A Mini Is Reborn!

Back home and ready to update!!!

2005-07-08T22:37:00.000+01:00

Well, you can all start reading again!

I'm back from Afghanistan and ready to start updating again :)

Standby for further "hilarious" Mini inspired anecdotes!

A Bit Of Fun With Latex!

2005-02-27T16:00:00.000Z

Calm down... it's not as interesting as it first sounds!

I wanted to put the Clubby through a car wash as an interim measure until I can be bothered to roll my sleeves up and get busy for a few hours and give it a proper clean - unfortunately I was mindful of the last time I did so when I became stranded outside said car wash as the car contrived to pack up and refuse to respond to any turn of key for a good 10 minutes!

The problem - as ever with Mini's - was water getting in the ignition works. The bane of having a dizzy that sits right at the front of the engine in front of an open grille!

I read in a Mini magazine of an old Cooper Works rally team trick that sounded like a fantastic idea well worth trying, and costing only £1 at Poundstretcher!

Step 1: Purchase pair of medium size Marigold gloves.

Step 2: Cut off all 5 fingertips (of gloves!)

Step 3: Feed spark plug leads through said fingers and wrap glove over dizzy!

Step 4: Seal off with tywraps.

What a great, simple idea - and suitable for any car with a distributor! Perfectly sealed against even the most heavy downpour!

It does look rather odd when viewed from the front...

...until it gets a bit of road muck on it, but not half as odd as having to push a dead - but clean - Mini out of a car-wash! Still, at least I didn't get my hands dirty doing so!

That's been it for the last week or so really - soon, with my house move having now been completed, it'll be down to the proper nitty-gritty of starting to strip down Percy.....

Not until this lot clears though!!!

Blue Mini Interior Progress

2005-02-27T15:00:00.000Z

I had attempted to manufacture, with my own fair hands, a set of interior door cards to replace the torn and eaten specimens that resided within my Blue Mini doors.

Alas it seems that this is one area where it really does pay to dip your hands in your pocket and but custom made items :(

I did make and fit one, using the old door card backing as a template but the end result was quite poor and looked so obviously D.I.Y. as to be embarrasing.

I'm sure it's quite possible if you can buy the wooden backing thin enough (less than 2mm I feel would be adequate) and don't glue the covering directly to the front of the card.

What I'd advise is to buy 1.5-2mm flexi wooden backing and a very thin layer of foam indeed to place between wood and covering to make impression of looking "plush", then glue/tack the covering only to the back of the card not the front - all that serves to do is to reveal to all and sundry every single drill hole and imperfection as the glue sucks the vinyl tightly to your pre-drilled attachment clip holes etc...

...in fact it now sounds so easy why did I just spend £75 on them?!

Here's why...

Pretty impressive I think!

The rear of the car has also received a minor amount of attention with the beginnings of a seat back having been fashioned! Illness has curtailed much more action this week but with the foam I have left I shall shortly make a seat pan to surround the bass-box :)

The Union Flag theme compliments the dashboard nicely and does look rather eye catching to those peering inside!

As promised!

2005-02-13T19:40:00.000Z

Here they are - the pics of the rear seat subwoofer!

It really does sound a dream and I so enjoy driving the car now and hearing music as if you were standing front row at a concert! The bass simply drives right at you and now I've tweaked the gains up on the first amp for the other 4 speakers it all compliments nicely.

Looking back at the box.

The bass amp attached to the back of the sub box.

Fear not about the nasty looking cables visible and the lack of upholstery there! I have about 3 metres of cream vinyl and 6ft of foam!!

As with everything Mini... it's still work in progress!

your number (plates) up sunshine!

2005-02-07T20:00:00.000Z

The hopeless task of buying number plates from the usually brilliant Halfords exhausted me to the point of no return.

Unless you have both living great-grandparents in attendance, your front door with number still attached and every petrol receipt since 1943 you're in for a very long wait for them to stick a few numbers on a bit of plastic for you!

So 5 minutes on the internet, via the handy www.fancyplates.com not only saved me a 30 mile round trip and 2 hours with a screwdriver on the front door, but saved me £20 in cost too! They'll print anything you want on any style of plate at all, obviously whether you choose to display anything naughty on your car is between you and the Old Bill but hey!

Our car, being as it is a 1963 registered model is perfectly within its rights to show black/silver plates, and they do look great!

Anyway - here's mine still with the plastic protection on, as they will do 'til the grand day when I fit them signalling the end of the restoration!

Shedding a 'little' light on the subject!

2005-02-06T21:50:00.000Z

I spent rather an hour or two wiring up two extra quite natty low level "driving" lights on Friday.

Quite what else the lights would be used for other than driving I'm not too sure!

Anyway, here they are...

Look quite good I think! £40 from Halfords and the pack includes a supposedly pre-made wiring loom. That would be ok were the battery sat 3" away from the light relay, and not in the boot!

Anyway, the much used wiring kit came out again and with a few crimps here and a few swear words there we were up and running!

I've wired the relay up in about the only spare bit of engine bay that's accessible with an electric corded drill...

and the lights sit just under the front bumper on the valance...

ok the engine just about stalls when the stereos on and you turn on main beam but who cares!

I also wired in a new aerial after I snapped the last one off trying to retract it with a hammer (yes, I really did do that - it had siezed!) however after driving back from Chester after a football match the radio died to a few bursts of crackles. The CD plays fine though so I think something's amiss either with the aerial (it is still plugged in before anyone asks!) or an extremely well aimed spot of moisture has landed strategically on a little wire somewhere!

On a similar note, I can quite categorically state that you haven't heard anything quite so fantastic until you've had your lug-holes invaded by the opening riffs of Time by Pink Floyd through my stereo set-up!

It was so good I didn't believe it until I'd had another listen - but this time with the volume REALLY loud!

Apologies to anyone who may have been on the M6 at around 20:30 on Saturday 5th Jan!

Can you speak up a bit?!

2005-01-27T20:35:00.000Z

Yeeeaaaaaahhhhh!

I finally plucked up the courage to do it!

For the last 3 months I've had a 12" subwoofer and bass box (www.bassjunkies.com) up in the spare room waiting to be fitted to the blue Mini - the great person who fitted the rest of the audio stuff was going to fit it for me but tonight I opened up the boxes, took a very deep breath, and did it all myself!

Wow! What a feeling of satisfaction! The most amazing thing, for me at least, is it bloody well works too!

With it now being almost 9pm I sort of forgot to take pictures, but fear not - they'll be along soon!

The fitment of the speaker itself was fairly straightforward, well as much so as these things ever are, hunched up bent double in the back of a car that was probably built to carry a bag of spuds at best! Drill a couple of holes in the speaker box, match them up and drill holes in the rear seat pan, fit 2 bolts! Bingo!

That was where I was going to stop - but intrigue got the better of me, and it's nice and cosy in the garage these days! So...

Cut down and fit power cable onto battery terminal (wire crimp set £20 or less www.halfords.co.uk thank you very much!), feed through hole in rear bulkhead. Cut down and fit Negative cable. Affix both forementioned items onto clearly marked terminals on amplifier (second amp - one in boot also :-)) Strip down wire and fit spade connectors to speaker cable inside box and fit to speaker. Use crane (!!! very nearly) to hoist 12" subwoofer into hole in box and tighten in with 8 screws.

Next - find 2 long forgotten metal thingys for removing stereo head unit from dashboard (finally located in bedroom for some odd reason!) and remove head unit and spaghetti load of wiring behind!

Plug two clearly marked red/black phono connectors into 'front' plugs behind unit.

"Remote" wire? What the hell's this?! Aaaah, vaguely recollect friend informing me that it turns the power onto amp when stereo is turned on. Find black wire running under carpet.... SNIP!

..........then think about carrying out continuity check to see if it really is the remote wire!

Phew it is... use bullet connector to fit new remote wire onto existing one and affix to marked connector on sub amp! Tuck back under carpet!

Now then - plug phono jacks in at amp end, turn on stereo and...................

...................Oh My God..........................

my car windows are bouncing out of the frames!!!!!

You can safely assume from that that it works!

My God does it work!

I have seldom heard anything so damn sweet ever! The bass simply adds about 7 dimensions of depth to the music! I've tweaked the output so it doesn't quite overpower the rest of the music, just enhances it, and while I was there I tweaked the 'gain' on the existing amp so that volume level 25 is just about enough to bring on the onset of cranial bleeding!

I hardly wanted to leave the garage!

That it sounds so good is a complete bonus to me! I'd have been ecstatic had it merely produced a few crackles with it being my first time attempting such a task!

The car can officially carry no back seat passengers now but hey! Who cares?!

I need to do a bit of tidying up back there - fit something round the base of the unit to hide a few cables and remove the seat pan from view. Then maybe just fit only a seat rear piece?

It's the British Mini Club's open day thing at Bingley Hall, Stafford on Sunday so we'll see what we can pick up there this year perhaps?!

One things for sure - they'll hear us coming!

The first bolt... and other stuff.

2005-01-23T18:07:00.000Z

Yes..... it's finally started!

The first bolts were undone on Percy and the strip-down is underway!.....

..... well not quite!

I had to remove his battery to power my timing strobe and emissions meter to do other stuff on the Clubman, so it can all be easily put back and driven but hey - it made a good headline!

Much has been achieved today, well - much and nothing, but we'll see.

Today saw the garage unveiled as a proper workshop with lighting and heat and noise courtesy of my tiny radio!

The 3ft flourescent light is hung up between two rafters by washing line wire - well the wife never uses it!

The heater arrived from Sealey (www.ccw-tools.co.uk) and is a thermostatic 2 power job with just air-blow facility for the summer, not bad in the sale at about £27 inc. postage!

Finally the mega extension lead was used in anger, fed through the roof corrugations and trailed across two back gardens through an open kitchen window! Not ideal but it worked! Pain in the backside to put away though in the cold and dark so I might just trail it out the front of the house and round the corner next time!

After an intensive clean up and throw out the garage was ready to accept its first customer!

The two exhaust pipes down the left hand side will probably soon be history as they start getting in the way - one is knackered anyway, the other is possibly useable! Standard-ish RC40 type exhausts are not overly pricey anyhow in the grand scheme of things.

Well, the Clubby was rolled in for a radiator replacement as it had been running up the top end of the guage. The radiator fitted already came off a 998cc Mini so I assumed it may well not be really up to the job of cooling a 1100cc engine.

I've fitted a 2 core superflow radiator and also took the opportunity to replace the thermostat with an 88º Halfords part. Handily, I had no anti-freeze left so had to "acquire" some from a reputable source(!)

Even handier the engine now still appears to run at the same temperature! Hmmmmm!

While I was in there I took the opportunity to check the timing as it had been 'running-on' a bit. When I was at MiniSport the guy timed my 1293cc engine at something like 20º BTDC so I timed the Clubby at roughly the same - it was at about 8-12º so we'll see how that goes now!

Also checked at this "visit" was the CO2 emissions with my fancy Gunsons emissions tester. MOT standard is up to 3% I believe so I've leaned off the carburettor to attempt just that - if the equipment is to believed it was running very rich, so again, we wait and see how it runs the next few days!

The first customer!

Next in after I'd changed the Clubby oil was my Mini for it's brake servo replacement which failed after about a week.

That took about 20 minutes and this time I shortened the input rod so it's less "pushy" on the brakes and therefore might somewhat lengthen the life of the servo unit?!

I'm now knackered and it's time to lie on the settee for a bit after a hard days graft!

Til next time.....!

MiniSport Tune Up

2005-01-16T20:23:00.000Z

A very big day in the life of "the engine Charlie built"!

Early Friday morning, 14th Jan, blue Mini and I set off for Padiham, Lancashire to the premier Mini tune-up secialists - MiniSport!

A four hour cough-and-splutter up North and we arrived, sore arsed and cramped legs, but excited at the prospect of seeing my engine running (hopefully!) in the manner it was invented!

Anyway... for all the speed-junkies out there here's the scores on the doors!

BHP @ Flywheel = 74bhp
BHP @ Wheels = 50bhp
Torque = 69lbf-ft
Max Torque at 63mph and 3990rpm

Not too bad considering I had built it on my living room carpet and had never seen the inside of an engine before!

I got back to the garage early and watched the tuner at work for a while and it was fascinating to talk to him as he spent the best part of half an hour hand filing the carberettor needles to perfectly match the power output he was looking for!

His diagnosis was very good and, much to my ego's good, he told me it was a pleasure to have worked on as I'd done all the hard work already and made a very good job of it!

The final prognosis is that the carb spindles are wearing slightly - lots of life left in them though - as the idle is somewhat erratic, and the power tails off at the top-end as the engine is screaming for air which the carbs can't deliver.

Solution? Remove the twin 1.25 carbs and fit a single 1.75 unit.

Somehow, with taking back the old engine parts for exchange refund, even after the tune-up (£80) I am still £130 in credit at MiniSport! So I may well use that sometime in the future to buy the unit recommended. It'll mean a different inlet manifold as well but they can be picked up cheap enough. The prices of single 1.75 carbs is around £180. Not too bad I thought?

Anyway... driving the car after the tune up was like the difference between night and day! To say I am impressed is a true understatement! The car accelerates smoothly and rapidly, makes a little less noise, and is a true dream to drive - simply screams to be driven hard, hard, hard!!!!!

The drive home would have been an absolute pleasure had I not been so indulged in listening to my engine roar that I missed the turn-off for the A1(M) and ended up mear Hull!

All in all, a very long, but extremely rewarding day!

www.minisport.co.uk

Blue Mini among friends!

Few steps nearer...

2005-01-13T17:53:00.000Z

Well today saw the dream/nightmare take a few steps closer!

I have, at great expense, now bought a 50M extension lead - if it were warmer I'd have been able to confirm that it was indeed long enough!

I've purchased a flourescent 3ft light tube to dangle from the garage rafters, a bit of leccy cable to connect it to the extension and a couple of plugs!

In addition I have got some 3.2mm hardboard to attempt to make some door cards for 'blue' and a cheapo jigsaw tool to fashion said items with the help of the Workmate! We'll see how that goes in a few days!

Need to acquire a little electric heater now..... and maybe a kettle ha ha

While at Halfords today I priced up some number plates for Percy - as he's 'old' I can put black/white ones on him. Thinking about it I may get acrylic ones as they'll have just the right mix of old/new that I'm looking for, and the metal ones tarnish too quickly.

Mrs B has been informed that she needs to fund the purchase of said items - and they'll proudly sit perched on the wall of the garage/workshop as an uplifting sight when things get tough. First thing bought, last thing fitted ;-)

Tomorrow is a big day in the life of the blue Mini's engine! Off early in the morning to MiniSport in Lancashire for it's rolling road tune-up and electronic ignition fit. Unfortunately the brake servo hasn't arrived in time so I'll have to mess that up again! Note to self: Try making the input rod a little shorter??

That car has had it's oil changed and fan belt tightened this morning in preparedness for it's trip, and the back (where the rear seat 'should' be!) is loaded up with the exchange 'box, block and head which shall hopefully fund the tune-up.

On a further note Argos had a fantastic little metal boxed 110 piece car tool kit for £29.99 which I thought might be a good go-box for easing nerves when on the road in whichever car it resides in at the time! It looks quite good quality and the range of tools in it is suprisingly good! Everything from a hammer to wire crimpers! It will get it's first outing tomorrow!

Also on the bits and bobs theme I got an oil filter spare to replace the one used today and a fuel filter for the Clubby as I don't think there's one fitted at the mo. In time I may whizz that up to a place I've seen in one of the Mini mags in Melton Mowbray for a tune-up and service.

Lastly, my new laptop has just arrived from Dell so if you don't hear from me for a while you know why ;-)

More of Percy

2005-01-04T20:50:00.000Z

Well he started first time this morning for the 2 minute drive to work! Lazy I know but hey - got to use the full tank of fuel before I take him to bits! :-)

Lately, since the recon engine went in, he has been reluctant to start - turning over once or twice before dying as if the battery is flat?

I've put a new battery in, and a new starter motor, but still the same - sometimes it'll not start until you try to start him then give it a couple of minutes rest, other times starts OK. I have also done a continuity check from engine to earth - fine! Maybe an earth problem at the battery end? I can't remember checking that bit, although all the rest of the electrics work fine hmmmmm!

I'm sure it's an electrical problem rather than mechanical but have so far been unable to resolve it - Oh well, as I have taken to saying just lately - he'll be in bits soon!

I'm kind of hoping that the rebuild will be a solution to most of his little ills!

One of the carb floats has taken to leaking through the lid providing a nauseating smell of fuel whenever driven, but the walk to the garage for a screwdriver to tighten is so far in this cold weather!

Also, despite just replacing it, the accelerator sticks when pressed and unless you do it really carefully you end up with it finally 'giving' when you are trying to creep round a corner resulting in much fun as the engine really is quite "pokey"!

When I bought the car the engine came in, I was sold it as a 1380cc and I can quite believe it - although having never seen inside it I just don't know?

I'm intending to make it a bit more of a driveable car for Mrs B as she likes the smooth limo feel of driving the Clubby (especially after having driven my Mini with it's gas adjustable shocks, lowered suspension, negative camber and sportspack low-profile wheels) - a bit of a go-kart drive if ever there was one!

So to that end - off are coming the pancake air filters fitted to the twin SU's, to be replaced by a more traditional Cooper S (I think) style metal filter box - which I already have. Should be a lot quieter!

Off is coming the twin DTM exhaust which requires you to wear earplugs every time you step inside the car! More noise reduction!

Probably also will be fitted new rubber suspension cones as I have no idea how old the ones fitted are and I guess that they harden considerably after time?

Note to self: Buy cone compressor for front end.

The inside is lovely and discreetly customised... which will probably double the dismantlement time! Centre console (intrudes on foot/clutch but Mrs B gets on fine with it so that's what matters!), discreet steroe install - front Custom Console pods - very nice! Dashboard is polished mahogony type from, I think, a Princess Van Den Plas? Wooden rim Mountney steering wheel and ye olde de-luxe leather effect black seats stolen from aforementioned Bag Of Nails from eBay!

I'm also hoping to save time with the interior of the roof as it has no liner - just a fabriccy type carpet affair! Seems to make the car seem roomier too with more headroom.

All that really remains to do is buy more shelfage for the garage to attempt to give me enough floor space for the car! (Very handy!) Buy some dolly wheels so I can move the car in all directions when the wheels are off. Possibly another trolley-jack so I can lower subframes etc single-handedly. Most importantly buy a severely long length of electrical cable (100ft or so) to make an extension lead that will reach from the house to round the corner to the garage, and enough sockets to allow me to put a light up and run a little fan heater so I can make the most of time in winter - and power the electric tools for much fun and noise! Why does using an angle grinder make you feel so manly!

I am guessing that it won't get done until I start it - it's the "starting it" bit I'm nervous about!

Next up though is to get the blue Mini up to Mini Sport for it's rolling road tune, electronic ignition fit and brake servo cylinder fit - yes I can do that myself but I really can't be bothered!

That's booked in for Friday 14th Jan - a couple of days later will see Mr Stereo Install himself, Neil Carpenter, put my 1000w bass box and Amp in where the old rear seat was!

By the way, after a lot of hard work inbetween building its engine - the dash rails above are now covered in the same blue vinyl as the speaker pods and dash. Just need to sort those door cards out!

That's it for now!

So what's the big plan Charlie?!

2005-01-02T22:11:00.000Z

Hang on lads... I've got a great idea!!!

What's the story behind this re-born Mini then?!

Well, Percy has been a good servant to us over the last couple of years or so. Obviously there's been the odd hiccup or two but on the whole the car is as mechanically sound as it's possible for a daily driven non-show type Mini to be! After all, it was not too long ago he was in a garage in millions of bits having a complete overhaul.

Last year his engine was smoking more than a world war 1 trench-man so I garnered the courage together to take the engine out of PBE324M and swap it over. As with all jobs you've never done before this was a lesson in itself and taught me plenty I had no idea existed! It also led to me buying a tonne of new and different tools and eventually a super-duper wheeled tool cabinet from Halfords Industrial range to put the lot in to (thanks to Father-In-Law for getting it home to me in the back of his car!) I also bought a Sealey 1 tonne hydraulic crane to save me the trouble of getting 3 lads round with tent-poles to hoik a power plant out again! How Elaine and her Mum laughed when I got my first large plastic toolbox with just a hammer and a few old mismatched spanners wallowing around inside it's emptiness, I've now got more toolage and gizmo's than I can wave a shitty stick at!

Well, the engine went in OK and even got us down to Brighton and back before it started making a whole host of wierd whining noises! A visit to the garage ended up with us paying to have the unit overhauled so it now effectively has a 'new' engine!

With that in mind - and it's hopefull state of mechanical soundness, the only thing that has been letting it down is it's paintwork. To be fair, it looks as old as it's registration plate!

When it was being restored, it's paintwork was done in our hanger at work over one weekend and, fine as it looks when you've just washed it, it really lets the car down. There's little blobs flaking off here and there and it just looks flat. Flat as a pancake.

I had often wondered, as I was attempting another new Mini task Haynes book in hand, whether I would ever be able to build one from scratch myself and I guess this is the ideal opportunity to find out on a car that should be relatively easy to dismantle having been only recently re-mantled (if such a word exists!)

So here's the big plan.....

Strip the car down to it's bare shell
Decide on a colour scheme!
Have a professional full-on respray done by somewhere who deals with Mini's
Prior to this a full panel inspection, bits replaced where necessary
Rebuild the car to a glory yet seen!

Sounds simple, and I'm sure it will be....................... NOT!

This blog was set up to detail and document the story as I go along and maybe allow people to see that something constructive has been going on while I've been locked up in the garage all evening!

The story continues...

2005-01-02T21:20:00.000Z

Well since then we have had more than a few trials and tribulations with Percy but also a whole bundle of laughs - more of that as we go along!

Maybe now is an appropriate time to introduce a the current members of our little pocket-sized family!

The car on the left is my little pride and joy which has recently undergone fairly extensive surgery - more of that later I expect - and the car on the right is our latest acquisition, a 1978 Mini Clubman, bought for £800 from a nice lady in Coventry via eBay!

This picture was taken this morning 2nd Jan 2005 (seems odd writing that!) and was almost immediately followed by a hasty session with bucket and sponge when we realised just how filthy they all were!

The young lady on the right is my beautiful wife Elaine! Fortunately she is as mad as a hatter and takes such things as complete engine rebuilds in the middle of her living room carpet well in her stride!

Prior to purchasing the light blue Cooper-alike we had a rather nasty experience with a short lived member of the family who has since gone on to pastures new - although not before we had removed it's engine and seats for a little mid-term work on Percy!

OK I'm getting the hang of this picture insertion lark now, which bodes well for the future!!!

The above car was another eBay purchase which taught me more than a few salient lessons regarding "auction fever"!

Nice paintjob but unfortunately all front and no knickers! Electrics by Stevie Wonder and bodywork by Coco The Clown! In fact how the doors didn't fall off sideways and a little dwarf run up and 'pour' a bucket of glitter over your head every time you got out of it I will never know! I shall never forget a drive back from Rushden after a football game in pretty heavy rain and seeing possibly 3" of water sitting in the rear oddment pockets! Delightful! I've heard that in the old days they just used to drill a little hole in them to let the water drain out! I didn't even waste £40 putting that one through its MOT, just plonked it back on eBay and managed to recoup £360 back!

Well, with a spirited burst of 'blogging' you are now up to speed on the brief outlines of our lovely little family!

Our "Mini" Family

2005-01-02T19:34:00.000Z

A few years ago a new addition to our family came along.

Via an advert in Auto Trader, a red Mini RAL973X was bought for my wife for £900. It was a bit of a wreck, leaked like a sieve, never started in the mornings (or evenings!) and replaced a very reliable Renault Clio! It also had a whole bucket load of character!

An adventure was about to begin - we had became Mini-acs!

Ralphy, as he came to be known, was probably worth about £250 to be honest but we were new to the second hand car buying game and new to Mini's and the bloke seemed so nice!!!

Now, at this time in history I knew absolutely nothing about cars - except how to drive them! I had, I think, probably changed a pair of brake pads on an Escort, but that was about it! I had no tools and even less of a clue!

Assisted by my good friend - the extremely patient, understanding and brilliantly clever Mr. Justin Starr we carried out a bit of a service on the car. Well, it was more like the last rites than a service - but it enabled it to limp along for a year through wind, rain and snow until the fateful day when the law necessitated that we take it along to the garage for it's annual MOT.

The sky was overcast and cold, and the heavens seemed to open in tears as if we were taking a favourite pet to be put down! Needless to say, the car passed.....

..... no sorry, make that the car was past it!

If I remember rightly it failed on every ball joint worn, steering rack worn, every brake line corroded to within an inch of it's life and that was about it before the mechanic fell about in fits of laughter!

Now then. As I told this story to Justin and began enquiring as to how we could fix everything he came up with what's probably known as 'a cunning plan'!

He had just spent the last 18 months rebuilding a 1963 Mini that he bought for £100 and had to go and collect from a field in Wales! Half the field came back with the car, but in his cold damp garage he toiled and laboured until the day that a beautiful pea-green restored car - registration 571VT - was driven out to a herald of tickertape and fanfare!

The 'cunning plan', for indeed it was such, was that we purchase said beauty from Mr. Starr for a discounted price of £2000. In the end we paid £2500 for the car and the registration plate, for which we have a written offer of £1000 from a registration plate selling company!

Percy the Pea Green Mini had became our latest Son!