This is what I've been up to folks

It's taken me 3 months to restore, the previous owner was gonna scrap it but I saw some potential in it, both silver roofs are removable, so are all the rear windows, it's a 1600cc petrol engine, either 4 or 2 wheel drive with a transfer reduction gearbox, it was a total nightmare to weld, I used 200 rods on the chassis alone.

How it was.


The chassis was rotten.




But some 1.5mm thick steel plates can do wonders.




The petrol tank was downright dangerous.


This is all that was left of the fuel pump support, it's supposed to be bolted to the chassis but it was dangling free.


Both rear springs were busted.


However, here she is now, and she's running great.







Phil called her Barbie and the name's kinda stuck, I like it Phil.

Wow, you definitely had your work cut out there, looks great now though.

Wow well done Nero!!

It looks like new

Thanks Azz, you have no idea how many swear words were used restoring it, and quite a few Elastolplasts were used too.

Wow Nero, Barbie looks great!

Well done, she looks amazing

oh wow that is amazing !
very clever work nero !

For the technophobes among you I pulled into a roadside emissions test van that's run by our local council at the weekend.

The guy was amazed at the results and gave me a print-out,

CO at idle = 0.0 I'm allowed up to 0.3

HC at idle = 6 I'm allowed up to 200

CO at fast idle - 0.17 I'm allowed up to 0.27

You could have just retouched this in Photoshop and made it look like you had a restoration project...none of us would have been any the wiser! Saves on cut hands and b;lood pressure!

Seriously good job...think I would have had to respray it a different colour though!

Well done, a good job that must now be very satisfying, you did not show us images of the engine but it sounds as if you did a good job on it, excellent emission results. Seem to remember from my working days the electrical systems on that vehicle were a little idiosyncratic or am I thinking of the Lada, may be, some long while ago now.

As to the colour I understand why you retained the original colour, some how if you restore that is the right thing to do and at least people will see you coming and not run into your restored baby.

Again, well done and I hope Barbie gives you lots of happy motoring hours and could not be better for the Rotties. or the Scottish country side

Having restored a 4 door Morris Minor several years ago but not in such bad condition I can appreciate how much work has gone into your restoration. I found that as soon as you removed one rusty bit there is another behind it and rapidly it becomes almost a body off project.

Don't know if you did like me, scour the scrap yards for bits and pieces to save on cost and failing that purchasing from "copy" parts against main dealer parts which cost the earth.

To do it within the time you did is amazing I would have taken a lot longer. What you have done, at the time digital cameras wern't around when I did mine, was to photograph the restoration which is important should you come to sell the car.

All I can say is congratulations on the project the car looks fantastic.

Bazza