The panel van has been a welcomed workhorse for generations. With its utilitarian practicality, the panel van has done everything from moving house to making
Last night, we invited all of our Mini friends to come over to our Pettistree workshops for the live draw of our 1979 Austin Morris
The beautiful 1989 Austin Mini is safe and sound at her new home in Scotland. Also, she seems to have got some company for her
Jon, one of our amazing Bridge Classic Cars in-house restoration technicians, has been working on getting the last few bits and pieces done on the
It’s always incredible when old projects come back to visit. Especially ones that have gone out there and developing a life of their own. For
Our little blue Austin Mini has finally landed in the workshop and is ready to be fitted with its new back seats and have a
Our elusive 1989 Austin Mini has had its back seats completed. The mini itself is set to be in soon. Kath has been working on
Our Surf Blue mini that we helped restore with Ted from Team C Racing is now set to star on Vintage Voltage on tv. We’ve
The panel van has been a welcomed workhorse for generations. With its utilitarian practicality, the panel van has done everything from moving house to making memories.
Now Bridge Classic Cars wants you to relive and relove those memories with our gorgeous 1974 Mini 850 Van.
With its beautiful dark green paintwork, over a simple but elegant black interior, our Mini panel van was subjected to a full nut and bolt restoration between 2000 and 2013 commissioned by an adoring previous owner. Included in the cars history file are invoices which relate to the cars restoration where no stone was left unturned in bringing this classic Mini back to life.
Powered by a small and simple 848cc 4-cylinder engine and 4 speed manual gearbox, this little Mini has a practical and easy-going charm.
Originally classed as a commercial vehicle, many of these panel van sadly do not exist today due to being in constant heavy use in their younger years, but this one has been cherished since its early days it would seem with the odometer showing just a shade over 28,000 miles, which is believed to be original, since it was first registered in Devon on the 1st of June 1974.
This is your chance to win this sensational bite-sized panel van for just a few pounds!
Full Gallery & Video:
Last night, we invited all of our Mini friends to come over to our Pettistree workshops for the live draw of our 1979 Austin Morris Mini in our Atelier building.
With the weather holding off, we opened the doors for everyone to come in with incredible woodfired pizzas from Picollo Pizza Box and the Atelier Bar serving everything from our Rijo42 Coffee to the always popular Adnams 0.5% range – Our friends had something in hand to listen to the amazing set by Annika Rands.
As the clock struck 7PM and the sun began to dip lower across the Suffolk countryside, it was time for us to find out who the lucky winner of our 1979 Austin Morris Mini was! Would it be someone in the room…
Molly and Freddie took our virtual friends are the Atelier through our Facebook live stream, going through some of the upcoming competition cars as well as some other exciting news about a very special Jaguar which you’ll find out more about very soon.
At 10 past 7, as always, the competition closes. This marks the point where fate and luck collide as we find a new home for a dream classic somewhere in the UK. With only a couple of hundred tickets remaining, Molly gathered everyone in the room a little closer and beckoned those behind a screen to edge forward on their seats.
As with every live draw, we wait until everyone (both in the room and on the web) can clearly see our screen loaded up with the Google Random Number Generator. After a quick test outside of the 1-4999 tickets, everything was in place to find the classic Mini a new home.
Molly carefully and precisely put the numbers in, 1 and 4999 for the generator to search through. With a drum roll and a countdown by everyone in the audience, Molly clicked the fateful button which has led to over 130 people winning through Bridge Classic Cars Competitions.
4027.
Those were the exact numbers that showed up bold and resolute on the screen.
That particular ticket had been part of a handful of tickets bought by Anthony Wardley – The new owner of our 1979 Austin Morris Mini 850.
The beautiful 1989 Austin Mini is safe and sound at her new home in Scotland. Also, she seems to have got some company for her life up north.
The new owner of the straight cut gearboxed 1989 Austin Mini also has a very nice 1275GT which will be sharing its stable with the little blue car. The 1275GT was given the name of Little Floorie by its owner, who has decided that the name of the 1989 Austin Mini will be Little Lottie.
We wish Ken and his wife many happy miles with our little Mini and look forward to seeing more of Little Lottie on her adventures in years to come.
Jon, one of our amazing Bridge Classic Cars in-house restoration technicians, has been working on getting the last few bits and pieces done on the 1990 Austin Mini 30 before it heads off to its very lucky new owner.
The last job to complete underneath this fantastic Mini is to install a new exhaust mount onto the car. The old one had become loose and wasn’t in the best state so our workshop ordered up a replacement piece and got it into the car. This particular clamp also acts as a hang and is secure to the gearbox, so it’s crucial in keeping the exhaust spaced far enough away from the gearbox as to not rattle or chafe.
With this done, it will have its pre-delivery inspection and very soon be off to its new home!
It’s always incredible when old projects come back to visit. Especially ones that have gone out there and developing a life of their own. For example, this bright blue 1967 Austin Mini 850 belongs to our dear friend Simon. Simon owns this incredible little car that hides a small secret.
Well, it’s not a small secret at all. This Mini has been converted to have an electric drive train out of a Tesla… The equivalent of 300BHP in a tiny package is always guaranteed to put a smile on your face. We here at Bridge Classic Cars did the bodywork and paint for the project. It was delivered to us as basically a bare shell with all the potential in the world ahead of it. Our expert restoration teams set about preparing the car for its new electrified life.
The conversion itself was handled by our friends over at Team C (formally the East Anglian Mini Centre) and also by Electric Classic Cars in Wales.
With the project gaining popularity across the world (it was also recently at the Classic Show at the Birmingham NEC) several media outlets have picked up the story of this wonderful car and its sentimental attachment to Simon. Recently it was featured in The Telegraph and very soon it will be beamed into your homes on the Discovery Channel. Before then, however, it will appear on ITV news in a segment filmed in our workshop.
So, we wanted to take you behind the scenes of the shoot along with Freddie, Nick and Gordon from Bridge Classic Cars to give you a sneak peek at what you can expect. This Mini is truly beautiful, the colour was incredible in the winter sun. The brightwork glistened and all of its small and special details were on display for everyone to see. After speaking to Simon on his own about the car, the guys from ITV had a quick chat with Ted from Team C and our very own director, Gordon who shared their thoughts on being involved in such an incredible project and just how far this little car has come from when it first rolled into our workshop in February 2020.
It will be broadcast on ITV Anglia News at 6pm on January 6th 2022. Be sure to tune in and watch!
Our little blue Austin Mini has finally landed in the workshop and is ready to be fitted with its new back seats and have a thorough service before we decide its fate…
Our elusive 1989 Austin Mini has had its back seats completed. The mini itself is set to be in soon. Kath has been working on refurbishing the back seats. She’s added pipping and a skirt around the edges and then fit the cover over the foam base. She then sewed up the cover for the squab and taken off the rust from the wire frame. She added in 12mm of scrim foam on the front and 3mm on the back. After gluing the foam to the frame, Kath then cut out the pipping, back flap and side skirt. After fitting new foam and the new cover on, Kath could sew up the final pieces.
Our Surf Blue mini that we helped restore with Ted from Team C Racing is now set to star on Vintage Voltage on tv. We’ve recently been mentioned in an EADT article about it which you can read here.
The car has spent the 6 months in Wales at Electric Classic Cars undergoing a Tesla conversion.
Owner Simon Benton, has had the mini in his family its whole life. Originally purchased for him and his sister to learn in, the car then became their mother’s daily before retiring to their garage where it sat untouched for many years.
The characterful mini gained the name ‘OBie’ after its number plate and the release of Star Wars the summer they bought it.
Bridge Classic Cars are award winning Classic Car Restoration and Maintenance specialists. Your pride and joy is in safe hands with our expert Classic Car Technicians. Take a look at our awards here.
