It looks like a genuine UK built car that's had the crap hacked out of it. As mentioned earlier pickups were UK built then shipped to the Antipodes.

The license plate on the rear is from NZ, so that's the market the car was most likely sold into and shipped from to it's current location.

Doors are off an Aussie car and would not have been a factory option.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't all OZ mini's have 2 holes in the drip rail as opposed to a slot? If so, that might help solve the origin of this pick-up.

Certainly doesn't look like a factory built pick-up.

Are you sure it’s actually a Pup?

The factory never made utes in Oz but quite a few backyarders did. 

The doors are a bit suss - did the UK ever do windup windows with external hinges?? Oz Mk 3 doors (Mini K and later Clubman models) won’t fit Oz Mk I and II - or basically any UK model - without a fair degree of massaging.

”Spaceframe” rear seems to me to be another pointer to a home brew special.

Cheers, Ian

Those particular later anti burst door lock doors that are fitted are not a straightforward fit unlike the earlier ones which are bolt on, not saying it cannot be done but it requires some "massaging".

This looks like a UK daily driver when compared to some of the rotted out replace everything but the roof UK ones i see being restored.

Aren't the doors worth $$$$?  How much for the whole truck?

Can confirm not built in Oz if it came from NZ it would be a built in England import .

Nice to know you are still in the Mini game.
Thanks for getting us the 123 ignition system.

The ad read, in it's entirety:

1970 Austin Mini Ute
Right hand drive
4 speed 800 cc

I contacted the obviously clueless seller and asked when I could see it? Anytime she said, so I arranged to pop over 2 hours later. To say that she wasn't prepared to show the car is an understatement:



Twenty minutes later what started to emerge was a NZ import (OZ built?) truck that had been in the corner of the garage for a decade. The Canadian import papers confirmed the story she was telling, so there's that.



What finally emerged was a pretty hacked up Morris with a 1098, original 50-year old tires and obvious and exceedingly poorly welded patches on the sills, corners of the wings, A panels... I've seen and restored worse. However...



I have never walked away from a project before, but walking away from this one was easy. Under the beautifully constructed plywood floor, the entire load floor was gone, a square tube frame was (ARC!!) welded in and the seller proceeded to describe how something was wrong with the fuel tank so she had a 1 gallon marine fuel tank hooked to a 35 psi Holly fuel pump.



I told her that I wasn't going to insult her with an offer, wished her luck selling it and went about my day.