Imagine this. You are taking the plunge and have decided to replace a couple of panels on the front of your rusty Mini. As with everything in life you have to make a plethora choices. The first choice you make is which panels to replace. The wing is rusty. Do you also replace the A Panel? What about the front panel? What about the other wing?

I have a car in my garage at the moment that is getting two new wings, scuttle (under the windscreen) and the front panel replaced. It’s not a huge job for an experienced panel worker. For the beginner it’s a massive undertaking.

If you only take one piece of advice before spending the heard earned, please let it be this:

BUY GENUINE PANELS.

Pattern (non-genuine) panels are cheaper. That’s a bonus in most peoples’ book. Not when it comes to the panels for your pride and joy. Pattern panels are generally made using inferior metal (which will rust quicker) and aren’t made on the original tooling. This, unfortunately means that the panel will, at best, need fettling and at worst will not fit at all.

The second (at worst) is what we’ve just hit with the car in the garage, currently with all new non-genuine panels. The first photo shows the new scuttle and front panel in place and the wing placed in but not welded. Click any photo for a larger version.

Front end The front end and the wing were bought from two different companies. Both have been stored in similar conditions before use. Look at the difference in the quality of the primer covering the metal. The wing is good. The front panel sucks.

Front Panel This is a closup of the front panel to wing join. It’s not perfect as the panel is only resting in place and not clamped. Here you can better see the difference between the two panels.

Wing Gap This is the show stopper. Although the wing is not clamped, the front is in line. Look at the gap between the wing and the A Panel.

This is not the wing that is faulty. It’s the scuttle. It has ripples in it and is badly formed. The result? We will have to rip off the non-genuine scuttle (which was £40 new) and replace it with a genuine unit (which is £85). The cost isn’t the only consideration. It’s the time it will take to effectively replace the scuttle twice, just to get the wings to fit.

Unfortunately the driver’s side is even worse. Offering the panel up there was a 1.5 inch gap between the wing and the a panel.

It’s that important that I am going to say it again:

BUY GENUINE PANELS.