Mini Magazine - Summer 2018

Resplendent in period
British Leyland Antelope.
Cleaned up filler cap is as good as new.
This classic is complete with its first tax disc.
as I had hoped and was totally original,”
says Paul. It also had that wonderful
1970s car smell, which meant the
childhood memories came flooding
back,” smiles Paul.
BACK IN TIME
Paul was keen to restore the car to
concours standard, just as if he’d
returned to the 1970s in a time machine
and brought it back with him. “Not
knowing what new old stock parts were
available and unsure of what bits were
still being made, I was careful to save
everything,” Paul continues. “I then
catalogued and boxed every part, nut,
bolt and screw, before refurbishing the
various parts such as the air filter box
and the wiper motor. With the help of my
wife, who has a talent for painting and
spraying, we also refurbished as many of
the smaller parts as we could.”
Because he had kept everything, Paul
was able to have the parts that were no
longer available brought back to as-new
Original crimped style exhaust was refurbed.
standards. These include the original
rad with its Coventry Radiator &
Presswork Co Ltd stamped body,
subsequently recorded by a company in
Birmingham, and the rear bumper,
which Paul had re-chromed by ACF
Howell in Walsall after finding out those
parts had become obsolete.
To keep with the ‘as new’ ethos, Paul
then went hunting for new old stock
parts. “Anything that was too worn or
indeed missing was sourced irrespective
of the cost, all to ensure total originality,”
he says. “This involved scouring many
auto jumbles and hours on eBay looking
for ‘Holy Grail’ items in mint condition.
These included a new old stock steering
wheel still in its original crispy
cardboard box, a wheel centre badge, new
old stock boxed Lucas light bezels and a
Smiths Industries original stamped air
engine duct to replace the damaged one
fitted – these are super rare and it took
ages to find one. And finally the little
knob on the driver’s cold air vent was
missing. I was told they are rare as
rocking horse poo, but found one on
eBay listed as a Citroen air vent, and it
was identical!”
EXPERIENCED HANDS
With so many great parts collected, there
was no way Paul could bolt them on to
the shell without a thorough spruce-up.
So, in March 2017 he took the car to
CRM Auto Solutions in Kingswinford,
where Calum Lovell and his father-inlaw,
Trevor Bradley, would begin the next
stages of the project. “We have been
friends for a number of years and are all
part of the Crusty Rusty Mini Club,”
Paul explains. “We go all over the
country together attending numerous
events, so they didn’t mind Francesca
and I popping by regularly to discuss the
build and ensure it matched my vision.
I knew Putty was in very safe hands as
Calum and Trevor’s attention to detail
and their enthusiasm for classic Minis
is exceptional.”
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