mk1-forum.net

Hello there, just thought I’d introduce myself as I joined this forum yesterday after finding the site whilst hunting the internet for information and pictures etc. The reason I joined up is I am currently starting work on a Mk1 Mini and here seemed to provide the best platform for picking some knowledgeable peoples brains whilst going through the project.

So onto the car info (which I’m sure you guys are most interested in ). The car in question is a 1963 Austin Mini Mk1 Super Deluxe in Surf Blue. The car was purchased from new by my grandfather who used it all his life. (He did buy a 1959 from new but traded it in for this 63 due to gearbox issues). Unfortunately he passed away over 9 years ago and the car has been left stored until recently when myself and my father have decided to resurrect the car and get it roadworthy again.

The strapline for this website mentions "tuning & modification" but I have to say this car will be going back to as it left the factory as closely as we can get. To this end the plan is to fully strip and restore the car as were firm believers in doing the job right first time so that we can enjoy the car for long into the future. To date we have moved the car to my fathers workshop and have commenced work on the front end, generally the car is in pretty tidy shape compared to what I’ve seen other people start from bodywork wise. Mechanically it is very good indeed, we got it started and it runs absolutely perfect but there are a few jobs we’ll still carry out to future proof it.

So are we up to the job? Well I’d like to think so although this is my first step with playing Mini's. My father used to run a 1961 mini when he was (a lot) younger and has worked in this very car over the years so has a good mini knowledge platform. Myself, well I must admit I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cars and I’ve fully restored one of my other cars which is a Lotus Carlton. If you’d like to see the work that I did on that my website is http://www.LC890G.co.uk. Compared to that the Mini looks pretty easy especially as it seems you can still obtain all the parts for the mini which is certainly not the case for the Lotus these days .

I have some pics to upload so once I get round to it I’ll start a project thread so you can see progress. I’m also currently trying to hunt down old pictures of the car throughout its life which I know are lurking in family photo albums. I even believe the original bill of sale is lurking in cupboard somewhere as well which I’ll dig out.

So apologies for the rambling but that’s me, so if you see me asking questions on the forum you’ll now know why.

Cheers
David

Welcome, looking forward to the pictures. love the Lotus Carlton as well, cracking cars.

Ian

hi and welcome. whereabouts in surrey are you? i live in epsom and we,ve got a 68 super deluxe.

Hi David,

Sounds like you have a very interesting project on your hands. It must be great to restore a bit of your own family's history!

As I am sure you are aware there is a very fine line between an OK restoration & a very good restoration & there are many pitfalls that you could fall foul of, if as you say this is your first excursion into minis. There are many "experts" in the trade who will tell you something just to sell you a part that you don't want or don't need & remember its the little details that make all the difference.

A couple of bits of free advice;

1) Don't throw ANYTHING away! Some bits that look almost meaningless are impossible to find nowadays, keep everything until the job is finished.

2) If in doubt, ASK. There are many very knowledgeable people on here who are very experienced in all aspects of restoration who will hapily give you free advice if asked. Be it bodywork, fitting Mini panels is a LOT harder than a lot of cars, electrical, mechanical or whatever, someone will have done it & will happily tell you where they went wrong even if we don't always have a solution to your specific problem.

I am sure that you will really enjoy your new project & I look forward to following your progress.

madaboutcherry wrote:hi and welcome. whereabouts in surrey are you? i live in epsom and we,ve got a 68 super deluxe.

Cheers, i'm just outside the Redhill area so not to far

mk1 wrote:Hi David,

Sounds like you have a very interesting project on your hands. It must be great to restore a bit of your own family's history!

Definately, brings back so many memories of seeing it as I grew up.

mk1 wrote:As I am sure you are aware there is a very fine line between an OK restoration & a very good restoration & there are many pitfalls that you could fall foul of, if as you say this is your first excursion into minis. There are many "experts" in the trade who will tell you something just to sell you a part that you don't want or don't need & remember its the little details that make all the difference.

Agreed, in some ways restoring a car in itself goes against the grain of some and then the finished quaility is a again a point of contention. Everyone has their own idea of what a car should look like but hopefully with people like yourselves keeping me on the straight and narrow it should turn out well.

mk1 wrote:A couple of bits of free advice;

1) Don't throw ANYTHING away! Some bits that look almost meaningless are impossible to find nowadays, keep everything until the job is finished.

Yes, good advice. We have loads of boxes of parts that we retrieved with the car that had been stored in my Grandfathers original garage so as you say these could be gold dust as we move forward for either ourselves or others later down the line. There are some parts on the car that have been changed from the original style over the years so these will be put right as we go so i'll be on the hunt for parts as well me thinks

mk1 wrote:2) If in doubt, ASK. There are many very knowledgeable people on here who are very experienced in all aspects of restoration who will hapily give you free advice if asked. Be it bodywork, fitting Mini panels is a LOT harder than a lot of cars, electrical, mechanical or whatever, someone will have done it & will happily tell you where they went wrong even if we don't always have a solution to your specific problem.

I'll certainly be doing that and will indeed value any advice from people who have been down the route already. How did we manage before the internet and forums came along

I am sure that you will really enjoy your new project & I look forward to following your progress.

Cheers, i'm really looking forward to be doing it as well

brook shaw wrote:hi
i have a 63 superdeluxe in surf blue - in concours ,totally unmodified original condition#

if u need any fotos of the car,to make your car nut and bolt-correct
feel free to drop me a line
brooky

Awesome, nice car you have and I could indeed be after some pics in the future



Well, heres the first pics - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1224