So now at the age of 19 and been wanting to do a build thread for ages now on the projects I have on the go, so thought nows a good a time as any so here goes....
Being brought up by a mechanic for a dad used to restoring things like MG's, Jag E-Types, minis and many other cool classics it wasnt a suprise that as a first car id love something old. My Dad who had 2 classic mini's at the time due to building one for my mum for her 40th birthday and his mini scamp it wasnt long till I decided that a mini was the way forward, but I didnt want any old standard mini. After being told it was impractical to have a mini pickup which were costly at the time and not overly spacious I opted to looking for a mini van, so at the age of 14 I spent 2 years trying to find the right mini for me. so about 6 months into searching I found a blue mini van that had previously been owned and tuned by lotus (apparently) it was an ugly duckling to say the least with a horribly warped front end. so the day arrived that I was meant to collect it and I got a phone call at about 9am that morning (considering my dad was meant to pick me up 30 mins earlier) my navaro has blown up on a recovery so we cant collect the van. good thing this happened looking back that van was £2000 I think at the time.
Bare with me we are getting to the good bit and will add some photos in a minute.
so when I was 15-16 I was on the miniworld magazine website classifieds and as I refreshed the webpage a BRG 1972 tax except 1275 mini van appeared (which I was looking for) and a rear seat (for friends which I also really wanted) sounded to good to be true and it wasnt far from home. after attempting probably 50 times to call the owner over the weekend he called back after leaving his phone in work all weekend. I showed my dad and he called back instantly and bought it offering £50 over the asking price to 100% own that car, Rust bucket or not
so a trip to borrow a truck and down to coventry we went
Picture time if I can work out how to do it
Being brought up by a mechanic for a dad used to restoring things like MG's, Jag E-Types, minis and many other cool classics it wasnt a suprise that as a first car id love something old. My Dad who had 2 classic mini's at the time due to building one for my mum for her 40th birthday and his mini scamp it wasnt long till I decided that a mini was the way forward, but I didnt want any old standard mini. After being told it was impractical to have a mini pickup which were costly at the time and not overly spacious I opted to looking for a mini van, so at the age of 14 I spent 2 years trying to find the right mini for me. so about 6 months into searching I found a blue mini van that had previously been owned and tuned by lotus (apparently) it was an ugly duckling to say the least with a horribly warped front end. so the day arrived that I was meant to collect it and I got a phone call at about 9am that morning (considering my dad was meant to pick me up 30 mins earlier) my navaro has blown up on a recovery so we cant collect the van. good thing this happened looking back that van was £2000 I think at the time.
Bare with me we are getting to the good bit and will add some photos in a minute.
so when I was 15-16 I was on the miniworld magazine website classifieds and as I refreshed the webpage a BRG 1972 tax except 1275 mini van appeared (which I was looking for) and a rear seat (for friends which I also really wanted) sounded to good to be true and it wasnt far from home. after attempting probably 50 times to call the owner over the weekend he called back after leaving his phone in work all weekend. I showed my dad and he called back instantly and bought it offering £50 over the asking price to 100% own that car, Rust bucket or not
so a trip to borrow a truck and down to coventry we went Picture time if I can work out how to do it
anyway, the car my dad build from scratch came is as an 84 blue mayfair automatic, this didnt last long, it was instantly gutted and roof chopped off and made into this 
its rather good fun at 60mph top speed offroad 
and finally in the yard 
as you can see, plenty of rust on that door but liveable at the time
