Heater strip & repair

The (red) Mini I bought a year or so ago did not have any heater parts come with it but the rusty (white) Mini did. Unfortunately, the white Mini had been sitting out in the weather for a couple of years so when I pulled the heater out, the cables & levers were completely rusted and heater tap valve mostly corroded and the heater full of dirt and leaves. So was it all useless? No. Amazingly, I applied 12V to the fan wires and it still worked!

The heater matrix was removed and I gave it to a radiator shop to rod it out and pressure test it. The tap/valve is stuffed so I have ordered a universal heater tap off Ebay to replace it. The factory tap has the inlet and outlet at 90degrees to each other but most standard valves these days are straight through so the heater hose I will use when reconnecting the heater will have to have a 90degree bend in it so the hose can lead up to the firewall (same as factory).

I have drilled out all the rivets in the mounting brackets, sanded, primed and repainted them. Sure - you wont really see the brackets once reinstalled, but the brackets were all rusted before so had to be cleaned anyway. I also repainted the exterior of the heater housing and repainted it satin black.

Finally, the foam around the heater matrix will have to be replaced as well as the foam around the flap (which adjusts the air direction).