Henrietta & Dorothy

Posted 05 May 2009 - 01:11 PM

Hello all...Most of you have seen me complaining about Henrietta for a while now, so I decided to do something about her engine!

Henrietta is a 1986 Austin City currently using a 998cc engine, wiring is dreadful and engine plays up continuously! Yesterday, I acquired Dorothy...Dorothy is a 1986 Austin Piccadilly disguised a tahiti blue cooper! Dorothy currently has a 1275cc engine...needless to say, that the price was right for the remains of the car, so I bought her home via towbar! She is very rusty and needs lots of new panels, however she has a Mary Quant set of front and rear seats, 13" Superlites and a decent bonnet, amongst other things...

I'm still undecided what to do with the shell once the engine and other parts have been stripped...I am considering either making an effort to restore her with the help of my dad, although she will be a very slow project as she will cost a lot of money and I am still a full time student. However, if I decided not to restore her, I will make a trailer from her back end.

In the meantime, I plan to put Dorothy's 1275 into Henrietta...I suspect my dad will want the 998, and will possibly be put into Dorothy in the future...

Here's the 998cc atm...








I will add pictures of the 1275cc engine later today, and a video of Dorothy running...although she has one of her two carbs leaking and no air filter at present!

Edited by Heather&Henrietta, 05 May 2009 - 03:29 PM.

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Posted 05 May 2009 - 01:15 PM

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Posted 05 May 2009 - 01:17 PM

I would do Dotty up as a project if I had the money But my dad has decided he wants a mini now that I have Henrietta and Dorothy! So Dotty's shell won't go to waste


P.S Henny's very much looking forward to her new engine Bigger and very much louder

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 08:36 AM

Ok, took some pictures of Dorothy's engine last night...So here is what is going into Henny's engine bay...








Twin carbs, the one of the right hand side is leaking either from the bottom of the carb or from the chamber...So a new one is required for at least there!




Clubman oil cooler

Video of both the 998cc engine and the 1275 engine running will be added later today

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 09:29 AM

Apologies for the poor sound quality, unfortunately our garage echos

Henrietta's 998cc






Dorothy's 1275cc

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 09:47 AM

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 09:52 AM

I don't know atm to be honest Git Drivers side is the worst side for the rust, mainly scuttles and rear wheel arch She needs a new boot floor and a new drivers door skin...

But even if my Dad and I decide not to restore her completly I'll make a trailer My dad has his eye on another shell, so we'll see which is better for working on


Twin Carbs - yeah very nice but one is leaking like a sieve! But otherwise very very nice

Engine bay isn't too bad at all, the engine will be taken out, thoroughly cleaned then painted, Henny's engine bay will have a good clean up too

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Posted 06 May 2009 - 10:18 AM

Another update to add...

I went through the paperwork yesterday afternoon that her previous owner gave me...Got lots of Tax notification letters etc etc...They are all labelled as Dorothy having a 998cc engine So whoever out of her 11 previous owners replaced the engine, did it on the quiet and didn't report in to the DVLA! Tut tut

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Posted 08 May 2009 - 10:30 AM

Another update...mainly aimed at Henrietta...


Have had huge ignition problems of late and she has been running, but running very uneven and not firing on 4...Took the distributer out of Dorothy and fitted it to Henrietta yesterday and got her running much better, timing to sort with teh strobe later, but fingers crossed - she should be ready for this evening Quay To My Car

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Posted 09 May 2009 - 08:51 PM

Hello again...


Dad and I got Henrietta's 998cc engine running today although she still needs a colour tune which I'm hoping my uncle will do over the next few days.

After that we made a start of striping Dorothy's 1275cc along with a few other bits...














Wiring looks pretty sound so far - no new connections needed Most cables were tied together with cable ties - clearly better organised than Henrietta's!!











Tune in next time for tomorrow's installment!

Sorry couldn't resist!

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Posted 10 May 2009 - 05:55 AM

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Posted 10 May 2009 - 09:12 AM

Looks like your having fun

Keep up the good work and piccys !

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Posted 10 May 2009 - 09:35 PM

hehehe Git, I can imagine


Major - thanks It's going to be slow though I'm a student still so I can only afford to pay for parts and to have my dad help me rather than paying for parts and getting someone to do it for me



Got in late so will take some pictures of today's work tomorrow

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Posted 21 May 2009 - 09:52 PM

Quick update,


Henrietta, *touches wood* Is still running atm!



I have misplaced my memory stick which has my last set of pictures on it...will upload as soon as I find it

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Posted 21 May 2009 - 09:58 PM

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