Description: Larry Atkinson, Mini restoration
custom painting (135) mini cooper (128) austin mini (9) ford anglia (5) mini restoration (3) larry atkinson (1) chopped mini cooper (1)
From the man himself... "Minis were pretty much the first cars I thought were cool. I was about 8 when my father worked part time in a hobby shop with a big slot car track. My dad had his own race team made up of 1/32 Airfix model car bodies on slot car chassis. My favorite was the Mini Cooper S. So I guess that’s what started me liking Minis."
"Later when I was about 12, my older brother got his hands on an early Estate. He drove it for a while, then it died. It sat in the backyard for a while until I decided to start working on it. Started out cleaning it, then fixed some dents and rust spots. Painting was just some spray cans. It was baby blue with a tan roof. Actually it didn’t look too bad, but still it didn’t run. I had a lot to learn about mechanical work and eventually my brother sold it."
"It was another 18 years before I got my first Mini. I owned it for 20 years and never really did much with it. But in the meantime…..I bought 5 more Minis. The fun part is taking them apart, cleaning and rebuilding them, and then finally painting and reassembling them. I just wish it wasn’t such an expensive hobby. I had a blast building my Mini Sprint. It seemed like it was all I thought about for four years."