All New Beaniemoo Project Build. Mini Clubman 1275gt

[Beaniemoo]

Well some of you may still remember us from our White Mk1 Clio build on here which has been thrashing about quite a lot and generally getting thrown out of circuits for being waaaaaay too noisy! Lol. It still needs a little bit of tinkering with but I suspect it always will..

Also under our belts we have Moo's old Saxo which is now sold, broken for parts and scrapped.

And so in the words of some famous bloke off the Tv "Time for something completely different"

During the summer a freind of mine aquired this 1972 Mini Clubman 1275gt. when it turned out he wasn't going to do anything with it i decided I had to have it!! So for the princely sum of £400 I took it from him.

But as the trackday season was still in full swing there just wasnt the time or money to do anything with it so it was consigned to the garage for a couple of months

However! Today we were at a bit of a loose end and decided that it was time to start on the mini. So we headed over to the garage and dragged the car out.

and started stripping...

Nothing too exciting to report really but just pics of a day stripping the car at the mo..

As is often the case with our projects it turned into a bit of a family afair...

And by the end of the day the car was about 50% stripped..

Just in case your wondering the plan for this car is I plan to return it to how it was the day it left the factory which after a bit of research turns out was a Blaze Orange 1275gt with a blue vinyl interior like this..

This is definately going to be a long term build but I'm determined I can do it so bare with me. Lol

 

[Ricardos]

Tax exempt Mk1 GT, mint. For a minute i thought this was gonna be changed into something completely different. Really pleased it's going back to original looks.... I hope

Will watch this thread

 

[ben_p]

Mint lads.

Best of luck!

 

[-J-]

This is going to be awesome, the Clio build kept me hooked from beginning to end.

 

[CIW]

Looks tidy for £400, good luck with the (re)build.

 

[Beaniemoo]

Richardo, you sound like a man who knows what he's looking at. It was the fact it was a mk1 Gt that drew me to it so much. Such an unusual car these days to the point that finding info and examples of how it should look will possibly be as bigger part as the mechanical work.
The car has a thick very poor cellulose home paint job covering a LOT of filler and previous low quality repairs. Inside has been hammerited black and again it's quite clear that under that there's plenty of work needed. With a bit of luck we'll be able to bare shell it in the next two weekends then I can send it for acid dipping. Only then will we really know what's what and how much work is needed.

 

[MattT]

Love it!
Love this one too at a local car show:

Ormskirk Motor Fest - Classic Mini 1275GT by d35ign, on Flickr

Ormskirk Motor Fest - Classic Mini 1275GT by d35ign, on Flickr

Ormskirk Motor Fest - Classic Mini 1275GT by d35ign, on Flickr

 

[Scrooge]

I miss my old 1275 gt soo much.

 

[JackJack]

Thought this was going to be turned into an epic track car for a minute.

 

[andywa]

Nice project. Should be an interesting build.

 

[Saner]

Clio - Track Car
Saxo - Show Car
Mini - Resto

Makes sense! Should be a great read

 

[Ricardos]

Richardo, you sound like a man who knows what he's looking at. It was the fact it was a mk1 Gt that drew me to it so much. Such an unusual car these days to the point that finding info and examples of how it should look will possibly be as bigger part as the mechanical work.
The car has a thick very poor cellulose home paint job covering a LOT of filler and previous low quality repairs. Inside has been hammerited black and again it's quite clear that under that there's plenty of work needed. With a bit of luck we'll be able to bare shell it in the next two weekends then I can send it for acid dipping. Only then will we really know what's what and how much work is needed.

I used to run a mini club here in Southend, we attended some of the biggest national mini events as a club going back to the year 2000. Friends and i have owned most if not all the mini variants along with different spec, overbored A series engines in situ. 1275cc, 1293 turbo, 1380 hill climb spec.

A Mk1 1275GT in std condition are few and far between, to get it for £400 is amazing! Minis are holding their value so when this is finished it'll be worth much more, much more.

I really can't wait for updates, shame i don't live nearer as i reckon my brother (another mini fan) and i would love to see this. All the best

 

[Daz.]

Excellent

 

[Nickson]

Seriously cool project!

 

[jesus]

£400?! Fecking bargain. Keeping an eye on this thread!

 

[fakeConcern]

Sounds great!
My first car was a 1973 Mini 1000 in Blaze. After that I had a Tara green 1275gt followed by a black 1275gt. Loved & missed them all!
Good luck with the project, I will keep an eye on it

 

[Dunn]

400? f**k. sell it me for 400? lol

looks awesome

 

[Oldskoolbaby]

You'll be mad to play around with that too much. As said above, that will be worth big money if restored to an original period spec. I'm thinking of selling my mk1 Miglia once ive got it exactly how I want it but I think I should chain it too my garage floor as I know it'll be worth wedge in a few years. Get a s**t shell and wack a clubby front on it if you want to race/hill climb it.

 

[Beaniemoo]

You'll be mad to play around with that too much. As said above, that will be worth big money if restored to an original period spec. I'm thinking of selling my mk1 Miglia once ive got it exactly how I want it but I think I should chain it too my garage floor as I know it'll be worth wedge in a few years. Get a s**t shell and wack a clubby front on it if you want to race/hill climb it.

We have said that we DO plan to do a full nut and bolt restoration back to EXACTLY how it would have left the factory.
Finding out all the info we need is going to be tough as BMC made no records of what cars they were producing during the time our Clubman was produced

 

[welshname]

£400?! Fecking bargain. Keeping an eye on this thread!

Missing your mini?

Subscribed to this thread if it's going to be even half as good as the last build.

 

[jesus]

Missing your mini?

Subscribed to this thread if it's going to be even half as good as the last build.

Oh yes. It was f**king cool.

 

[hughesclio]

if this ends up half as good as your clio it will be awesome
i wish you luck as im sure there will be plenty of late nights and long weekends doing it, i have just finished my mini which took me just short of a year to build but love it now its done
good luck

 

[Beaniemoo]

if this ends up half as good as your clio it will be awesome
i wish you luck as im sure there will be plenty of late nights and long weekends doing it, i have just finished my mini which took me just short of a year to build but love it now its done
good luck

Wow praise from Ceaser indeed!! I've not been posting on a great dealof threads since my laptop died but I do still read a lot and i'm fully aware of your car and love it!!

Woooooooo! Cheers for all the great posts I'm really feeling the love! lol

Well today we've been back down the garage and carried on stripping the car back to it's component parts.

There's not a massive amount that needs saying about it so here's some pics of our progress...

With everything disconnected we removed the front subframe and engine, not sure if this is the conventional way you experienced mini types do it but it seemed a fairly good solution..

The driveshafts are a lot different to what i know driveshafts to be and the car has a dynamo rather than an alternator which i found very exciting. Alsoit says Mowog on the bellhousiing which hopfully means it's retained its original engine setup..

Atfer a brief KFC break we resumed stripping but didn't take many pictures until we'd finished. So the mini ended the day looking like this..

So the mini is now tucked safely away in the garage. The next step I think will be a few hours spent unpicking the remaining odds and sods so the car is just a bodyshell. I'll also need to do some overtime to get some pennies together so I can get it dipped.

Cheers for reading.

 

[welshname]

Complete new meaning to a rolling shell...Nice work.

 

[Beaniemoo]

Complete new meaning to a rolling shell...Nice work.

What do you mean?

 

[welshname]

What do you mean?

 

[Bluebeard]

Mr Beaniemoo!

What happened to the saxo?!

 

[Beaniemoo]

Mr Beaniemoo!

What happened to the saxo?!

The Saxo was getting on moos nerves quite a lot as it still needed a lot of work to be a finished car so when a fella offered fair price for it as a going concern he sold up. When matey got the car he decided he prefered his shell and styling so stripped the engine bay and conversion work, fitted it to his car and scrapped the black bodyshell.

 

[Djw Dave]

Shame about the Saxo.

Love the mini! I'm in.

 

[Chri5]

£400 for a 1275GT? Thats a steal considering the condition it looks to be in

 

[one in a million]

love it!

 

[Leeshez]

Stunning .

 

[ch!ppen]

The Saxo was getting on moos nerves quite a lot as it still needed a lot of work to be a finished car so when a fella offered fair price for it as a going concern he sold up. When matey got the car he decided he prefered his shell and styling so stripped the engine bay and conversion work, fitted it to his car and scrapped the black bodyshell.

His shell was in better condition but f**k me his car looks an eye sore compared to the mk1. Really don't get all the fuss over his car.

Good luck with the Mini

 

[Beaniemoo]

Well this is far from the most interesting update but I thought i'd stick it on anyway as it was a pretty key stage. Anyhow, Tuesday night Myself and a workmate nipped to the garage and dragged the shell into work with his car. This meant I was able to get the grinder on the door hinge the nuts were too corroded to get a socket to undo.

Withthat done we strapped it to the back of a friends BMW and dragged it up to ProStrip Dipping in Nottingham. They see, really friendly to deal with so far so if the job is done to a good standard i'll be happy as.

Some of the other stuff there. Only stage 1 of the process happens on this site and they're not pretty when thats done lol

Looking at around 3 weeks before i get the shell back but i've told them to let me know if i need to bring a trailer or a bin bag to bring it home lol

 

[Bluebeard]

Whats the process then? It can't be good leaving them outside to get rained on surely??

 

[Whiteley]

Is that the trailer Jamie(?) bought in the end?!

 

[Beaniemoo]

The process is acid dipping but stage one of it is the shell being baked until all the paints fillers and sealers burn off (sounds scary but we shall see). After that the shell wil be dipped in acid which will clean all the corrosion and burned paint off the shell leaving just metal... and holes lol

The trailer is one owned by my mate Craig (the lad who rode his motorbike back to bedford, collected his car and this trailer, drove back and towed Moo's Rallye back from Donnington when it blew up!). He towed it up there for me in the end as I only have a childrens driving licence and can't really tow lol.
Jamie bought a pretty tidy brian james Trailer in the end.

 

[Whiteley]

Ah, very good. Get that B+e test booked and be done with it.

 

[theduck]

You'll have to bring it to the show at longbridge when it's done!

 

[Beaniemoo]

Wow cheers gazza! I do love to see pics of other peoples gt's to spur me on!

Well I got the call on Thursday but was too busy to collect the shell until today. I was ever so glad it decided to rain on me lol

Back at the garage and time to assess

In all fairness it's in really good nick for a car that's nearly 40years old.

Boot floors been damaged at some point and not had the best repair. Also quite a bit of rot in the corners.

Inner wings have gone in an annoyingly awkward place.

There's a few bits in normal mini places.

And an old repair in the corner of the floor.

There's obviously a few other bits and bobs that will need sorting but they're the most obvious. Overall I'm really happy with it and can't wait to get my teeth into it.