I am the current owner of a 1961 Austin Mini.
Like so many, it doesn’t run. Yet. The previous owner had intentions to restore it but never did. It was rough, exceptionally dirty, but solid enough. I picked it up with the idea of “trying to avoid a full restoration”. I didn’t (and still don’t) want a show car, I want something where I can experiment stuff, have some fun and still have a decent looking classic Mini that doesn’t look weird. I thought this would be a 3 to 6 months project.
Job number one was to get it clean. The more I cleaned, the more parts started to accumulate out of the car. Soon enough it was practically a bare shell. The front left hand side of the car revealed it had been in an accident. After some investigation, it seems very likely that 1964 was the year of the crash. A couple of parts were replaced including the front windshield, left wing and left door panel. It was put back on the road in 1965 with a new paint job, red with a black roof, instead of the original Farina Grey color.
Fifty two years later, with the suspension and engine aside it was clear the engine bay needed “some” work. 17 holes were welded back in the RH inner wing, all areas scraped to bare metal, some re-shaping done (where possible) and a new coat of red matched to body color.
The original front subframe had been straightened and welded in several places (probably after the crash) so I discarded it and got a good used “dry” subframe to help ensuring I have a good basis for the suspension. Following the experimentation theme of the car, all steel trumpets were replaced by hi-los, the lower arms by new adjustable ones and a set of old Lockheed 7.5″ Cooper S brakes were added. All these parts were finished to look like original parts from the car – mostly by being painted black.
