1963 Super Deluxe Project

[guru_1071]

tom

i know the answer to this, thanks to mr normal using the same user id on other forums!!

[NotNormal]

Yes, good spot it is an LC in the background and as Guru alluded to yes I do own one of these awesome machines, however the one in the pic you see is not my car but a customer of Dads as it's in for a few bits and bobs.

[NotNormal]

Few more pics of progress. Front end is now finished and complete so here's a few pics of the final gaps and joins which were happy with.






The inner boot area has had a bit of filling and smoothing work after the straightening and panel work required.


Then the underside has had a coat of stonechip applied which has come out well. (old subframes re-attached so we can wheel it about)




and finally the bootlid has had the Austin holes filled and smoothed and the new Morris hole positions added.

[NotNormal]

Been a while since I updated this thread but work has still been continuing. The refurbishing of a lot of the smaller parts hasn't really been worth putting up but now we have something a bit more tangeable to show. Underside of the car has now been painted and pics showing the results.

Front Arches






Rear Arch


Floor and Boot (old temp subframe fitted)






Following jobs have also been carried out
- Engine has had the fan and pulley powder coated in yellow and fitted.
- Tappet breather cover has been fitted
- Steering rack had a complete refurb
- Most of the ancillary engine and underbody parts have been refurbed

Hopefully next pics will be of the complete car in paint.

[InimiaD]

Looking good and great progress.

[surfblue63]

Looking Good

[rolesyboy]

Great progress and love the colour. One point that you may have already picked up on (and one I missed on my rebuild and currently paying the price for!) is the limited amount of paint you have on some of your inner front wheelarch seams. Easy to miss for a painter as they really have to get in there and point downwards to get paint on them. Also at the bottom of the radiator fins there is what looks like just primer. I hope you don't take this as a criticism. It is meant with best intentions. Its just that it is so easy to correct at this stage. I had the same stuation on my car and a few years later showing signs of rust on these areas as it only had a mist of paint and primer having been blasted before rebuild. Cheers. Mark

[NotNormal]

Great progress and love the colour. One point that you may have already picked up on

Yup already in hand chap. If you'll see the before pictures its not just the primer grey, there are a couple of coats of paint and stonechip in place underneath the decorative top coat. Far from finished yet though

[NotNormal]

this is scary
the finish on the underbody looks the same as my 63 surf blue...

this would be fun if they ended up parked together on a field

I must admit your car (and surfblue63's) have been a lot of inspiration during this build

Would indeed be good to see together. Austin and Morris versions of the same car/same year sat next to each other

[surfblue63]

this is scary
the finish on the underbody looks the same as my 63 surf blue...

this would be fun if they ended up parked together on a field

I must admit your car (and surfblue63's) have been a lot of inspiration during this build

Would indeed be good to see together. Austin and Morris versions of the same car/same year sat next to each other

Mine doesn't look like that underneath, it underseal black, but then that's probably helped preserve it all these years.

Perhaps we could start a register for '63 surf blues

[COOPERMAN]

Looking good!, nice panel gaps too (always tricky on Mini`s) love surf blue too, my next project (WDL) will be Surf there are currently no surf blue Minis on the IOW , Time that changed i think .

[steve1071]

Great project and pics. How did you get the front edge of the bonnet so flush with the front panel? My bonnet is about half inch over.

[NotNormal]

Mine doesn't look like that underneath, it underseal black, but then that's probably helped preserve it all these years.

Perhaps we could start a register for '63 surf blues

Indeed, I was referring to in regards to the overall car. Your two cars are really the only surf blue's i've found on my web searches where I can check what should and shouldn't be fitted. Your car has some good pics of the interior which I found and use as reference (although I now understand that the Austin had cheque plate covers on the lower door and end of box section that the Morris doesn't).

Great project and pics. How did you get the front edge of the bonnet so flush with the front panel? My bonnet is about half inch over.

Bonnet is original and sits on the existing hinges with markings made before the front end panels were removed. Heritage wings and M-Machine front panel were then aligned around the bonnet (and subframe in the early days) as that was really the only datum point left. Did involve a lot of tweaking and every time they were pinched in position, checked, then removed, it seemed like they sat different from the last time it was tried . Eventually it was a case of biting the bullet and getting them in position and then spot welding certain parts and then pulling/tweaking other areas before a final weld held it all together.

Other than that I can't say why, but thats how it got to where it is now.

[NotNormal]

Didn't realise bonnet miss alighnment was common but having just looked back at the black and white original pics of the car, the bonnet back then seems to fit flush against the front panel so must have been a rogue good one from the factory

[georgek]

You've done a great job, nice to have the skills!

[NotNormal]

Been a while since this thread has been updated but thats not to say that work has stopped. We had a period when we were ready for the final paintwork to be done and it was a case of getting quotes and chatting to a number of bodyshops which took quite a while. But rather than rush this process we made sure that we finally settled on a company that we felt confident with and would do an outstanding job. The car was dropped off to the chosen coachworks in the middle of December and upon delivery of the car their first job was to bead blast the outside panelwork and interior area's back to bare metal. That way we could all be 100% sure that we had a solid base going forward. Then work was carried out to get all panels to a really smooth surface to ensure the sort of final paint job were after.

So that takes us up to today and I popped in to check progress and the car is almost ready for primer. Whilst there I managed to get some pics. They are also taking a load of pictures of the work as they progress and will pass to me when the car is finished, expected to be around the first week in Feb.











The car and the finish looked stunning and really happy so far. Can't wait to see it in the final colour

[NotNormal]

Update time.

Just a note to start off by just mentioning that when changing my phone recently I found a pic of the car before we started work on this resto wise, so have added this pic to the start of the build thread .

So while the paintwork is being sorted attention turned to the interior to keep the build progressing. This is what we had originally (Minus front door cards as these were stored elsewhere when I took the pics).











As can be seen above front seats were a tad tired and although the rear seats scrubbed up pretty well there was always going to be an obvious missmatch in colour added to the fact that there was no original carpets either. So I decided to bite the bullet and renew the lot which meant a call to Newton Commercial.

They sent through some preview patches and I was pretty impressed with the match (taking into account the fading of the original seats)



Order was placed over Christmas when they had their sale and pleased to say it all turned up this week. Must just say I have been really impressed with their service and they have been very accomodating and friendly on the phone with all the stuff that was discussed for this order












I know some people may have a strong views in the Mini world about originality and pattina of an old car but got to be sensible about things and its how we want it to look that counts so that we can enjoy the car for many more years to come.

[guru_1071]

nice 'repair medley' under the front seats, i reckon you must have 'one of every sort' there!!

[NotNormal]

Grandfather definitely came under the "resourceful" banner.

What’s even more amusing (or not, depending on your outlook) is most of the mechanical parts that were replaced on the car over the years he has kept even though they were worn or completely useless. So although we have boxes of stuff, were not sure yet what’s actually good and what not!

Fortunately though that’s a separate issue to the car itself that can be tackled at a later date.

[36inter]

I have to say there is 'Patina' and there is 'Knackered', I think your front seats fall into the latter category but I have to say the replacements look outstanding, did you assemble the seats?

Pete