505 replies to this topic

[Badboytunes]

Chuffed for you pal, look forward to seeing the end results !!!

[jamesmpi]

Photos aren't working in previous post....

[keefr22]

I'm glad you enjoyed reading, as I've said before and as the title suggests I never intended on keeping it!! But I've really grown rather attached to the little bugger. 
 
 
Well what do you know, I keep forgetting that because of these threads my cars all over the internet! The Goodyears actually came on a set of wheels. I bought them as part of a job lot of wheels last year so purely by chance. It looked like they'd been on those wheels for some time. There was rumor of them being reproduced a few years back but nothing came of it I believe. 
 
I pulled them off once they decided to eat my front wing, that and they rubbed the rears as the slightest sign of any weight over the rear!
I still have them in my garage though.....
 
Ahh my GT knowledge. Everything I've learned has been over the past few years, a lot of internet research, through books, going through original brochures, (this is a massive help).  Also looking at the cars in the flesh is really helpful, just take what people say is original with a pinch of salt. A lot of what I know came from my dad, he's really into his mini's, especially GT's and Coopers,  he's also been around them for a long long time. I'm actually still quite young, my GT being 14 years older than I am, so I can't claim from experience yet. I think I've built up quite a wide array of GT knowledge, got a little obsessed really! 
 
If you don't fancy trying to source the brochures this website is brilliant, especially if you want to get into the real details of it. 
 
http://www.delius.pw...5gt/default.htm
 
 
Another goldmine of information is the mini cooper register forum, the 1275 GT section has some really good information if you go back through it. It used to have some serious traffic and was very active, but due to virus scares and being down for a number of months it's really quieted down.
(I have a thread on there too)
 
http://forum.minicoo...-gt/-1275-gt-aa
 
for example here's a really good list of the original colour charts for each year.
 
http://forum.minicoo...70-s-bl-colours
 
 
 
A book I got a lot of information on the racing history of GT's was this one. 
 
http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/0947981403
 
I hope this helps you get a grasp on it, and please ask any more questions if you think of any.
 
A full and comprehensive rebuild will be posted about on here as soon as I get around to it! 
 
Joe

Many thanks for the reply Joe, I shall be off to check out those links in a bit! I had a suspicion that your dad might have a bit of Mini knowledge looking at that lovely yellow peril of his - he probably grew up with them when they were new like I did with the Escort! I guessed you were quite young from some of your responses to posts on the thread. Unfortunately I have no Mini knowledge to pass onto my son, so we're both finding our way around it together - bit like the blind leading the blind sometimes...!!! For what i always thought was a 'simple' little car they can be a nightmare on times!

Shame that Goodyear don't still do that style Ultragrip, I used to love those tyres!

Really good news about the insurance payout, & I look forward to seeing your rebuild thread!

I forgot to mention that our Clubby (red & black as per the avatar now) also started out as a metallic blue one!

All the best
Keith

[72clubman]

Photos aren't working in previous post....

 

All sorted now.

 

 

Many thanks for the reply Joe, I shall be off to check out those links in a bit! I had a suspicion that your dad might have a bit of Mini knowledge looking at that lovely yellow peril of his - he probably grew up with them when they were new like I did with the Escort! I guessed you were quite young from some of your responses to posts on the thread. Unfortunately I have no Mini knowledge to pass onto my son, so we're both finding our way around it together - bit like the blind leading the blind sometimes...!!! For what i always thought was a 'simple' little car they can be a nightmare on times!

Shame that Goodyear don't still do that style Ultragrip, I used to love those tyres!

Really good news about the insurance payout, & I look forward to seeing your rebuild thread!

I forgot to mention that our Clubby (red & black as per the avatar now) also started out as a metallic blue one!

All the best
Keith

 

 

No problem. It's amazing how immersed you can get with these simple cars! 

That was like my father an I a few years back, he's amazing for everything but has never really touched bodywork before. Didn't have a clue what we were doing! Good practise though.

 

My dad's had a few, the white one in the trio was also his. I'm still going on that one as well before you ask! He really loves his GT's. The black GT earlier in the thread was my uncles.

Speaking of the yellow GT I bought a set of wheels for it last week. They arrived today, I'll put them on at the weekend for all to judge. They're made by GKN....

 

I always liked the idea of getting into early escorts, or even cortinas, but the prices have just shot up recently. I'm currently playing around with the idea of a Rover SD1.... 

 

 

Oh that is cool! Do you know if it was Astral or Denim blue? 

 

Joe

Edited by 72clubman, 01 May 2014 - 10:56 PM.

[keefr22]

I always liked the idea of getting into early escorts, or even cortinas, but the prices have just shot up recently. I'm currently playing around with the idea of a Rover SD1.... 
 
 
Oh that is cool! Do you know if it was Astral or Denim blue? 
 
Joe

Prices of Escorts are just stupid now, way out of my reach unfortunately. Much as I love the Mini I'd swap it for a Mk1 Escort in a heartbeat! I drove a couple of SD1's back in the day when I was working for Sony & they had them as company cars. The pool 2600 was absolutely horrible - finger light power steering with a single spoke steering wheel meant you often had no idea which way the front wheels were pointing! However my bosses 3500 V8 was a totally different kettle of fish - a bit of a beast for its time, & great fun to hustle down A & B roads, & it would just waft along the Motorway at rather illegal speeds! I bet a Vitesse would be fun!

I don't know which blue it was to be honest Joe, I had a quick look through the links to the colour charts you gave me, but didn't look properly as originality isn't really of much interest - the guy that had the car before didn't even use a BL red, sprayed it RAL3003 'RubyRot' - a German colour for some reason! I know rubyrot means ruby red, but given the amount of welding we've had to do, the Rot bit was quite apt! Only reason I know it was a metallic blue is that he didn't repaint the windscreen pillars next to the screen, & when I cleaned off all the underseal gunk he'd put on the inside floor (!) the colour was there too.

Keith

[72clubman]

Prices of Escorts are just stupid now, way out of my reach unfortunately. Much as I love the Mini I'd swap it for a Mk1 Escort in a heartbeat! I drove a couple of SD1's back in the day when I was working for Sony & they had them as company cars. The pool 2600 was absolutely horrible - finger light power steering with a single spoke steering wheel meant you often had no idea which way the front wheels were pointing! However my bosses 3500 V8 was a totally different kettle of fish - a bit of a beast for its time, & great fun to hustle down A & B roads, & it would just waft along the Motorway at rather illegal speeds! I bet a Vitesse would be fun!

I don't know which blue it was to be honest Joe, I had a quick look through the links to the colour charts you gave me, but didn't look properly as originality isn't really of much interest - the guy that had the car before didn't even use a BL red, sprayed it RAL3003 'RubyRot' - a German colour for some reason! I know rubyrot means ruby red, but given the amount of welding we've had to do, the Rot bit was quite apt! Only reason I know it was a metallic blue is that he didn't repaint the windscreen pillars next to the screen, & when I cleaned off all the underseal gunk he'd put on the inside floor (!) the colour was there too.

Keith

 

 

 

Ahh my dad had a 3500 Vanden Plas, absolute beast. Sadly it was nicked quite a few years ago. Ever since I've had an itch for one. I'm hankering after a twin plenum Vitesse especially after going to Longbridge. I spent about 20 minutes talking to a guy about his.

 

That is funny about the rot colour, how apt on a mini! The same reason I knew mine was blue then! The rear parcel shelf hadn't been painted green. Going through the charts I was pretty sure I knew the colour. I cheekily had a friend over at heritage check for me though.

 

 

Here's a sneaky peak of what I managed to get. I much prefer the silverstones, but have always been curious as to the differences.

The offset is all wrong to begin with, might have to have a play with spacers...

 

 

Joe

[keefr22]

They look nice! I have to admit though that Minilites are my all time favourite wheel & I'd have them over anything else if I could afford them!

[surfblue63]

 

 

 

Here's a sneaky peak of what I managed to get. I much prefer the silverstones, but have always been curious as to the differences.

The offset is all wrong to begin with, might have to have a play with spacers...

 

 

Joe

 

 

Those wheels are Metro wheels, as fitted to the Metro Challenge cars, hence the large offset when compared to the 1275GT Challenge wheels.

[72clubman]

They are indeed, I've always wanted to see the difference between them, so when the opportunity came I snapped them up. They're on now with a little persuasion. I do still massively prefer the mini ones though. Just another set for the collection. :)

[Boris the Lion]

Hi Joe

Just read the entire thread after a search for "GKN Silverstones". I was not disappointed, that is a very nice GT, and Im sooo jealous of your collection of GKN's. Id love some in black for my Clubby Estate, but they're like gold dust, and im on an uber-tight budget. Im gutted about the smash up, that's really awful. Glad you got ieverything squared away with the insurers though and the best of luck with the rebuild.

On a completely random note, where did you get the cool image of your car that appears at the bottom of your posts? Its pretty neat and Id like one too 

Thanks 

Olly

[72clubman]

Hi there Olly.

Ahh the GKN's, they really are the best wheels for clubmans. I've never seen a set on an estate though, I would love to see that.

Good luck searching, it certainly took long enough for me to find a set, although I've managed to build a modest collection. :)

You'd be very lucky to find a set let alone a cheap set, unless you strike gold and find some badly advertised like I did! 

If you do please don't paint them black! You lose all the detail of the wheel, gun metal maybe. ;)

 

Jonathan Lewis did a Challenge GT replica with the wheels black and I'm not a fan. It's all personal preference though.

 

 

Photo nicked from mab01uk's photobucket, I hope he doesn't mind!

 

Here's my collection.

 

 

 

Each wheel has a respective set :) I couldn't be arsed to drag all of them out! 

 

 

If anyone was interested in the difference between the Silverstone and the Unipart GAW122 ( the uniparts are on unprofiled firestone 145, compared to the 165 yokos on the Silverstones)

 

 

Aahhh I'm still heartbroken, DWE is tucked away in the garage at home until I can find the time and motivation to pull it apart.

Sadly it might be a while due to work commitments. 

I did come home a few weekends ago to find this though! 

 

 

Certainly didn't help the poor stricken GT. 

They're my least favourite wheel, especially on a 70's car.

Had a lovely comment from my dad when it got put into the garage.

"It actually looked quite good before, now the whole thing just looks ****."

 

I have to agree artificial light is not kind! it's gonna need a lot of work to get it to where I want it! 

 

Ahh I found a link on the forum to this site

 

http://www.oildrippers.de/

 

You can try to recreate your car! Shame they don't offer GKN's! 

 

 

They look nice! I have to admit though that Minilites are my all time favourite wheel & I'd have them over anything else if I could afford them!

 

Hi Keith, 

Sorry I forgot to reply to this! 

I also love minilites, I think the GKN's suit the clubman better though. 

 

When I was deciding the spec on my first project (early 10" clubman in my little pic)  I was adamant that it was to have 10" minilites. 

 

I got these in january 2010! The nuts where a perfect fit for the Unipart GAW122's I just picked up! 

 

 

They're still in the box unused! 

 

While I'm on the subject of that car I wanted the option of putting it back to standard so managed to pick these up as well.

 

 

Apart from real Denovos ( I use regular steels and jam in the trims) I now have every wheel type offered through the factory or special tuning for the Mini 1275 GT. Well I think I do, am I missing any!?

 

 

What can I say I have a little thing for wheels...

 

Joe

Edited by 72clubman, 21 May 2014 - 02:47 AM.

[keefr22]

 

That is stunning! Wonder if the number plate is genuine?! I do usually like black wheels, but agree you do lose all the detail in this case.
 

They look nice! I have to admit though that Minilites are my all time favourite wheel & I'd have them over anything else if I could afford them!

 
Hi Keith, 
Sorry I forgot to reply to this! 
I also love minilites, I think the GKN's suit the clubman better though. 
 
When I was deciding the spec on my first project (early 10" clubman in my little pic)  I was adamant that it was to have 10" minilites.

No worries Joe, it was just a comment really, wasn't expecting a reply anyway! Wish our Clubby had come with GKN's - I'd have happily sold them to you to fund some Minilites...!!   
 

What can I say I have a little thing for wheels...

Yep, just a small compulsion it seems! Nice collection...!!

Keith

[Boris the Lion]

Thanks for the reply. I'm very impressed with your collection, though I definitely prefer the silverstones over the uniparts. I Must admit it was the mini magazine feature on Jonathan Lewis' car a few months ago that introduced me to the silverstones. I'd always intended to paint mine black and yellow when its done, so I think its got to have black wheels, though I agree they lose some of their impact in black. It would be interesting to see some in that metallicy gunmetal colour that's popular in Japan.
I will keep searching though, I might get lucky. Best of luck with the rebuild when you get around to it, she did look very nice on the silverstones!
Thanks a lot, I'll have a go at making one, it might be useful trying out colour schemes etc.
Thanks
Olly

[72clubman]

So not much of an update but due to a new arrival the poor GT has lost it garage space.

So instead of it coming off the road and a full resto, I'm going to try and run it. Decided to do some damage assessment to see if it's even possible.

After being left for 6 weeks she fired first time, didn't even need a battery boost. Mechanically it wasn't damaged, although the shunt has caused an oil leak from the oil filter pipework. So that needs looking at.

It also crushed the wiring for the sidelight, but thats easily rectified.

Even bodging it needs a new wing, but If I want to eventually fit a new inner wing it seems like a waste. 

 

So one very bent grill.

 

 

One big mess. I'm not sure if it's better or worse with all the trim off. 

 

 

The underrider took such a hit it cut into the front panel! 

 

 

 

 

Next step is to start hitting it straight. The main concern is sidelight, and headlight panel. Hopefully get it pointing it straight again.

 

Joe

 

 

 

 

[72clubman]

So poor GT has had an interesting day. It involved a lot of hammers.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's gone from a 20 footer to a if you squint it doesn't look completely awful...

 

More to come tomorrow.

 

Joe