New Member - 1959 Mini Resto in Process

Hi everyone,

At the suggestion of Jason (Lil Pigg on the forum) I decided to jump onto the boards. Not enough car people in my life apparently.

I'm mid-rebuild on a 1959 Mini that was quite literally dug out of the ground in the Dayton area. I've always been a car guy, but this is my first British build. I've mostly been into forced induction & german engineering. My wife fell in love with the idea of this car when I first saw it, so I blame her mostly for all my time spent bringing this one back from the brink.

This mini rebuild has been a complete shell strip and rebuild. essentially everything on the lower 6" of the car is all new metal. I'll have her back on the road this coming spring, and I'm making good time thus far on the project.

Either way, hello everyone, and see you out there.

Obligatory pictures of the build...

When I bought her (Who doesn't love flames)



The strip to shell:



Flintstones modified version:



I built the entire car "ugly style" to test fitment of everything, and make sure all my mechanical elements were 100%. Drove the car once in this form and then winter tear down for the "real" work.



Car in the garage now. Flipped on it's side, pans fully welded, bottom prepped and liner sprayed. It's officially a 57 year old rust free car.

 

I actually went through the process of getting a heritage certificate for it from the UK Heritage Trust, so I have a lot of history on it.

It's a legitimate 1959 US import Morris Mini-Minor built ** (Edited... built, not shipped) in December. Keep in mind Minis were not sold in the US until April of 1960, but there was a small number of car produced as demo cars for dealerships to try before committing to carrying them for the "formal" launch here in the US. Apparently '59 US imports are a very rare thing, as many of these cars were used as freebie cars, parted to repair other cars, or scrapped when done. Also, there were issues with titling on the demo cars, as they were never intended to be sold to the public.

This car's history goes dark for many years after import, and then was found in the side yard of a lady in Dayton under a canvas, quite literally embedded in the ground. The Central Ohio Mini Owners group bought it and a 64 Cooper at the same time. The Cooper was past repair, and parted out to support several other car builds. The 998 engine and subframes from that cooper ended up with the '59, as it was truly roached, and had no engine.

As found by the COMO Guys:



Being "Excavated"... rumor is a groundhog lived in it.




If anyone was curious what sitting on the ground in Ohio does to a car? Here ya go:







Front end and BMK markings:





And here's the hidden hand stamped code that was under coats of paint and primer that revealed the car's past:

 

Here's a copy of the heritage cert:



I'm working on shipping records/information now. I know what number container it was on for shipping, and I'm trying to determine in what "batch" of cars it was delivered. It's somewhat needle in a haystack, but a fun past time.

 

Thanks for the welcome everyone, and good link to a solid rebuild. that one is SUPER close to mine in production!