Is that classic car restoration project still sitting in the garage gathering cobwebs?
 
This is a 1973 998cc petrol-driven Mini Moke

Brigitte Bardot had a Moke, so did Princess Margaret, Emperor Rosko and the Beach Boys.

Not everyone gets to finish a classic car restoration project, or other projects for that matter filed under the “Don’t have enough time” or “I’ll get round to it” categories.

It may be due to dwindling interest, lack of time, money, or simply not a priority.

At Classic Car Buyer UK we regularly get offered such projects, some are worthwhile, others sadly, where the owners have moved house, have lost parts en route and, unlike the Mini-moke where parts are readily available, we have actually had to resort to tooling a specific part, which sometimes just makes it an unviable project.  

This particular Mini Moke is a good example of a stalled restoration, the previous owner started some 6 years before he decided to sell it.

Interest had been lost and therefore we had a call and subsequently purchased the Moke, 

Some of the repairs, be it from the previous owner or prior to that offered ......opportunities.

Incidentally, this car is MOT exempt, one of my bugbears as this could legally be driven on the road in an unsafe condition, as many of you will know I'm a strong believer in MOT's or at least a compulsory safety check should be carried out on all vehicles that use the roads.

Our restoration tasks: (a not exhaustive round up)

We identified that the rubber petrol pipe was running across the passenger floor and exiting near the exhaust manifold down pipe.

I don’t know about you but if I need to fix my toaster or dis assemble anything I think I can turn my hand to, I photograph each stage on my iPhone so that I have a documented return journey once I have replaced or repaired the offending item.

The issue with taking on restoration work that has been already started by someone else is safety and making sure that you have as much reference material to establish and verify the current status as well as the process for repair.

In this instance we replaced the rubber pipe with copper and rerouted it making it safe.

We then fitted a new carburettor , cleaned out the fuel tank and replaced the existing fuel line with with E5 and E10 ethanol resistant pipework.   
Most of the wiring was replaced and in some instances re-routed and a new alternator fitted.

 
Then it was onto the brakes: replacing brake calipers , fitting brake pads, replacing the rear brakes entirely, brake pipes made and fitted.

Next it was onto the suspension and then to replacing exhaust parts and refitting with new exhaust mountings fabricated.
We needed a new rear bumper which we sourced from a Moke specialist and refitted the seatbelts to meet current standards.

We added a fog lamp, replaced the washer bottle and fitted 4 new tyres ,replaced the side wheel arch rubbers which were missing, sourced, painted and fitted grab handles and gave it an MOT (even though exempt from Tax and MOT) which it passed with flying colours.

The Moke build was quite a pleasant change after the Jaguar Coupe, and quite therapeutic as I quite enjoy finding obsolete parts and making things work again, overall a very enjoyable job.

Even better is the fact that everything is so accessible on the Moke.

In this instance, it wasn't rust we had problems with, more a remove and refit exercise scouring the internet for the elusive missing parts.

As with most classic cars, there are usually many suppliers of reproduction parts, but in some cases, parts still in their original wrapping may be available.

Try and get them in the UK if possible (if you are UK-based) purely to save time and obviously for returns.

This particular vehicle was designed by the men who designed the Mini: Alex Issigonis and John Sheppard.
In this instance, the car was assembled initially in England in but then over time, Portugal, Australia, Malaysia, Rhodesia, and South Africa.

Produced between 1964 and 1993 the engine sizes vary between 848, 998 1098, and 1275cc.

Spares should not be too much of a problem because the Mini Moke's engine, manual gearbox, and suspension are identical to those of a standard Mini.

If you have a project you no longer have interest in please call to discuss or email details to www.ClassicCarBuyerUK.co.uk