Well, here's my Mini. I don't even have a driveway at home, so it is a bit of a homeless project, and progress is very, very slow. 
Anyway, it is a base model Austin, first registered in January 1960, and probably built in December 1959. It isn't very original at all unfortunately, but the shell still has the bolted on seatbelt fixings which you can see sticking out of the top of the A pillar. A lot of the other stuff on the car is from assorted early minis, or even later ones like the manky plastic master cylinders.
I bought it as a half-restored car. By the looks of the work done, It had passed through the hands of more than one restorer. At least one of them knew what they were doing, and at least one didn't. The shell is all solid, but the welding varies from nice to horrible.
The interior isn't the chintzy cloth of the 1959 spec, the seats are a later MK1 type, and the cards are all reproduction ones. At least I have the correct silver speedo, which doesn't have KPH markings on it at all. Also got the floor starter, toeboard mounted headlight dip switch, manual windscreen washer pump, and the correct heater (with a variable speed fan too. Luxury.)
The paint is pretty awful, but the paint on the body is solid. Underneath, the paint in the wheel arches has reacted with the primer, so that all has to come off. The picture shows it when I got it, without a rear screen. I have since got my hands on one.
And the engine... This is what it came with, A non-original 850, possibly the correct bottom end, but not the right gearbox. It was rebuilt, +40 pistons.. And utterly shagged. I spent a long time trying to figure out why it was seized so badly, and I eventually found out when I got the flywheel cover off. There was the mangled remains of a locking wheel nut jamming the flywheel. It was too big to have got in through the timing hole, so it must have got in there when the last owner put the cover on.
In a way, it was really lucky that had happened. If not for that nut, the engine could have started. And the flywheel bolt was finger tight.
Anyway, further inspection found various other sundry horrors, so I have given up on that engine for now.
To get the car on the road, I am fitting a low mileage 998 A+ engine instead. It is a good one (for a 998) and has very good compression, so It ought to do. I am currently re-painting it green, and overhauling /replacing some ancillaries. I am not planning on restoring the car to exactly original condition. It would take years of searching for the right parts, thousands of pounds I don't have, and make it worse to drive too. So I am not going to modify anything irreversible, but I want to get it looking standard, but with a specification good enough to keep up with modern traffic, and actually be used regularly. Doing that will be an ongoing project. For now, I am just aiming to get it on the road.
Currently it lives at a mates house, and I can't get over there often, so I am bringing parts home and overhauling them at home. Aside from the engine fitting, it needs the paint doing, which winter put a stop to, and then mostly minor bolt on bits, and making it weather tight.
Anyway, it is a base model Austin, first registered in January 1960, and probably built in December 1959. It isn't very original at all unfortunately, but the shell still has the bolted on seatbelt fixings which you can see sticking out of the top of the A pillar. A lot of the other stuff on the car is from assorted early minis, or even later ones like the manky plastic master cylinders.
I bought it as a half-restored car. By the looks of the work done, It had passed through the hands of more than one restorer. At least one of them knew what they were doing, and at least one didn't. The shell is all solid, but the welding varies from nice to horrible.
The interior isn't the chintzy cloth of the 1959 spec, the seats are a later MK1 type, and the cards are all reproduction ones. At least I have the correct silver speedo, which doesn't have KPH markings on it at all. Also got the floor starter, toeboard mounted headlight dip switch, manual windscreen washer pump, and the correct heater (with a variable speed fan too. Luxury.)
The paint is pretty awful, but the paint on the body is solid. Underneath, the paint in the wheel arches has reacted with the primer, so that all has to come off. The picture shows it when I got it, without a rear screen. I have since got my hands on one.
And the engine... This is what it came with, A non-original 850, possibly the correct bottom end, but not the right gearbox. It was rebuilt, +40 pistons.. And utterly shagged. I spent a long time trying to figure out why it was seized so badly, and I eventually found out when I got the flywheel cover off. There was the mangled remains of a locking wheel nut jamming the flywheel. It was too big to have got in through the timing hole, so it must have got in there when the last owner put the cover on.
In a way, it was really lucky that had happened. If not for that nut, the engine could have started. And the flywheel bolt was finger tight.
Anyway, further inspection found various other sundry horrors, so I have given up on that engine for now.To get the car on the road, I am fitting a low mileage 998 A+ engine instead. It is a good one (for a 998) and has very good compression, so It ought to do. I am currently re-painting it green, and overhauling /replacing some ancillaries. I am not planning on restoring the car to exactly original condition. It would take years of searching for the right parts, thousands of pounds I don't have, and make it worse to drive too. So I am not going to modify anything irreversible, but I want to get it looking standard, but with a specification good enough to keep up with modern traffic, and actually be used regularly. Doing that will be an ongoing project. For now, I am just aiming to get it on the road.
Currently it lives at a mates house, and I can't get over there often, so I am bringing parts home and overhauling them at home. Aside from the engine fitting, it needs the paint doing, which winter put a stop to, and then mostly minor bolt on bits, and making it weather tight.
