Getting The Motor Running

When Caroline Davies turned 50, her partner Wayne Wright gave her the ultimate birthday gift… a 60’s inspired custom built Mini.

- Holly Daffurn

We’d been together for about eight years and Wayne jokingly said to me… we can either get married or I’ll buy you a Mini.” Caroline laughs “I said, ‘I’m not going to get married once I reach 50…’ so he opted for the easy option...”

Caroline Davies grew up around cars, as her dad was a bit of a car fanatic. He’d get Caroline to mask up for him and after a couple of coats it was down to Caroline and her brothers to get the wet and dry paper on it! Caroline always loved the idea of owning a Mini, but it was only when she met Wayne that she finally got one of her own.

“It was more than I was originally planning to do.” Wayne recounts. “I was planning to get one that was roadworthy and give it a bit of a spray job, but it ended up being a complete nut and bolt resto. It “ needed new floors throughout, a lot of panelwork, new doorskins and a complete interior. It was just a shell when we got it. It didn’t even have an engine.”

Wayne Wright has been around cars his whole life, but he had never attempted a rebuild before. “I’ve always played around with cars. When we had cars back in the ‘80s they weren’t very reliable, so you had to know how to get them going again. You don’t have the inclination to build cars when you’re younger. The weekends were for going to the pub back then. Now I’ve got the time, money and patience to do it.”

Although Wayne did the lion’s share of the welding and painting, they both were hands on with the project. Wayne also relies on Caroline to motivate him. When he was procrastinating over taking the plunge with the paint work it was Caroline who urged him into action.