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Hi all

First post on here for a long while been way too busy sorting cars for other people and house work but I have finally found a few hours to drag out the shed and have decided to make a start on him. You all will have seen the video of "George" being extracted from his grave in sunny Kent a good few years ago now. George is a November build 59 Austin deluxe he had been sat in the garden since 1977 due to failing mot on a wheel cylinder of all things according to the old paper work that came with him. he was bought new by Hall & co coal merchants Croydon. he was then passed around a few owners in the Kent area finally ending up in Chatham. the name comes from the previous owner George wooding who apparently was in a jazz band in the 70s pretty popular band locally apparently in the 70s. George is in a very bad way, most people say the shell is beyond saving but i strongly disagree there the roof still has strength and is surprisingly straight with no creases, the complete floor is rotten along with bulkhead, boot floor etc. My plans are to build a jig from another early mk1 I've got a 60 basic then build up a new floor, boot floor and bulkhead then drop what will be left of the side panels, front windscreen surround and back panel and start to reconstruct everything from there. enough waffle from me here are some pics of the task in hand, ohh and to make it more interesting and give myself a dead line I want to take it to the IMM in Lewes next August



















The rough 60 that i will be using to build a jig from this needs very similar panel work to the 59 shouldn't have bought it really but listened to my heart over my head with it as usual





Progress will be slow for a few months as I'm waiting on surgery but hopefully come the winter I will be back to full capacity and get cracking along with it

Liam

hi liam
a big job but with time and money any thing can be saved at least it has a proper roof and not trying to be a sprite
cheers and good luck with surgery on the car as well
roger mcnab

Hi all

Managed to get down and have a hour stripping a few bits off earlier, we had a rearrange down the unit the other day and it made me realise i need to get some form of strength back into it before it folds. door braces have been bolted in not wound to make gaps right yet as there's no reference points at the moment but its a fair bit stronger now. I've started stripping the engine bay ready for removal of the front subframe and engine i think the front will fall apart when the subframe is removed but we will find out in the next few days.









Many thanks Liam

can I ask, did you buy those door braces or make them ? - they look quite handy

My goodness Liam, you DO like a challenge don't you !

For anyone who may have missed it, here is the video of "George" being extracted from his grave in sunny Kent a few years ago...

RARE 1959 Austin Mini FOUND in a bush! Is it salvageable?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lma3q8uA8WU

Note the nice pair of early Master Cylinders with the removable Hex top fitting.....now very hard to find so well worth saving and refurbishing if possible.

hi
did they rescue the van as well as that would also be a test of ones ability at restoring a mini
cheers roger mcnab

Welcome back Liam, we thought that you'd sold up,, joined the navy and run off to see the world. Kind regards