going to look at what the owner described as a one piece top opening van rear door(among other things).. he said it came from the UK.. never heard of such a beast b4.. anyone know anything about it?? will take digi camera along

I reckon its a one piece side opening door.

A place here in Sydney built a custom Mini Hatchback with top opening door / hatch. I will see if I can find pics, as I did post them ages ago (before your time Jeff)

that would be cool... I dont want it anyway, but sure i will get it cheap, and Tzi and a few other van owners have been asking about opening alternatives. should be interesting

There was a mini on the Cold Toast a while ago that had been coverted to a hatch back. Was White with a Pearl through it. Was neat as it can be. Had featured in a few mags. The guy traded it for like $3-4k. The modified sheel had to be worth that alone.

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But he's thriving and striving and hugging the turns.

thanks Anton... thats a niffty bit of work.. looks good, as to wether its practical or not??? but at least you could carry something bigger than a pencil in it LOL

Apparently one of these was made in the 60's for Ringo Starr, so he could carry his drums around easily.....not a word of a lie!

there was also a actual prototype hatch
that bmc made back i the day and is still floating
somewhere in england. was that one in the
pic at Mini and Moke world

the one piece rear doors are fibreglass, they CAN be made to open upwards rather than sideways .

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lookin for another clubby

Yes Chris.

Correct. Coach built thing, i've seen pix of it before... anyone got any?

Edit/ hooray for google! http://www.minispace.co.uk/beatles/ringo/ringo.htm

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just make sure you can make it open all the way to vertical, otherwise you continually bash your head on it unless you are a dwarf

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the world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page
66 Mini Minor sponsored by http://www.lifeonthehedge.com.au/ The Dog Harness Specialists
It was a pleasure ausmini. I'll miss all you misfits and reprobates

VERY INTERESTING.......

bit of trivia ; my second car after the Mini in the 70's was a Morris Nomad - 1300 motor and a lot of innovations that are all taken for granted today but was a pain in the a*** as they had a lot of teething probs. The hatch back air struts kept leaking and the thing would come down on your head without warning or would take all your muscles to lift in the first place. The back seat could be folded forward or the rear parcel shelf could fold against the back seat giving more vertical space behind the seat - only trouble was the "locking" mechanism didn't hold and if you pulled up suddenly the whole thing would fall down with a bang and scare the sh*t out of you - worse for any passengers in the back as they suddenly found themselves horizontal

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David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

well it turned out to be (according to me anyway) a new?? rear section pannel for a morris minor ute from roof curve to behind the tray The bit with the rear window) .. probably not a lot of use to anyone here unless you have a morrie grinder and want a ute. anyone interested??