Below 265 SQ/FT Hewey's 1950s single garage & cottage

[D.F.B]

Things finally aligned, and after weeks of patchy weather we had a weekend forecast of glorious blue skies, sun, and nice and warm temps - and with no set engagements for the weekend. So it was the perfect time to hook in and have a crack at cleaning the Statesman interior, to give it a decent chance to fully dry out afterwards. With winter on its way, I wasn't sure how long it might be before I got another crack.

Our carport is too narrow to work in, so we set up the marquee on the lawn for some shade - so the products have time to soak into the material but don't dry out before you clean it.



We bought a Bissell wet vac a while back when they were on sale at Supercheap, but this was it's first time out of the box. The method we used was spraying a seat with some Bowdens cleaner, letting it soak a little, and then running the wet vac spray over it, working it a little with the brush, and then sucking it up. And then a few more passes for good measure.



And this is what comes out. We emptied about 4 of these in just doing the seats and door trims.



Before shot of the drivers seat



And after, still far from perfect but a huge improvement.



And a door trim




and after



Overall, reasonably happy with how things came out. It certainly feels nicer in there, and it's done a decent job of shifting 30 odd years of grime build up. I want to have another crack at the drivers seat and tidy that up some more, but might do some more research on shifting really tough grime.

Have a look at Koch Chemie Pol Star. The Bowden's stuff is ok, but they do tend to play it safe by accounting for all users, meaning its capability will only go so far. The Pol Star can be mixed to suit, in this case I'd go full strength at 5:1, then use as you did before. Pol Star can be used on carpet, leather, velour/fabric, plastics........................a safe all-round cleaner without the harshness from an alkaline APC.

Koch Chemie (PO) Pol Star | Textile, Leather and Alcantara Cleaner

Koch Chemie Pol Star: Clean and protect leather, alcantara and textiles. pH neutral formula removes dirt, preserves waterproofing and leaves no watermarks.

www.waxit.com.au

 

[ajohno]

Car coming along nicely mate.

 

[Lyndon]

Hewey

Watch some of the detail guys on YT, like AmmoNYC and TheDetailGeek. They explain this stuff well.....

I subscribe to them (weirdly) as watching them is mesmerising.

Lyndon

 

[Geoff289]

Good to see the old girl coming back to life, even if it is a Holden.

 

[D.F.B]

Hewey

Watch some of the detail guys on YT, like AmmoNYC and TheDetailGeek. They explain this stuff well.....

I subscribe to them (weirdly) as watching them is mesmerising.

Lyndon

Larry has an excellent way of explaining what he is doing, both the how and why. Although he is naturally using the videos to showcase his products, he isn't as blatant in pushing as The Detail Geek. Pan's channel is no go for me, just something about him comes across shady.

If you haven't already, check out Chromatic Garage. This guy is super talented, especially with his videography skills. Each video is super smooth, perfect music selection, the cool graphical work, camera angles.............................oh and he cleans and modifies cars too.

Chromatic Garage

Doing things in the garage, and documenting them. IG: @chromaticgarage

www.youtube.com

You will also learn a lot from Sandro, easily the best detailing channel from Australia. I got to meet at a training day last year, he is a natural teacher, exactly how he comes across in the videos. Even before the training day, I have learned so much from watching what he does, in particular his multi-angle approach to decontamination.

Car Craft Auto Detailing

Car Craft Auto Detailing (CCAD) is a professional car detailing service in Melbourne. This channel is about sharing and reviewing various detailing techniques, products, how to videos and more, that are used in both my business and personal detailing obsessive life.

www.youtube.com

I also watch a lot of TRC and Obsessed Garage, both are pretty strong product peddlers, so you kinda need to know when to zone that out. But there is a lot of information to be had, from new product showcases to procedural tuition.

The Rag Company

Welcome to The Rag Company's YouTube channel, your premier source for comprehensive detailing knowledge and expertise. Established in 1999, our commitment extends beyond providing high-quality microfiber products to fostering a community built on education and understanding. This channel is...

www.youtube.com

Obsessed Garage

Obsessed Garage has become a place to share the ownership experience of the amazing things that go in and around my sanctuary, THE GARAGE! It has been quite a while now since I was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I started this channel as a way to support my car journals on...

www.youtube.com

 

[hewey]

Thanks guys, will check those out when I get a chance.

Life's been busy. Over the Easter break we took the Statesman out to Mayfield Gardens (between Oberon and Bathurst). Short version is a farm owner set out to create his dream garden, kept adding and adding to it, and now it's massive, open all year round and employs 50 people! Super impressive, and can only imagine how much planning, work and literal mountains of cash it's taken to get to this point.




One of the other days we took a trip down Bundanoon Way in the Southern Highlands.




With so much needed fueling of course



On the car front it's been a mixed bag. Long time visitors might recall we dropped our mini engine off for a rebuild 3.5 years ago. It's damn close to reassembly, but has been sitting for ages gathering dust and surface rust. We finally picked up the parts, and are taking it somewhere else.



The other bad news is the Statesman has a fuel leak from under the tank somewhere. There's a plastic guard that wraps around the bottom and front end to help protect it from stones and debris, and it appears to have pooled in there (our driveway slopes downhill). But the guard means I can't see where it is coming from. At some stage I'll have to get under there and take a look, but my next few weekends are booked up. It looks worse than it is, this is about a months worth of leak that has come out at once.



This coming weekend my wife's Mum and Aunty are visiting from Queensland, so we'll be doing the tour guide thing, and the following weekend is my wife's birthday.

 

[hewey]

On another note, how about this at the local Blue Mountains Cars and Coffee on the weekend?! (pics by GT Photography). Such a gorgeous car, and rarely seen outside of a museum, let alone next to a bacon and egg sausage sizzle at a casual cars and coffee event.

 

[Geoff289]

Thanks guys, will check those out when I get a chance.

Life's been busy. Over the Easter break we took the Statesman out to Mayfield Gardens (between Oberon and Bathurst). Short version is a farm owner set out to create his dream garden, kept adding and adding to it, and now it's massive, open all year round and employs 50 people! Super impressive, and can only imagine how much planning, work and literal mountains of cash it's taken to get to this point.




One of the other days we took a trip down Bundanoon Way in the Southern Highlands.




With so much needed fueling of course



On the car front it's been a mixed bag. Long time visitors might recall we dropped our mini engine off for a rebuild 3.5 years ago. It's damn close to reassembly, but has been sitting for ages gathering dust and surface rust. We finally picked up the parts, and are taking it somewhere else.



The other bad news is the Statesman has a fuel leak from under the tank somewhere. There's a plastic guard that wraps around the bottom and front end to help protect it from stones and debris, and it appears to have pooled in there (our driveway slopes downhill). But the guard means I can't see where it is coming from. At some stage I'll have to get under there and take a look, but my next few weekends are booked up. It looks worse than it is, this is about a months worth of leak that has come out at once.



This coming weekend my wife's Mum and Aunty are visiting from Queensland, so we'll be doing the tour guide thing, and the following weekend is my wife's birthday.

Maybe drill a suitable hole in the guard for the time being so the leaking fuel can escape rather than pooling in the guard?

 

[Jack_K]

Never take an engine to RE if you want it done in a reasonable time. I don't know if that's who it was but you know not to try him now.

Has the mini been off the road during that time?

 

[hewey]

Jack, no not Rusell - I'd heard similar stories which is why I didn't use him in the first place. Mini has been on the road the whole time thankfully, we're replacing the tired old 850 with an 1100 so we can get up hills, but have been using the 850 in the mean time.

 

[Bob Heine]

Hewey, that Muira is jaw dropping and you're right about sightings being rare. They only made 764 between 1966 and 1973.

Took my usual walk from our place on Cliff Street in Manly to the Corso to pick up one of the Sunday newspapers (probably November 1990). Decided to take the long way back via the Manly Wharf and turned left on the Esplanade. When I got to Victoria Parade, I stopped dead in my tracks. There was a red Ferrari 250 GTO parked on the street. I ran home and got my camera and returned to the spot but the car was gone. I did inspect it carefully so I'm sure it was one of the 36 real GTOs. I had never seen one in the flesh before, even at a museum. It appears it was spotted on the Gold Coast three years ago...

https://www.reddit.com/r/carspotting/comments/xenhnu

 

[hewey]

Bob, spotting a GTO 'in the wild' is pretty tough to beat!

In preparation for a 4 day roadtrip in the mini in August, I decided it was time to pull my finger out and sort out a heater install. I'm also hoping it will help by adding extra coolant to the system and help keep engine temps under control a bit too.

Most of the work has been done on the front lawn, it's just too damn cramped in my tiny shed - even for working on this tiny car!



The heater I've installed is a universal unit that pipes into the coolant, as I didn't have confidence the mini punches out enough output for an electrical one. But this has meant I need everything to install -new heater tap for the head, coolant pipes, new return radiator hose, new blanking cap for the firewall, ducting pipes for the air etc.



Install also meant removing the dash trim, to install the windscreen vents for the demister. What a messy job with all of the sound deadoning. And pics aren't in sequential order, so the heater is sitting on the floor here.



Vents (3D printed - isnt technology great?) and ducting installed.



Managed to get the ducting reasonably neat under the dash, and high enough to not get in the way of feet.


The firewall used to be blanked off, so required a new holy blanking plate.




An overall shot, happy it looks reasonably neat and tidy and doesn't shout out as being new. I should also note that I've plumbed it in to be permanently 'on' with no closeable heater tap. As I flagged above, overheating has always been a key challenge, so hoping this helps alleviate that with the extra coolant, and I can always retrofit a heater tap down the road.

I've run the car long enough to feel the warm coolant has worked through the new pipes, and there doesn't appear to be any leaks. But still want to take it on an extended test run. Also need to wire in the switch for the electric fan.

 

[Geoff289]

Good job.

 

[hewey]

The fuel leak on the Statesman is sorted. For the sake of time (and not really wanting to wrestle under a jacked up car on a slope) I had a local mechanic replace the fuel sender gasket, thinking that was the culprit. There was still a tiny leak afterwards, so I wriggled under to have a look and tightened one of the hose clamps and it seems to all working okay now.

Last week we had an appointment to go visit our dad, and my brother was keen to take the Statesman. It was going to be the first big test, but we figured let's give it a go. From my brother's place it's about 4.5 hours and 400km each way, so it was going to be a big day.

The start was just before dawn, and it was pretty damn cold, as you can see by the layers of ice on the car.



Morning tea stop. Like an XB coupe, this car is all about that ***.



So we're driving along, and as we pass a couple of service stations, we check the 'distance to empty' gauge, and it assures us we have plenty of buffer to make it to our destination. Like 140km range and 70km to our destination. More than comfortable with that. So we keep driving along, and the estimated range starts dropping, just a little at first, but gradually getting less and less. We keep an eye on it, but keep trucking on. And we get closer, and it keeps winding down. Okay now we're showing 6km to town and 6km range, this is getting serious. Cue nervous laughing and a hint of stress. Driving really conservatively to eke out every last drop of fuel. We can see town, and our spirits get buoyed. But too soon. She coughs, splutters, and dies. We're coasting now in silence, hazards on, seeing how far we can roll this beast along. But not far enough, as she runs out of momentum there's a small dirt pull off point. Right next to the 'welcome to town' sign. Just the absolute most hilarious comedic timing you could have asked for.



And this is how close we got. 1.2km from the nearest service station. And 10 degrees! The round trip walk to the servo took about 40 minutes, and a Chico roll helped fuel us for the return walk.



The visit to dad went well, though his mental cognition is on a continual decline. The return journey back to my brother's place that afternoon went well, though we did make sure we filled up on fuel to get all the way home! We rolled in just in time for dinner, with over 800km more on the clock, and apart from fuel she didn't skip a beat the whole way.

 

[Geoff289]

Firstly, sorry to hear about your old man. My partner's Dad was at a pretty advanced stage of dementia when we got together and I never had the chance to know him as he was. From all I've heard about him I think we would have got on like a house on fire.

While avoiding both is obviously best, I'm also on the fence about whether cognitive or physical decline is preferable. My own Dad was physically stuffed and ended his days in a wheelchair but remained pretty sharp cognitively until the end. My former father-in-law, my ex's Dad (Bob, one of the finest men I've ever met), was the opposite. Physically in great shape until he passed but completely off in the clouds as far as his mental state was concerned. However, Bob was entirely placid and content with the world, whereas my Dad was frustrated and annoyed at his circumstances.

Secondly, DTE indicators in cars. The numerous Fords I had with this function worked reasonably well, the one in the Merc was very good and quite dynamic in continually updating itself, but the ones in the two VW's my partner had were dangerous in that once they got to about 100 k's left on what had been a pretty linear process, they suddenly started to plummet and we learned that 100 was nothing of the sort, kind of like what you experienced with the Stato.

The jury's out about the ones in our new cars. The Bimmer seems to do a pretty good job of forecasting with both fuel sources while the Renault is too new to really have any feel for it.

 

[Ralf99]

Back in the era of your Statesman I worked in a large company that had a fleet of 600 or so mainly Falcon and Commodore company cars. Being a Ford guy I always had Falcons (and a Magna..) which were all unremarkable in many ways including the DTE range. Some of my colleagues in Commodores had issues with not only the DTE but also the fuel gauge itself being overly optimistic.
Whenever I flew in to Canberra Airport I always seemed to score an upgrade with Avis from a Commodore to a Statesman - many enjoyable miles with the V8 along the way!

 

[hewey]

Geoff, I hear you. Like you I don't know the answer either. The mental thing can go either way, heard lots of stories of elderly people with dementia who live in constant fear and confusion (and paranoia). And others who are near oblivious. My nan had a great time at her 80th birthday, and didn't remember a thing the next day. But she was happy. Dad is going physically as well as mentally. He's completely wheelchair bound and reliant on lifting machines etc. He's by far the youngest person in the facility in his early to mid 70s, and alongside the lesser capable. But arguably it's years of never looking after himself and expecting others to wait on him, catching up to him.

The DTE thing is interesting, not sure how much its a Holden thing or even just a 90s electronics weren't that good yet thing

Ralf, yeh the Statesman certainly chewed up the miles with ease and in comfort!

 

[hewey]

Not the best update. I was doing a routine oil change on the mini, prepping it for the 4 day Rylstone run this coming weekend, and found metal shavings in the oil. She's going to be parked up until we get a chance to pull the engine, just to make sure we don't do any further damage. We'll take the Yaris on the run, it should still be fun, but its not the same sense of adventure as going in a 60yr old car and when everyone else are in old cars. Pretty bummed about it, last year we had the interstate wedding, year before our dog passed away, year before we did it, and year before it was cancelled due to covid - I was really looking forward to finally get back to it. At least we'll be able to keep up with everyone It'll be a few weeks before we get the chance to pull the engine. It was running well, so fingers crossed it hasn't done anything too fatal inside.

 

[Ralf99]

From my rudimentary memory of mini engines they share oil with the combined gearbox? If something in the gearbox has crapped out is the oil pickup screen good enough to stop such large chunky bits being pumped around the engine?

 

[Geoff289]

From my rudimentary memory of mini engines they share oil with the combined gearbox? If something in the gearbox has crapped out is the oil pickup screen good enough to stop such large chunky bits being pumped around the engine?

Oh dear, that's not good.

Yes, Ralf, gearbox in the engine sump basically, part of Sir Alec Issigonis' genius in terms of small form factor packaging but not so much when this happens.

What's the state of play with the new donk, Hewey?

 

[hewey]

Ralf, as Geoff confirmed the engine and gearbox are one. I'd like to think it has a screen to stop this stuff getting recirculated, but who knows. Sometimes the early 850s have quirks which were fixed for later models. There's enough bits to know something got smashed up pretty good, so it's had to been smashed up against something either in the engine or box.

Geoff we'd been in talks about the pros and cons of building up the 1100 block which needs lots of bits, or fettling the original matching numbers block to accept the 1100 crank and other parts. We'd pencilled in for this to happen after this run. It looks like a tear down process might push us in one direction or the other.

And in ongoing 'good' news, we got a message this afternoon our accommodation has been cancelled on us. Their plumbing is completely blocked and wont be fixed in time for our stay. Anything in the immediate area is booked out, but Mudgee has some options - just adds 40 minutes extra each day.

 

[Coolabah]

Ralf, as Geoff confirmed the engine and gearbox are one. I'd like to think it has a screen to stop this stuff getting recirculated, but who knows. Sometimes the early 850s have quirks which were fixed for later models. There's enough bits to know something got smashed up pretty good, so it's had to been smashed up against something either in the engine or box.

Geoff we'd been in talks about the pros and cons of building up the 1100 block which needs lots of bits, or fettling the original matching numbers block to accept the 1100 crank and other parts. We'd pencilled in for this to happen after this run. It looks like a tear down process might push us in one direction or the other.

And in ongoing 'good' news, we got a message this afternoon our accommodation has been cancelled on us. Their plumbing is completely blocked and wont be fixed in time for our stay. Anything in the immediate area is booked out, but Mudgee has some options - just adds 40 minutes extra each day.

Yikes ! Hopefully some actual good news will happen soon. Hate to see that amount of metal anywhere where there is supposed to be lubricant and fine machined tolerances in any car
I blame the original "The Italian Job" movie- I can just see you barrelling down your local stormwater pipes at full throttle... oil starvation when you are inverted... ....you only have yourself to blame if i'm correct.
Seriously though, hope it is an easy enough fix

 

[zanyad]

I blame the original "The Italian Job" movie- I can just see you barrelling down your local stormwater pipes at full throttle... oil starvation when you are inverted... ....you only have yourself to blame if i'm correct.

 

[Bob Heine]

Mudgee has some options - just adds 40 minutes extra each day.

Hewey, we spent a fun night in Mudgee at the RSL club. Bought and received way too many rounds with the elderly gents who matched me joke for joke and story for story. Very hard to convince that lot a train, rather than a croc was involved in my mishap.

 

[Just Puttering]

It was running well, so fingers crossed it hasn't done anything too fatal inside.

Can’t believe it was running well with that much metal in the shared pan. I wonder if it could be gearbox synchros. Hard to imagine anything else failing so completely without affecting running.

 

[Jack_K]

The diff is also a common failure point which of course takes out the engine and gearbox with it.


I haven't pulled apart a manual one. I rebuild the autos which of course also share the engine oil.

 

[hewey]

@Coolabah Yeh, no loops in stormwater drains of late. However I did prime my wife up by watching the original Italian Job the night before we went out to inspect the mini when we bought it.

@Bob Heine is there anywhere you haven't had a drink and good time with locals around here. Though not surprised you made the most of your time down here.

@Just Puttering and @Jack_K yeh both synchros and diff make sense. We'll pull the engine out in a fortnights time.

Well the weekend, despite the dubious lead up, was an absolute corker. Such a great run.

Friday was a lazy and slow start getting out the door, followed by a run up the coast via Wisemans Ferry. Weather was okay, but we had a great run and didn't get stuck behind any cars. We stayed the night in an AirBnb we've stayed at a few times, and it's great for what we need.



Saturday morning saw a wet and cool start to the day. The kicking off point is the Worthington BMW and Mini dealership, who graciously opened their doors (including the workshop when the heavens opened).

This clubman van was particularly tidy, and looked great on period mags.



And this pair were particularly special. Less than 30 Broadspeed minis were made worldwide - in short the back/top sections were lopped off, a fibreglass fastback was installed, as well as 'glass doors and bonnet. Good for over 200kmh down Conrod Straight in Bathurst in '67. To see 2 in the flesh together is pretty special. To fang along some backroads with them is something amazing.





And the green one has some proper heritage too.



So after a briefing in the workshop while the rain bucketed down, the run was on its way. A key feature of the run is the observation run. This year it required you to stop at certain points and check for answers for some of the questions, as well as others you could do on the fly. Which meant that over the day cars were stopping and starting and mixing everyone up.



An absolute highlight of the whole weekend was playing with the Broadspeed minis in the twisties between Buckety and Wollombi. The sound of the exhaust and the straight cut gears, the smell of their hot engines, just so so good. They weren't taking it easy either.



Lunch was at a winery in the Hunter, with a food truck just for us. We parked up with the other more modern cars.





And after lunch, more twisty roads through the back of the Bylong Valley and into Rylstone.

 

[hewey]

In Rylstone, minis take over the main street as everyone trickles into town, inevitably swapping stories from the road, who broke down, who got what observation questions and so on. We checked things out, before heading off to Mudgee to try and beat dusk (and roos). Even driving a new modern car, I was buggered by the end of the day.



Sunday morning has the official presentation ceremony for the run, with awards for hard luck, best dressed and so on. We didn't enter the observation challenge given that we were in a modern non-mini car and that didn't feel fair, but later looking at the answers we would have come equal first. Next year we'll be keen to give it a proper crack.



With the event officially over, there's an un-official option to head over to Bathurst and do some laps of the track.




We spent Sunday night in Blackheath. Our original accommodation in Rylstone had a minimum 2 night stay, so we'd already booked in our leave and dog kennel for Monday, so we thought ****** it lets make the most of the 4 day long weekend. A quiet night with a great meal at the Ivenhoe pub was awesome. Monday saw us do some op shopping in the upper mountains, followed by a run down to Megalong Valley tearooms for some devonshire tea, before heading home to catch up on shopping and clothes washing.




So yeh, after a dubious start it was a corker of a weekend. In a fortnights time I'll tow the mini up to my brothers place and we'll pull the engine.

 

[Geoff289]

Fun!

200 kph down Conrod in one of those things would really be something.

 

[zanyad]

What fun! Those Minis look great.

 

[ajohno]

Looks like a great trip.

 

[hewey]

Thanks guys, was a great weekend. My facebook memories are reminding me that a year ago we were exploring Great Ocean Road, which was such an epic trip.

There's a facebook group called 'Legends in our own lunchtimes'. It's inspired by legendary Aussie hot rodder Rod Hadfield, who stood by the philosophy of going out into the shed every day for 30 minutes to keep projects ticking along with steady progress. The facebook group is mainly street machiners, all just sharing little bite sized pieces of progress on their projects. There's a bit of tomfoolery, but lots of good support for people of varying skill levels and access to different equipment.

A few times now, the Queensland contingent have held a barbeque, and the last few times they've raised some funds for a charity buying bikes for kids in Vietnam called Children's Hope in Action. This time around, hosts in Melbourne and Bathurst put their hands up, and simultaneous barbeques were held in all 3 states.

I organised for the Bathurst contingent to meet up at Mount Panorama, before we cruised out to the property where the barbeque was held.




Out at the property everyone parked up, the firepit was lit etc.



We took out both cars, as I stayed the night and my wife came home to feed the dogs.



One of the key features was a raffle and an auction, to help raise funds. To help with one of the raffle items, my brother sourced an old drum and I cut a design using the plasma cutter.






Apart from being pretty damn cold (snow was forecast down to the level of the hill next door), it was a great event. I think collectively across the 3 locations around $8,200 was raised, which is an awesome outcome and will see 69 bikes bought for kids in Vietnam.

 

[kitdoctor]

The Mini! Instantly recognisable around the world, such an iconic car.

 

[kitdoctor]

One of the key features was a raffle and an auction, to help raise funds. To help with one of the raffle items, my brother sourced an old drum and I cut a design using the plasma cutter.

@hewey great use of the overhead projector. Might have to find one on Marketplace.

 

[hewey]

@hewey great use of the overhead projector. Might have to find one on Marketplace.

If I was getting something now, I'd get a mini projector that plugs into a laptop via USB. No stuffing around going to officeworks to get designs copied onto transparencies, much smaller and easier to store etc etc.

So in a big milestone, we took the engine out on the weekend. It mostly went well, except one hidden cable we'd missed that stuff us around for about an hour till we worked out what was going on. My brother and sister in law were a massive help on the day and with offering the shed space too. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first time its come out in 60 years?



Made an effort to bag and tag all the bits clearly to help reassembly when the time comes.



And the engine ready to be delivered to the builder. Currently stashed in the carport and covered up, but should be good to go in, in a couple of weeks time.

 

[Geoff289]

Progress!

That's a lot of trailer for not much engine but I guess you work with what you've got.

 

[hewey]

That's a lot of trailer for not much engine but I guess you work with what you've got.

It's all a matter of perspective. The deck of the trailer is 1600 wide by 3000 long. When people recognise it as being a car trailer I get "That thing is tiny, what are you carrying on that?" type questions, with people typically expecting a golf cart. When people compare it to a regular box trailer I get "That trailer's huge!" comments. The simple answer is that it's as big as it needs to be to carry a mini, but not be any bigger than it needs to be in terms of weight or ability to tuck it out of the way in the front yard. And so it towed the mini out there, and towed the engine home.

 

[Jack_K]

What is the weight of it?

I need one for the same job and most trailers that I see that can fit a mini seem to weigh 800kg to 1T unloaded and have a 2T capacity. I don't need an 800kg trailer to tow an empty shell or even a complete mini. My towing capacity would be basically exceeded by the trailer alone.

At the price of a decent sized trailer in good condition and due to the fact that I don't have a suitable tow vehicle, I seriously consider buying an old truck instead (and creating yet another project).

 

[hewey]

What is the weight of it?

I need one for the same job and most trailers that I see that can fit a mini seem to weigh 800kg to 1T unloaded and have a 2T capacity. I don't need an 800kg trailer to tow an empty shell or even a complete mini. My towing capacity would be basically exceeded by the trailer alone.

At the price of a decent sized trailer in good condition and due to the fact that I don't have a suitable tow vehicle, I seriously consider buying an old truck instead (and creating yet another project).

Jack I think the weight of the trailer itself from memory is about 650kgs? I can't remember the towing capacity but it is nowhere near 2T. My tow vehicle is a Subaru with 2T towing capacity, so there's some safety buffer in there with a total weight of around 1300kgs. It does mean I don't need a twincab ute to tow it, and I can also push it around on flat ground by myself, unlike a regular twin axle car trailer.

On the old truck option front, check out Beezleboss thread and in particular Lyndon's comments about trucks and tow truck legislation (bottom of this page) https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/cncs-and-hot-rods-a-sydney-garage.486817/page-4.

Here's a pic with the mini on it to give a better idea of size. I've got tie down points at each of the circled locations, so when I strap it down I'm getting pretty close to a 45 degree angle at each end of the strap. I also added 3 flush mount tie down points down the centre of the trailer, to make it adaptable for other uses. Likewise the lip for the ramps is full width, so you can put them together for a baggage trolley, or wider for something like a ride on lawn mower or golf cart. Also means if I ever sell it, I'm not restricted to just mini owners.



Here's a few other examples I came across when doing my research. The open deck on this would save a lot of weight. But I wanted a full deck for carrying other loads.



This is a really neat set up.



This one I particularly like the front tie down set up looped over the wheels. But again I wanted a flat deck.

 

[Ralf99]

Great looking trailer for the mini - even looks like it would be fairly easy to fit stake side pockets for even more functionality. I can't see a brake master cylinder - presumably it has electric brakes?

The VIN plate should (maybe) show the tare and gross weight details..