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1965 Morris Mini - From Nz To The Uk!


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#1 MiniCarJack

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Posted 12 November 2014 - 08:32 AM

I figured it's about time I posted a topic for my own Mini, especially since it's recently become more of a project. I bought this car at the end of December last year, on my birthday in fact, after seeing it offered on TradeMe (New Zealand equivalent of eBay) for a very good price - without even inspecting the car first or even phoning the guy, I hit the buy button, and then drove 2 hours to pick it up the next day! I was expecting it to be a bit worse than the pictures let on, especially since there were none of the engine bay, but the entire car was very tidy indeed and in remarkably good condition. It even came with a bunch of spares which weren't even advertised; a spare set of Mk1 doors, glass, three grilles, a petrol tank and boxes full of various random bits and pieces.

 

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Sure, the interior isn't right and it does have a tendency to leak a fair bit in the rain, but it's a totally rust-free Mk1 mini and I was bloody happy to have got such a good deal.

Since then I've been driving it regularly, having put around 18,000km on the clock. During that time I've had Cooper S 7.5" disk brakes fitted, which are a MASSIVE improvement over the old drums which were quite scary to use. In addition to that, I've added some mirrors, the very cool retro roof rack (as seen in the picture above), and a number of other small additions and changes. Most recently, I fitted a later style two-speed wiper motor and a bunch of new wiper parts to accompany it, since my old wipers had stopped functioning entirely. For a while I've had to drive around with a spare wiper arm in my door pocket, so that I can manually wipe the windscreen in the case of unexpected rain!

 

When I bought the car, it was already badged up as a Morris Cooper S, and clearly the previous owners' intention was to create an S replica since it already has a hole cut to accept the remote-change gear shift (as well as the Cooper-style white roof of course). As such it's also been my plan for a while to fit a larger engine - it's just a bog-standard 850 at the moment, complete with magic wand gearstick, but that is about to change very soon!

 

Enter my second Mini purchase - the rather unsightly '73 Clubman.

 

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She isn't exactly a looker, but packed under that bonnet is (or rather, was) a fully rebuilt 1293cc engine. This thing drives amazingly and was so quick, even climbing up the hill to my house where the 850 would normally be struggling to keep above 50kph! And what's more, is that I got this car for less than the cost of an engine rebuild; my plan for a while was to rebuild an Austin 1300 engine which I got given for free, but it needs a lot of work and was a pretty expensive prospect.

After hooning around in the Clubby until the registration ran out, I set about taking out the engine and smartening it up so it would look nice in the Mk1's tidy engine bay. I managed this a few weeks ago, but since then progress has unfortunately been slower than I'd have liked, mainly because of exams and work commitments. However, now that the exam period is over, the time for more power has arrived :D

 

Over the past couple of days, I've been cleaning, painting, refurbing and replacing stuff so that the engine will soon be ready to transplant into the Mk1. The reason that I put the word "replica" in quotation marks in the title is because this car won't end up as a factory Cooper S clone - the engine specs aren't going to be exactly Cooper, nor are many other aspects of the car. As such, I've decided on painting the engine in a lovely bright red, with some black and silver ancillaries to compliment it. I figure that doing something different from factory-standard Cooper will make the car a bit more personal and "cool" in a way :) Here's some before and after pictures of the engine so far:

fJ29CcC.jpgmAT33Xh.jpg

 

Obviously there are still a few more things to do, particularly in terms of fitting stuff back onto the engine. But a lot of this is relying on parts currently fitted to the 850 engine, which is still in the car; the radiator is one such example. When I was driving around in the clubman, I noticed that it was running a little bit hot, and it would appear to be partly because the radiator is absolutely pants. So I figure it would make sense to fit my shiny alloy radiator on to it instead :)

 

That's basically all for now, but I expect to be kept busy over the next couple of days so I'll try to post some updates. The next step is to get the 850 out of the Mk1, but I need to make sure my dad's MGB is in good working order first, so I have a car to drive around in while mine has no engine :P


Edited by W1NG3D, 16 August 2020 - 06:55 PM.


#2 lyndseyp27

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Posted 12 November 2014 - 08:41 AM

Theyre both gorgeous haha i really actually like the clubman. weird i know!



#3 Gadgets

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Posted 12 November 2014 - 09:01 AM

Enjoy your minis



#4 Jared Mk3

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Posted 12 November 2014 - 10:02 AM

Very nice  =] You're adding your own personality to the car, which I like.



#5 MiniCarJack

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Posted 13 November 2014 - 01:31 PM

Theyre both gorgeous haha i really actually like the clubman. weird i know!

I can understand it'd appeal to some people - I myself really like the fact that the body and interior is quite original. Still has the old 1970's dealer sticker on the back, and the car has obviously never been restored. The only modification is, of course, the 1275 engine which I'm now going to put into my Mk1. I'm considering doing a restoration on the clubman when this is done, but I guess we will see how that turns out in time :)



#6 lyndseyp27

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Posted 13 November 2014 - 01:34 PM

 

Theyre both gorgeous haha i really actually like the clubman. weird i know!

I can understand it'd appeal to some people - I myself really like the fact that the body and interior is quite original. Still has the old 1970's dealer sticker on the back, and the car has obviously never been restored. The only modification is, of course, the 1275 engine which I'm now going to put into my Mk1. I'm considering doing a restoration on the clubman when this is done, but I guess we will see how that turns out in time :)

 

I think it's lovely :)



#7 MiniCarJack

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Posted 19 November 2014 - 07:21 AM

Alas, the Clubman has been sold - and I think I'll be using the money to buy myself a nice performance exhaust system, once the shiny new engine is in place. Which should be soon I hope!



#8 MiniCarJack

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Posted 03 December 2014 - 10:05 PM

Finally some actual decent progress has been made! I spent yesterday removing the old 850 engine (the magic wand gearbox had some clearance issues which delayed me slightly), and have swapped the good bits like the alloy radiator on to the 1275 which is now ready to be dropped in to the car :)

 

I'd have liked to been at this stage over a week ago, but I've been working 6 days a week to cover for another employee who's currently enjoying a Hawaiian cruise - not much time or energy has been left for the Mini unfortunately!

 

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#9 MiniCarJack

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Posted 08 December 2014 - 04:49 AM

Success!

 

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Now the only thing left to do is fix the annoying bonnet rattle (it needs to be aligned properly), and get a nice new RC40 exhaust system fitted!



#10 MiniCarJack

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Posted 16 December 2014 - 12:16 AM

Been driving this around for over a week now and have run into a few small issues, which I've just managed to sort out :)

 

First of all, I was driving back from Henderson, after having a new exhaust system fitted at Minibitz (great guys by the way). As I was climbing a big hill on Waitakere Road, I heard the most horrible grinding noise so I immediately pulled over to see what was going on... I think it's easy to spot the issue in this picture:

 

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I always carry a bungee cord or two in the car, because normally I have a roof rack fitted and they're handy for securing all sorts of junk onto the roof :P

This time it came in very handy, as did the over-riders and corner bars on the bumper.

 

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Apart from that, the drive home made me very happy because the car now sounds a lot better, not too loud but the exhaust has a lovely rasp. It also made a noticeable difference to the performance, the engine felt much less restricted at higher revs than before. However, after driving it a couple more days I noticed the temperature creeping up quite high, especially while idling in traffic. It was still drivable and wasn't getting dangerously hot, but still it was too hot for my liking, so my plan was to do some investigative work with the cooling system.

 

Just a couple of nights ago though, I was on my way home from Albany in the horrible rain and the mini started running like an absolute dog. Misfiring, backfiring, and barely able to get anywhere under its own power. I just about managed to get it parked up at a petrol station, after a scary encounter with a big intersection where I very nearly ended up stalling in the middle of the road!

 

After opening up the bonnet and having a quick look around, the first thing I noticed was that the damper had somehow unscrewed itself from the dashpot - oops! That was quickly remedied and when I started the engine up again, it ran a bit better, but still very very rough. That led me to the distributor, where I noticed the clamp which stops it rotating had come a bit loose, so I figured the distributor might've rotated away from where it should be and severely retarded the timing. Unfortunately my crappy adjustable spanner couldn't tighten the clamp back up, and since it was 1am at this point, the AA wouldn't send anyone out with tools, but were willing to tow the mini back to my house so I had no choice but to wait until about 2.30 in the morning for the truck to arrive. While I was waiting I kept fiddling with the distributor to try and get it adjusted to roughly where it should be, but for some reason the engine was refusing to run properly.

 

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I thought water might have gotten into the distributor cap seeing as it was raining so hard, and people tell me that's a very common problem with minis, but after some inspection it was clearly very dry. So I was a bit puzzled, and realised something else must be going wrong, but wasn't sure what until the next day. I decided to try swapping the distributor for the one off the old engine; this instantly fixed the problem, and not only does the engine now run much smoother, the temperature problem has disappeared too! So it would seem the distributor that was originally on this 1293 engine has been faulty all along, and just decided to crap out on me in the early hours of the morning, during horrible weather. I guess that sort of thing should be expected with a 50 year old British car icon_tongue.gif



#11 timmy850

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Posted 16 December 2014 - 02:33 AM

I had that exact same thing happen to my number plate. Unfortunately I didn't have any bungee cords!
 
The timing being off can cause your car to run hot, and so can your air/fuel mixture ratio.

Edited by timmy850, 16 December 2014 - 02:33 AM.


#12 MiniCarJack

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Posted 25 March 2015 - 05:18 AM

Been a while since I updated this thread, and quite a lot has happened since the last time I posted!

Some of you might have seen my recent topic in the Chat section, regarding a lesson I've learned about the importance of ensuring bolts are properly tight:

http://www.theminifo...-are-tightened/

 

Basically, it necessitated the removal of the cylinder head, because the air filter bolt had found its way through the carb, inlet manifold, and wedged itself between the inlet valve & seat for cylinder no.3!

 

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Luckily it did no actual damage, but as a precaution the valve was lapped, and then I put everything back together with no further issues :)

 

Also today, I picked up a steering wheel which I've been waiting for a while to get back, as it was being reconditioned by a local saddler. It's a proper old Moto Lita wheel which I got off of my dad's MGB, and he didn't want it because he bought a fancy wooden steering wheel instead. I'm glad to finally have it back now, and it looks and feels 100x better than it did before! They fitted it with brand new quality leather, and also had a go at polishing the metal too and it came out great.

 

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Now I just need to order a boss kit from moto lita! :shades:



#13 MiniCarJack

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Posted 22 July 2015 - 12:24 PM

After a bit of hassle trying to get hold of a set of these wheels, I've finally managed to get my hands on a genuine set of LP883 Cooper S 4.5" rims! I had them fitted with Yokohama A008 tyres this afternoon, and as soon as I got home I got to work prepping them for a repaint, as they'd been done in the wrong colour which looked far too yellow. Here's a before and after picture (the after shows the first coat of paint, got a few more to do yet!).

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I can't wait to finish them off, re-inflate the tyres and finally have a decent set of tyres on my car, as I've spent far too long with two chinese trailer tyres and two re-treaded Firestone Cavallinos which have seen better days.

Also here's a bonus picture, I was rummaging through my dad's box of MG parts the other day, and came across a genuine original Wilmot Breedon locking fuel cap - and I was even more lucky to discover it happened to fit my mini's ignition key. He won't be needing it any more as he plans to convert his MGB to an electric car, so it's now fitted to the mini and looks very nice and period :)

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I'll update this post with a picture of the Cooper S wheels once I have them fitted on my car!



#14 minimissions

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Posted 22 July 2015 - 12:49 PM

Wicked looking cooper s rep your doing, and another mk1 getting some love. Top work



#15 jagman.2003

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Posted 22 July 2015 - 12:49 PM

Nice project, very smart mini..!






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