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After 50 years in hiding this Radford Mini de ville colour card book has been found

Nice find.

A great find thanks for posting pics, come nice colours there!

A couple of apparently previously unseen photos of Beatles' Radfords have just turned up online... I would say that from Nev's cards that Ringo's is Rouge Irise. The interior is Lennon's - he's at the wheel.

Cool! I have seen these photos but never with this high resolution. Thanks for sharing Ant very nice.

Are there any more Ant? Most of the pics that have turned up in the past have been low res as Nev says, I've found a few others over the years, usually fan photos with the cars in the background but always interesting to see! This one looks a different car again and though no obvious Radford mods are evident in the shot it's similar in colour, has a coachline and appears to have a dash in it?



There's another one taken inside the Lennon car by the backseat passenger (forgot who that was now) with Lennon clearly pictured in the rear view mirror.

It looks like George has asked Ringo for his autograph !
Seriousy though, thanks to Ant for the pics. Note the 4" Cosmics on Ringo's car and Moto Lita wheel on John's. Wipers parking on the left ?

nick rogers wrote:It looks like George has asked Ringo for his autograph !
Seriousy though, thanks to Ant for the pics. Note the 4" Cosmics on Ringo's car and Moto Lita wheel on John's. Wipers parking on the left ?

looking at the wipers on the first pictures, one parks on the left the other parks on the right.

Is the inside picture the multi coloured car which was in the back ground. The door frame looks like it could be gold.

I missed that Ant pointed out the inside was Lennon's car.

Fantastic pictures Ant!

Nice to see that Johns mini had the same steering wheel as mine!

Tim

One more! The man himself the the rear view mirror. Where is Black Beauty now

One car I've not seen a decent clear shot of is Harrison's orange coloured car with colour coded Cosmics, this one...



Topically it was funny to hear the spoof story of McCartney being killed in a smash in 1966 (and replaced with a look-a-like) doing the rounds on the radio news last week, though it's a not particularly funny spoof that story of him smashing up his Radford has been going around for years but never been substantiated.

Thanks for the photo Pete. Never seen this one either. That's one ugly car LOL. Looks like a Radford GT dash in it, hard to tell if it has 1/4 light though?

John Lennons car has Australian doors with wind up windows and the 1/4 window (very convenient for ashing your cigarette!). Why were these doors never used in UK production, anybody know?

Oz67Deluxe wrote:John Lennons car has Australian doors with wind up windows and the 1/4 window (very convenient for ashing your cigarette!). Why were these doors never used in UK production, anybody know?

The quarters were made by British coachbuilder James Young for Radford, and Wood & Pickett.
The windup system were from a Company called Piper ( Rolls Royce orign)

Jens Christian

JC, what year was that? Was that the design they used in Australia do you think? My car is a '67 and has windup windows but I don't know what year it was standard in Australian production cars...

Oz 1/4 vents and wind-ups started in '65

They certainly look very similar to the Radford ones, but there are subtle differences, independently came to the same solution I think.

cheers,

Jacob

Radford's had electric window fitted in 99% of mini de ville conversions from 63-70's. They used the piper electric window system fitted in RR's and Aston's. The 1/4 light were made by James Young as JC said and were brass chromed and fitted to a std mk1 or 2 door. Nice bit of work when seen up close, the 1/4 lights that is

I'm removing my 1/4 windows tomorrow to replace the rubber seals (hard to get and expensive cos only ONE supplier in Australia, none in UK of course). I'll take pics and post them..

Finally found pics of before and after on Harrison car. These were the main pics that gave the detail on how to repaint it. Very few exist - these were just as it went into the workshop to return it to black after he passed it on. He then decided to have the car back and asked for the graphics to be reinstated. All the books that had provided the illustrations were sourced from his collection again and made to fit . After two years or so my mate finished it (airbrushing) and he asked whether he could take the airbrushing off and re-do it by hand , as had been done originally..









After...





Pity it never got the Cosmics that I sourced for him.

Tim Harber wrote:
Pity it never got the Cosmics that I sourced for him.

Couldn't agree more , those wheels stick out like a sore thumb. Not seen those 'before' pictures Tim, thanks for posting!