Brian's Shop

[MiniDave]

I was invited to go see a "barn full" of Minis with another local Mini guy, John Styers. When we got there it wasn't quite what I expected.....the "barn" was frickin huge, and it was in fact full of cars - some of them were Minis - a Pup, a Traveler, a race Mini, a Moke and the subject of the whole trip, a 1960 Mk I project which was in a whole 'nother shed!

There also were 20 or more other cars, 2 Berkleys - a 4 wheel and a 3 wheel, several cool old MG's and Lotus, 2 real Super 7's, a Lotus 11 (Westfield) an early Europa, a Corvette, a Manta, a 1930 MG "M" , several Morgans, several Triumphs including a Standard roadster, a 52 Rolls Silver Cloud I and on and on......

I thought he had a bunch of Minis and Mini parts he wanted to sell, turns out all he wanted to sell out of the collection was the 1960 Mk I, which is all there but needs a complete restoration. The good news is I saw NO rust, anywhere, on it. So if someone is interested in a Mini project, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the owner......

A few pics then.....these first are of the outside of the shop, and then the main part on the inside, showing the size of this thing, and a look at part of the work area where metal work is done.

[MiniDave]

In the garage part around the outside, we had cars stored.....it was really close quarters in there and hard to get good shots of the cars, plus most were under covers....

[MiniDave]

A few more.....

[MiniDave]

Brian is recently retired, so he hopes he'll be able to finish a few of the 50 or so projects he already has in the works, and he bemoans the fact that he just doesn't have time to drive these cars....he just built a house in the Fla Keys, and a few will be moving down there soon. He also has a 2006 Elise that he custom ordered and a few other "daily drivers"....

Here are the pics of the 1960 car that he wants to sell.....

[Willie_B]

Lots of really neat stuff there. Going to hard to decide what to keep.

[94touring]

That is cool. How much did he want for the mk1?

[MiniDave]

PM sent...

No comments about the orange car?

[John Gervais]

I think the orange car is cool - what is it?

[BruceK]

Wow that is some collection.  Reminds me of the basement of the Lane Museum and all the cool cars stored there.  Some very cool cars.   And I spotted some Mini Pickup taillights too!   What kinda car was that?  Looked like a British trials car made out of an old Austin Seven.

[MPlayle]

The left side of that green Moke reminds me of the side of mine - no false cubby cover indents along the tank area.

On mine it is due to flat sheet steel reconstruction of the pontoon at some point in the past.

[MiniDave]

The silver car is an Austin 7 trials car, I also saw the Mini taillights on that one.....

And the orange car is a Manta - 80's super car, huge Chevy engine mounted in the rear, 4 speed transaxle out of a Corvair of all things driving those enormous rear wheels.

[MiniDave]

A couple of people have expressed an interest in the 60 Mini, so I hope it gets restored and on the road someday!

The other thing I'm going to do is lean on him to get one of his Mini's out and on the road to join us on our run this fall.

[Jims5543]

Solid plan, I see a lot of really sad cars there that should be driven.

I hate to see cool cars sitting with flat tires collecting dust, almost as bad as a parked car show. I prefer an Autocross, that it is a car show of happy cars getting the wheels driven off them too.

So many cool cars there. 

[MiniDave]

Brian has a couple of questions about his Pup, one of the doors fits poorly, he thinks it may not be a door for a Pup.....looking for help on how to fix it or what door he needs......here are a few pics showing the bad door and the good left side one.

[tsumini]

I took the photos and reversed the image of the drivers door and overlaid the contour onto the PAX door. It did show a definite contour difference. Cosmetically I would simply weld a section and re-contour to match the door frame.
If he exams both doors from the other side and sees a difference in the contour of the door itself then I would guess wrong door. But if door contour is the same but the skin contour is off as shown, then maybe weld patch is good.
BTW top of door gap is not very good fit either.

[BruceK]

I'm sure Dan will know, but the only change to the door profile there I am aware of is the introduction of the bodies for internal-hinged doors with roll-up windows.  I believe that all external-hinged doors of the Mk. I & Mk. II cars and the pickup and vans should be completely identical and interchangeable.

This issue of the different door profile usually shows up when wood kits, made for the authentic round-nose Traveller & Countryman models with sliding window doors, are attempted to be fitted to square-nose Clubman estate bodies with roll-up window doors.  A Clubman-body estate needs a special wood kit to account for that differently shaped door frame it has. 

So, I don't think it is a door issue at all - my guess is that somebody fitted a panel for a roll-up window body on that Pickup - at least at the trailing edge of the door frame.

[94touring]

Just looks to be sagging to me.  There are only external and internal hinge doors.  If it has been reskinned it could be a poor knockoff panel.  I'd start with getting new hinges and fixing the sag.

[MPlayle]

I'm inclined to say a combination of sagging (top of door alignment as Dan pointed out) and reskinned at some time with the wrong style outer skin (roll-up skin instead of slider skin).

[MiniDave]

Cool - great information guys, thanks!

I sent this on over to Brian and invited him to join us on the forum.......I'm also teasing him about getting one of his Minis out and joining us on our Cuba run this fall. So far he hasn't taken the bait, but we'll see......

[94touring]

Pretty sure you can't put a roller skin on a slider door.  The curves are just too different. 

[94touring]

Took a mk1 skin and put it in a mk3 frame.  Heres how badly it fits.  Had to take two shots because I didn't have enough arms to hold it.  This is it centered up.

[94touring]

While I'm at it, here's a sagged door vs unsagged.

[MPlayle]

We have a winner!

Dan's "sagged vs. unsagged" comparison is a match to the gap on Brian's Pup.

[MiniDave]

Cool, I sent Brian this info too......

[tsumini]

We have a winner!

Dan's "sagged vs. unsagged" comparison is a match to the gap on Brian's Pup.

I agree and flip flop. I presumed photo was perpendicular to the door but in fact wasn't creating a parrallax view of the compound curve of door. I did note the gap on top alluding to sag  but unable to connect with sag.