After years away from the Mini Scene, John Hart wanted the quickest route back to the driver′s seat. Strangely, he only had to go as far as the pub to find one.
I blame the parents. "Dad used to race Minis on the grass track circuits when I was tiny and then he got me one as my first car," said John. It&undefined;s the Mini effect. Once the Mini thing is in the blood it can easily become an hereditary condition. After a long period of suppressing the need for Minis, John&undefined;s symptoms flared up again when someone kindly gave him a l275GT.
The car was beyond hope but, by January 2002, he had to have another Mini in his life and found one that had been sitting in a pub car park unloved for two years. It was an automatic Mini City with controls for a disabled driver and it was a bargain at ?150. "I just wanted a solid &undefined;shell to start with," he says. He had a simple plan of painting it Old English White, with a black roof, but then a chance encounter in his working life changed everything. "I&undefined;m an electrician by trade and I got recommended by someone to do a job wiring up a car bodyshop." The bodyshop (www.paynesbodytechnik.co.uk) was owned by Tony Payne, who is better known for customising VW Golfs.
"We got chatting and I told him what I had in mind for the Mini. Now we&undefined;re great mates and I spend half my life down his workshop," says John. He was more than happy to entrust the Mini to his new friend, but wanted to be part of the fun and get his hands dirty. "I did what I could, like shaping and filling; the donkey work," he says.
John wanted a smooth look to the car so it was deseamed, the additional wiper holes in the scuttle panel were plugged and smoothed, and every panel gap was filled. The front end was also replaced to get a perfect look. To achieve this extent of detail involves a huge amount of extra work and deseaming must be done professionally to avoid compromising the structure of the car so needs to be done properly. Filling the panel gaps so that it is impossible to see where the joins are is the work of a true craftsman and the result is a credit to Paynes. It&undefined;s details like this, which few people will even notice at first glance, that make this car stand out as one of the best around. Tony was into Minis years ago, so was happy to get stuck into a Mini project and may even build one for himself in the future.
The project was getting serious, so a serious colour was needed to make it stand out at the Mini shows. "I wanted something a bit different and I toyed with a metallic burnt orange, but one day I was working in Romford and drove past a BMW showroom, which had an M3 convertible in this colour," recalls John. It turned out to be Phoenix Yellow and has a lovely golden hue to it, which looks so much better on a Mini than a Beemer.
The removal of the grille surround and the bonnet lip is a nice touch on this Mini. An absence of brightwork would make some cars look unfinished but careful attention to detail, such as filling holes, makes the result great and makes the car appear unique. It may be missing an extra bit of bling when compared to some Minis, but the silver roof gutter strip, auxiliary lamps, bumpers and fuel cap are still useful as bright focal points. The bolt-on fog lamp at the rear is replaced by a &undefined;No Fog Lamp&undefined; kit from Mini Trailers (www.minitrailers.com), which replaces one of the standard reversing lights with a fog light.
The de-seaming, colour-coded arches and sparse brightwork give the car a modern look, but John boldly went for retro Allycat wheels. This could have been a risky move but it does work. "I&undefined;d seen them and liked them because they were different to the Minilite style that everybody has," he says. Huddersfield Mini Spares (www.minispares-online.co.uk) supplied them to him. "I&undefined;m very impressed with them, the service you get is out of this world." The wheels are quite wide at 8xI3-inches, fill out the Sport Pack arches perfectly, but the tyres don&undefined;t rub on the arches.
As with everything on this car, each move has been meticulously planned through to the finish. One thing that wasn&undefined;t very successful, though, was buying pattern bumpers, which were a nightmare to fit.
John bought a MiniSpeed 1330cc kit (www.minispeed.co.uk) for the engine and put it together with help from his dad, who has a serious love of Minis and owns a lovely black one with chromed wheels. Despite having little experience with engines, all was well until they realised that they&undefined;d put a thrust washer in the wrong way round. It was soon rectified. Another mistake was painting the block and head blue, but that was sorted with a coat of black engine paint, more in keeping with the overall colour scheme. The engine and ancillaries are beautifully presented, as are the wiring and fuses, which you&undefined;d expect from an electrician.
Inside the Mini things are tasteful in a 70s style, with a black dash and auxiliary gauges, half leather seats and black door cards. A centre console, from Custom Consoles, adds a touch of class. Black carpets and the leather Astrali steering wheel are offset beautifully by the alloy pedals and Wood and Pickett door furniture. There are no window winders as John has fitted electric windows and central locking. It&undefined;s a real luxury in a Mini, but quite easy to fit, especially if you&undefined;re an electrician. There is also a modest ICE install and a good quality alarm to keep it safe.
John has come out of this project with a lovely car, a new enthusiasm for Minis and a great friend, Tony, who sounds like a true gent. "He did all this work on the car and refused to take a penny off me," says John.
After over a year and a half of graft by Tony, John and David, the seamless Mini got an MoT on 2 September 2004 and scooped a Mini of the Day award at the Ace Cafe&undefined;s Italian Job charity event that same night. John was amazed. The car is now mainly used for travelling to Mini shows and club meets of the Middlesex Mini Club of which he is an active member. He has another Mini, which he is doing up for his wife, and his son has recently got a Mini too. I told you it was hereditary.
Words by Karen Drury
Photography by Anthony Butler Taken from the May 2005 issue of Mini World ?
