I guess the Mini bug infected me first when my Dad brought home a Clubman Van when I was about 12 years old. He rebuilt it in the garage, can’t remember how long it took him, but he put a cool little sunroof in it and after he finished it looked schmicko.
But not for long.. he let us boys ( my twin brother and I ) learn to drive in it and it didn’t take long before we were belting around our 2 acre property (the suspension did pretty well considering the punishment it copped in the paddock) Well the inevitable happened.. the panels didn’t stay straight for long. We all know the mini is small but it was not small enough on this occasion.
While entertaining a neighbour in the Mini one afternoon, I decided that straight line speed and a little obstacle racing was in order. So upon encountering a big fence on one side and a big tree on the other, my solution was to go straight in between the lot…good theory, wrong practice. ‘El Cruncho!”
As I said before minis are small but not that small!. The front left wing caught a fence post and that was that. The usual profanities ensued as well as my life flashing before my as I realised the damage I had just inflicted on my dads fave little Min Min. Not much comes to mind about prevailing events except to say it was my job to pull the damaged panel off, not an easy task amongst the weld and everything else chucked in. They don’t call them bricks for nothing.
Never the less the infection lasted until we moved to Townsville and after coming of age dad bought me another van. This time a 1964 Morris Minivan we found up in a shed outside Ingham. After shelling out $300 for the complete car, it was on a trailer and taken safely home. My first car.
Thus began the inevitable rebuild, to what condition though was left in conjecture.
With diamond dreams on a mud budget the van was gutted. Surprise , there was hardly any rust in it, and the floor was A1. The worm had only eaten the seam moulds…easy fix. The engine was a runner and quite well as it stood so it was decided to leave it alone. Usual bits and pieces were replaced, brakes rebuilt (don’t know whether that made any difference!)
It slowly got rebuilt, and when I say slowly I mean about one and a half years. But finally it was on the road in time for when I got my P plates.
I think it still had the old 8 ply tyres on the steel rims, not crash hot for handling ability. To test this theory, I decided to combine very wet weather, excessive speed and a handbrake and promptly put it into a gutter. Making the left side look like a hover craft with the wheels tucked neatly under the engine and floor respectively.
Not to worry , 2 minutes after I did this a green 323 came belting around the other way to greet the corner on the other side of the road, he however refused to get out of the car opted to crunch it into first, rev the snot out of the engine and crab the rest of the way home. Oh well only a 323, me on the other hand had just bent my classic mini. However upon closer inspection, about 4 hours out the back yard and riding to the wrecker on a pushie, she was back on the road being driven a lot slower.
She served very well the last 3 years and amongst the mountains of problems (that you expect from a 36 year old car) I still love her to bits.......which is probably what she would be in, if I had stayed 16!!
April 2001