THIS IS TRUELY AWSUME!!!!!

this belongs to steve hampton....fantastic work mate!!! enjoy it (im sure you do!)

Here you are, a pic of my drinks cabinet when I'd just about finished it. Yep, the idea is completely off the scale, mad as you like, but I'd had the idea about 20 years ago!! Took me a while, erm, about 16 years, to mention it to my ever-patient wife, who agreed I could use a wall in the dining room to indulge myself with my madcap idea!

I found some companies in the UK specialising in Morris Minor timberwork including one in Chichester, not too far from me, so ordered some new framework (American Ash, beautiful to look at, to work with and to smell!) and set about (slowly) putting the Morris parts together.

I worked out a way of hanging everything on the wall safely, mounted the Minor parts to it including the doors, bought some Minor glass through eBay, had the mirror against the wall and the side glass made up by a local glazier, and bingo!

The tail lights and number plate lights come on when there's movement in the room (PIR sensor) and there are three Lucas interior lights in the lower part of the 'boot' where the bottles are kept! Finished it, with help from a friend who is an electrician, in September 2011.

Like all good drinks cabinets, it is lockable!

A local body shop sprayed the metal work in Old English White for me and I'm delighted with the result. It's certainly a conversation piece in my house!

Hope you like it!

steve, that is very impressive m8!!! unique and a conversation starter i'm sure!!
closest thing i've seen to that is a guy who chopped the end of a rotten manta, converted it into a trailer/bbq for show-days.class!!

Thats is frickin awesome, any pics of it with the doors open.

Hi guys!

Firstly, a big 'THANK YOU' to Paul for posting the piccie for me.

Yes, I do have some pics with the doors open and I'll sort those out when I can find them. You'll understand that the contents, ahem, 'come and go', but you'll have a good idea.

I must say I'm very pleased with the whole thing. Well, apart form taking such a long time to happen, and the construction took longer than I'd hoped as I had two knee operations between bringing the raw materials home and finshing the cabinet as you see it in the picture.

If anyone has any questions, please fire away!

Cheers, Steve

Thats made me smile. And you cant criticise anything which does that.

Fair play Steve. I may use this as justification for parking a mkII escort in my livingroom. "Come on love, other fellas wives are much more reasonable than you. I have pictures to prove it......"

Hee Hee! I tell you, the worst bit was trying to park it without scraping along the table!

So you parked it rather than the missus then......

WOW thats excellent , wondering if i can get a Scania in here

WOW!! Steve that is absolutely amazing!! A great talking talking point that's for sure.

You've done a superb job on that it looks quality mate, well done

Are the roof & rear wings original moggie parts?

How on earth did you convince the good wife to allow that one??

That cabinet is BREATH Taking.........and im sure that so is the contents !!!

This just looks class Steve very well done.

But does the room not fill with fumes

Ok I'm on my way out..

Hi Guys, thanks for your comments!

I really can't remember how I managed to pursuade my good lady to let me pay for the bits'n'pieces (which weren't cheap!), then spread the materials and tools all over the place before letting the Moggie take up permanent residence?

What I am pleased about is that she allowed me to indulge myself and hasn't told me to get rid of it! I think she's proud of what I've achieved. I know I am!

OK, the rest of the car sits across the garage so we can't use it! (NB: this is NOT true, there is only the tail end you can see in the photo).

Thankfully, the only fumes are from the malt whiskies, and they're the very best fumes you can have!

The car rests on a custom-made shelf unit attached using chemical anchors and coach bolts to the wall. The rest is pure Morris: the roof and wheel arches are from a scrapped Minor, cut, stripped and repainted. The aluminium door panels are also from an old Traveller, again, stripped and repainted. The side panels, above the wheelarches were new aluminium and all of the timber is new too. Originally, I'd expected to have to chop the rear off an MOT failure, but using new timber gives the 'fresh off the line' look, rather than having 30+ years of moss, lichen and road salt to contend with.

Glad you like it..... and no, I'm not going to buld another one. EVER! For any amount of money!!

Cheers, Steve

I've got to say Steve, that is well impressive. Wish my wife was more understanding!

I thank you!!!

Great idea looks great

Steve

Fantastic, very well executed. Any proper beer in there...I will be down.

Down in town there is the front of a Mini sticking out the first storey of a depot. I must go down a get a photo. The number plate on that is OSH 1T.

Cheers
CHris

Cheers Chris.... literally!

In Surbiton, not too far from where I am, there is a Mini specialist which has a Mini saloon sticking out of a wall at high level. I may have had the seeds of my drinks cabinet idea from there. Originally, I'd been thinking of a Mini van or estate as being the donor vehicle for the project when sitting behind one in traffic one day, but decided the Minor was a better idea for indoors, with the timber making it less 'industrial'.

Cheers, Steve

Great idea Steve

Steve

Would you allow me to use this photo in the next edition our motor club magazine? As the editor I am always loopking for odd motoring based photos.

CHeers
Chris

Hi Chris,

If you PM me your email address, I'll send over some better shots.

Give me a word limit and I'll write a bit about it too, including why and how I made it!

Cheers, Steve

so it wasn't a reverse parking accident, straight through the wall from outside?

Top work!

gaz_bass wrote:so it wasn't a reverse parking accident, straight through the wall from outside?

Top work!

Hey Gaz, I always try my best! Cheers, Steve

Steve, I have finally found time to catch up with the forum on a decent sized screen - as I knew my mobile phone would not do your creation justice!

That is SO impressive mate, and even though I'm not as much as a diehard 'all eras' BMC / BL / AR fan such as yourself, however I am still very very envious of your stunning drinks cabinet. The vision and imagination in the first place is something, but the know-how, determination, and will to see such a project through to it's conclusion is something else! You must be immensely proud of it - I know I would be!

A couple of questions... What did you do about the wheelarches and roofskin? Were brand new panels sourced, and appropriately trimmed where they meet the wall? Did you do that yourself, or require specialist assistance? Is there any other structure to the rear end of the Morris Minor, or is it very much 'simply' the ash framework, glass, roof, door panels, hinges, bumper and lights, etc?

Lastly, could you take another photo with the doors of the cabinet open please?

A final thought... Have you ever thought about incorporating a sound clip of a Morris Minor changing gear and letting rip a telltale 'trump' sound every time the doors are opened? It could almost be an alarm tone warning you of an unauthorised intruder?

Steve

I will email you this evening from home about the drinks cabinet feature.

I also have some Rallycross items available that you might be interested in.

Further on the drinks cabinet idea....I am hearing wurring noises coming from the Midlands direction. I think the rear door of a 6R4 would make a pretty good door for the front Mr 6R4 Sims beer store?....news just coming in....its in hand...!!

Chris

I don't think a lift up 6R4 tailgate would work anywhere near as well as Steve's Minor cabinet, Chris - although I must admit that I did think about it, very very briefly!