Project Minion - 1.6 k-series Maestro van

I suppose I'd better entertain you with the story of one of my longest-running (without too much activity)projects; Project Minion. Now, the original idea was to buy a Morris Ital van and restore it into BR livery, giving me a load-lugger and show car all in one. That idea soon died when I found out how much half decent Morris 440 and 575 vans were going for and to be honest, if I was going to splurge a goodly 4-figure sum at something that would need a lot of work, or be in very good condition anyway, I'd rather go for another option. So, I started looking for a Maestro van - BR had them from the start and they seemed to be in range for condition/price/cost. I had a look at a yellow van reasonably locally for a reasonable price; but, and isn't there always a BUT, it transpired it was a Ledbury 1.3 with a 2.0 diesel conversion and no V5, it was also covered in pog, especially along the sills and after a few days pondering, I told the guy I wasn't prepared to take on a van with no history or paperwork. He wasn't too chuffed; so be it. Anyway, the search carried on through the usual places, normally ending up either the other end of the country with no MOT or being outbid (in some cases quite spectacularly) until a general wander around the bay of Es had something catch my eye - a van just up the road! And, I recognised it from many car shows as a traders van! Straight onto watch, a quick call to have a look at it and I met the owner who was retiring from business. The only major issue was the engine and gearbox were AWOL - he'd blown the old Perkins lump up and had started swapping to a new engine but something happened and the project stalled, so he parked the van up at his new workshop and then life overtook him and his wife (usual story...). So, as far as he was concerned, he was getting rid and ready to retire. It wasn't in the best place, but looked ok compared to some I'd looked at and had several boxes of parts in the back including brand new bumper irons and a good set of secondhand quarter bumpers (poor quality wobbly children's play pony doodahs!).


To cut a long story short, I was the maiden bid and ten brown ones later, after a couple of quick phone calls to a mate with a big trailer, this happened!