Being sans Maserati with time on my hands I've been stripping out the interior of the Mini I bought a few weeks ago, unearthing thirty years of dust, sweet wrappers and crud, it's quite theraputic in a way...
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It looks ok in the photo but is rougher than it looks inside - the dash is faded and the lacquer is peeling off in places so I'll be replacing this with a new one, I was going to have a darker burr walnut one but have seen a piano black one with chrome rims for the gauges which looks much better. The rest of the interior will be all black with bespoke trim panels and carpet from Optimise Automotive (including the headlining) and I'll be covering up all of the painted metal areas visible with black leather or vinyl. The frankly awful Rover front seats will go in favour of a set of these buckets from BB Classics and I'm hoping to get the rear seat recovered to match...
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The engine is a recon'd 998 fitted by the previous owner but compared to my '68 Cooper S it's dead slow, so at some point I'll bung a 1275 or 1380 in its place. The car started life as a limited edition Mini 30 but the original engine is long gone, it's already had new doors and a complete new front end so I've got no qualms about modifying it further to make it into my idea of a perfect Mini. Originality is nice, but it's not the be all and end all for me.
* Still want a Maser though.....!! *