One morning in 2018, we received a telephone call from Canberra the Capital City of Australia. Andy, was looking for a specialist to restore his Rover Mini Cooper Sport which he had owned from New. Having got over the initial shock that the enquiry was coming from some 10,000 miles away from us, we soon learned that the project was actually still in the UK being kept in a relatives Garage.

The Mini had been very well kept over the years but as we have found with many late Rover Minis, the bodywork had suffered some severe corrosion and was in dire need for renovation. Furthermore, the Engine was misfiring, leaking lots of oil and there were problems with keeping it in 2^nd gear. The Rear Subframe was rotten which is a given but unusually, the front subframe was suffering from laminating corrosion in several places too.

Whilst the painting was being done, the subframes were fully refurbished and powder coated, the engine was overhauled and painted before the entire vehicle was built back up to finish.

On Completing the project in early 2020, Andy was due to fly over from Australia to take delivery of his newly restored Mini. However, the worldwide outbreak of Coronavirus prevented Andy from making his journey and the Mini had to stay in storage with us. Arrangements were made with a specialist transportation company and in December 2020 the Mini left us to make it’s 10,500-mile journey by Sea to Sydney. The Mini finally arrived in Australia, albeit diverted to Melbourne and was collected by Andy early in January 2021 to take on its 400-mile onward journey to Canberra.