Background

I like to tinker, I like working on mechanical stuff, and I like classic cars.

Growing up in Southeast Asia I've always dreamt of owning one of the cool classic British cars - and what can be cooler than a mini ;)

I have other interests, like collecting and restoring classic film cameras (something that in the course of about eight years of loitering in the weekend West Sussex car boot sales resulted in me having amassed about 600 or so film cameras). My little boy will not be interested in these, so off they've gone (sold the whole lot to an Italian guy), and earmarked the proceeds for the mini project.

Prospecting for a mini project, I looked at the usual places, local papers, auto trader, eBay, eBid, Gumtree, word-of-mouth, et cetera but pickings were slim locally; whatever's available are not-so-cheap or not-so-reasonable.

Then, in one of my car boot outings I came across a chap who was also a mini enthusiast (he's got a mini tattooed in his arm!) - and he has a mini to sell. He asked if I was interested. When he mentioned the price (chump change!) I could hardly contain my excitement. That afternoon, my buddy and I went to have a look at the car. It was parked in front of the seller's house, and seem to be crying - take me! :( take me! :(  so, a spit-in-the-palm and a handshake (plus the few quids exchange), and the car was mine. The following weekend, I was back to collect the car. Thus our restoration project begins...