Sure, I’d be happy to tell you. I started my search for a new Mini about this time last year looking at Minis for sale in the US. I searched through Craigslist on a national basis (using SearchTempest), on eBay, and on MiniMania's site too. But I wasn’t happy with the selection, or the prices. Frankly, I’m picky, and sometimes it seemed like a lot of the Minis for sale in the US had repairs/modifications of unknown quality by many different owners over the decades, or they were later model Minis imported as a “re-shell” that I considered priced way too high. Plus, I didn’t want to be looking over my shoulder worried about Customs coming for my car (I’m sure you’ve seen the recent video where the Feds delighted in crushing a late model classic Mini that was not imported correctly). So I expanded my search to the UK. Since Minis, and Mini servicing and Mini spare parts are much more available in the UK than in the US, it made sense to me to either find my ideal car outright, or, instead, find a good car there and have it tailored to what I want. After a while I realized that even if I found what appeared to be a great Mini on eBay.uk or one of the classic car classified sites for sale by a private seller, there would likely be a good deal of difficulty in making all the arrangements with an individual selling a Mini to me, an unknown overseas buyer (think of the “Nigerian Prince” scams), as opposed someone local to them who wanted to buy their car. So instead, I started focusing on Mini specialty shops and used car dealers with that specialized in Minis. In other words, I wanted to find businesses that I could research and evaluate. The downside to sourcing a Mini from the UK is rust – it’s not exactly a dry climate and Minis are not immune from the tin worm. Recognizing that nearly any Mini from the UK would have some rust issues, the important thing is ensuring the rust could be dealt with the proper way (i.e. cutting it out and welding in new metal). I specifically wanted a shop that could handle the whole thing. By that I mean bodywork, mechanical, paint and interior, etc. And I wanted a shop that could effectively deal with extensive rust repair. I scanned the Internet, read customer comments, sent emails, and made phone calls to narrow things down to 4 places. Then I looked at cars in inventory, flexibility to creating what I wanted, and the quality of the services they could provide. And since I was dealing with paying in a foreign currency, it would make things much easier if the shop I chose would accept credit card payment – that way I’d avoid the whole money transfer/wire hassles. I am naturally cautious, but I had a lot of conversations, via email and on the phone, and I then I decided to put my trust in one shop. As it turned out, it was a great decision. I ended up selecting a shop called The Mini Place The Mini Place, Sunderland. Everything for your Mini needs . It’s run by a very nice guy called Jon Snowdon, and it’s been in business over 35 years. If you look around their website you’ll see they have extensive experience in restoring Minis – there are tons of detail photos of hundreds of cars they’ve worked on there. They know how to work on Minis inside and out, and the results of their work look great. My car started as a special edition Mini of the 1980s called the Jet Black and it had about 56K miles, and had 2 owners in its life before I bought it. The second owner acquired it as a present when she was 18 back in 2006, but she never drove the car. It sat in a garage under an oriental rug for the last 8 years, only putting on about 90 miles since she got it. Yes, yes, I know this sounds way too good to be true. But I looked back at the history of the shop’s Facebook page back 6 months before I acquired the car and I could see the photographic story of where the car was pulled out of the garage, complete with the rug over it. I made a deal with Jon to buy the car and then for The Mini Place to tear it down and rebuilt it to my specification. That’s not to say I had an unlimited budget, because I sure didn’t. And I’ve got to admit my budget did expand a bit as the project went on – mostly for sensible upgrades. In the end, I got just the car I wanted. And I spent less than I would have paid in the US for a comparable Mini. And I’m figuring in shipping too in that equation. The completely black car was stripped down to bare metal, and new panels were welded in where needed (just a door skin and an A-panel). Then it was painted Pepper White color as used on modern MINIs (I wanted a paint color that could be touched up easily down the road) with a black roof, a popular color combination for early Cooper models. A 1275 carb engine was fitted, along with a used interior from a mid-90s Cooper (nicer seats). I picked the wheelarches I wanted and the black wheels with the polished rims too. The very nice thing about the UK is the much cheaper prices for new Mini parts, so sensible selections were made to update the car with many new parts as it was reassembled. Start to finish was about 6 months, and some of that time was waiting for various parts to arrive. All along the way, I was kept up to date with emails and photos. and I talked with Jon on the phone too to discuss next steps. Even though I’ve owned classic Minis for 40 years, Jon has more experience with Minis than I do, so I followed his advice on various items along the way. I sincerely recommend Jon and his shop if you are thinking of getting a Mini. And by the way, you don’t have to follow the complete tear-down and rebuild path I took; I’m sure they can get you a Mini with a lot less involved if you want one. The entire shipping process, from the car being picked from The Mini Place, to the port of Southampton, to being loaded on a ro-ro car carrier, to arriving in the port of Galveston, to a truck delivering it right to my driveway, took about 6 weeks. It was about a week or so on the docks in the UK, then about 3 weeks on the water, and about 2 weeks after it got to Galveston before it came to my home.
BTW, Bruce is coming up to Arkansas next month to join us on our Classic Mini Fun Run! http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/classic-mini/23602-classic-mini-fun-run-4-redux.html
Congrats Brooktrout! Never did ask on FB if you kept your R56 justa... Still waiting to see your classic on some club drives. Maybe the Leprechaun run?
Nice Mini there Booktrout! Automatic Minis are a bit more rare. Are you planning on keeping it that way, or converting to a manual?
Yep, I still have the 2009 Cooper. I'm not sure about bringing it to this year's MINI5280 Leprechaun Run but I am planning on taking it to Ian's MINI/Mini drive on April 4th. He is trying to get as many classics from Minis Of The Rockies to go. I am still not sure about going all the way to Manitou Springs though. Robert
Thanks BruceK, I am planning on keeping it an automatic. I have been finding a lot of good resources scouring the internet. There is an Austin America site that goes into great detail on rebuilding the AP Automatic Transmission. A company called JPAT in Bristol England is still making parts and rebuild kits for the Mini Auto. There is also a forum dedicated to automatic Minis and Austin 1100/1300s called the Auto Mini Register. I also picked up the BMC service manual for the automatic from Mini City Ltd. I think as long as JPAT in Bristol stays in business I will be able to keep the automatic transmission going. Robert