1979 Mini 1275 GT with added Porsche content.

Well a few weeks ago now I got the GT moved to the new house and this evening with a little help from a mate I got it off the rotisserie so I can access the engine bay which needs prepping and painting before the subframe goes in.
First up was the problem of not being able to move it if I put it on stands which might not have been a problem if the new garage wasn't such a tight squeeze with 2 cars in. Therefore I needed a solution in the form of a trolley.

After the picture I added 2 pieces of 3x2 that will actually touch the car and covered those in anti slip material.
Then simply drop the mini on top.






The mini has been on this a good 5/6 years so it feels like progress taking it off. The rotisserie is now in my way but a buyer has been found and it will be on its way to help the next mini in the next week.

I think I remember the conversation and just looked back at my old thread I did for the longman inspired gt I had and it must be you that had user name revvit?
The profile pic led me to that.
I am still here messing with minis even though I said was out for good when I sold the gt and brown clubman.
I have gone full circle now the cosworth has gone and I bought a mk2 Cooper s.
I will have a look at your van thread later. I am terrible at just coming on here and keeping my thread up to date and not actually looking at any other threads.

Well nearly a year with no updates! My house still needs lots of time spending on it to get it to the level we want it but this shell sitting about is playing on my mind, I had a bit of bodywork done on my daily and the guy is going to get the job of painting this gt.


I had the drivers rear quarter repaired and the whole side painted at very reasonable cost although I spent a few days detailing it afterwards it looks like a much better car than my bank account says it is now.

So I have hatched a plan of doing half an hour on it every evening while the Mrs is getting the kids ready for bed. This plan started last Monday and I have managed it probably 5 evenings which I can live with. One day was lost to messing with the cooper s. I had not even started it up in 12 months and as the previous owner had paid to have the carbs refurbished the thought of 95ron turning to jelly in them spurred me on to put a gallon of 97ron in each tank for piece of mind as I find this lasts longer without going off. I have always put it in the fireblade and with minimal use I never had any fuel related issues with that.
So I took it for a run round the village to get the fresh fuel in the carbs.






So what does 5 half hour stints in the garage get you in the way of progress I hear you ask well make sure your sitting down!



I also thought it best to try the doors on as stupidly I have never even offered them up in the 7 years I have owned it.






They fit and the drivers side is good to go. The passenger side may need a little fettling as the gap to the A panel is a little big for my liking but worst case is a run of weld on the edge of the panel to reduce the gap by a couple of mm. I also changed the door hinges to the ones I liberated from the Italian job I broke up as I suspect this car has been off the road 20 years and the original hinges were seized solid, although fixable the replacements are nice and smooth.

Yes the fiesta is still mine. It is ready for its MOT but with the lockdown and no show/meetings to go to it has been left. It ran out out of MOT about 10 days before the 6 month extension came in so I missed out on that.

Well some time ago now I managed to finish getting all the paint off the engine bay and work stopped due to house improvements that the Mrs wanted doing and being winter I wanted the fiesta back in the garage out of the worst of the weather.



So with 3 cars wedged back in the garage I had no room to work on any of them again. I was originally going to extend the garage out 6ft at the front so it would be level with the front of the house which would ease the garage size problem but still with 3 cars and a motorbike in there it wouldn't be ideal. I also have the problem that if I was to paint something in the garage for example it can be smelt in the house which neither the Mrs or kids are keen on.
So I hatched a plan to build a workshop in the back garden behind the garage not connected and my plan is to keep it under 2.5m high to not go outside of permitted development rights.
So the first issue is I cannot get a car into the garden. This is the back of the garage.



But I could not cut a hole for a door until I had one. So I enquired about a roller door and I got a price of £420 supply only. Not bad but I am going to need another for the workshop and that's £840 before I have started. I didn't really fancy that kind of outlay and if I am honest I am a bit tight, I do enjoy doing things right/the way I want it done as cheap as possible. So I found an electric garage door on ebay, 5 years old fully working with remote etc. The measurements were usable, 6 inches wider would have been better but I thought it was a bargain and was the winning bidder at £20. Well pleased with myself about this first step to my workshop, I just needed to go to the guys house, remove the door from his garage and transport it the 80 miles back to my house.

Me and my brother set off one Saturday morning and a couple of hours later we were ready for the return journey.


It was not my favourite drive home with the door on the roof and it was little wider than the mirrors of the car by a couple of inches each side. Not sure how legal that makes it but it's not as wide as towing a caravan. The height of the door with frame was 2050mm I think from memory. The rachet straps were making the most horrendous noise in the wind at anything above 40mph. So most of the journey back was on A roads at 40mph rather than the motorway.

So back home I was really happy. Now we need a suitable hole to fit the door to.


There was no lintel above the old window and there were 3 or 4 joists above the window.










Perfect and works a treat on the button.
With buying the door and a pair of acro props, bricks, sand and cement etc I came in at just under £200 and to be fair the acro's would sell on for my money back but I will hold onto them for a while yet.

So my workshop will be approximately 18x10 so a generous single garage size and the existing slabs needed removing from that area.



I wish things really happened as quickly as this post suggests.
This is nearly up to date, I have started digging a trench round the perimeter of the soon to be base to fill with concrete and I plan on going up 2 rows of bricks up then dig all the middle area out and fill that with hardcore then concrete. You get the idea. I am going to make the frame work out of timber hence the couple of bricks high so it is not sitting in water and going rotten.
At the old house me and a mate did my workshop there but the base was easy as it was solid concrete ground to start with but that workshop came out OK.


That one was 16x8 and obviously never made to get a car in.

All looking good, your building skills are excellent. Lots of skills I wish I had the time to learn!

Update time.
Got the paved area finished and the next stage is lots of 4x2s to make the workshop framework.



Jobs for the winter started with a few car related MOT type jobs and I got my passat b5 tested and promptly put it up for sale. Great car but a bit slow. That's not the reason for selling it though, our holidays since the pandemic have been camping and the passat could just about cope with a car full and a 750kg trailer hooked on the back.



So we have hatched a plan of buying a caravan as while we have enjoyed camping we think we would be better with a caravan. We have had one previously which probably didn't help us gel as well as we might have with the tent.
So the Passat sold within a couple of days meaning I was back in the scirocco that had been parked on the drive for a year unused. I had done a few jobs on it and Mot'd it a couple of months previously with a view to using it while I sold it.
I actually successfully edited the listing for the Passat to then advertise the scirocco which was a little win but if it was to sell I would be back in the fiesta in deepest salty winter!
I had seen a potential new car advertised but it was 300 miles away and I was back at work the day after the Passat sold which made it difficult.



I used the scirocco for 2 weeks and sold it on a Saturday evening having collected the new whip a couple of days before.


Rated to tow 1800kg so caravan friendly and not short on power like the old one.
The fiesta was safe from the salty roads for now.
I did manage to collect a door using the Passat before it went which may go on the workshop, I have been offered a French door FOC by a neighbour which I might go with. It depends what window I can get hold of which suits one or the other.


So I still have to ride the last couple of months of winter before I can get started on the workshop and get back on the mini but in the mean time I suppose I have run out of excuses and the kitchen needs decorating.
I have spent this weekend finishing the fiesta bonnet so that can go for paint, not a job I wanted to do. The thought of prepping the underside of the bonnet was not exactly exciting but it was that or decorating this weekend and the bonnet won. I also ordered some febi wheel bearing for the back of it. You never know I may go to some shows/meets this year.

I have been working on the workshop at every opportunity since the last update approximately 5 weeks ago.
First off with much faffing and trimming I had roof joists that were level with each other and the frame was more or less finished at this stage apart from a few bits that needed adding under the window aperture.



Then the 18mm plywood sheets went on the roof and some breatherble membrane to try and keep the rain off the frame.





At this point I ordered my roofing sheets but while I was waiting I started with the 10mm plywood on the walls.



I did add the extra timber below the window before this.



Then it was in with the window and doors.





Then my roof sheets turned up.
I went for tiled effect on the roof as I think they look a little better and worth the little extra money.




It feels like I have just been tidying up doing little jobs for the last couple of weeks which mainly centred around the membrane and the facia area.



My upvc facials had turned up on the same day as the steel sheets and it has took all my spare time this weekend getting them on but it is starting to be a visual improvement now everytime I do something.









I need to order some steel flashing to really just have the walls left. I have the cladding for the 2 sides that I won't see so that's the next job.
I also need to order the cladding for the 2 sides I will be looking at which once done will make it look finished from the outside.

Maybe I should have put an extra timber above the window. Only time will tell. It is double at the top which in my mind at the time was sufficient for what was above it.
I have still been on this at every spare moment along with my farther in law.
First up was the back and side which are not in view so I decided that steel sheets were the way to go for a no nonsense, no maintenance kind of way.





I then turned my attention to inside due to the fact I had a fair few 8x4 sheets of 18mm plywood which were in the way and I needed to empty my plastic shed which required putting its contents in the new shed.








This was now at the point I could decant the plastic shed and the gt shell into it to try and make some space and progress.

At this point my brother decided he wants to sell his boxter as he has not driven it for a couple of years and he thinks the money off it would be more useful in his account rather than filling his garage but even though it passed the MOT it needed new radiators due to the original ones leaking so I had a day off the shed to help him get that ready for selling.






After finishing the job the very next time he put the key in the ignition the barrel broke so it is awaiting my attention again before selling it.
It has only done 5?k and is a really good one and I have advised a classic auction as a preferred method to sell due to not dealing with idiots and the milage along with condition enabling him to just scrape in to such a sale. I need to get it moved to my house to repair it as once we push it out of his garage it is out until its fixed and my tools are at my house not his.

In the meantime the electric is connected in the shed.



I had ordered my finishing trims for the steel and I had to wait a couple of weeks for delivery. As soon as they arrived they were on.



So then it was the costly part of the cladding of the 2 sides I have to look at.
I went for composite cladding which blew the budget coming in at £1300.
Literally the day after it was delivered we drove to the south of France to stay at my wifes aunties place. The highlight for me was the drive home via Reims.






















Great place and something which would never happen in this country. It would be covered by a housing estate here but 50 years on it still stands.
So on my return it is cladding time.
















That is where I am up to. I am hoping to have the cladding finished this weekend and I will turn my attention to a leaking roof before it becomes a real problem and might even start the patio depending how the weather holds out.