ria@miniacs.co.uk

1980 Leyland Mini 1293cc, stage 1 kit.

My Mini came to me in August 2003 after James got a phonecall about it at the
Reading festival. It was everything I wanted (blue and cheap). A while later it was
collected from Surrey by James, Neil and a dodgy trailer and cost me £300. I was
chuffed!

Phase 2 is almost complete! Skip to the bottom for the Blue One’s engine transplant!
  

from this...

   

...to this

The Plan

One hot and boring day on Koh Tao, Neil and I put pen to paper and with the help of MiniMag, MiniWorld and a pocket calculator, decided that some money needed to be spent to achieve my Mini dreams (and repair the damage caused by the combination of a lamp-post and my right foot). The Mini received a whole new front end, rear valance, a re-spray of the blue bits, front bumper, mk1 grill kit, 7.5" Cooper S disc brake conversion, new carpet and headlining, wheels and tyres, interior door handles and other interesting and expensive marvellous Mini modifications!

Phase 1

To start off The Mini needed the brakes sorted as they failed the previous MOT. Matt happened to say that he had some disc brakes to fit 10" wheels just laying around in the garage. Neil went and had a look and they turned out to be 7.5" Cooper S disc brakes, result! It cost a mere £130 to refurbish them, a saving of around £500!

   

   

It took a long time to get the brakes refurbished and fitted as we were constantly driving back and forth from Enfield to Sevenoaks, combined with me visiting my Mum in Ireland for four days. But eventually it was finished, and they worked! Imagine that...!

The next job was to weld on a new rear valance which was done by Matt, Neil patched up the damage around the headlight at the same time. Then the steering rack was removed and replaced with a quick rack. Some new blue carpet and a second hand bonnet were purchased at Southern Mini Days.

I bought some 60's Dunlop wheels from Sevenoaks Minis and they sprayed them blue for me. Neil put my head steady on after the excessive movement of the engine cracked my exhaust manifold (which he had to replace too!).

     

I got all the new panels for my front end and they have been welded on at Sevenoaks Minis. There were a few more rusty bits than were expected so some patching up was required. The new headlining has been fitted, the blue bits have been sprayed blue again and now the Mini is really beautiful!

   

   

Phase 2

When you have a Mini the work never ends. You think you have finished and either something breaks, falls off, or an opportunity arises that you just have to take. Fortunately this time it was the latter. The offer was of a second hand (but still rather new) engine. The Blue One is finally gonna be able to keep up!

Neil made the most wonderful gesture of painting it blue for me and the old engine was whipped out and replaced with the new one in no time at all, he’s getting rather quick after all that practice!

To make it lovelier still, I spent a Sunday painting the engine bay blue and black.

  

  

The dashboard was covered by Linz and Neil a while ago in some cream vinyl bought off ebay. Neil also made a nice speaker board for some 6x9’s and covered that in blue vinyl to go under the back seat. Marsha also made some new door card covers for me which are excellent! By the time L2B is upon us The Mini will feel like an entirely new beast!

  

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