Jims5543
Active Member
Joking!! It is a 1978 Mini Cooper Pickup Truck. 1275cc engine making 60HP on a good day. It does weigh 1300 lbs so it has that and it gets 40 MPG which is good because it has a 7 gallon gas tank.
I am also wondering if there are any other British car enthusiasts on here. I mean it goes well with a boat, always needing something, right?
Long story short, this kind of fell in my lap, I have been begging a friend for 5 years to sell me his and he will not. He received an email from a guy who was looking to sell this one and he put us in touch. The timing was perfect, I had recieved a small inheritance and it was almost exactly the asking price for this truck so I jumped on it. My buddy restores these as a hobby / side business when he is not playing a commercial airline pilot.
The back story is my grandfather owned a BMC repair shop in Manhattan in the 50's-70's. He serviced these cars when they were the cool cars to own. He decided to retire in 1976 because he felt the Japanese cars were going to take over the market. His partner (also a WW2 Vet) disagreed claiming America would never forget Peal Harbor. (insert snarky image here)
So anyway, a few pics,
This is after I cleaned it up real good, my mom came to see it, she was very emotional about it since it was something her father would have worked on in his shop.
Dirty front shot the day the shipper dropped it off:
and the rear:
Also, pickups were never imported to the US so this is a British model:
My grandfather on the left and and his partner in from of a Morris delivery van they owned:
Circa early 70's in his shop:
A buddy of mine is doing the vinyl for it, he was proposing something modern on the verge of a vehicle wrap but I wanted to rock it old school with some lettering that would be more in line with the era of the car so we went for option 2.
On the rear below the euro tag is going to have this lettered up, the man was a huge influence on me when I was a child and teen and a big part of making me who I am today. This truck has a lot of meaning to me. Ironically he would never own a British car because he felt they were rubbish.
I am also wondering if there are any other British car enthusiasts on here. I mean it goes well with a boat, always needing something, right?
Long story short, this kind of fell in my lap, I have been begging a friend for 5 years to sell me his and he will not. He received an email from a guy who was looking to sell this one and he put us in touch. The timing was perfect, I had recieved a small inheritance and it was almost exactly the asking price for this truck so I jumped on it. My buddy restores these as a hobby / side business when he is not playing a commercial airline pilot.
The back story is my grandfather owned a BMC repair shop in Manhattan in the 50's-70's. He serviced these cars when they were the cool cars to own. He decided to retire in 1976 because he felt the Japanese cars were going to take over the market. His partner (also a WW2 Vet) disagreed claiming America would never forget Peal Harbor. (insert snarky image here)
So anyway, a few pics,
This is after I cleaned it up real good, my mom came to see it, she was very emotional about it since it was something her father would have worked on in his shop.
Dirty front shot the day the shipper dropped it off:
and the rear:
Also, pickups were never imported to the US so this is a British model:
My grandfather on the left and and his partner in from of a Morris delivery van they owned:
Circa early 70's in his shop:
A buddy of mine is doing the vinyl for it, he was proposing something modern on the verge of a vehicle wrap but I wanted to rock it old school with some lettering that would be more in line with the era of the car so we went for option 2.
On the rear below the euro tag is going to have this lettered up, the man was a huge influence on me when I was a child and teen and a big part of making me who I am today. This truck has a lot of meaning to me. Ironically he would never own a British car because he felt they were rubbish.
