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Minix (and other) car improvements


quicksilvercoaches
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Took delivery of five (5 - count them) red Victors a fortnight ago.  Stripped down ready for immersion in soapy water prior to primer and adding to the conveyor belt of my virtual Halewood (or is it Speke?). 

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2 hours ago, acourtrail said:

I didn't know the Victor 101 was rare, thank you for telling me.  I managed to find a set of five unboxed Minix cars (including two Victors) in my local antique shop for £6.  While the red Victor was missing it's wheels, it was otherwise in very good condition.  The blue Victor was complete and in very good condition.  One of the other three cars (a Triumph 2000) was in poor condition apart from it's wheels, so I salvaged the wheels and used them in the red Victor.

The rarest models are the Cresta estate and the Nash Rambler.

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6 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The rarest models are the Cresta estate and the Nash Rambler.

I agree, indeed, I read somewhere that the Cresta was only made for one year (1965, I think) and that (apart from a small number that slipped through the net) the Rambler was almost entirely allocated to the export markets.

 

Most of the Austin 1800s that Minix made were exported to Australia (although, they do turn up in the UK fairly often).

 

The Minix car I see the most often where I am (Somerset) is the Vauxhall Viva HA, with the Ford Anglia the next easiest to find.

 

I used to see Triumph 2000s (usually the 1982 - 1990 black base ones) all the time, but they have become as rare as hen's teeth where I am (the full size "Trummies" were popular with banger racers, so perhaps the 1.76 scale people have banger raced them!!).  Having said that, I have a mint but unboxed red Triumph 2000 (it actually came in a sealed but crushed and torn beyond repair box, but the car inside was 100% OK) that I bought last year.

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Here's the detailed MINIX Victor 101 I did back in the mid-'80s:

post-1877-0-29255500-1492857122_thumb.jpgpost-1877-0-72402300-1492857221_thumb.jpg

You might be able to make out where I had to do quite a bit of cutting away inside the rear wheel arch to allow for the correct track. Wheels were late 1970s Herpa accessories, still not fitted with proper trim!

 

 

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18 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I wonder if its possible to fit Oxford Diecast chassis to Minix bodies. For example the Victor 101 onto the FB Victor chassis. Or at least the wheels. 

It certainly is possible to fit Oxford FB wheels to the Minix FC, I did exactly that in the very first post of this thread.

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I've been going back over this thread and some of the models I have almost forgotten. In the meantime I have managed to acquire a pair each of the Lima FIAT 131 and the Eko Jeep, one of the Eko Jeeps I found at a stall at the Bluebell Raiways swapmeet for the grand sum of £2. The Hornby Sierra, has anyone thought of converting one to a P100 pick-up?

 

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On 31/03/2020 at 22:55, 'CHARD said:

Took delivery of five (5 - count them) red Victors a fortnight ago.  Stripped down ready for immersion in soapy water prior to primer and adding to the conveyor belt of my virtual Halewood (or is it Speke?). 

I think it would be Luton for Victors, Ellesmere Port is GMs Wirral plant and was producing Vivas in the 60s and 70s. I believe it was also a distribution point for the North though, other GM cars and vans were shopped there for consignment to dealers.

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1 minute ago, RANGERS said:

I think it would be Luton for Victors, Ellesmere Port is GMs Wirral plant and was producing Vivas in the 60s and 70s. I believe it was also a distribution point for the North though, other GM cars and vans were shopped there for consignment to dealers.

 

Thanks for the info - it's not clear without much searching what model was built where over the decades. Evidence supports this; the pictures of cartrains passing Galashiels for one example, show the previous shape Victor making its delivery run to Scottish showrooms by this method.

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23 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I've been going back over this thread and some of the models I have almost forgotten. In the meantime I have managed to acquire a pair each of the Lima FIAT 131 and the Eko Jeep, one of the Eko Jeeps I found at a stall at the Bluebell Raiways swapmeet for the grand sum of £2. The Hornby Sierra, has anyone thought of converting one to a P100 pick-up?

 


The P100 is a very good idea. 50%of the awful body shape issue with the Hornby model is eradicated in one go! 
 

I wonder who will take that challenge up? 

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On 03/04/2020 at 06:36, PhilJ W said:

IThe Hornby Sierra, has anyone thought of converting one to a P100 pick-up?

 

2 hours ago, ianmacc said:


The P100 is a very good idea. 50%of the awful body shape issue with the Hornby model is eradicated in one go! 
 

I wonder who will take that challenge up? 

 

The Austin 1800 could also be turned into a pickup (Ute), as these were sold in Australia.

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Yes, the Hornby Sierra falls well short of being a decent model of a Sierra anyway. With the P100 you only need the front half (still a lot of work to correct). There was under repair recently in a local car workshop. No body parts of the actual pick-up body so it was effectively a chassis cab. Leaf springs, so the suspension is more like a pre-1970 Cortina. In South Africa there was a Mk.III version too.

Of course the Austin Ute was a far better bit of kit in terms of utility with over 4 foot between the wheel arches and 8 foot of deck with a low loading height. Probably handled better too.

Edited by BernardTPM
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If you follow that link in Bernard’s post about the Mk III there is amazing treasury of Ford and Crayford images from the 1960s & 1970s in there.

 

steve

Edited by steve1
Flippin’ auto correct!
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  • 4 weeks later...

I've been tinkering with various things while in lockdown. This R. Parker Jensen Interceptor built over 15 years ago was really showing its age...

MKK307L.jpg.dc7abd9a1a2af97adab21784b35e6d25.jpg

 

...so it got chucked in the paint stripper and rebuilt. Same colour but a much better finish.

1BNV.jpg.b7cf4b0e7736cc1c74a6135ce12da8d9.jpg

 

Of note is that the Parker model represents an earlier Interceptor than the Oxford Diecast, with the indicators above the front bumper.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Something a bit more modern now. Myself and my dad have just rescued an early Ford Mondeo that had been sitting on a driveway for 7 years so naturally I wanted a model of it. There are no 1/76 Mondeos available but looking at it I realised styling-wise a Mondeo is basically a Sierra with the edges rounded off and it might be possible to modify an Oxford Sierra. Only one way to find out and I think it turned out quite well.

 

K546HAR.jpg.816e1923d917458e798e46c06696d669.jpg

 

K546HAR.jpg.a9b27e1936fcf05fde8fb7f21a93e769.jpg

 

K546HAR1.jpg.b02bc33a056164d368c2e6f0019e2b8c.jpg

 

K546HAR1.jpg.ded0c10f64a89159c29daf6adf355f95.jpg

 

K546HAR2.jpg.8e633259b1fd29b7f3127b96daa0e9f9.jpg

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10 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

The nearest to a Mondeo would be the Yat Ming Jaguar X-type.

 

 

Technically true, but they look completely different so an X-type is never going to make a convincing Mondeo substitute. The X-type isn't actually as closely related to the Mondeo as its reputation suggests and only about 10% is shared.

 

Mondeo_Jaguar.jpg.9a5420242d35904a8fd5a217b239ac6a.jpg

 

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