It’s a busy Mini today in the workshops as we prepare for our Cooper S to be delivered to Geoff later in the week. We’ve carried out the pre delivery inspection and noticed a fuel leak from carb float bowl.
We’ve taken the car outside to warm her up.
Checked for previous fuel leak and no signs of leak anymore.
Next up, we’ve carried out a long road test, under different driving conditions using P1 fuel. We’ve cruised at 30, 50, 60 and 70mph and all seems to be ok. The car accelerates well at all speeds. The idle speed is a little erratic but doesn’t stall or cut out at all and drives lovely. We’ve rechecked for fuel leak and it appears to have stopped now. We suspected the needle valve was stuck in offside carb.
Now, it’s time to make history here at Bridge Classic Cars as we fill her up with our new P1 fuel, right to the brim.
Rob then took the car away for some final bits of filming but annoyingly the fuel leak has reappeared. Jon has remove the float bowl lid, freed off the needle valve and checked over and now all seems ok.
Now on to Mini number 2, our 1961 Austin Mini 850. Molly has been out to shoot the car today and has reported that it struggles to stay running. Jon has now attended to the stalling issue by removing the air filter and carburettor suction chamber and piston.
We have thoroughly cleaned both and checked for piston free fall in suction chamber. It was a bit sticky so we have lubed up, refitted and refilled the damper oil. The air filter has been refitted.
Road test and adjust idle speed.
The brakes pull to the right slightly under hard braking which we will need to address but otherwise the car now drives fine.
We have adjusted the front brakes and retest and now it is much better.
Our 1985 Mini Mayfair Berkeley was collected from our storage facility to the workshop.
Once here, Jonn investigated a fuel leak from the carburettor area. After a run-up, Jonn found that the float bowl gasket had split and was leaking. He removed the fuel pipes and replaced them with an E10 carburant fuel hose. After replacing the float bowl gasket.
As it was still leaking, Jonn stripped and removed the float bowl lid and checked the needle valve and debris was found inside.
After blowing this out and testing it, it was fine.
Jonn noted that the exhaust was blowing still, so he raised the car up on the ramp and removed the complete exhaust. He separated the system and cleaned the flanges and joints.
He bent the front pipe to achieve the correct alignment before mounting the front pipe and sealing it with an instant gasket. He then secured the front pipe and mounted the remaining exhaust. Finally, he positioned and tightend all clamps and mounts. Run and test. All ok now.
We have recently welcomed our 1981 Austin Morris Mini 998 into the Bridge Classic Cars workshop. While it is with us, our team of technicians will be working on the carbs, as well as investigating a noise that the owner has heard coming from the car.
It will also undergo a full appraisal before leaving us.
We love a classic Mini so we are very pleased to have one as good-looking as this with us.
We have welcomed a new arrival to the Bridge Classic Cars workshop in the form of our 1990 Mini Cooper.
Now that it is here, our team of classic car technicians will inspect and assess it to make sure it is ready to eventually be won through Bridge Classic Cars Competitions.
After being prepped for a new paint job by Mauro, classic car technician Chris painted our 1979 Austin Morris Mini 850.
Perhaps the biggest difference is on the back of our classic mini which had a black boot lid, but this is now in matching white.
Our 1979 Austin Morris Mini 850 looks great with its new paint and we are looking forward to seeing it eventually be won through Bridge Classic Cars Competitions.
A new arrival to the Bridge Classic Cars workshop is our 1976 Leyland Mini Clubman 1100. It has recently undergone a comprehensive restoration and it has been finished to extremely high standards.
An award-winning classic car, our Mini has won best in show and it certainly looks like it can win many more awards in the future too.
Our 1976 Leyland Mini Clubman 1100 has clearly been well loved and looked after throughout its life and we are very much looking forward to offering it as a competition car on Bridge Classic Cars Competitions very soon.
Our beautiful Mini Cooper 1.3 has now arrived to Bridge Classic Cars HQ. This very special little car comes with the higher compression engine 10:1:1. Packed with bundles of history, the car has taken part in the Shetland Islands to MSC Sernatingen Oldtimertreffen in 2019.
The body shell and panels for the Team C Racing classic Mini has moved from the Bridge Classic Cars body shop to the paint booth ready to be shot in primer.
With the body and panels cleaned down thoroughly and masked up, Chris could begin the process of getting the classic Mini into primer ahead of its colour change. Several coats of primer were laid onto the body before it is taken back to the body shop to have more delicate sanding done to ensure the best finish on the shell for our friends over at Team C Racing.
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.
The blue all-electric Classic Mini we worked on a while ago has been spotted at the recent Birmingham NEC Classic Car Show!
The car was on a stand with several all-electric classics to showcase one of the ways that classic cars will be used in the future. This little car is absolutely incredible and we’re proud to have played a part in its story.
We handled the bodywork and paint for the project, working to make sure the outside met the same wow factor as what lay beneath its tiny turquoise bonnet.
November 26, 2021 11:16 amPublished by Craig Ranson
Last Sunday, the 29th of August, East Coast Mini Club came to visit us. The club was doing its annual charity run, raising money for the charity, Mind Suffolk. They managed to raise a grand total of £1,200 for the mental health charity. What an awesome achievement, well done everyone! The run started at 9:30 am at the Ram Meadow car park and was open to both members and non-members, and finished at Bridge Classic Cars. Take a look at our photos from the day. Did you come along on the day? If so, you may spot yourself or your Mini in one or two of the photos.
Well done to Chairman Tom and the entire team behind the event. It was a pleasure to have the club at our workshop.
If you run a car club and are looking for a location to hold an event or have a similar charity run coming up, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us!
September 1, 2021 10:26 amPublished by Craig Ranson
Lydia has been working on making a new boot liner for our 1989 Austin Mini. She started by making the paper pattern and then taped it onto cardboard. She then double-checked that the pattern would fit, by fitting it into the boot. She then cut out the plywood to get the shape for the middle and used the template to cut the fabric out. Lydia also cut out black strips of vinyl for the binding. She then laid the carpet out over the top of the wood and fitted it.
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 new Mini is having some new interior made up before in comes into us. Kath is working on taking apart the rear seats and recovering them. She begun by removing the old covers, making new vinyl which she mounted on 12mm scrim foam. Kath then made up some piping, sealed the edges and trimmed off excess foam. Next up, Kath cut out the calico to sew into the base for attached the foam to. Once she’d sewn up the flutes and sewn in the calico, she could attach the piping along each side.
Pricey has been taking apart and rebuilding the lower rear sills, entire lower sill, rear inner sill and floor as all of it were showing series signs of corrosion as the structural integrity was challenged.
The process includes correcting previous fixes and a lifetime of rust and wear. Pricey has been fabricating new sections and welding them in so that the lower sills are ready to be repainted.
Pricey has been addressing the poor alignment issues and previous corrections. He has stripped parts back to good metal to be able to fabricate new parts.
This little brown 1978 Mini GT 1275 is in for some bodywork. We work closely with Ted from Team C Racing, who specialises in Minis as he will often send his projects our way for paintwork and bodywork, such as this Mini.
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.
Our talented paint shop colour matched, masked up, primed and painted our 1993 Mini Rover side panels before it was sent back to Ted at Team C Racing (Formerly known as Anglian Mini Centre).
With all three minis individually shot, it only left the finale: Bridge Classic Cars does the Italian Job. Directed, shot and produced by our marketing and visual gurus, Ellie and Freddie. The team got together Craig, Hannah and Charlotte with their minis to film a quirky and enthusiastic video for our big reveal. Co-ordinating all three mini’s on the runway for each shot took a few attempts but after an hour or so, we managed to get together enough frames for our reveal video which aired last night on our live draw.
With each mini and driver taking turns in the spotlight, driving stunts were choreographed to allow for each mini and driver to be clearly seen whilst still keeping the quirky personality of the classics.
After the video was shot, we lined up the cars and their drivers for some photos before heading back to the hanger and settling down for an editing marathon.
We took our 1996 Mini Cooper 1.3 over to Bentwaters for its photoshoot. We were lucky with the good weather and bright sun for our photos and videos. As usual, the team split in two with Freddie handling the videos and Ellie shooting the photos. Craig and Charlotte later joined to be our faces and drivers for this mini.
Charlotte came to help out for this shoot and sat for some portraits to create some more lifestyle photos for this characterful classic.
Last week we ventured out with our friend and model, Hannah, to shoot our 1980 Mini 1275 GT, which you now know is one of three of our grand mini reveal. This characterful orange classic is not only fun to look at, but also fun to drive. For Hannah, it is her dream car, making her the ideal candidate to model and drive this competition car.
As usual, the team splits into two divisions with Freddie tackling the video aspects and Ellie taking on the photography. By splitting responsibilities and time like this, the team can swiftly get through multiple car shoots in a day, creating content for all our social media outlets.
As we usually do, we shot in RAF Bentwaters where we have a hanger. Driving up and down the 1.3Â mile run way, we captured our videos and photos of this spritely orange classic.
We were lucky to have fair weather on this shoot after the unlucky spell of bad weather recently which makes shooting cars in difficult.
We always aim to shoot multiple galleries of each car, including the main product photos you see, the portraits and motion ones, but where we can, we also like to pick a second destination to shoot in to create a wider diversity of photos.
Today we welcomed in this quirky 1993 Mini from Ted at Team C racing that needs its door frames and inner wing panels repainted. This characterful mini is decorated in Mini Run and Mini club stickers that tell a colourful history of this particular motor. In particular, it has an Italian Job logo on the side with the famous quote on the back ‘You Were Only Supposed To Blow The Bloody Doors Off’, which fits well with the doors currently missing…
We thought we’d give you a closer looked at this nippy little green machine that’s recently come in. This 1996 Almond Green Mini Cooper 35 arrived in the workshop today in perfect condition! We can’t wait to give it a drive around Bentwaters to show you more. Big things are on the horizon..
This characterful 1980 Austin Morris Mini 1275 GT has arrived and will be one of our next competition cars. With only a few minor cosmetic imperfections, this Mini is in perfect condition and looks like its just left the factory!
We’re looking forward to photographing this charming little motor and launching it on our competition site! Watch this space!
This charming little Mini may be coming in soon to be recommissioned and assessed. Currently we’re at the enquiry stage but hope to see this little red motor come in soon!
And we have our 300 SL Mercedes with the usual bulkhead corrosion concerns. This could be another exciting project to come into our workshops in the coming months.
February 23, 2021 11:07 amPublished by Craig Ranson
Kath has been making the handbrake gaiter for our 1961 Morris Mini Deluxe, ‘Eva’. Kath made this by measuring out a pattern against the old on and working new leather into a gaiter to mimic the old version.
January 29, 2021 12:41 pmPublished by Craig Ranson
It’s our gorgeous 1961 Morris Mini Deluxe’ last day with us today. We have a load of work to do before tomorrow night, where she will be presented as a birthday gift to Eva Ranson, wife of our Director; Gordon Ranson.
The Mini arrived at our Pettistree workshop this morning looking pretty bare! Although her engine was in, she still needed all her interior fitted, including carpets, door panels and seats.
Firstly, one of our engine technicians Ted completed some final tweaks to the Mini’s 800cc engine. The engines already been totally recommissioned, as well as stripped and repainted in that lovely green you can see in the picture.
Meanwhile, Brian in the trim shop is getting the first section of the headlining in. He’s then got the front lining in and has fitted the C Posts.
The front dash was then fitted with it’s fleck material. “I trimmed around the edge” explains Kath, another of our trim-shop experts. “Then, I’ve glued it all in place.”
Kath’s then fitted the upper section of the dash, she’s then bent it round and trimmed it to fit. “I then glued the ends around the door seal” she tells us “then reattached the door seal.”
The door panels were next on the list. They were tricky! Kath had to trim the board and cut some foam out along the side to be able to slide it in. She then inserted the little door fillet panels.
The rear door panel pockets were equally difficult. “The boards didn’t fit” Kath explains “so we had to trim down to get them to fit inside nicely.”
Kath then had to trim holes for the ashtrays – a fixture you never see anymore in modern cars!
She trimmed the holes for the lights and fitted them in place. Getting the rivet bracket into position then fitting the rest of the board.
The sun visors were the next feature to be fitted. First of all the brackets were screwed into place, then the custom made visors were attached.
All the underlay and carpet was yet to be fitted when our Mini arrived back with us this morning. Underlay was trimmed up and glued into position. Matching red carpet was then fitted under where the seats will go. Taking care to trim around the seat brackets where each of the front seats will go.
The final sections of carpet were then fitted into place, trimmed up and glued to hold their position.
The seats were then fitted into the front. Looking lovely!
Brian then added sound deadening to the back seat section, before attaching his custom-made back seat. He also added the rear squab and the parcel shelf behind it.
“I’ve then fitted the rear quarter panels” Brian explains “securing them with screws at the top”. Brian’s also glued the wheel arch covers into position.
Aside from the interior, the Mini’s working components also had to be reassembled. These parts arrived back with us this morning as individual bits. The team have spent the day reassembling the subframe, ready to get the wheels back on and get her back up and running!
My goodness! What a team effort to get our gorgeous little Mini ready for her big reveal. We hope Eva loves her ‘Little Eva’ as much as we do!
We use cookies to deliver the best possible experience whilst visiting our website. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to our use of cookies, or you can manage your preferences by clicking the link below. You can manage your preferences at any time from out Cookie Policy page.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
