My British Open Classic

[Amy :)]

This is my first car which I adore, my British Open Classic called K.P.

Plan to make the engine bay all shiney with a combination of sprayed apple jack green parts and chrome shiney bits. My car had a full respray in the summer and is looking fab The engine also runs really well, sounds great.

Plans are also to leave the exterior as it is (body work is in good nick) but get black and white pressed plates so it looks a bit more retro. The car has been deseamed very slightly by the last owner and it's really subtle. Hoping to keep it all looking a little different and retro, but no major changes.

A brand new interior that is custom designed and made shouldn't be too far away. It will be black and green, with a new dash and carpets to match the car's exterior.


It also has space for a webber which may or may not be filled....depends if i can save enough money!



An absolutley amazing buy I'm sure you'll agree, and what makes it even better is the fact that it was a surprise from my boyfriend Danny California


so here it is...












the parts so far that we've sprayed to match :



and them fitted:



our minis together. DannyCalifornia's mini and Rhys' mini, along with mine at the end:

[Amy :)]

at the moment dan has taken the radiator out and is making it all colourful with green and black so that's the next bit to be added to the engine bay

[coedy]

Looks great!
I think the only thing to do to the bodywork is get some of that chrome arch trim to put on the lip of the arches ;D Looking forward to seeing the radiator. just realised though... is it high temp paint?

I like the fact that the bulkhead looks to have the same finish as the outside!!!

[Danny California]

Yes mate, I used high temp paint on the rad itself (masked off the actual fins, didnt know if that would affect the cooling, so I didnt test it lol) and then painted the fan cowling green with halfords spray cans. Well, I say painted, it's just had its first coat an hour or so ago, and now it's raining so I dont know if I'll finish it tonight. Gonna laquer the whole lot though, even the high temp even though I'm not sure you're supposed to. Oh well, worst case scenario is the laquer flakes off.
Dunno about the chrome trim though, I always seem to prefer minis without it, but its amys call at the end of the day really. We do need to get rubber trim to sit between the arches and the body though, cause it will look that little bit tidier. As for the bulkhead, it had a full strip and respray in the summer, they shot the engine bay aswell, pretty groovy lol

[coedy]

Ahh ok! sounds good!
Shouldnt need laquer on the rad. mine is just hammerited (wasnt worth me doing a proper job on the rad because its got a nasty dent in the top) i would say its probably worth doing the cowling though because it gets stinking so should make it easier to clean! sounds like its going to look great!

I think you can get black arch trim as well. I was just thinking it would get rid of a sharp edge that certain officials may get fussy over lol. I think it looks fine as it is myself though

[Danny California]

Yeah but for some reason the finish on the radiator is like a matte finish, almost like a chalk board. Laquer should bring it up a bit shinier Gonna have to clean the fan aswell, dont think its ever seen a cloth! Goin up to the shed in a minute to add another coat.

[Hollie]

this is stunning

[Danny California]

Got some pics of the radiator to show I am actually making progress lol

Here it is after I'd taken it as far back to bare metal as I could be bothered:



And after primer, W&D, black high temp, W&D, green, W&D then a couple coats of laquer, heres the finished article:

[coedy]

you've worked hard on that mate!
Looks great! ;D

[Danny California]

Ta mate, it looks better in person, the flash ruined the pic a bit.
Just polished up the old rad cap aswell, saving money on buying a new one to replace the worn out pitted horrible old one! Not too bad really:





Gonna flush the rad out then drop it back in the next couple days, after cleaning around where the rad goes and the fan. Gonna try back to black stuff on the top hose to see if it brings it up nicely, but it looks a bit worn, so a new one may be in order. I'll take some more pics when i do that lol

[coedy]

The cap looks better than mine lol. mines a chrome one like that but it does pit quite badly after a week or two

someone told me wet wipes bring up rubber to black lovely. not tried it yet but there's nothing nasty in them that would eat away at the rubber so wouldn't do any harm?

[dai9fxey]

Looking tidy Danny.
It's amazing what a bit of elbow grease can do.

[Danny California]

Went and cleaned the fan today, didnt start till late though, had to take amy to work at 6. Didnt have much light left, so I used molly's headlights and flattened the battery Would have been fine if rhys' battery charger was charged lol. Or if I had the keys to the snobby one to jump it off its battery. Had to rely on a lovely old lady in a micra to drive by lol.
Anyway, got the car running again, left it on with the fogs and spots on, lit up the place like a stadium lol. Cleaned the fan with Nitro mors, paint thinner I think it was really, but it worked amazingly, really reccomended it took no effort. Going to put the rad back in tomorrow, then get some piccies Stay tuned!

[Amy :)]

ahh look at all this work he's doing...i'm not guna have anything left to do!!!

[Danny California]

Dont complain, it wouldnt get done otherwise would it?

Just about finished putting the radiator back in, just gotta find the top mount bolt that i sprayed green, then fill 'er up!





Next paint job will be the brake servo bell thingy and the breather cases I think! ;D

[taffy1967]

It'd be worth getting a new cover for that fuse box too.



Very nice car though

[Danny California]

Yeah gonna pick one up in malvern taff, its not being used for now, or even started regularly, so before starting it next I'll just dry everything out if need be. Might be moving the fuse box into the webber box anyway to keep it more sheltered and tidy.

[taffy1967]

Just having the cover in place is usually enough to protect the fuses. But the rear contacts do rust out and cause short circuiting, so coating them with some Vaseline really helps.

[Amy :)]

here i am! and here's the list of stuff i bought in malvern for K.P.:

4 over riders
2 door scratch guards
a badge for the back (to replace my ucky one!)
a rocker cover (which is now broken !!! )
rocker cap
a rocker gasket
black and white pressed plates (awesome!)
a gear knob
relay covers (chrome)
fuse box (black bit)
fuse box cover (chrome bit on top)
BRIGHT GREEN HT LEADS!!! quite expensive but they look FAB!

fuse box cover and shiney cover gone on, as have the ht leads all done myself i'd like to add lol

rocker gasket and cover gone on (again i did it, but dan felt the need to mess around with whatever i did - wasn't it good enough?! haha)

escucheons on and they look way cool!

gear knob is on, much better than the old one

need to fix the over riders on and ive taken the badge off the back, just need to stick the new one on

gonna have to buy plate surrounds cos i don't want to make holes in the new ones, only to get it wrong and waste the lovely plates. held them up against K.P. though and they're gonna look really cool

relay covers haven't gone on yet, theyre all untidy in the engine bay so they'll have to be tidied up first.

anyway,thats the progress at the moment, no pics of the engine bay (dan said i should leave it till a few more things have changed but i'm way too eager and want to post pics now)

will post other pics soon though (have to work out how to get a photo bucket account and stuff )

x

[Amy :)]

door escucheons:





keroppi!: