This is a van my grandfather did in the mid 60's. He was very good friends with the local BMC dealer and would collect cars from the factory and drive them back to the dealership. It's quite possible this was a brand new car modified before sale... Unfortunately I didn't find out about this mini (possibly there were more) until after he had passed, but it was great mum was able to find a couple of photos recently.

It's a smooth roof with sliding window so it must be an early car? From the front you can see the "woody" side panelling and chrome strips, and also the new rear seat.


At the rear you can see the interior panelling and a relocated spare tyre? The speedo is a black one?

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Fascinating! I wonder if it is still around? Those rear seat conversions were terrific, so long as you had rear side windows in your van, otherwise it may have been a bit claustrophobic in there. I'd love to put a rear seat in my van but finding one nowadays in Oz would be very hard.

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Slide
1965 Mini Van (1360)
1970 Mk2 Cooper S (1310)
1978 Rover SD1 V8 (4.6)
1996 Land Rover Discovery V8 (4.0)

I have a traveller rear seat for sale but freight from WA would be pricey

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

We have this Van. If it is any help we could take measurement for you

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A rear seat would not be hard to fabricate.. its just two slabs of ply, two rectangles of foam and vinyl covering and some simple gate hinges and sliding bolts.

If I was going to do one I would measure the hole rather than use the dimensions of a real set-up. The reason being that the hard part would be modifying the metal body work to allow the necessary room and making up brackets to support the backrest...

Cheers, Ian

Thumbs up (both of them)!!

In the interests of full disclosure etc blah blah the setup you are talking about should be engineered by law and would also require seat belts.

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

A van or truck dual dickeyseat would fit and include belt anchorages. I know because that's what I've done. Only thing is they're damm heavy.

I had to engineer my front seat anchorages even though;

• They far surpassed the standard seats mounting strength
• I was using existing seat belt mounts

For your suggestion I'd guess the engineer may be a little nervous because

• I think for the most part they need to be lap sash now...(not 100% on this)
• There are no established lap sash anchors for vans? (ie can you copy mounts from an estate van that had seat belts that comply)
• The seat belt anchors are integrated into the seats (I was advised not to use the MR2 seat's seat belt anchors) meaning they are going to want some beefy and well thought out mounting of those seats.

Engineer's vary in their tolerances / conservatism etc so others may vary...

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

I was describing the factory set up used in the Traveller/Countryman. Couldn't comment on the compliance specialist's view when you pointed out that your solution replicated the factory design...

Cheers, Ian

Not really, unfortunately no estate ever went into production with rear lap/sash seatbelts. In the UK rear belts weren't a requirement until after the estate went out of production. The only estates that had rear lap/sash seatbelts from the factory were the two prototype Clubman estates made in Australia. One is still around.

My reading is that you probably can't get rear seat belts to comply (for kids) without significant structural modifications (e.g. a CRAB bar across the back). You won't get a wooden framed seat complied either, although you could build one with a steel frame that would look the same.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

A bit of a resurrection here... Mum found a few more photos of the van




There was also an article from the local paper (Feb 1966) about the "Morris 850 Station Wagon" conversion that was done by the local BMC garage. I'm yet to find out what involvement my grandfather had in the modifications.

There is a list of the modifications:
Rear seat from an Austin A40
Inner wood trim panelling
Two tone paint with chrome trim (not wood as we thought earlier)
Relocated spare tyre
Relocated battery to engine bay using a Morris 1100 carrier
Rear windows
Mud flaps
Optional roof rack

You can click to enlarge these:

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Brilliant piece of history...and it would have been great for the Addison's to be reunited with the car once again at their Garage

Sorry for my ignorance...but is the fella who moved down to the Monaro from Addison's still with us?

EDIT: Mr A no longer with us...would Wyn be interested in seeing the car again?

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=95939&p=1024951&hilit=Addison#p1024951

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"Show me the Mini!"

A little update from 2024:

In reply to 9YaTaH: I did contact Wyn back in 2018 and she told me that this mini had been her mums car. At the time she didn’t want anyone to know about it as they still had it. It had been driven up until the 70’s and had been painted red & must have had windup windows installed too

Fast forward to 2024 and she'd decided it was time the mini could go. I’d often thought it would be nice to have the van as my grandad had done some work on it, and I’d also worked at the petrol station with Mr Addison and our families had known each other for a long time. So when I saw the add up with the van I thought I should go and have a look

I asked my uncle if he could remember the van and apparently they converted 2 vans into station wagons, and my grandad did the wood paneling in the boot. A reminder of how it looked new:


I went to look at the van and see if it was the same one. The spare tyre carrier is still there on the back left door


Some of the wood paneling and the rear seat are still there



My favourite part is the dealer decal, which I will attempt to scan in high quality so we can get some reproductions done. Any suggestions on someone who can do this will be appreciated


Unfortunately the van hasn’t survived well being outside. I believe from the build plate it’s an early 1965 and came in Astro grey originally. There’s no floor left and probably not one useable panel, so it will likely end up as a garage ornament or more likely I’ll strip the parts and a few panels and the rest will go to scrap.

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Did you get the Van Tim, I know there was a flurry of of interest on Faceache for it. It would be great if you did and the 2 can be stabled together.

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Cheers Dave.