Just picked up my new car tonight. Couldn't wait any longer to get the Cooper S down from QLD. It is an ex hill climb sleeper. Came with limited specs but this is what I have found so far. It is a 60thou over auto block. Lightened and balanced cooper S internals. 45 DCOE13 Weber. 12-3047 - Competition Manifold. Roller rockers. Unknown race/rally camshaft. Fireball XR700 ignition . Head is supposed to be a Vizard special. Semi slicks A032 and D93J. LSD - might be a banjo mod. Very high compression - seller said 11 to 1cr. Fully adjustable suspension.
Lots of stupid questions to follow in the coming weeks.

sent the old girl off to the blasters

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1963 850 - laid up
1970 Morris mini K van - eating up the kms!

got most of the electrics sorted. slowly running out of boxes

made a bracket so the coil will sit on the alternator. it still needs blasting and painting

took it out.




starter gear got stuck and would not start for a while. didnt have tools on me and yelling didnt help. Bought cheap screw driver from supercheap and moved the gear until I heard something release. lol then all was well

Plenty of work going on here.

Pulling the 997 Cooper to pieces still. The work today is on the front apron some more. Trimming the excess remains of the surrounding panels from the apron and getting it ready to be stitched back onto the car. It looks pretty good, but has some very old ripples and dents repaired yet.

Drilling out the spot welds has been quite easy with an 8mm P&N Spot Weld drill bit. The brazing has needed a bit of heat to remove, but seems to be easy enough once up to temperature. The apron needs a little more loving yet before it will be ready. I have removed the remains of the guard panels now too. What remains is to remove the ripples and dents and clean up the contact surfaces prior to welding them to the car after the bead blasting is completed.

We set up a camera and had it take 30 second interval images. They look great if you click forward on the picture viewer in windows quickly. Just need to stitch them together into a gif/film sequence somehow..

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Good stuff Mick. Some days just seem to drag and you feel like you didnt achieve much but then other days you fly through and get heaps done. You are doing a great job.
Those early aprons do look nice. They have an extra charm about them.
Well done

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1963 Morris 850 Smoke Grey
1963 Morris 850 Shadow Blue
1965 Morris Mini Smooth Van
1966 Morris Mini Van
1969 Morris Mini Deluxe Resto
5/72 Clubman Gt

Thanks Scoop. You're right. I reckon the secret to success in these projects is to go out there each day even if you don't do anything. Just stare at the car if you have to. You stay in touch with where you are at in the project.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

This front apron must have been blessed by the pope it looks holy lol

Yeah, all the spot welds need to come out. It is a LOT less messy if you drill them compared to grinding them out, which is what I had to do with the existing apron. No holes in the metal going back on however, gotta choose the waste metal side.

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SooperDooperMiniCooperExpertEngineering

All garage work involves equal measures of enthusiasm, ingenuity and a fair degree of irresponsibility.

Rebuilt my HS4

First task on the new project but I have a bad feeling it won't help it run any better...yet

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"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity!"
1972 Mini Clubman 1098
1978 Leyland Mini 998 - she’s gone to a good home

Pulled apart an old set of twin 1 1/4" SU's. Cleaned up all parts ready for plating.
Next to clean all of the alloy pieces in the blast cabinet.
Noticed the needles were different? I wonder if the car used to run OK?

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1969 Cooper "S"
1967 Mini Deluxe
1973 Clubman Van (the fleet spare)
1978 ex 1275 LS ("Wizard" Eaton Supercharged)
2015 HSV GenF GTS(occasional drive & tow car)
2019 MINI F55 Cooper S

I found that two of my gearboxes that were supposed to be "ready to drop in" need rebuilding. The one that was on the "complete and running" power unit has spun up the thrust surface of the drop gear in the box and the clutch housing. There is at least 3mm of metal lost so the clutch housing and the box are both rooted. I hope the gear set is ok.

The other box appears recently rebuild but is full of fine flakes of copper/brass and it doesn't want to change gear. I suspect a bearing has let go.

Off to The Mini Man tomorrow to get one rebuilt and the Quaife diff installed.

M

I'm a bit worried about my car now... It's been a couple of weeks now since I got it going again and I've driven it a few times, but it hasn't been leaking oil on the floor. What have I done wrong?

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You must have forgotten to put oil back in it

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1963 Morris 850 Smoke Grey
1963 Morris 850 Shadow Blue
1965 Morris Mini Smooth Van
1966 Morris Mini Van
1969 Morris Mini Deluxe Resto
5/72 Clubman Gt