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1964 Mk1 Morris 850


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#601 Vinay-RS

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Posted 11 October 2019 - 10:40 AM

Agreed. There's a bit more wheel vibration with the thinner wheels, but they do make turning a joy as you can turn with pretty much one finger. I also quite like the looks of the thinner steering wheels.

#602 timmy850

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Posted 16 October 2019 - 11:00 AM

Agreed. There's a bit more wheel vibration with the thinner wheels, but they do make turning a joy as you can turn with pretty much one finger. I also quite like the looks of the thinner steering wheels.

The Moto Lita was used in a drive on the weekend and it’s comfortable in the hand and looks pretty nice. It’ll be on the car for a while now

A huge day in the garage today - the old red carpet was removed
48907286481_15c12e2f84_b.jpg

The new carpet kit came from TST on ebay and was under $150 delivered. It is a moulded carpet and has a pretty good fit. It did come rolled up in a bag, so it will need a little bit of time to flatten out.
48907489607_b2dbc443d6_b.jpg

After about 5 hours of test fitting, trimming, installing clips and putting everything back in again it looks pretty good. The wheel arch trims are yet to be glued on
48906757133_491a66e627_b.jpg

The next big job on the list is to retrim the front seats
48907287981_f75fb99b93_b.jpg

#603 Vinay-RS

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Posted 17 October 2019 - 07:21 AM

Grey carpets look great! A more subtle look and goes well with the seats. 



#604 timmy850

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Posted 24 October 2019 - 05:40 AM

Grey carpets look great! A more subtle look and goes well with the seats.

I would really like one of the original rubber floor mats but they don't make them anymore. At least these ones fit well and don't stick out. 

 

I have started stripping down the front seats ready to be refurbished as they are pretty uncomfortable. The back portion of the seat didn't have any support and it was starting to tear the vinyl of the seat. When I removed the cover the old elastic webbing was completely shot, and had stretched and then set hard. I'll need to get some new webbing and foam to redo the back of the seat, the base of the seats will need some new foam and I've got the NOS vinyl covers I got last year so I'll finally have matching trim through the car.
48949997671_1907a9116a_b.jpg

 

I also swapped my Dellorto linkage to make it a bit simpler, and my friend wanted the LH throttle wheel for his car. Here's the old setup
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Now it's super simple and works well. I just needed a longer throttle cable
48950198792_e6c1fb2ac9_b.jpg



#605 timmy850

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Posted 25 October 2019 - 03:47 AM

I had a couple of hours free today and it was +35 degrees outside so I found an inside job. I bought this Maxrob steering wheel a few years ago and it was obviously very cheap due to the condition, but seeing as it was a period Australian made wheel with a mini boss I thought it was worth buying..

48956015517_eaaa8cc7b5_b.jpg

 

I managed to find the right screws to hold on the horn ring and gave it a quick polish. 

48955864597_8c86b78641_b.jpg

 

It was tricky to find a 13" cover and I ended up finding this one at a local shop.

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It took 3 hours this morning to stitch it on, it's not perfect but it's definitely useable now. 

48955673661_a1cc4b4faf_b.jpg



#606 Vinay-RS

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Posted 25 October 2019 - 08:03 AM

Definitely looks a lot better. I couldn't quite make out the dished look to the wheel in the first pic. It's a stylish period wheel. Very nice find. What'd it cost over there to get it professionally re-covered in leather? 



#607 timmy850

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Posted 25 October 2019 - 08:24 AM

Definitely looks a lot better. I couldn't quite make out the dished look to the wheel in the first pic. It's a stylish period wheel. Very nice find. What'd it cost over there to get it professionally re-covered in leather?

Yes, it’s got a decent bit of dish to it. I think it’s the semi-dished style from the add below. I contacted a couple of local shops to get a quote for getting it recovered in leather and never heard back. The cover here was under $15

They also did the same wheel in wood and a couple of different diameters
Attached File  F7D54918-2D50-4EB7-9F45-676E321E1BC6.jpeg   29.93K   4 downloads

#608 Vinay-RS

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Posted 25 October 2019 - 08:42 AM

Looks a lot like the wheels that came standard on the early GTS in SA. Similar leather finish with the metal spokes with holes in them. 

 

It's unfortunate that they didn't get back to you :( You'd think that upholsterers would want the business. 



#609 timmy850

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Posted 31 October 2019 - 03:30 AM

The heater has now been reinstalled and I've added coolant and drained all the water out. I took it to work today and the temp gauge sat right on 80 degrees the whole drive. The change to the throttle cable has made it a bit more sensitive at the start of the pedal travel, so it's very easy now to give it too much and spin the tyres taking off the line..
48973320541_5f27e3a0de_b.jpg

An advanced apology, Flickr wants at least US$50 a year for me to keep my photo library live and I’d rather spend that money on other things. I’ll try and update the posts to reupload the photos but it’s a huge amount of work so it might take a while...

Edited by timmy850, 31 October 2019 - 03:55 AM.


#610 Vinay-RS

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Posted 31 October 2019 - 07:17 AM

The heater has now been reinstalled and I've added coolant and drained all the water out. I took it to work today and the temp gauge sat right on 80 degrees the whole drive. The change to the throttle cable has made it a bit more sensitive at the start of the pedal travel, so it's very easy now to give it too much and spin the tyres taking off the line..

An advanced apology, Flickr wants at least US$50 a year for me to keep my photo library live and I’d rather spend that money on other things. I’ll try and update the posts to reupload the photos but it’s a huge amount of work so it might take a while...

Wheel spin is always fun :D

 

Perhaps it's time to move over to Imgur and hope that it remains free for the foreseeable future. 



#611 timmy850

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Posted 25 November 2019 - 06:55 AM

So a couple of weeks ago I needed to take a ladder down to my parents place. It was also a really nice sunny day so I decided to pop on the roof racks and take the mini

49022949257_c48da648dc_b.jpgAll Photos-1819 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


This turned out to be a very long trip as the car stalled when going through town and wouldn't restart. I narrowed down the fault to the blackbox unit as the light wasn't coming on to indicate it was running. I bypassed the unit and it started up fine, so I limped the car to my parents place until I came up with a solution. A mini friend still had his old unit spare so I bought it from him and loaded in a new curve to suit my engine.

49051740022_c76123f3b1_b.jpgAll Photos-1849 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


A few days later I was able to go back and collect the car, for the drive home I took an old windsurfing board which is destined for display in my garage. I certainly got a few looks driving around with it on!

49072346952_4941bcfd3a_b.jpgAll Photos-1882 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


Last weekend we had one of my favourite MITG drives through the Southern Highlands. It's strange but really nice to have so much more power than before that I can now accelerate up hills!

49093607951_e608edaa97_b.jpgAll Photos-1890 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr

 

49093806172_4afb11939c_b.jpgAll Photos-1891 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


Trevor generously gave me a gear lever extension, a nice period accessory and it brings the gear knob a little higher and further back, which is a bit more comfortable while driving.

49093806452_970c0c95c4_b.jpgAll Photos-1893 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


One of the last jobs to do was redo the front seats. The old elastic webbing was certainly past it's best and had stretched and solidified.

49098591952_4b03facf77_b.jpgAll Photos-1918 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


I bought a roll of new style webbing from a local upholster shop and redid both the front seats. The seats now are plump and don't sag back into the frame. They are much more comfortable and I'm looking forward to using them again.

49098397251_fb4f2d00f0_b.jpgAll Photos-1912 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


One strange thing about the Aussie seats brackets is that the further back the seat, the higher it makes the mounting point. I bought a pair of the UK style brackets which have all the holes horizontally, this keeps the seat at the same angle. So far it seems to be a nice driving position.

49119632803_b749d33656_b.jpgAll Photos-1931 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr


The seat trims were added on and the interior is nearly done!

49120329477_906f265ae6_b.jpgAll Photos-1933 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr

 

49119633353_ac0b2fbf54_b.jpgAll Photos-1936 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr

 

49120136496_a35aecf6c9_b.jpgAll Photos-1938 by timmy.beazley, on Flickr

 

 

 



#612 Vinay-RS

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Posted 25 November 2019 - 06:59 AM

The most practical vehicle ever made! The old seat designs are interesting and apparently those original webbing stuff and the horsehair material get quite brittle over time. 



#613 timmy850

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Posted 05 December 2019 - 11:50 PM

The most practical vehicle ever made! The old seat designs are interesting and apparently those original webbing stuff and the horsehair material get quite brittle over time.

Apparently expecting it to last 55 years was a bit optimistic! It’s always strange thinking that minis used to be family cars and they used to cram in all the luggage and people and do all the boring things we do now in big cars

#614 timmy850

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Posted 09 January 2020 - 06:36 AM

I’ve been driving the car at least once a week at the moment to finish the running in process. Once I’ve got to 1000km I’ll change the oil again, set the tappets and check everything is still tight. It runs really sweet though, smooth and heaps more grunt than before.

A couple of little things in the last few weeks.. first up was a pair of flip caps for the fuel tanks. They have a threaded collar that just presses onto the tanks. Unfortunately they leak just as bad as the stock caps!
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On the plus side they look pretty cool and mean that I won’t loose the caps! It was also only 10 minutes all up to do both sides, so very quick and easy
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I also did a tyre rotation and painted the wheel centres and drums black for a different look. I wasn’t sure how much I would like it so I used a plasti dip paint, but now I quite like the black so I might paint them a black/charcoal gloss in the future
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At a recent parts sale I picked up an original green rocker cover with the alloy plates on top
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After a scrub clean and a clear coat it looked like this
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When I put it on the engine it’s pretty clear it’s not a great match for the new engine paint formula that they have now. I like the clear coated ratty look though
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Finally I’ve dug out my 1275 stuff and I’m starting to plan ahead for the next engine build. It’ll definitely be another couple of years before I get anything done on it, but it’s nice to know what you need and pick it up when it comes up cheap. So far I’ve got a standard bore block, standard grind short stroke South African crank, standard 12G940 and some standard pistons and rods. It’ll be a short stroke, big bore 1100cc engine, so the opposite of the current engine
49307851188_51967018e9_b.jpg

#615 Vinay-RS

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Posted 09 January 2020 - 10:31 AM

Love the patina on the rocker cover and that you were able to retain it by clear coating it. I do like those chrome filler caps too.






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