Dad had one of those...

IN THE LATE 1960s, my dad (Don Webb) was the assistant bodyshop manager at Autobody Repairs, the bodyshop for the Ford dealer in Chichester, D Rowe & Company.

- Kevin Webb

1965 Morris Mini-Minor

One day in 1968 a maroon Morris Mini-Minor De Luxe came in as a total loss. Dad bought the salvage and set about sorting the mechanicals, while workmates dealt with welding and painting. He sold the car three years later, just before I was born, and sadly there is no sign it survived.

Dad shared his slide collection with me when I was a teenager and among them were images of his Mini rebuild, which inspired my lifetime interest in Minis. My first car was a three-year-old Mini 30, before the offer of a company car led to its sale.

After this, although I still maintained an interest in classic Minis, all thoughts of owning another (never mind a Mk1 exactly like my dad’s) faded until, quite by chance, I found its doppelgänger for sale with a dealer in February 2016.

FUT 383D was built at the British Motor Corporation's Cowley factory on 8 December 1965 and registered in Leicester on 1 January 1966.