best thing alex ever designed. the much famed mini was shocking to build, when designing the minor - they didnt even check foreign regulations for basics such as indicators or headlight height then there was the maxi. they really should have refiend the 1100 instead of political infighting and overlapping projects.
When the Minor was exported to Sweden the steering was easily transferred to the left.A 59 Minor had one door lock on the drivers side for the RHD vehicles when it became LHD the door lock remaind where it was you had to unlock it on the right reach in and unlock the driver's door from the inside true.My Swedish family had a 59 Minor in the eighties in Canary yellow dad used to drive the parts over at Christmas when went on the ferry confused the hell out of Swedish Customs as it was Christmas Eve and they wanted to shut we were the last ferry to unload due to storms delaying for 24 hours
It was accepted by the public that their new car would fall apart from rust within a few years in those days. The Austin 1100 was absolutely the worst culprit. Shocking build quality.
Yes I've heard stories of them failing their first MOT test at 3 years old because of structural rust. Pity, it was a very promising design let down by built-in rust traps.
@@paulbennell3313 Rarely would a BMC/ BL car back then pass an MOT without some welding. I owned a garage in the late 70’s and we welded more 1100/1300 motors than any other make. Inner and outer sills, inner wings, headlamp shrouds and subframes were the most common.
Yes, my dad had one in the 1970s. Terrible build quality and one thing I'll always remember, is putting my feet on the rear carpet footwell and hearing a squelch noise!!! The carpets were absolutely soaked through!
