Acquisition:

Firstly I didn't go out looking to buy another Mini, not even another car for that matter. It all started when Dave told me that another member of our mini club had a mini that he wanted rid of from his already crowded driveway. We didn't know (or care!) what it was except that it had in it a recently rebuilt metro turbo engine installed which we wanted for one of our other minis, we pretty agreed to buy it unseen.

When we went to collect the car we were confronted by a BRIGHT yellow clubman - everyday was a sunny day with this parked on your driveway!

Inspection:

When we got the mini home we had a good look over it an realised that what we had wasn't exactly a standard 1275GT...

Full body has been deseamed
Vinyl roof fitted that extends down below rear window
Innocenti type windows with electric winders
Webasto folding sunroof
Four headlamp type grill

A little bit of research led us to one possibility, a Wood and Pickett conversion, unfortunately W&P have no records of their older cars as they were all lost when Henlys owned W&P in the 1980's. However I have been in contact with W&P and sent them detailed photos of the car and they are confident that it is a W&P Mini Margrave! They have allowed me to purchase one of their large W&P Coachbuilt badges - only ever fitted to Minis that were built at W&P Coachworks.

The research into it's history is still ongoing.

The windows are a classic feature of a W&P conversion of the time and I'd expect very difficult to come by if you weren't W&P, even more so in electric form. The reason for the use of the quarterlight windows was to enable them to fit a winder motor in the front of the door below where the window does not wind down into. These systems are not the same as the slimline electric sets you can buy today from W&P and others! This system is rare but not unique as I did see another identical set for sale on the internet.

The four headlamp grill is also a classic W&P feature, however this one is different. The usual W&P grill was a modified Vauxhall Ventora grill. This one is clearly not like that, but it also cannot be easily dismissed as not W&P, the grill on this rather nice W&P GT is not like that either and it is certainly genuine, however it's not exactly like mine either!

Decisions, Decisions

After looking into it a bit I decided to have a go at restoring it. I'd always wanted a Clubman but had been thwarted as my other half never liked the slab fronted too much - but now was my chance! Although se wasn't too happy as it meant not starting on her mini restoration project (save that for another year day).

First job was to remove the engine and get that sent on its way for installing in our other mini. In a way its a shame that someone cut and modified the bulkhead on the mini as is necessary for turbo fitting (I dont intend to turbo this car) but on the other hand if that turbo engine hadn't been there I wouldn't have the car at all so I can't complain.

Initial work is going to involve replacing the sills and parts of the floor that are rusty, but like most of these projects what you can see is usually just the tip of the iceberg. I'd better get good at welding real quick!

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