Hi all,

I have always had a dream that when i get settled, i'd build minis for my family. I have heard all of their dream minis and have never forgotten. I was hoping to one day make all three(Mom, Dad and Sister). It got me thinking, i can't do anything about my sister as she isn't old enough to drive yet so she hasn't had a mini before. Both my parents however have owned several.

Before we left the UK we had two Clubmans. One was a leyland and one a morris. The morris had a scratch built 1275, 1380, another 1275 and a 998 installed as my mom had quite a reputation for blowing them up. All built by my dad. Anyway, that mini was his favourite of them all. We had to sell both of them to get over here and of course that meant we couldn't have shipped them over. That was 8 years ago. A while back i heard from one of dads old friends that it had indeed been shipped to australia by someone else later on. I don't know if it is still here but i was just wondering.

Instead of having another mini, if it was still here, would i be able to get that very mini? What i was wondering was that if i could found out all relevant details about it, do any of you know of any ways of tracking it down? Just a theory but if i could in the end track it down/it hadn't been destroyed or rusted beyond repair, then if i could buy it back, i might just be able to reunite him with his favourite mini. I know it would be one hell of an off-chance if you get what i mean but there is every chance it could still be here. Who knows, maybe even one of you have it.

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

Great story.
What specific's can you recall to help id your dads old mini.
Good luck in your endeavours to track it down.
Cheers Rob.

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82 BJ42 just completed resto
64 850 Modified(about to start rebuild)

Id have to call my dad up about it as he remembers the plates and a few other things.

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

I don't want to put a damper on your idea but wouldn't it be a drama to import and register? What I mean is, if you had brought it with you when you came out, you'd only need relatively small amount of Transport Dept rubbish paperwork, i.e. personal import etc. But because you haven't owned it for the last 3 years (I think that's the right period) they'll (TD) want six truck loads of paperwork for it. It sounds rediculus (because it is) but if you bring it in with you they'll rego it with basicly no added stuff, but if you bring it in after it has to be 'complied' and that's a pain depending on year models. 1988? and earlier arn't too bad, 1988-1995 are possible, 1996- ? not possible, ? - 2000 = full complence. A call to Chris at Oz Coopers would be a good idea, he knows EVERYTHING regarding imports. Also you mentioned rust, if it's got any structural rust, repaired or not, they'll probably deam it 'scrap'. They're pretty tough on imports, so 'fudging' the paperwork is a good way of getting a holiday in Long Bay. Sorry about that, didn't mean to be a wet blanket, just thought you should be aware of the pitfalls.

What AustinMiniMan is saying is that somebody else has brought it out here after they left , so he's hoping that someone might have imfo on the car .

Find out as much imfo as you can on the car and then post it up , you never no , sillier things have happened .

Doh, I read the post and that fact went right through my head and out the other side. I'll blame old age. If it's here you shouldn't have trouble finding it, might take some time and a few emails but if you contact the relative transport authorities they'll confirm whether or not it's registered but wont tell you more than that. Then with that info you can approach a helpfull police officer who'll pass you info on to the current owner who then has the option of contacting you. Sometimes you can find people are helpful, but alas most times it more the case of they don't care and can't be bothered.

pics will help as well if you have any as maybe an aus mini member has seen or maybe owns it to help you narrow it down,

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The ownership period is 12 months as I imported a car from UK when I came over. However I believe that only applies to post-1989 cars. Pre- 1989 are dealt with less stringent rules. But if the car was imported from UK then it must have had pre approval prior to being shipped.
Good luck with search mate. It's a great gesture
Rob M

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Black is the new Black

Well i'm meeting up with him at christmas so i'll ask him to bring anything he has on it with him. He doesn't have any digital pictures so i will have to scan them in i think. Even so, i think i remember that friend saying that somebody had resprayed it so it could likely be that it isn't the same colour anymore.

I would have thought that it wouldn't be allowed to be registered on british plates for longer than 12 months? After that it has to be registered with the corresponding state plates right? Or is that something i just thought up? I'm sure i read it somewhere...

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Why Drink And Drive When You Can Smoke Dope And Fly!?

It cannot drive on Aussie roads at all with UK plates mate.

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Black is the new Black

yes its called temporary import for touring permit, but you must hold either a international drivers license or oversea's license
http://www.aaa.asn.au/touring/bringing.htm

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