40 replies to this topic

[CharlieNZ]

Slacking at work the other day, I spotted a mk 1 on the local facebook owners' group at a quite reasonable price. I wasn't really in the market, but you know how it is when you see a cute looking mini. Quick check with the wife (she's always keen on a new mini!) and I arranged to see it. Next morning after a little negotiating, I was on my way home in this:

The plan is to sell the 1275GT (which my wife has never really loved) and this will be the family second car, mainly used for my wife to get to work, but also for all general family fun trips.

There is work to be done before it can be a daily driver. Primarily, gearbox - it won't stay in first. Also, it wanders across the road in a frankly terrifying manner and seems to be generally lacking in any recent maintenance.

The gearbox is the main reason it was so cheap, but also the paintwork is pretty rough. Good enough for a daily.

On the whole, I'm pretty chuffed. Althogh the paint is rough, it seems solid in all the usual disaster areas and it has all the mk 1 charm that you could want. I'll document here the steps in getting her into daily driver mode, and then see where we go...

[CharlieNZ]

First job is gearbox, so cleared some room to work and borrowed an engine hoist. The school I teach in has a well-equipped automotive department, very handy


Engine bay before we start:


Handily I have a good friend with lots of mini experience, and who didn't mind giving up a day of his time. Don't think I'd have been brave enough otherwise


Worst bit was getting the rear of the gearbox to clear the back of the subframe. Much tipping, heaving and general faffing around, but we got there:


I feel I've properly joined the mini brethren now I've had the traditional fight with this fella. Luckily right outside my garage there was a perfect 4 foot long iron tube (part of a fence), otherwise I have no idea how we would have done it. Highlight of the day was when it finally gave in!


And here we are, gearbox off and ready for some love. There's a guy down in Taumaranui who is going to refurb it for a quite reasonable price.

1000cc block. Engine number starts 9AD TA.... According to the internet, it wuld have originally been in a Wolseley Hornet?

And that's where we stand right now, although I have some more pics that I'll share. No horrible surprises in the disassembly, in fact quite the reverse. Although this mini has had many hands on it in the past, everything came undone easily, there were no hideous bodges and wear-and-tear seemed entirely reasonable.

[CharlieNZ]

First gear is not a pretty sight.

Apart from that I don't know enough about gearboxes to be any judge of condition. Massive amounts of slop in the gearchange linkage, but I don't know what's normal for a magic wand. Also very black and horrible in there. Oil was a pretty nasty sludge coming out, the guy I bought it from didn't really seem to be into maintenance, as we'll see in upcoming photos.

Talking of oil, there was a fair amount on the outside as well as the inside. Rocker cover partly to blame but an obvious culprit here as well

Distinct lack of a fuel pump as well, I was distinctly surprised to turn the key and hear an electric fuel pump!

Mr Haynes says that the Concentric oil pump should not be dismantled. I feel like now I'm this far in, the oil pump is something I should be at least inspecting. Anyone got any advice?


Talking of Mr Haynes, I didn't realise that he actually wrote the early manual himself. My copy is an ex-library one from 1969, and has seen much love. I love how in the acknowledgements he thanks Mary Haynes, whose car it was that they took apart!


More photos to come...

[Northernpower]

It's a nice looking project. As far as the oil pump is concerned, for what they cost, I'd replace it.

[CharlieNZ]

A bit of a general overview of condition etc. It's a pretty amateurish paintjob:


Lots of waviness and lumpiness:


It has some bits of surface rust, and a couple of areas that need touch-up. However, despite all this the undercarriage looks good and there are no areas (that I can see) of actual rot:




A bunch of photos came with the car of it being restored. It was some old guy in his garage, and it's clear that he got right in to it. Far from being a professional job, but it doesn't look like he left any rust behind. I'll put a few of the pics up here at some point.

However, although he seems to have sorted out the fundamentals really well, his finishing left a lot to be desired. Apart from the wavy surfaces, runs and dry patches of paint, he left this behind:

Why would you do the floor, the boot and all the hard stuff, and then just paint over something like this? Deeply peculiar.

The doors are a very bad fit, even by mk 1 standards:


You can almost get your hand through the gap at the top of the psssenger door. Both doors rub on the sill. Will have to be dealt with before she gets taken out in the rain


Boot doesn't fit either. It has had new rubbers all round which doesn't help, but the profile of the boot lid is wrong anyway


The interior is decent. Seats have been re-coloured nicely and it all feels authentically spartan. Heaters are for wimps.




First trip once she's going is to the tyre shop. Here's the perished firestone:


Two dry-rotted re-treads


And a rotted Dunlop. Interestingly, this had "Made in New Zealand" on it, and I didn't even know there was a tyre plant in New Zealand. Turns out there isn't - it closed in 2006...


While I'm talking about wheels - on the test drive I had noted that the direction the car went in seemed only vaguely related to what I was doing with the steering wheel. All part of the negotiation of course and it led to an interesting drive home on the motorway. When I checked, I found that all four wheel bearings had much play, so I had assumed this was next on my to-do list. Decided to have a look at it today, and found that the first hub nut I touched wasn't even finger tight! I nipped it up a touch and all the play went away. I'll still have to pop them off and have a look but I'm hopeful that I'll be able to save some money there.

[CharlieNZ]

Back to the mechanicals, and I have a couple of questions.

I had assumed I would be replacing the clutch, but it looks in very good shape. It felt fine on the drive home. Would you swap this out?




This is how the engine bay looks now. I thought I would need to get in and do some tidying, but after a wipe-down it looks ok. Bit of a touch up around the master cylinders, and very minor touch-ups to the subframe.


Heaters are for wimps.


No points.


Also looking for advice with these. How do you tell if a UJ is knackered? The shackles have been rubbing against the gearbox - is this a sign of wear? As far as I can tell I have three options here - I can buy new shackles, I can buy new "standard" UJs or I can buy the enhanced version https://www.minispar...sic/QL5000.aspx Anyone had experience with these? Any thoughts?

[Chris.Williams]

Cool project, glad to see another car back on the road,

[Richie83]

Great looking project. So do you have any details on the 1275GT 😋

Edit: disregard. NZ is a bit far to come.

Edited by Richie83, 15 April 2018 - 02:25 PM.

[Vinay-RS]

Really cool build that you've got going on. It's even cooler to hear that the car will be a daily driver. It looks in fantastic condition given how old it is and that engine bay actually looks really clean. The interior looks really nice too. I love the simplicity of the Mk1 interior, with just the centre speedometer and the magic wand gear stick. 

[Daz1968]

Good project, you do have quite a bit of work to get the doors and bootlid to fit, they are probably due to poor fitted inner and outer a panels and boot hinge panel. The restoration was probably done for function rather than to a good standard. Nice starting point though

[jackeo21]

So cool! I too live in New Zealand, and am currently doing a nut and bolt restoration on my '62 MK1. I've seen this car at a few shows before, can safely say its a real beaut. Best of luck with the little overhaul! 

 

Jack.

[CharlieNZ]

Hi Jack, shouldn't be surprised to see you at shows next summer as well - do you reckon you will have your car done any time soon? Would love to see it...

Decided that rather than ship the gearbox to Taumaranui, I'd take a road trip there myself. So strapped the gearbox in to the boot and went for it. Some beautiful scenery and great roads along the way; I must head down there with the mini once it is going.


Sadly I forgot to get a photo of Ian, the guy who is rebuilding the box. He's an older guy, semi-retired and working out of his garage. He certainly seems to know his stuff and had some nice shiny reconditioned later gearboxes on the shelf ready for exchanges. The proof of the gearbox is in the driving, but he gave me a lot of confidence that he would do a decent job. And a very reasonable price as well, I thought.

While I wait for the box (timescale depends on whether any parts need to come from England) I've got a chance to get the 1275GT running and sold. Took it for its Warrant Of Fitness inspection and it failed on upper ball joints and some issues with the tail lights (fuse or dodgy connection, haven't looked yet). Could be worse


Also went to Minibitz in West Auckland to get supplies ready for the rebuild. I've already thought of two gaskets I forgot that I'll have to go back for.

[CharlieNZ]

Good project, you do have quite a bit of work to get the doors and bootlid to fit, they are probably due to poor fitted inner and outer a panels and boot hinge panel. The restoration was probably done for function rather than to a good standard. Nice starting point though

You're not wrong about the A-panels! I had a look today and it's pretty bad around the door hinge fixings. Ugly bodges with painted-over rust and nasty reinforcing patch panels. I'm going to leave it for now, but it will all need sorting out at some point, and of course it's an area that once you start digging in can turn into a major quite quickly. I should really have looked more closely at this area when I was buying the car and noticed the doors didn't fit, but it wouldn't have stopped me from buying it. I might have been able to knock off a few extra dollars though.

The gearbox is waiting for a layshaft which has to come from the UK, so everything is on hold until next week. Meanwhile I've been cleaning and gasket-scraping. And sold the 1275GT.

[johnR]

love the minimalist interior - what a great project, although expect it to turn into a major one as you say.  You might as well do it properly once, it deserves it!

[ryomini]

Sweet project, what's so nice about Minis are all the variants - something for all tastes.  I rather fancy the GT myself, never had one before.  Looks like you will be able to make a very good daily runner.  I have nearly done 10 000kms since my total rebuild and changed out the gear rod shift seal today.