Coachbuilt Oyler Contessa

[rich@minispares.com]

ive just had a royal visit from the Count so we could see the Contessa

its ace, really nice with loads of little detail touches

interestingly enough it has a proper self parking rear screen wiper that uses a proper wiper motor and a rack, just like the one that's in my er' cooper s

I can confirm that the seats are 'right proper comfey'

[mk1]

I can confirm that the seats are 'right proper comfey'

And if you have sat in them, slightly grubby

[tedmcedd]

This is an awesome car!

Is that Bob Taylor doing the roof?? He does my trimming too!

Ed

[spraybeateer]

ive just had a royal visit from the Count so we could see the Contessa

its ace, really nice with loads of little detail touches

interestingly enough it has a proper self parking rear screen wiper that uses a proper wiper motor and a rack, just like the one that's in my er' cooper s

I can confirm that the seats are 'right proper comfey'

For those interested this is what rich is on about fitted to the rear parcel tray
taken before stripping the car,



Tha Count

[spraybeateer]

This is an awesome car!

Is that Bob Taylor doing the roof?? He does my trimming too!

Ed

The very man, he did the repairs to the rear seat back and made and
fitted the roof, Proper job top class coach trimmer and as he is in
Halifax keeps up the cars bloodline .
thanks for the interest.

[spraybeateer]

Now tha t the cat is out of the bag as they say! the typing fingers are going to
be busy updating this build job , before it goes on show at he weekend,
at Bingley,





this was the first trial run with the grille, after stripping the old paint of no mean
feat as it had been over painted a number of times changed my mind on this
a few days later,

next up was the door and rear quarter trims which with dampness and the weight
of the arm rests were rather misshapen,



before




the finished trims, when i was redoing them I made up stainless plates for the inside
to take some of the weight, the front plates are also supported by the pull handle screws,



started fitting in the quarter trims and companion box covering,



the second go at the grille and this is the finished look.




the head wool head cloth made and fitted the lady of the house helped me making this



usednsome of the left over bits of head cloth to cover the speakers as Oyler had done,
the seat back is only temporarily fitted it needs to be taken out again,



front and rear screens fitted, and the opening roof fitted after this my old hands and
and shoulders were bl**dy sore,


the lady of the house made these with some of the spare bits of head cloth at £55. a yard
to expensive to waste,





some of the trim finished and fitted,



all the carpet edging and other bits done by myself on this, the head cloth was made indoors
on the wives sewing machine,








some more of the trimming work that has been redone, makes it a pretty heavy car,
it won't make any speed records HaHa.
thats me for today ( my brains frazzled ) more to follow tomorrow.

The Count,

[mab01uk]

The Count....it is looking great! Thanks for posting all the pictures for us to see....it should have lots of admirers at Bingley, whichever Mini magazine features the Contessa it deserves to be a front cover car!

[NLcoopermk1]

What a special car and so good it came to someone with the right skills and intentions. Very nice!

[goff]

I can confirm that the seats are 'right proper comfey'

And if you have sat in them, slightly grubby

That's mean Mark And what Beautiful Car , well done .

[Nick W]

That looks brilliant....great restoration !

[UHR850]

STUNNING, but now the steeringwheel

On it is still the ADO16 1100/1300 wheel

Kees.

[spraybeateer]

STUNNING, but now the steeringwheel

On it is still the ADO16 1100/1300 wheel

Kees.

Gooi Dag Mineer, sorry if that is not correct but my Nederlandse is a bit rusty! (been a longtime since working in Holland!
if you want the Old Steering Wheel its yours it is not in very good condition but it is taking up space in my garage!
PM me your details and I will send it to you, I know you are a bit of a collector!
We have a plan to visit my wife's family in Hilversum sometime in March , maybe we could come Coffee Drinken.
The Contessa has a Clubman wheel fitted by the way the photos will be posted this week sometime.
Beste. The Count.

[surfblue63]

Spotted you cruising home on the M62 on Sunday. I had a quick look on Saturday but was busy on Sunday so I did not get a proper look. Hopefully I'll get the chance later in the year.

[UHR850]

STUNNING, but now the steeringwheel

On it is still the ADO16 1100/1300 wheel

Kees.

Gooi Dag Mineer, sorry if that is not correct but my Nederlandse is a bit rusty! (been a longtime since working in Holland!
if you want the Old Steering Wheel its yours it is not in very good condition but it is taking up space in my garage!
PM me your details and I will send it to you, I know you are a bit of a collector!
We have a plan to visit my wife's family in Hilversum sometime in March , maybe we could come Coffee Drinken.
The Contessa has a Clubman wheel fitted by the way the photos will be posted this week sometime.
Beste. The Count.

PM send

[spraybeateer]

The Count....it is looking great! Thanks for posting all the pictures for us to see....it should have lots of admirers at Bingley, whichever Mini magazine features the Contessa it deserves to be a front cover car!

Thanks Martin, it certainly did have a lot of interest from the visitors to the show, met a lot of
interesting people, a lot from this forum also a very nice Spanish guy (don't know if he is on here?)
he seemed to be very impressed, Karen Dury took a lot of photos and details so we will see! with lead times
ect it will probably be a couple of months.
Now I need to do a bit of planning to see which other shows I can get to!!! Beaulieu was always the plan, have
been asked to take the car to Gaydon +would like to do some of the local Yorkshire! ones.

[spraybeateer]

Spotted you cruising home on the M62 on Sunday. I had a quick look on Saturday but was busy on Sunday so I did not get a proper look. Hopefully I'll get the chance later in the year.

The car performed great, not the fastest thing probably due to the weight of all the sound deadening
and trimming, lost count of the people that asked if it was trailered down? it was the first time in 40yrs
I had driven a classic mini so far, back then used to go over to Holland from Scotland via Dover at least
once a year.
To add to the list of events/shows was thinking of going along to Blyton! in May with it, not so far for me

[steve1071]

Get to Blyton, you really won’t regret it. Best event by a mile!

[IslandBlue66]

Nice to see you and your car in the flesh on Sunday, Lovely job on the paint, you can tell you've had some practice! Blyton is great, very friendly, lots of interesting cars being thrashed around and on static display. My favorite event. Fingers crossed I will be able to get to this years event in the mk1 rather than my Toyota.

[spraybeateer]

I had intended to have the story of the Contessa finished before it was shown at Bingley, but went to a birthday party
the night before and got a bit involved so here we go next job was to get he dash tidied up,



stripped back the old veneer and re veneered, when the glue was dry! started the varnishing, 4/5 coats sanding in between
each coat, then gave it a couple of coats of Polyurethane spray varnish over that.
Whilst the varnish was drying got the wiring repaired and tidied up behind the dash,which was then refitted,








Quite happy with the way it turned out, and it is a reasonable match to the door capping,



then got it back up on stands, removed the wheels ready for their turn at the cleaning up and paint process,
decided while it was at a good height for working at to give it a run over with the polishing machine, then a good
polish with Simonize hard wax, used to be the preferred wax back in the day! spent many hours back in the day
cutting and polishing Rolls Royces and Bentleys for the Lorded Gentry in the village I worked in, most of there
Chauffeurs had a tin in their glove box I know there are lots of others on the market! but old habits die hard.





got some of the other bits fitted, inc rear wiper/washers, and the rear moulding, after trying about every coach building
suppliers ended up getting pin moulding from Woolies and modifying it! turned out good,
then I hit on a problem, when I bought the car it came with a couple of opening rear windows,which I duly put in the loft
took them down to fit them and discovered they were blue tinted so no-good tried to get some clear ones with no luck
then again one of Rich's guys came to the rescue,
then onto the wheels! took them down to the local tyre shop to get the tyres removed but the 10s wouldn't fit on his tyre
machine so he just broke the beads for me, as I had got rid of my tyre levers years ago, had to chase about trying to find
some, got the tyres removed, then a bit of work with wire wheel/sandblasting and hand rubbing got he wheels cleaned up,






some epoxy primer and some colour think they turned out well,
because the weather is a bit cooler added a bit of Rocket into the paint to speed the drying up,



more to follow,
Thanks for looking.

The count

[Polarsilver]

Show e'm the Drinks Tray !