Project Memoirs: Bornite’s All Red Fleet

[mrbenn]

Anyone got a link to BI's twitter feed?

 

Ta!

[egg]

https://twitter.com/danielfoxfm

[mrbenn]

Much obliged, Egg.

[SiC]

Mini restoration channels seem to gain a lot of watchers, subscribers and interest on YouTube. As you're a media type, maybe a good time to kick starter a channel as you restore it?

[wuvvum]

Bornite driving off into the sunrise

 

[D Spares & Tyres]

If you want to push it at the other end it won't roll freely, don't forget you can slacken the brakes off without taking the wheels off. Adjuster at the back. Square thing about 8mm

[Mrs6C]

Just saw it on the BBC website. Great to see a certain Sierra there as well!

 

Well done - a lovely story and a great save.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

https://twitter.com/danielfoxfm

I reckon he's gained a few extra followers on Twunter today! Looks remarkably solid in the photos, although with it being a BL Mini, I'm sure it'll have a few surprises. Still amazed you found one and the same car though - looking forward to the first start-up and first drive pictures.

[Dan_ZTT]

Just caught up, I'd completely missed this one. Awesome stuff.

[SiC]

Back home yet?

[BorniteIdentity]

Just. Ready for a beer!

[fordperv]

Thanks egg for putting that twitter link up

[BorniteIdentity]

Just home now. Gimme a few hours to compile my thoughts and I’ll write something down.

 

Huge thanks to Wuv and BarMatt for the practical help earlier (I’m totally thick when it comes to useful stuff) and for all the support on here.

 

It’s been emotional.

 

[BorniteIdentity]

Apologies for the brief lockdown on Twitter. Trying to stop nationals just using my pics without consent and/or paying.

[Felly Magic]

Read it on the beeb, well done, you deserve a beer. Minis have great spares backup and I am sure any decent vinyl graphics place could knock up a set of City decals for it. Hopefully the work it needs wont be too much. Serious Respect Daniel, and give it a good mention on your next show. How stunned were you when yiuvfoubd out it was your gran's old motor?

[Skizzer]

Our pics, ref the Sierra woollarding

[trigger]

Congratulations again Dan, just a great story this, I've been following it on Facebook where it seems to have gone viral! I bet your family will be a blubbering wreak when they see this!

[Felly Magic]

This thread deserves the Trigger double thumbs up. It has such a feel good factor it is off the scale. I bet Mini World mag will want to feature it at some point.

[Timewaster]

Bornitedentity and trigger.

 

Bigger media whores than a house full of big brother rejects.

 

 

I love the BBC's tag "Decrepit Cars"

[trigger]

Ha! We've both had our share of news features this week!

[paulscavalier]

Fantastic stuff well done

[RichL]

Wonderful. Well done.

 

This is already a great achievement, looking forward to seeing it recommissioned and enjoyed by your family again.

[Felly Magic]

No getting daft ideas like shoehorning a Celica GT4 running gear in to it, there madness lies lol

[clayts450]

I ring my mum every Sunday and she knows all about this place. Anyway, she mentioned she'd seen a local news feature on the TV about an old Mini being reunited with its former family and I had been reading this topic just before I rang her...spooky. My folks live down the road in Newmarket.

 

We got to talking about my dad and grandad's old cars and concluded every single one, bar possibly a Wolseley 15/60 which could be rotting away in a barn somewhere (5214 RO), had been scrapped.

 

Great story, must be very emotional indeed - well boughted sir

[anonymous user]

Lovely, just lovely it gives a nice warm glow. Wishing you all the best with it and glad it's going to be you working on a Mini not me.

[BorniteIdentity]

A Mini Miracle.

 

I’ve been lucky before. Usual stuff aside (like having a home, a tortoise and the easiest job on earth) my wife and I were fortunate enough to have all four of our sons delivered by the same amazing midwife. Further investigations with Addenbrookes Hospital revealed that we were the only family that this had ever happened to, and a search to find another family in the UK also proved fruitless. That said, I don’t consider myself a lucky man in the jammy sense of the word. A bit of a blagger? Totally. Fortunate in life? Oh aye. But not lucky.

 

I’d given up on this Mini. Sold in 1994 by my sister, every single vehicle check revealed... well... nothing. There is absolutely no digital footprint of it whatsoever. Every Mini I’ve been interested in since, subliminally, had to be a MK4 - had to be period in colours and had to be, well, shite. So when it appeared in a garage on the Norfolk Broads? Well, I couldn’t believe it.

 

I still couldn’t believe it as I was driving up this morning. What if it wasn’t our car? What if I’ve made a terrible mistake, and have agreed to pay over the odds for a broken Mini that I end up sweeping up rather than towing home?? You see, as a family we were notoriously shit at taking photos. Ironic really, as my father owned several cameras in his role as an Estate Agent. So, even driving up the A11 in -5 temperatures, the crippling self doubt was still tearing me up.

 

There was only one shred of comfort. My sister could never get on with the original Austin Rover steering wheel. I still remember her now complaining how it was large enough to be on a bus. The vendor had confirmed that this Mini had a replacement wheel, but hadn’t sent any pictures. I was ready to hand over a fat envelope of cash to a man I’d never met, and then ready to pray that the right car came out of the garage.

 

It was a glorious morning, but by Christ was it cold. As soon as I got out of the Transit I slipped like Bambi on ice. Strong start. The vendors were warm, kind and totally at ease with the idea of being in the news. The owner explained that he was only selling the car now as they were moving house, and that the new property had no garage. He’d actually moved house twice before, each time paying someone to transport it for him to their new place. At 75, the odds were against him ever getting it fixed and he knew it. I can’t imagine being in that situation, but I know that one day I will. I only hope to find perfect buyers for my old crocks when the time comes.

 

Formalities complete, Wuvvum and Barmatt arrived. You will notice through this series of photos that they’re doing the hard work and I am not. Well. Someone had to hold the iPhone.

 

 

 

 

After two more photographs the owner made his excuses and shuffled off. I’m quite good at ‘feelings’, and he was evidently upset to see the car leave - but equally keen not to publicise this fact. Fair enough. At least this way he wouldn’t have to witness me slipping over. Again.

 

 

 

 

 

My phone hasn’t stopped all day. I’ve had to charge it twice, and even now I’m on 19% again. With interest in the story from the press reaching fever pitch, I decided to go via my Sister’s house to get some photos of us all together. I arrived to a Hero’s Welcome, with everyone brandishing phones and clapping! Applause turned to the odd tear, and then we ‘made up for lost time’.

 

 

 

 

Driving home, I wondered whether this was always meant to be. I’m not sure I believe in fate, but something pretty special happened this week. The fact it was in Norfolk, a place very special to us, was at the very least serendipitous and perhaps more. Dunno. What I DO know is I have a very smoll car sat underneath my kitchen window, that’s brought a very large grin to my even larger face.

 

 

 

[SiC]

That's the easy bit done.

 

Now onto the hard bit, restoring it!

[Eyersey1234]

Well done Bournite. Looking forward to updates on the Mini and for that matter the baSe Sierra. Happy chodding.

[HMC]

Great story. The sort of thing that never happens..... but it has!

 

These look so right on the smaller wheels. Speaking of which, will the other (steering) wheel stay? It’s not original but- it being there is part of the story.

 

How rotten is it?

[HMC]

Y tho?