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1965 MKII WOLSELEY HORNET<br />
THE BUILD<br />
A sorry sight when purchased, Tom first<br />
stripped the shell to be sandblasted then set<br />
about replacing the rot with metal. Turning to<br />
the engine, in went the Yamaha R1 power<br />
before Tom sorted the wiring and interior.<br />
Cobra Monaco Pro bucket<br />
seats and that Sparco<br />
300mm steering wheel<br />
make this interior unique.<br />
Tom used Yamaha R1 instruments on...<br />
...his alloy dashboard.<br />
“I didn’t really have the choice of<br />
preserving it or not as it was so rotten”<br />
Plus, after breaking his uncle Andrew’s<br />
bike, Tom got the engine pretty much for<br />
free as he made a small profit from selling<br />
the rest of the bike parts. Now it was time<br />
to get started on this mega build!<br />
The story of this <strong>Mini</strong> started back in<br />
May 2015, when Tom was just 18-yearsold.<br />
He was looking for his next <strong>Mini</strong><br />
project and came across this Hornet on<br />
Gumtree, up country. “I phoned the<br />
seller and said I would have it. I then<br />
arranged for a guy to transport it down<br />
to my home on the Isle of Wight.” It<br />
turned up on his parents’ drive one<br />
morning, without Tom even telling his<br />
dad or the rest of the family it was<br />
coming (and apparently they weren’t too<br />
impressed!). Also, because Tom bought<br />
this <strong>Mini</strong> saloon over the phone, he<br />
didn’t really know if it had any history,<br />
and never got to meet the guy he bought<br />
it from.<br />
Tom stripped the sorry-looking<br />
Hornet to a bare shell. He then built a jig<br />
so the Wolseley’s body could be spun<br />
360-degrees, before taking the shell off to<br />
be sandblasted. When it returned, it was<br />
time to replace rot with new metal.<br />
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