel itself or do I disassemble down at the bottom where it meets the chassis?

GotManx · Post by **GotManx** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 7:02 pm

Most of the wiring should stay with the body, depending on how it was done. Some items that will probably have to be undone are the brake light wiring at the master cylinder, horn, starter, battery, motor wiring. The steering column can stay with the body, just disconnect the coupler at the steering box. Your picture also reminds me that you will need to pull your speedo cable out of the spindle/hub.

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 7:39 pm

Awesome thank you! I will get to work and keep you updated.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 10:03 pm

I got these two screws off.

Do I have to unbolt inside the cabin as well? Bad picture but it’s the four bolts that are holding it in place just outside the pic..

And the the steering wheel should slide out a bit to clear the shaft?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GotManx · Post by **GotManx** » Tue Dec 01, 2020 11:05 pm

You can try sliding that back or the easier way may be to unbolt the two bolts at the rubber joint. Either way the steering shaft should slide back to clear and no need to unbolt the column from the body.

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Wed Dec 02, 2020 5:56 pm

GotManx wrote:You can try sliding that back or the easier way may be to unbolt the two bolts at the rubber joint. Either way the steering shaft should slide back to clear and no need to unbolt the column from the body.

Yeah I was worried about undoing the two bolts at the rubber washer, I didn’t know how they were held together on the other side, they’re not regular bolds on the back end, I’m assuming they’re pinned so they don’t come undone.

I’ll fiddle with it this morning!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Wed Dec 02, 2020 8:05 pm

So I think I have all the electrical disconnected with the exception of this red cable. Any clever way to get under there?

Also, while I was trying to trace the cable I saw this l bracket, does it look like it’s holding the frame to the body - do I have to squeeze under and undo it as well? Does not look standard..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Wed Dec 02, 2020 9:03 pm

We did it GotManx!! [emoji122][emoji122]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Wed Dec 02, 2020 11:41 pm

It looks like I have it disconnected everywhere except for these two stupid L brackets that are holding the body bolted to the gas tank. What sort evil person would do such a thing.

I need to get the back seat off, but I cannot for the life of me figure out how it’s attached.

Any thoughts?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Wed Dec 02, 2020 11:58 pm

I ripped the back seat out, it was bolted to the body. Luckily the wood on the back of the seat broke, body was fine.

The two L brackets holding the body to the gas tank are bolted with these stupids, I cut one off and pushed it into the engine bay. The others are a pain and I’m going through blades like crazy. No real way to get to them.

It appears this body has never come off, these were installed when the body first went on to the frame.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GotManx · Post by **GotManx** » Thu Dec 03, 2020 6:07 pm

Carriage bolts probably seemed like a good idea during assembly, but years later when the nuts are rusted on, not so good.

TheVazha · Post by **TheVazha** » Fri Dec 04, 2020 1:29 am

GotManx wrote:Carriage bolts probably seemed like a good idea during assembly, but years later when the nuts are rusted on, not so good.

Haha totally, they fit nice and flush but man what a pain to get off. I ended up grinding them off, very very carefully.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Manx Club