Hi David.
I've just been in touch with British Motor Heritage at Gaydon.
Unfortunately, where they used to be very helpful to me on the phone, now it is all about the dollar (or pound) and they will not supply me any information on any cars I'm researching, unless I pay the same money as everybody else. As I am not going to pay to get info on every car I research (it would cost me a small fortune in the long run) I would suggest that you check out their website and get them to do some research.
They do at least have a new service now, where if you just want the info, and don't want an official heritage certificate, then it is only 5 pounds (about $11). A full Heritage Certificate is 37 quid, and a certificate with technical information sheet is 56 quid.
The 5 pound service will give you an email with relevant information, and I think this would be worth looking at.
With Minis that came to Australia as CKD, basically anything prior to about April 1964, the chassis number on the plate is the UK chassis number first, and then the Australian chassis number.
While the 1037 might seem quite high for a car with such early parts on it, at least checking the build date for the UK chassis number (54397) may give some more clues.
The UK chassis number for the car that we featured in Issue 1 of The Mini Experience 14801, and the car was built in February 1960. It would be likely then from the chassis number being some 40,000 cars later that it would be about six months later, as there were around 110,000 Minis sold in 1960.
So, at a really wild estimate, if your car was built in August 1960, and allow a couple of months to get to Australia, and cars were being assembled here from January, then it is likely that yours could have been in the first production run.
Hundreds of cars would have been needed to get into all showrooms across the country, to have plenty for press demonstrators at the press launch, test cars, etc, by the March 21 release date.
So, given these facts and the numbers on the chassis plate, I would suggest that your car is the 537th one assembled in Australia.
As for cars coming in as CBU (Completely Built Up) as far as I am aware, all production Minis in Australia were CKD. CKD means just that, and while some sub-assemblies would have come in already done - eg doors, bonnets - the majority of the panels would have been flat packed.
To get export CKD packs allocated, they had to have a Knock Down Allocation Schedule (KDAS) which detailed every part that was to be included. To get any changes through took up to 12 months, by the time the information was processed through the Export Department, and packing methods sorted out, etc, then any parts that had to be specially made or bought in were available. This means that even though BMC Australia specified changes to the specification for Australian Minis, those changes would have taken up to a year to filter through.
That would explain why such an early car is effectively a UK spec car, and did not have all the changes normally associated with Australian Minis. Being built before the changes of late 1960 explains why it came with all the early bits.
The main exception was if the change was simply a deletion of a part, that would be supplied locally. We know, for example, that even the earliest Australian Minis had local tyres and batteries, so these would not have been included in the CKD probabl;y right from the start.
Don't forget that the Zetland factory had been doing CKD assembly on numerous model cars since 1950.
The idea that the first 500 or 1,000 cars could have come through as CBU because the Australian workers wouldn't know how to assemble them is to say that the people here weren't very smart. Naturally, the production lines would have been set up accordingly before production began, the workers would have been trained by experienced staff - either here or in the UK (but probably here) and there would only have needed to be "a handfull" of cars required to clear the line and check that everything worked the way it was meant to - not 500 or 1,000 cars.
I only know of three pre-production cars that came to Australia, and they were all full production cars built in the UK on the normal assembly line. Pedr Davis says in his book
Spotlight On Mini Minor Down Under that prototypes were running by June 1960, but I think you will find he is referring to the three UK cars.
You would need to check with the 1959 Register guys again on the change dates for these parts that you are interested in, but I would suggest that the date of your car will fit in with them.
I have not seen another Australian Mini as early as this, or with so many early parts, so it would be interesting to see if any others are around.
I would suggest though that what you have is a very rare beast, in being such an early car.
My suggestion is that you spend the 5 pounds with BMIHT and check it out. If I am correct in my assumptions (I know, you should never assume anything) then they should be able to tell you the car was a CKD sent to Nuffield Exports (or possibly Austin Exports) on a particular date, but they will probably not be able to tell you much more than that.
This is the closest I can get for you (without me spending any money on it).
Good luck with the search, and keep us all informed of the progress.
Cheers,
Watto.
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