1970 mini 1275 gt

[philsford]

Hi I have been looking on here for weeks and thought I would register.

I have owned this mini for just over a year now, when I noticed it for sale I had to have it being 1 of my favorites from when I showing my first mini about 10 years ago.



When I brought it there were a few problems with it. The gearbox was crunching between gears and the brakes were seized so I stripped the front end and had the box rebuilt along with changing the pedal box, discs and calipers.

It seemed wrong to just put it back together so I detailed the engine bay to match the bodywork.



I have removed the rear subframe yesterday to give the underside the same treatment. Will add pics as I go.

Here are a few pics of the other cars I currently own.
This is the other mini my girlfriends. May start a thread on this as I will be removing the engine for some gearbox work soon.


My escort


Last of all my daily

[bazzateer]

Oooh, D1s, a cool trailer and the only factory FWD Escort worth having. Nice!

[themonster]

Welcome to Retro Rides. Love the car collection. ;D

[philsford]

Thanks for the comments. Progress has been a bit slow with the weather but I had the subframe blasted and powder coated.



Started cleaning the underside don't know what paint has been used before but it don't want to come off.



Finally have a pic of the work space.

[Speedle]

mini's = Love
daily=cool!

escort..... EPIC!!!! gief!!!

[jizzy gillespie]

cool mini,s, however, i love the pic of the escort in the bubble.. made me chuckle.

[philsford]

I know a lot of people don't belive in having a car and not using it but the escort is to good to knock about and I only drive it to shows. It suits me as I drive for a living and the last thing I want when I am not working is to drive. I enjoy doing the projects more than driving the cars.

Anyway I have done a bit more on the mini finally getting all the paint off and I had to do a couple of repairs. I gave it a coat of etch primer then seam sealer where needed then a coat of stone chip which is where I am up to now.

Here are the pics of it now unfortunatly I forgot to take photos in between.







Back at work tomorrow so a coat of tahiti blue will have to wait till the weekend.

[briandamaged]

Longman colours huh? That's gorgeous, I'm sure I took some 35mm piccies of that in 2000/2001 at one of the bigger Mini shows. Loving the Gusset Brown Clubby too!

Welcome to Retro-Rides.
;D

[grumpybadger]

Love the colour scheme, makes a nice change from red with cooper stripes and a union jack roof.

[philsford]

Feb 16, 2009 17:50:22 GMT @briandamaged said:

Longman colours huh? That's gorgeous, I'm sure I took some 35mm piccies of that in 2000/2001 at one of the bigger Mini shows. Loving the Gusset Brown Clubby too!

Welcome to Retro-Rides.
;D

Yes it is painted in patrick motor group colours which richard longman won the btcc in 1979. His original car is still around and was at the classic car show at the nec on the british mini club stand recently. Richard longman kept his race car for many years and sold it to the current owner not all that long ago I was told.

You may well have seen it all those years ago as I did, I think there is a plaque on the dash from 2000 and 2001 mini in the park. It was featured in Mini Magazine in 2001 and I never saw it again after 2001 as ownership changed and the then new owner very rarely used it and never went to a mini show in all the time he had it. This is the guy I got it off.

[philsford]

Feb 16, 2009 18:32:42 GMT grumpybadger said:

Love the colour scheme, makes a nice change from red with cooper stripes and a union jack roof.

Agreed why is it everyone seems to want theirs to be a cooper replica.

[briandamaged]

Feb 16, 2009 20:11:11 GMT philsford said:

Feb 16, 2009 17:50:22 GMT @briandamaged said:

Longman colours huh? That's gorgeous, I'm sure I took some 35mm piccies of that in 2000/2001 at one of the bigger Mini shows. Loving the Gusset Brown Clubby too!

Welcome to Retro-Rides.
;D

Yeah it was MiTP 2000...I was editor of my local Mini Club's mag at the time, and remember using my photo of it in our magazine. One of the nicest-looking Clubbies I've ever seen.

Looking forward to seeing it out there on the streets again!!!

Yes it is painted in patrick motor group colours which richard longman won the btcc in 1979. His original car is still around and was at the classic car show at the nec on the british mini club stand recently. Richard longman kept his race car for many years and sold it to the current owner not all that long ago I was told.

You may well have seen it all those years ago as I did, I think there is a plaque on the dash from 2000 and 2001 mini in the park. It was featured in Mini Magazine in 2001 and I never saw it again after 2001 as ownership changed and the then new owner very rarely used it and never went to a mini show in all the time he had it. This is the guy I got it off.

[philsford]

Unfortunatly I couldn't work today as my company car is still broken so I sprayed the final coats of tahiti blue this morning. Quite pleased with how it has come out to be honest.

[k18ary]

I remember reading about this car in one of the mini comics! Easily the nicest clubman I have seen! Love the work your doing on it as well.

C'mon the minis!!!! ;D

[jiminwatford]

Love the car!
are you sure that's tahiti blue? it's usually a lot darker?

[philsford]

Thanks for the comments. When I was doing the engine bay I took the bonnet to the paint shop I use for a match and as soon as I put the bonnet on the counter the guy said its tahiti blue, my response was are you sure I thought tahiti was dark blue? The response was not in the 70s.

I am going a bit futher than I wanted to with this, I brought it to take up santa pod, but as we go to a lot of mini shows I thought I would tidy it up a bit so I can park next to the brown one in concours. Don't get me wrong it will never beat the brown one in concours but I can keep my eye on it and have some fun on the strip too.

Progress is on hold now as I am waiting for the chrome guy to phone me as I took all the mounts for the subframe in to be done. I was told a week and that was a fortnight ago.

[Stig]

Loving all the cars! I'd seen you girlfriends brown Clubman in Mini World a few years ago, it convinced my then other half that she needed a brown Clubman too - and that I had to build it for her! Haha! Never did....

Nice to see some more interesting Minis about. To echo the earlier post, I can't stand people trying to make everything "Cooper" like!

[matttt3222]

what did you use to get the underside clean?
mines got loads of old underseal on it,i was thinking hot wallpaper stripper and a scraper?

[revvit]

Mr philsford..a very lucky man..possibly my favourite clubman on 'the scene' at the time..briefly.. then dissapeared as they do..so a lucky purchase...this was my last mini project..

Did the shows for a while and got very p'd off with MK1's etc with playstations fitted!..

[grumpybadger]

Sweet looking car, nice colour too.
I know what you mean about mini shows, I found them pretty intollerant of my mini based kit car.