Crayford Convertible In For Restoration @ Mintec

[Charlynsane]

What an impressive work!! congratulations!

[Tupers]

Our resident bodywork supremo has been hard it recently and has the interior, engine bay and boot painted. Just a final round of blocking on the exterior to go and the rest of it can be painted.

[davidnutland]

Looking very good.

[Tupers]

Thanks David.

The exterior is now in colour as well and looking good. Sorry about the fuzzy pics.

[Dr.Mabo]

Fantastic work with a lovely paint job. That turns assembling into a easy home run.

so long
the Doc

[JC T ONE]

What a transformation looking so nice now.

[java gt]

Really coming along now,looking forward to seeing it finished.

[minitravellerman]

Looking awesome in its new paintwork. I love this bit of the builds - mostly nice clean work from now on.

[Tupers]

Thanks guys, we're really pleased with it. The next thing on the agenda is to polish the whole car and fit all the lines then it can receive it's frames.

[Romag]

Wow!

Your work here is just breathtaking!

I can't wait to see the updates!

Glen

[Tupers]

The Crayford is now back in the main workshop and getting reassembled.

It's rather shinny and still needs going over with a finer compound.



The hard lines have been ran and the subframes are on.



I did a little more fabrication and made a pair of removable quarter window supports as the original one's had a lot of holes in them.







While we were bolting shinny parts back on Dad polished up the original steering column shroud.
Totally nasty.


50% better.


100% more awesome.

[JC T ONE]

So nice, when yopu get to this stage, of the restoration

Looking good as always



Jens Christian


PS where do you buy those metal brake pipes ?

[Tupers]

So nice, when yopu get to this stage, of the restoration

Looking good as always



Jens Christian


PS where do you buy those metal brake pipes ?

Thanks Jens, the brake lines are made from nickel/copper pipe, they are a lot less orange than normal regular copper.



We got the doors mounted on Monday, they still need adjusting to get gaps right but it's pretty good off the bat.






I've straightened out the original front number plate backing, not too bad considering how bent it was.




I also made a plug for one of the mounting holes that had pulled out.






Most the the suspension has been fitted up as well but I forgot to take pictures.

[999 ORX]

Is the colour smoke grey?

[Tupers]

Is the colour smoke grey?

It is indeed, and very nice colour at that.


And so the work continues, I'v been beavering away cleaning up small pieces for this but here are the highlights.

This afternoon I've been sorting out a decent set of chrome window catches and buttons.


After a lot a fiddly cleaning we now have a nice tidy set for the car.


I also put a set of correct glass set together and got the lock mechanisms on.




The only big detour from the original spec is a set of disc brakes. Seen as it's a '63 car it could have had them at the time of the conversion and it's nice to have good stopping power in a freshly restored car.

[Tupers]

I turned my attention to the speedo for a while today. The chrome bezel was rather horrid after 12 years of being sat in a barn and the binnacle was pretty discoloured.


I polished up a much nicer bezel from the stores and swapped the original glass into it.


The binnacle received a wash in some soapy water and a polish. I'm sure you'll agree it looks 100 time better now.


We also dropped the engine in at long last, it was very nerve racking.

[NotNormal]

Great work and love the updates.

[JC T ONE]

Looking good as always

[Tupers]

So, sorry about the long pause between updates, we've been mightily busy getting a couple more Mini's through bodywork.

The owner of the Crayford supplied us with an almost complete brocade interior that he had removed from one of his race cars years ago.


The rear seat's where particularly nasty and took a lot of scrubbing. The left is as it arrived with us and right is after a good clean.


There are a few age related wear marks and a little discolouring but all in all it's cleaned up very well and has a lovely patina to it.


The door cards, arch covers and pocket liners have also been cleaned up and installed while we are waiting for new diaphragms for the front seats.




Up front has been treated to a new moustache and freshly painted grill along with a new set of indicator backing with the original glass lenes reinstalled. It's starting to look like a Mini again!

[miniminor]

Starting to look sooooooo good!
How many hours labour do you reckon this car has taken?