Great mates Vic Allen and Peter Rendall from Dubbo have a fantastic passion for cars and are both active members of the Central West Car Club based in Parkes.
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Vic has been in the car repair trade all his life and Pete is learning plenty along the way, and I recently talked to them about their Mini project and its future plans.
They picked up this Mini panel van from Wagga Wagga in February 2021 and have just finished a 12-month complete restoration.
"It belongs to my nephew, Jesse James from Kalgoorlie in WA," Vic laughed.
"And it had been parked up in his grandmother's driveway for years after being his first car.
"Pete and I took on the task of restoring it with an open plan; and here it is."
It's a 1970 Mini Minor panel van, and for a little car, the project by the look of things was mammoth.
The entire body was stripped bare and repaired including rust repairs, file finishing and removing some big ugly side skirts that had been fitted from a Commodore.
The colour was originally going to be a modern metallic but Vic prefers to work in acrylic so they decided on the custom orange with white roof and bonnet stripes.
"We've re-done the interior and updated the dashboard and instruments," Vic said.
"And the engine's been in and out a couple of times.
"It's now a bigger 1100 cc motor with a four speed gearbox and running on 10 inch jelly bean mags."
The restoration is complete but that's not the half of it - now it's time for the delivery!
"The plan was always to drive it to Kalgoorlie when it was done, so we've got just over 3000 kilometres of driving ahead of us at the end of the month," Pete said.
"But plans do change," Vic added.
"Jesse's got a family with three kids now, so there'll be a For Sale sticker on the little van and if the right coin turns up, we'll be selling it along the way."
The blokes have got a back-up vehicle, their wives are staying home and there's no time schedule, so we wish them luck and look forward to the next chapter/s to the story when they return.
For anybody interested in the Central West Car Club, the club meets on the first Wednesday of each month at the Parkes Leagues Club.
You can find out more on their Facebook page or at www.centralwestcarclub.com.
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