A WELSH MINIMOON

Get into MiniWorld

Have you had an exciting adventure in your Mini?

Let us know by emailing: mw.ed@kelsey.co.uk

The Mini dream

Matthew: After many years of wanting to own a Mini, I was finally in a position to buy one in December 2019 and found one I liked: a West Midlands car so it was local to us. Most importantly, my fiancee Hannah agreed to it. I took my two friends with me, Luke and Alex. Luke has converted his Land Rover Defender into a competition vehicle and Alex has restored an Austin-Healey Sprite so, between us, I felt we were well equipped to identify rust and any other issues with the car.

We arrived ready with Luke’s trailer but parked it hidden around the corner for use in the negotiations as the seller wasn’t expecting us to be able to take it away that day. It was a 1275cc 1998 Rover Mini Cooper MPi, in Tahiti Blue, which failed its MOT in 2011 and hadn’t been on the road since. The previous owner completed a lot of bodywork repairs and some re-upholstery but that was as far as the project had got. Left for me to complete was a suspension refresh (ball joints, bushes etc.), new brakes, a new exhaust and finishing off sealing the underbody which by then had developed some surface rust.

Hannah and I had been