Classic 70s Mini cooper as a quirky hobby car?

[porsche930dude]

I went over my mini today. cleaned out the gas tank it was full of 10 year old gas but the tank is still fine inside. Then used the old gas to clean up alot of the engine parts. Also checked out the rear brakes and they are working. It has new shoes and cylinders. The rubber hoses look original so ill probrobly change them. Then i cleaned the 50 years of crud out of the back suspension. But nothing is rusted. It even has the original paint in the wheel wells. Really happy with the car. The engine bay is a light greenish color and everything else the gray. is that normal?

[petrolhead611]

All Minis I have ever seen had the engine bay painted same colour as rest of the shell.

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by petrolhead611

All Minis I have ever seen had the engine bay painted same colour as rest of the shell.

+1 ^^.

Not an expert and I don't own one, but I have been "shopping" for over 1 1/2 years for a pre-2000 mini (classic mini.) None had engine compartments of a different color than the body unless there had been a repaint.

[porsche930dude]

Intresting ill have to look into it farther. Everywhere in the trunk and under the back side is the gray color. Definately factory back there

[Aerkuld]

930dude - It's definitely not normal to have the engine bat a different color from the rest of the shell. It's fair to conclude it's had a color change at some point. If you really want to find out more about your car, the Heritage Motor Centre in England keeps all the BMC records. You can apply for the heritage certificate for your car using the VIN. They'll send you details of the date the car was built, what the trim, and body color were, and usually where it was destined for delivery. Link below:

Heritage Certificate - Car traced with chassis number

Your car looks very nice by the way!

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by gtilove

Very special car. Do you know the competition history?

In short, no, but I have some clues and I'm trying to piece it together.

I got a lot of paperwork with the car and know some of it's history, but I'm finding it's very difficult to discover it's competition history.The FIA paperwork I have was issued in 1997 and lists all the previous owners back to 1965. However, it does not include previous competition history. I can find results of several Finnish club rallies in which the owner, so I presume the car, has competed. Who knows, the owner could have had more than one Mini and the results don't show the identity of individual cars. Of course, all of these events were in the pre-internet, or very early internet era, so it's hard to find anything except printed data online. Just to make it more difficult, it's all in Finnish.

Still, it's an interesting research project for me, and it's the car I wanted regardless of the history.

I'm interested to see the level of interest for the old Mini on this board. It's so far removed from a Porsche in just about every way imaginable, except individual character. May I ask what it is about the car that each of you find appealing? From my perspective, it's a few of things;

1) Nostalgia. My Father had a '65 Morris Mini that was his Father's. He road rallied that with my Mother, and it was the car he used to bring my Mother and I home from the hospital when I was born. I owned two more myself growing up, and I always wanted on in the USA.

2) Admiration of the engineering design. It's such a wonderfully simple design, and meets the design objective of creating the as much space as possible in a small car. There is storage space everywhere in the car. The early, sliding window cars demonstrate this best with the big, front door pockets - lost once wind-up windows were added.

3) It's archetypal Britishness. For me it's a little link back to my home country. No desire to move back there, but I like to have little reminders here and there.

[tcar]

Sure looks like green overspray on the dirt/grease behind the right drive axle (left side in the pic), and on the left triangular brace (r side in pic).

Any evidence of green under the gray (grey) anywhere?

It looks certain to me that the firewall has been repainted. It's still gray inside the radiator housing.
Look at the VIN plate... was it masked?


Friend in college had a Morris Mini... fun, but hotter than hell in Albuquerque in the summer.

[porsche930dude]

Originally Posted by tcar

Sure looks like green overspray on the dirt/grease behind the right drive axle (left side in the pic), and on the left triangular brace (r side in pic).

Any evidence of green under the gray (grey) anywhere?

It looks certain to me that the firewall has been repainted. It's still gray inside the radiator housing.
Look at the VIN plate... was it masked?


Friend in college had a Morris Mini... fun, but hotter than hell in Albuquerque in the summer.

You are correct! I had a good look at it today and it looks like just the firewall was sprayed for some reason. Maybe there was a fuel leak and a small fire or something. But there is overspray on some of the hoses and wires. And up top on the hood hinges I can see the gray has clearly been sprayed over. So I will paint it gray again before the engine goes back in. Thanks guys. Loving my little mini. To answer your question Aerkulid I didnt like them until a few years ago when I wanted another project car and starting thinking about how cool it would be to actually own one. I love small things minibikes and gokarts. Its only fitting that I have a mini car. Plus its the smallest car I could think of that is still practical and semi-safe. I dont need extra space to store it I can fit it right in the garage with my Porsche. And the quality is great for what it is. Its Ironic how I try to be different and end up with the worlds most iconic cars. I own a willys jeep, porsche 911, vw beetle, camaro and now a mini. I think its awesome that Im the only one in my area with one (that i know of) on the road. I know there is going to be a big crowd around it at my local cruise in.

[porsche930dude]

Originally Posted by Aerkuld

930dude - It's definitely not normal to have the engine bat a different color from the rest of the shell. It's fair to conclude it's had a color change at some point. If you really want to find out more about your car, the Heritage Motor Centre in England keeps all the BMC records. You can apply for the heritage certificate for your car using the VIN. They'll send you details of the date the car was built, what the trim, and body color were, and usually where it was destined for delivery. Link below:

Heritage Certificate - Car traced with chassis number

Your car looks very nice by the way!

Thanks ill look into it

[sc_rufctr]

Here's a nice one for 40k.

1964 Austin Mini Cooper S ($40,000) • Petrolicious

[porsche930dude]

I got my engine stabbed in. My parts are almost here after a month wait. Had a bunch on backorder 3 weeks from mini sport. Iv got some pistons and bearings for sale po bought the wrong ones.

Classic Mini Russell Engineering Piston Set 998 RE-A1118-40 Cooper +.040 | eBay

Classic Mini Main Bearings and Trust Washers 998/1098 Cooper Engine Standard | eBay

[tcar]

Good looking firewall... finally!

[porsche930dude]

Originally Posted by tcar

Good looking firewall... finally!

Yeah its a little too glossy but iv been rubbing it down some. I just took a can of rustoleom gray and darkend it till it matched and brushed it on. also touched up all the dings on the body it worked great for that. For the engine paint i used army green camo paint and went over it with gloss. Its not a perfect match to original but im happy with it

[porsche930dude]

My mini is all ready for the road! Test drove it 3 or 4 times already. Its awesome! Very slow up hills but thats ok thats why i have a Porsche. Still have to time it that will probably help I had trouble with some leaks got them mostly fixed. But it runs great nice and smooth. Also had trouble getting the clutch bled out. Ended up pulling off both cylenders they looked good put it back together with new fluid and it bled fine.

[john70t]

There must be something wrong.
Cameros and early Pcars are going for $100k here while Minis are going for $2,400 over there.
Even lawn mowers cost more than that.

Group purchase anyone?
https://www.gumtree.com/cars/uk/mini+1275

[porsche930dude]

Originally Posted by john70t

There must be something wrong.
Cameros and early Pcars are going for $100k here while Minis are going for $2,400 over there.
Even lawn mowers cost more than that.

Group purchase anyone?
https://www.gumtree.com/cars/uk/mini+1275

Yeah anyone have a boat?

[VincentVega]

Thanks for the update, it looks fantastic. I'll find one someday.

[Aerkuld]

porsche930dude - That looks magnificent. Well done.

I've been busy with mine.
We've entered our Mini in a classic rally in a couple of weeks. It's supposed to be non-competitive, and more of a 'social' event, but it should be fun. My wife has never done any navigation before, but she's been studying. I've been going through the car, fitting an aluminum radiator, new radiator hoses, fan belt, and any other things that are likely to be problematic. Rally computer is hooked up and calibrated and my wife now knows how to use it.
One of the guys at work used his vinyl cutter to make our Monte-style door numbers with our car number.
I think we're about ready!

[porsche930dude]

Awesome that will be alot of fun. I wouldnt mind some door numbers for mine just to throw on sometimes. Especially if I do some autox with it. Id like some round magnetic ones but im not sure if theyd hold up. Probably have to tape the leading edge. Im going to build a roof rack this summer aswell

[porsche930dude]

Iv driven about 20 miles without any major trouble. Almost had a big problem at an uphill intersection with a line of cars behind me. Worst possible spot it could have happend. The clutch got stuck down I think maybe some crud got knocked loose in the slave cyl. After some pumping it loostened up and seems fine now. I was going to pull it apart and have a look but its working fine now. Also the suspension was really low. The front was on the bumpstops. So i made up a hydrolastic pump with a grease gun and pumped it up. Now its too high but i will drive it a bit to let it settle then lower it down to a good height. Every time i come to a hill im reminded than england is flat. haha good times