I think this is a great little car. Provided you can secure ownership (I agree with your reasoning and the valuation of storage costs etc over these years) it would be a great project. An original Mk2 is a hard thing to come by these days. The mk2 was only manufactured for 3-4 years so makes them quite rare. If you want to keep it which being a mini addict I would, obviously, you could get a British heritage certificate for it which would identify the original factory spec. There is also a good book available called Factory Original by James Taylor covering both mk1 & 2 minis. It’s about £30 on eBay and is a good reference book. Fully restored to a good level and in ‘original’ condition it would be worth around £10k I reckon. Very few come up for sale though so it’s hard to say what someone will pay. Top condition early 850 mk1s can fetch nearer £20k, and a ‘59 even more these days so who knows! I own a few minis including a nice early mk1, and would love to add a mk2 to my collection as they’re becoming rarer and more sought after. Good luck with securing ownership and let us know how you get on.
I forgot to add - if you’ve never driven a mini, do it now. If you don’t hate it, you’ll be addicted forever! Loads of members are more than happy to take prospective owners out on a taster session.
Thanks for the info, I will look into the certificate and book.
That is a very good point, I wouldn't want to spend time and money to not like something. Sounds like you are a nice friendly community so I will think about this as part
of the consideration process. This could backfire and sway me to do something I shouldn't however haha.
From what I can see everything looks original MKII to me.
The dash switch panel
The clutch and brake master cylinders
External door hinges
Roof gutter drip rail being a big give away.
It might have hydro elastic suspension also.
Look to see if it has the original fluted sills.
Thanks for looking it over. I will research these points so I can check if they are present on my next visit.
The images of the engine compartment appear to show the pipes to the displacers so it would suggest it has hydrolastic suspension.
All Mk2s originally had hydrolastic suspension, it was introduced during latter part of Mk1 production and remained till early 1970s with the Mk3, yours certainly has the hydro pipes under the bonnet so likely still has that suspension fitted.
If you provide the first few numbers / letters of the engine number we will be able to identify the capacity, assuming the engine number hasnt been swapped to a different block.
Get a mirror and torch and look down the back right hand side of the engine block (as you face the car) it should have either 850 or 1000 cast into the engine block.
Thanks for the information about the suspension, sounds a lot like the hydropneumatic system Citroen uses after a wiki search. Is it as expensive to fix as I imagine? I worked for Citroen
and their system was through the roof!
Car is 3 hours away so I will put it on the list of things to check on the next visit.