172 replies to this topic

[mk1leg]

nice mini......

[dougie1142]

This is lovely, and shows with a bit of work what could be done to my '65 Morris! hmmm....

[johnR]

A lovely looking car - anything else planned other than new exhaust?
JohnR

[MiniCarJack]

A lovely looking car - anything else planned other than new exhaust?
JohnR

 

New exhaust is already on, and now that I've sorted the wheels (will upload a picture of them on the car tonight), the next area I want to focus on is the interior. It's tidy enough, but doesn't really suit the era of the car - the seats look like something out of a 70's mini, and all the trim + carpets are the wrong colour. Plus I want to do a better job of hiding the modern audio system, so I'm thinking of building a little fascia which will hide the stereo, and then re-doing the underseat speaker board to look more 60's.

 

Apart from that I'm always keeping an eye out for cool accessories to add to the car, like I'm considering some chrome spot/fog lamps for the front, but these are things I'll likely purchase when I visit England in September :)

[MiniCarJack]

I recently acquired a set of genuine LP883 Cooper S 4.5" wheels, which were painted the wrong colour in an almost yellowish cream. So after having them fitted with some A008 tyres, I repainted them to a colour which looks very nearly identical to Old English White, so it would match my roof a bit better.

 

 

 

That was just after one coat, another few were applied over the course of a day and then allowed to dry, before finally being ready for fitting to the Mini :)

So yesterday I polished up my old hubcaps to finish them off, and gave the car a decent clean and polish for a photoshoot with the awesome new wheels.

 

 

 

[Jared Mk3]

That certainly looks the part now. I like it.

[jagman.2003]

Looks very nice!

[MiniCarJack]

Been a little while since I last updated this thread!

Since last time, a few things have happened. Firstly I've had the head off to get crack tested, and had new valve guides fitted and the bottom skimmed. And even more recently I've got a new radiator and waterpump which now ensures the engine runs at perfect temperature even on hot days in traffic or on the motorway



I also attended the NZ Mini Nationals earlier in the year in Masterton, where I first started having engine troubles - I was oddly running slower 1/4 mile times than my brother's stock standard SPi mini, which is usually a lot slower. It was taking me around 20 seconds to get up to 100kph, which from memory is nearly as slow as my 850 engine was! However now with the cylinder head work and new cooling system, as well as a proper tune, that 20 seconds has gone down to 11 seconds which feels much more appropriate for a Stage 1'd 1275.

Here's a picture of mine and my brother's minis at Nationals:



You might also notice I've fitted a 'works' style leather bonnet strap which I think adds a bit of character, as well as the safety aspect. Also the "stick on" number plate is actually magnetic and can easily be taken off without any damage to the paint. I try not to drive far with it on though as it doesn't stick on as well as a proper sticker, and did once fly off at around 80kph!

Some other little additions I've done fairly recently are the Moto Lita Mk4 steering wheel with original style tulip boss, and some nice new light grey carpets which really brighten up the interior and suit the Almond Green body colour quite well.



Also I discovered recently that I was one of the 12 winners of the Supercheap Auto SCA Club Calendar competition, which means my car has been featured in their calendar (and they're sending me a $200 gift voucher - woo!). It's an older picture but still one of my favourites of GUF.

[timmy850]

The Moto Lita looks really nice! 

[MiniCarJack]

So a lot has changed in the nearly 5 years since I last posted an update here...

 

After practically blowing up the red 1293 engine a few years ago, I sold it on and managed to source another 1275. This time it was an earlier motor from an Austin 1300GT, which I came to discover must've been freshly rebuilt after taking off the cylinder head to inspect the bores etc, and seeing everything looking completely brand new - it had obviously never even been run before I bought it, just rebuilt and sat around for ages. The gearbox it's sat on is a 4-synchro remote type with close ratio S gears, and the 11 stud head appears to have had some porting work done along with all new valves etc, so I think I struck very lucky here having secured it for less than $1000 NZD.

 

 

 

At this time I was storing the car at my parents' place which was a couple of hours away from where I was living, so I basically spent as many weekends as I could popping down and getting the engine fitted and all up and running with the help of my dad. At some point during this time I also fitted a reupholstered set of tan coloured high-back seats from an Australian mini, though in hindsight I wish I'd just gotten the original seats reupholstered instead.

 

 

 

Unfortunately due to this living situation and lack of parking at my own place, I wasn't able to do much driving of the Mini, so it's spent most of the past few years in dry storage with the registration kept "on hold" (basically the NZ equivalent of SORN).

 

Things then changed a bit more for me personally, when in 2018 I decided to pop back over to the UK for a bit of a "working holiday" followed by a whistle-stop tour of Europe. To cut a long story short I ended up landing a decent job, met a girl, and as some of you may already know I've continued to live here on the south coast of England since then - having only been back to NZ for the past couple of Christmases. I do still own the Mk1 but now reside over 11,000 miles away from it!

 

To "scratch the Mini itch" this year I bought a 1991 Mini Neon which I've done a bit of work to so far, but will probably keep to a fairly standard sensible spec so I can continue to use it as my daily driver. You may have already seen my project thread for the Neon: http://www.theminifo...1991-mini-neon/

 

 

But I still do miss the Mk1, which is why I'm now planning to bring it over here to the UK so we can be reunited, and the story can continue once more

 

The plan is to ship it from Auckland to Southampton before the end of this year, get it registered on UK roads, and start undoing some of the more naff upgrades and bits I've done to it over the years (particularly from my student days!). Chiefly among these are the seats, seat belts, carpets and homemade sound system, all of which will eventually be taken out, replaced, and sorted properly. I'll also look to tidy up a few cosmetic imperfections it's picked up on the bodywork over the years, including some paint damage the door frames from where I bodged the fitment of Cooper chrome trims using glue rather than rivets 

 

As it's an NZ car and the fact it's been dry stored during my ownership, fortunately there is no rust or rot to speak of; thanks to my dad's recent help it's also now running beautifully and is mechanically in great condition. A couple of weeks ago we were a little worried about low oil pressure, but luckily this turned out to be caused a stuck pressure relief valve which has now been replaced along with fresh oil & filter, so it now runs as it should with pressure sitting at a healthy 25psi at warm idle.

 

I'm currently in the process of applying for VAT & duty relief for the import of the car, which will hopefully come through in the next couple of weeks, after which I can get the shipping booked and confirmed... happy days

[MiniCarJack]

Starting to make a bit more headway with all the shipping arrangements and paperwork, the roof rack is now refitted and the set of spare wheels fits perfectly on top... all going well the car should arrive in Southampton before Christmas 

 

[MiniCarJack]

It's starting to feel a bit more real now... it looks like I might be getting a Mini-shaped present for Christmas this year!

 

[MiniCarJack]

Looks like early/mid-January is the current ETA, but things are moving along nicely now, the mini has been dropped off at the depot in Auckland ready for the long journey over by sea...

 

[colinf1]

Extremely jealous ??
I was hoping to send my '74 Aussie clubman back to Ireland, but was gonna cost about $8000. We were saving for a house at same time so that won...

[MiniCarJack]

Looks like 4th January is the current ETA for the ship coming into Southampton, it's currently hopping around various ports in Japan before it heads west via South Korea, China, Singapore then up through the Suez canal to the likes of Cyprus & Greece, and eventually up to the UK!

 

Managed to create a very rough plan of the route although it doesn't include all of the stop-off points on the way (pretty sure it'll go a bit further north to the likes of Norway / Denmark before heading back down to the south of England!).

 

 

The excitement continues to grow