When Paul Humble began his motoring career he started off in a Mini. Obviously that was the only viable fashion choice and it was all he could afford to insure that still had acceptably high street cred. "I fell in love with them there and then," he remembers, "and the Pick-up was the Holy Grail to me, but only the rich lads had them." It has taken him 13 years to track down his ultimate Mini, but once he put in the winning eBay bid, he wasn't so sure he'd done the right thing. "I'm sure I used to have eBay Tourette's as I would regularly buy all sorts of rubbish on there, and when I won the auction for the Pick-up I was dreading going to collect it, not knowing what to expect." Surprisingly it was nowhere near as bad as he was expecting and a close inspection showed that, although the door skins had been replaced at some point, the rest of the body was solid and rot-free. Interestingly, it is a late 1970's shell running around on a 1973 number, but it shows no signs of being used or abused during its earlier life. Paul bought it from a student who appeared to be restoring it on a shoestring, and, even though it was in reasonable nick, Paul wanted it to be better. Of course, he wasn't planning on going as far as he has done.
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