My dream car came to me by accident, and like all accidents I wasn't exactly prepared for the purchase or it's arrival. While in the garage of an old friend of my fathers I made the mistake of saying "I'd love another Mini" while admiring his A-series collection, which led to me getting the opportunity of first refusal on a "1963 Mini I have out back" once the snow melted and it could be brought out of hiding. A more thorough pre-purchase inspection would have probably given me second thought, instead my childish excitement and enthusiasm got the best of me and I bought it. I mean how often does a LHD MK1 Mini come your way in small town Ontario, Canada? Not very often I'll tell you.
Once the snow melted and it was able to view this was how I saw the car prior to purchase, inside a car hauler:
The previous owner had completed a large amount of metalwork already, which was appealing. He had replaced floors (minus the tunnel), repaired the boot floor, patched the flitch and toe board, replaced the door steps and A-panels, and extensively patched the boot floor.
My Mini is a Canadian delivered LHD car that lived most of it's life on the west coast of Canada until it was recovered by complete chance by the previous owner, days before it was to be sent for scrap metal. He was on his way back from an unsuccessful attempt at rescuing a Countryman when he happened upon the car. It's ride across the country looked like this:
The car made it's way into my garage as a shell on a rotisserie with a metric crap-ton of miscellaneous parts. I'm sure it's obvious why I became immediately overwhelmed with the project. It's arrival also sidelined the existing project you will see in the background.
It took me another year to sort, organize and store all the parts in order to give me adequate room to work. There was also the hurdle of getting the car registered in my name, which here requires all vehicles 25 years and older to be appraised for value (for payment of taxes at time of registration) they no longer will believe a receipt of sale only. This meant I needed to get the car appraised and registered in my name prior to completing any work, for fear of increasing it's value and my tax bill. There were gaps in the paperwork history of the car and the provided registration was from the last owner on the west coast in 1983, plus the car was registered as a 1963 model too. I purchased a BMH Certificate to back up my research which told me this was a 1965 car. The Certificate also tells me that this car was originally outfitted with an optional '4kw heater' for the cold Canadian winters. I'll be the first to admit I dragged my feet to get the registration done as I was still feeling overwhelmed with the purchase and the mountain of work in front of me.
I look forward to sharing my project with you guys!
To be continued...
