Introducing Charlie

Hi all, I'm from South Africa and own a car that is not quite an Elf or a Hornet, but rather a car called a Mk3. It was a locally made vehicle that utilised the rear end of the Elf/Hornet cars, but retained the standard front of the normal Mini of the time. The car still used the bigger bumpers of the Elf/Hornet, had a 998cc motor as standard and was basically stock Mini everywhere else, apart from the doorbins that could be found on the Elf/Hornet.

Unfortunately, I lost the photos of the car as it was bought, but here is a photo of the car just before the new coat of paint :



This is as it stands now :



A picture of the doors, just to show the interior colour :



There aren't too many of these cars around and so I hope it is appreciated here too.

Very nice! I've seen a few old old pictures of these but never one being restored, although I've gotten to see the other kind, the Wolseley 1000 with the short rear and Elf nose. You'll see by other posts that we welcome all Elfs, Hornets, and their various cousins and relatives! Even ones with non-standard powerplants. ('') Welcome to the forum. Can't wait to see more pictures of your progress.

Cool, good luck with it

Thanks for the welcome guys. Yes, these cars weren't the most popular when they came out at the end of '69, hence there were only about 3700 made in about a 2 year period. A lot of the cars that are available now either have the wrong motor in or they're missing the important chrome like the over riders and window surrounds. The badges on the rear are also very unique, as they read Mk3, as a model name. In my own search of these cars, i have come across only 2 of these badges, both belonging to me Also, due to the hot climate here in South Africa, the cars are generally rust free, which is a bonus. On the downside, the sun is often the cause of the tail lights becoming faded and/or cracked and broken. So I'm currently on the search for ones that are in better condition. This is where I'd like to ask a question, are there tail light lenses available off the shelf, or do I have to just settle with second hand units?

Assuming that the tail lights are the same as the Elf and Hornet, you should be able to find good lenses or even complete tail light assemblies. The same ones were used on the early 1100 range of Austins and possibly other cars based on the 1100, such as the Wolseley, Morris, MG or Vanden Plas cars. I've been able to find several sets on Ebay at different times, and got four complete new old stock units from a supplier in the USA that were marked as Austin 1100 Export units. Look for them by the Lucas part number L695 and you'll probably turn up a few. I see several units on Ebay UK just now.
Good luck!

The tail lights are the same as the Elf/Hornet. I Googled the part number L695 and found a supplier that has brand new ones, but only the amber lens. So my question is, is that part number for the entire unit, or just for the amber lens? If I'm unable to find any NOS items, then I'll have to settle for used items that I'll have to search for here in SA. I managed to find some lenses last year, but they require new amber sections.

Try part number 13H6409
Somerford Mini has the assemblies listed on their website. Might be worth giving them a try
http://www.somerfordmini.co.uk/eshop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=196&products_id=4206

Looks great, love the colour

That will really help, thank you. There's no point in spending a lot of money on restoring/modifying the car and then putting second rate items on, so I think I should spend the extra money and get the new items and make it look good. I would love to put the full red lenses on my car like you have on yours, but unfortunately that would also be illegal in this country. The colour was a bit of a hassle as I originally wanted Diamond Blue by Aston Martin, but the closest we could get was this colour, by Mitsubishi. It is a pearl colour and needs to be seen in the sun to be really appreciated.

Another query that I have is; how easy would it be to fit the waist trim to this vehicle, assuming that I manage to find said items?

Now here's a good one. Me, fretting about originality. But I wonder why you would want to add the waist trim as it doesn't appear to have been there originally? Not to even mention that it's about impossible to find a set anyway.
I do like that color, by the way. I bought a new Mitsubishi truck in 1993 that was painted Danube Blue Pearl. Don't know why they wasted such a beautiful color on a cheap little Mitsubishi Mighty Max, but I loved that color. Parked under a sodium lamp in a parking lot at night, it just glowed!

Just found this picture

Hard to tell, but the trim line appears to be just a paint stripe. If it is a piece of trim, it's not the same as the Elf/Hornet ones.

Nice car.

If you wanted to do a replica of my Beach Car it would be a perfect donor.

The trim wasn't there originally. In the pictures that I have seen of these when they were new all seem to have that pinstripe sticker down the side. The reason I would like that waist trim is because with such a deep and dark colour, the extra chrome would really help it stand out. Everything I'm doing to the car will be modifications that can be removed if need be one day, should I suddenly decide that I want her to be original. All that's going to be added to her , bodywise, is a set of arches to cover the 6x10 Minators that I have and then the chrome mirrors on the wings, to give it a retro sort of look. This colour when fully polished is stunning.

This car is far too good to change into something like that, but one that has a fair bit of rust can be altered I'm sure, into something completely unigue

The only colour picture I've seen of these cars is this one :



Now, in that black and white photo, the car clearly has the wheel trims fitted, but there is no chrome around the windows on the doors, except for the standard issue of chrome at the base of the window. In the photo above, the car clearly has the chrome around the windows, but no wheel trims. So it seems that there was a discrepancy about which cars got the chrome and which didn't. The same goes for the wheel trims. It seems to be that the later cars i.e. 1971 models or so, lost the chrome around the windows. BMC South Africa was a strange company to be a part of during the merger with Leyland.

If your goal is to make the modifications easily removable, be advised that to put the waist trim on requires drilling lots of holes through your nice shiny body and doors. You might want to consider a product like this flexible chrome trim. flexchrome.com
I've seen this stuff and it looks pretty darn good up close. I've considered using this to replace the #$%$#%$ scuttle trim on my car the next time it comes loose.

I think that's why I'm a bit hesitant in actually looking to put something like that on. The only other major modification I'm considering is a set of discs up front with 4 pot calipers. This will add to that retro look, as well as improving safety. It's just a bit difficult being here in SA as everyone assumes parts have to imported and so they try to rip you off. The other problem is that specialist parts do require importing and this is where the 'kak' exchange rate causes hassles. I will look at that trim , as it might be something to add while not having to drill any holes.

Hi,
nice to have you on the forum and welcome!
I´ve got two S.A. cars here in Salzburg / AUSTRIA
One is about to be finished this year and I´m absolutely looking forward to it !!

http://mk1-forum.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=170

http://mk1-forum.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4450

There is someone in New York that has recently acquired a MK3, in fact I think it is still in SA. He's been posting on the MiniMania USA forum.

The car is a very recent acquisition and it is still in SA. It looks to be mostly intact. I'll try find more history from the prior owners to see what trim came on the car.

The SA cars always seem to be very unique in some way or another, that is why I love them. It's the same reason for me choosing to buy the Mk3. I first saw one when I was about seven and I told myself that I would own one myself one day. The car I found was at very good price for the condition that it was in. Often the cars that can be found now have been butchered in some way because the guys this side haven't always been so keen on them. A lot of the time most of the chrome is missing or the cars are just left to rust away. To my mind, I've only heard of one other guy restoring one of these, so to hear that one is going to the States is exciting, it just means that someone else shares the passion too. Try get a picture or two up, it would be interesting to see what it looks like.

I don't want to steal your thread... I should probably write a new one to introduce myself. I posted photos on my website but I'm restricted as a new forum member from posting a link. You can see my Mk3 at:

http :// markbogulavsky. smugmug. com /Personal/ Mini-MK3

Hope I'm not breaking a rule...

From the photos you can see it is pretty well intact. My first impression was "cool, a Mini with a boot." I'm super excited to see this car undergo a restoration. Only wish I could have a bigger hands-on part of the process, but NY is a tad far. Being a rare car is even more interesting.

I was just in SA for the holidays/new years vacation, mostly Cape Town and a few days in Joburg. My first visit, beautiful place. If only we could fill the car with biltong before shipping it over.

If ever you visit again, you should make a turn into the KZN area. You could meet up with me and have a look at my car and see what you think. The biltong could be a problem, yes.

I'll definitely send a post when I visit next. Do you have more photos of your car? Looks nice.
There is a local restaurant in Brooklyn named Madiba. They make their own biltong, but not the same.

I have a couple more pictures in the projects section, but I lost all the photos I had of the car when I got it. I will look again and try and find some old ones. There's nothing quite like locally made biltong.

Did you see the ebay listing someone posted on my thread? An MK3 badge.

I did yes, and it looks very tempting But then I remembered that I managed to get hold of a good badge that the guy just gave me, so now I have two badges. Mind you, my original badge had broken down the middle and someone had attempted to repair it, to no avail.