8 replies to this topic

[My73Inno]

Sooo long story short, I've been thinking about getting my hands on a Mini project for a while now and I was particularly interested in one of the "odd ones" (Elf, Hornet or Innocenti basically) but prices have been skyrocketting lately so was beginning to loose hope...

 

But then last December I was given a chance to buy an extremely cheap Innocenti Cooper 1300 that had been sitting for a couple of decades, a true Christmas miracle! Well maybe not...

 

The car is essentially a rather rough Innocenti shell (most of it), with the usual rust (so a lot), most of the Inno bits missing, some terrible butchering/older repairs and obvious front and rear collision damage.

Needless to say, it was love at first sight...

 

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Yup, there's an Inno under there.

 

Quick cleanup, time to evaluate...

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Got a spare Mk1 bonnet with the car, that'll require some modification but hey that's something!

Original Innocenti doors are present but quite rusty...

 

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Good from far but far from good... Lower section has been slightly pushed in and has completely rusted through anyway...

 

The floors and sills had already been replaced/repaired at some stage but were completely gone...

 

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Yikes

 

(For some reason, the front part of the gearbox tunnel appears to have been repaired as well, using the wrong (older) style, which was then butchered to accept the gearbox extension mounts... A happy mess.)

 

Anyway, got to work straight away, starting with two full length floorpans, LH doorstep, LH rear wing, LH inner font wing, front part of the tunnel, crossmember, sills and jacking points.

 

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Very ripe indeed

 

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Wing and doorstep were too far gone

 

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Looking a lot nicer already!

 

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New pans are in! The new tunnel and crossmember both came from another donor car

 

Time to move on the back of the car now...

Edited by My73Inno, 11 February 2022 - 06:46 AM.

[johnR]

do you have any pictures?

[Viktor]

Yes, pictures please! 

[My73Inno]

Woops sorry about that, edited the post with the missing pictures

[slidehammer]

looks like an interesting project, good luck sourcing the missing parts you need.

[My73Inno]

looks like an interesting project, good luck sourcing the missing parts you need.

Thanks! So far, so good... Managed to find most of the correct Carello/Altissimo lightning, engine ancillaries and some trim (badges, interior bits,...) but this is definitely a bit of a treasure hunt

[My73Inno]

Alright, so now let's move on the rear section...

 

As I mentionned, it's not the worst but there was quite alot of rust around the bumper lip (the middle section of the hinge panel being both pushed in and rotten to the point whereit was just "floating" over the boot floor), lower valance was toast too obviously...

 

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Sweet, sweet rust worm...

 

Got the required repair sections and some cutting later

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Trial fittment of the boot floor repair panel, then welding

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Next up was the lower back panel, quick trial too

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Then it was a matter of making sure it all lined up correctly with the bootlid fitted

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And finally everything welded in place including the new valance

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[Spherix]

 

looks like an interesting project, good luck sourcing the missing parts you need.

Thanks! So far, so good... Managed to find most of the correct Carello/Altissimo lightning, engine ancillaries and some trim (badges, interior bits,...) but this is definitely a bit of a treasure hunt

 

 

You can find quite some spares on the following:

www.subito.it

www.kijiji.it 

https://coopermania.forumfree.it/

and facebook marketplace set to places like Milan/Rome with a large radius

[MichiMini]

Looks great! Did you manage to capture some closeup photos of the finished welds around the back lip where the replacement boot floor pan meets the main body shell/beneath boot lid? I'm working on this very project currently.

 

Cheers,

Scott