53 replies to this topic

[OZMINI]

Well I have been looking at all these UK rebuilds for a while now, and have been so impressed with the amount of work that has gone into each project I was very reluctant to post my project. Simply there are no jaw dropping feats of welding or engineering genious. Just a straight forward pull it apart and fix it. So if it is boring let me know and I will stop.

As of today it is almost complete apart from front and rear glass. But I will start at the begining.

In November 2010 I was looking for a project to have a go at. It had to be a fairly good to starter, because as I eluded to above I can't weld or paint. What I found was this very original 1973 Leyland mini. At this time in Australia even though they had the Clubman front the clubman name was dropped, being sold as a Leyland mini.








As you can see the Australian mini had front quarter windows and flush door handles with burst proof locks and the rear window and side flipper windows remained the same size as the MK1's.

The interior was also in pretty good condition after 38 years of use.








The plan as this point was to totally strip it, recondition the mechanicals, soda blast the shell and respray it to look like the australian version of the 1275GT, which was called the Clubman GT in Australia. I'm led to believe that the Clubman GT was a result of the end to the round nose Cooper S, and all of the Cooper S parts used in the GT. I'm certainly not an expert on the history, but it went something like that.

My intial intention was to source a 1275 engine to go with the look, but as I found out the 1275 is getting scarce in Aust. and expensive. So decided to sick with the 1098, which kept the engine and chassis numbers original and matching the log books.





The next job was to start stripping it and keep fingers crossed that there wasn't to much rot.





Surprisingly the floor was great!







Once stripped off it went to the Soda Blaster.

More to come.

[mini.rich]

This is not a boring build!! haha. I love the aussy minis with the external hinged doors and the flush fitting handles If I move there I'm buying one Is the removable slam panel a standard feature down there?

Are you keeping the colour the same?

[OZMINI]

Thanks Richard, The colour will be a genuine Aust colour called Gambier Torquise. Forgive my ignorance, what is another description for a Slam Panel?

[mini.rich]

The panel that the bonnet/hood locks onto, the piece above the grille.

[Miniryan09]

Love the handles! can you get them to fit on UK minis??

[puggered]

Looking good!

[OZMINI]

Sorry Richard, had a blonde moment. As far as I can remember the 'Slam Panel' was removable on all the Clubman shells here in Australia.

In relation to the door handles, verything internally is different to UK models and there were NO internal door hinges. But, they tell me nothing is impossible!

[new_zealand _minis]

you can fit the ozzy doors to mk 1/2 shells .. just mab be had to find some ozzy doors in the uk ..

[OZMINI]

Whilst I was waiting for the body to go to the blasters I worked on the front and rear sub-frames. Sand blasted the subbies and painted them with a black enamel with hardener added. Replaced all the rubber and needle bushes. new rear wheel cyclinders (5/8"like the cooper S) and 1"stepped drums as the front was going to be 7.5"cooper s disc's.





Then it was the motor's turn. As said earlier a decision was made to retain the 1098cc, which was the original engine from new. I stripped it and took the block and head separately to the engineer so that I didn't have to worry about getting all the the engine specs correct.

The end result was 40 thou o/s pistins and rings, 10 thou crank grind, mild cam grind. The head, although already done for Unleaded fuel, was given new valve guides and reseated. Both the head and the block were shaved. It was put back together with new lightened duplex timming chain, oil pump, fuel pump, water pump, rocker shaft and rocker bushes. Before it went back together all the bearing, lay shaft, bulk rings, selector and diff kit.







The body was back from the soda blaster and wasn't as bad as I thought it could have been.



Rot found above the head lights, under the door hinges, above the hinges and along the bak of the boot.









The doors, boot and bonnet were good.







Next job was to get some sealer primer on the bear shell. even though I said earlier that I didn't paint I decided to give it a go, and save some money.

[OZMINI]

Sorry, computer playing up, posted early just in case I lost the lot.

Shell all primed up. (No! Photo Bucket doesn't want to play)

[Risky]

Very nice clubman (or leyland mini), I love the 'special' details on the Australian Mini's!

[analogue_radio]

Very nice clean build!

[DaveJH]

Wow, great progress so far. Love how thorough you are being. I'd love to have a change to do that to mine but without a garage I'm a little stuck!

[OZMINI]

Shell all primed then loaded for the trip to the panel shop for associated welding and a couple of layers of 2 pack undercoat.





Marked all the relevant repairs.



Once the repairs were complete they did a fit up to make sure everything lined up and sent it back with the undercoat.









Now it was back to me to do the under floor area. As the soda/sand blasting took all the body deadener off I could have just recoated it with stone guard and left it black or paint over it. Whilst doing a bit of reseach one of the suppliers suggested a product called Ú-POL RAPTOR" a tintable ute bed liner. After conferring with the painter as to how close the colour match would be with our selected colour. It was a matter of suck it and see. Consequently it went on and I was happy with the end result.













OK, back to the panel shop for some colour. It did surprise me how much work goes into the preparation. I found out first hand because I was the one doing all the rubbing. I'd smooth off the black guide coat and they would put more on and give me a finer paper.

[Pitcrew6464]

Great project!!