Let the Restoration Begin!

Finding our Mini Mark and finally making the deal, it was time to get it home. It hadn't been run much in the past few years, but at least it did run. I took the chance of driving it the roughly six miles just to see what it felt like and what it needed. It kept stalling at every stop and the steering wheel pulled hard to the right when putting the brakes on. Half way home I passed a police car without plates on the car, and the exhaust was rusted and noisy. When I made it into the garage and turned it off I found out that there was a rather large engine oil leak as well. Doing a little more exploring over the weekend it became apparent that it would be better doing a rebuild rather than trying to fix one thing at a time and having it break down along the way.

My son and I took one last ride around the block and then back into the garage to start of taking it apart. My plan was to pull the body loose of the frame and work on each one individually. About two hours later my son and I had the body was up on my overhead chain hoist and we wheeled the frame out from under it. We lowered the body and put it on rollers finding a spot in the corner of the garage for it to "rest" for the winter.

The frame didn't look like much, it needed a lot of work. Worn ball joints, loose steering, leaking brake cylinders and rusted lines. The adjusters were frozen and broken, not to mention the engine, lots of work needed there. Another few hours more and the engine was up on a cart and ready for inspection. The following weekend I began disassembling the engine, laying parts out and making a list of what was needed as I went. Before the weekend was over it was down to a stripped block with parts laid out in the order they came off.

With the block being rather small it was somewhat easy to get it de-greased and flushed out. Patience, lots of solvent a few small wire brushes and the clean up began. Over the next four months inch by inch the motor was rebuilt. High temp engine paint, new gaskets, new parts where needed (oversize jugs and pistons) new oil pump with filter option, and lots of chrome. New carburetor, electronic distributor, chrome starter and intense cleaning of the intake manifold. Now it was beginning to look like an engine that could. New clutch and then a minor transaxle rebuild and the drive end was complete.

The move to the frame was not as simple, but that is another blog!

Mini Mark Advertising

Bremen Sport did a fair amount of advertising for the Mini Mark. One of the 8 x 10 color fliers which had a picture of a yellow Mini read. "For a color brochure and price sheet, send $1.00. For color brochure, price sheet and complete 22 page instruction building manual, send $5.00 (refundable with order). "Also available with mid engine chassis kits for Rabbit and Scirocco." I think there was even an advertisement that was run in Playboy. Another brochure showed a yellow Mini Mark with a small yellow fiberglass trailer towed behind. (I wonder if there are any of those trailers out there, or that 22 page building manual???????) The yellow seemed to be a striking color used to catch the eye of a prospective buyer. Smart marketing on the part of Bremen Sport. The tan was the most popular color they sold however.

Mini Mark Colors

What were the factory colors available on the Mini Mark? One of the sales brochures showed that there were seven factory colors available on the Mini Mark. White, Blue, Brown, Green, Red, Tan and Yellow. Vinyl look tops which came on the car were available in Black or White complementary or matching car colors were available to enhance the body color scheme. Browsing the web now days you can find a wider variety of colors, but these seven colors were the original. Talking with DeWayne, I learned that colors were added as years progressed. They even added a metal flake to some of the colors.

So How Much Did A Mini Mark Cost?

So just how much did a Mini Mark cost? Well, allot depended on the accessories you had on it, just like any car. Believe it or not Air Conditioning was even an option on the open top roadster. No power steering or power brakes but Volkswagen did offer the option of an automatic transmission, (I don't know if any Mini's were built with an automatic transmission). I was able to located two sales price lists which outlined the costs. One of the brochures listed the Mini at $15,950.00, and the other at $14,500.00. They promised average highway mileage at 32-34 MPG. Not too bad for a car built in the late 70's early 80's. 1850 pounds was the advertised curb weight with a 54-1/2" wheelbase. There was also the option of a 2300CC 4 cylinder Ford engine which did offer an automatic transmission. Does anyone out there have a Mini Mark on anything other than a VW chassis? The Mini also kept the VW factory heater which used air passed over the hot exhaust pipes to gather heat to warm the passenger compartment.

I was able to acquire a copy of the original Mini Mark warranty and have posted it here. I don't think any of us have a warranty claim on our cars anymore.

Mini Mark Name

So where did the "Mini Mark" name come from? If you look at the front end and the grille of a Mini Mark you will see the grille of a 1976 Lincoln Mark IV. It gives the car a real look of luxury, class and prestige. They removed the original grille inserts from the Lincoln and replaced them with a square pattern insert. (With just a little bit of work the original Lincoln inserts will retrofit into the Mini Mark Grille surround). The reliability of a VW, the luxury of a Lincoln, and a whole lot of stylish fiberglass in between. 

Mini Mark History

The Mini Mark was in a family of cars from the visions of DeWayne Creighton. He is also remembered for cars such as the Citation, Sebring, Creighton, Maxi Taxi and Mini Mark. Unfortunately they were well ahead of their time with the designs of these cars and they may have been appreciated more today than they were then. Bremen Composites as it is known now was founded in 1965 developing dune buggies in a chicken coup. Throughout the 70's and 80's Bremen expanded their automotive line in both kit form and factory built turn key production models. From what I have learned the Mini Mark was factory built conversion with just a few kitted to contractors (I know of three currently, one in Ohio, Illinois and in Kansas.). There was a fire at the Bremen plant in 1975 but the company rebuilt, ending car production in 1984 when DeWayne took a new job opportunity. 

Today, the current Bremen Composites operates out of five separate plants, including a full service paint facility, located on a 19 acre complex in the Bremen Industrial Park.  Some of the industries  currently serviced by Bremen Composites are van and truck conversions, truck aftermarket, commercial truck and trailer, RV, marine and other industrial markets.

Any additional information on the plant or the car would be greatly appreciated to share with other owners on this blog and preserve a bit of valuable history.

There was a Owners Manual for the Mini Mark. I have a complete manual which I will share with anyone who requests it. It looks to be a combination of a VW manual with inserts fro  Bremen.

Mini Mark Welcome

Welcome to the Bremen Mini Mark blog sight. The Mini Mark was a factory built conversion, not a kit car, it was built in Bremen, Indiana by the Bremen Motor Sport company. It was primarily built on a Volkswagen Beetle chassis making it reliable, easy to service and find replacement parts. Sales literature also shows it available on a Ford Pinto chassis. Bremen Sport started around 1965 building the Citation dune buggies. The two Bremen partners were DeWayne Creighton and Omar Hostetter. They ordered dune buggy kits from California and after building them thought they should build their own cars in Bremen. 

I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with partner DeWayne Creighton and learned many details of the company putting to rest some of the rumors and false information I had found since purchasing our car and starting this blog. The company built five different models of cars, the Citation, Sebring Creighton, Maxi Taxi and Mini Mark during it's existence. Creighton was the name of one the founders of the company and "Creighton" was also one of the car models built by Bremen. DeWayne gave numbers of around 300-400 of the Mini Marks being built, many more than the estimates of 100 I heard previously, but still low numbers to increase the value of the car 

Here are pictures of the start up facility and original assembly line in Bremen. It may be hard to see in the picture, but the original "plant" was a chicken coup. The partners ran extension cords and set up a salamander heater outside for their "factory". They started small and eventually moved into a larger facility on the east side of Bremen. (assembly line pictures)  I also talked to Lester M who is the man wearing the white shirt in the picture above. He indicated that originally production was one person built the entire car. As time progressed they were able to set up an assembly line in the plant which was estimated to be around 400 feet long. The picture above shows the end of the assembly line. Les indicated chassis and engines were purchased directly from VW, shortened and modified to allow assembly of the Mini Mark. They also purchased "donor" cars to keep up with production. A donor car was  gone through before starting it's life as a Mini Mark. 

I had read and heard rumors of a fire putting the company out of business in 1984. I learned that there was a fire but it was in 1975, January 2 by DeWayne's memory however the company rebuilt on the same site and continued production. Finally in 1984 DeWayne took another job opportunity and the company changed direction getting out of building cars. The company ran under the leadership of Al Hildenbrand during those changes. DeWayne believes the molds were put outside at a new Bremen plant and eventually sent to the dump. Sad ending to the beautiful cars.

While talking with DeWayne he mentioned that Wayne Newton was supposed to get a Mini Mark, and that Bremen did a special conversion putting a Porsche boxer engine in it instead of the normal VW.  Does anyone out there have a Mini Mark with a Porsche engine? DeWayne told me Wayne never actually got the car. It was built, sent to Vegas and before the presentation there was an argument between those who ordered it as a surprise to Wayne and the car was eventually sold to someone around Vegas. That was an interesting piece of history on this magnificent little car.

We found a 1969 Mini Mark a few years ago (August 2010), and it went through a ground up restoration of two and one-half years. I am amazed at the quality and craftsmanship that went into building the car. The fiberglass is thicker than most fiberglass cars (1/4"-5/16"), it is even thicker than a Corvette. The car is also a real head turner when driving it down the street.

The intent of this blog site is for owners and enthusiasts to share information on their Mini Mark's and hopefully find owners willing to develop a Bremen Mini Mark Owners Club, keeping the great car alive.

Lets see if we can find out how many of these unique cars are still on the road. I know there are a few that have made their way out of the United States. A handful have made it on eBay and a few even across Barrett Jackson's stage for auction.
I have documented 102 cars so far that are still in existence so the estimated count could be closer to 400 to those actually produced.

Thanks for visiting the blog, I am anxiously looking forward to your posts and comments. If you are interested in contacting me directly you can reach me at tatimm12@gmail.com. I would also be interested in seeing pictures of your Mini Mark feel free to mail them to me.

We are also on Facebook now, just type in Bremen Mini Mark and see the album of all the Mini Marks that have been tracked down. Feel free to put your buy, sell and trade there as well and pass the word to give us Likes! It is a medium for owners to share info back and forth without going thru the blog.