Rear Fog light problem - 99 Cooper

[DozyHound]

Hi,

The bracket that holds on my rear foglight has rusted. In fact, I think it was made from rust originally. Anyhoo, it decided to break completely and has forced me into the wee job that I was holding off on... replacing it.

Everything was so badly rusted (bracket, screws/bolts) I had to bore the thing off. Oh, in the process of taking off the rear bumper, I sheered one of the nuts holding it on too... Thats another question I'll get to...

I dismantled the fog light itself and have noticed that the bolts used to hold it to the bracket are moulded or formed into the light itself. Given how badly everything is rusted;

Question 1: Do I now have to replace the light as well as the bracket?

Having bored the heads off the screws/bolts holding the bracket to the body, I now have 2 bits of rusty bolts poking out of the bodywork. I have found the nut attached to one of these inside the panel below the bumper, but not the other.

Question 2: Where does the nut of the second bolt live?! Is it easily reached. On inspection, it doesn't seem so!

My 2 remaining bolt bits seem to be stuck solid,

Question 3: Is it best I just continue on and bore out the remainder of both bolts?

Back to my bumper. I thought I was being a clever sod spraying plenty of WD40 on the nuts before attempting to take them off. Two came off without any problem - the last one... SNAP... (insert expletive here)

Question 4: Are the little bolts that hold on the bumper easily replaced or are they 'part' of the bumper and I have to replace the entire bumper?

Question 5: Is the replacement bracket going to be made of rust too? Or are the parts you buy now better rust treated?

I thought this little job was going to be relatively straight forward... I'm now suspecting anything to do with my Mini is not going to be straight forward!

Question 6: Should I stop asking questions and get somebody who knows what they're doing to fix it instead?!?!



Thanks for any help.

DH

[irlmin]

This is a very common problem , I would get a stainless steel bracket and fixings which will solve the problem ,as regards the lamp you could just remove the old rusted bolts and use stainless bolts / nuts / washers to refit and seal the inside of the lamp where the new bolts go through with silicon sealer , the nuts on the rear valance are 'captive ' and will have to be drilled out , again use stainless fasteners , the bumper bolts are removable with a bit of effort and you can get standard stainless bolts to fit with a bit of effort . the stainless lamp bracket is available from some UK suppliers and in fact I am looking into having some made for our own use and for sale to our customers , I will post here when I sort something.
G

[DozyHound]

Thanks for the post Ger, much appreciated.

DH