1965 Morris Mini - From NZ to the UK!

[W1NG3D]

Happy new year everyone!

Since the last post, I've manage to score a whole set of chrome window catches, as well as some fully refurbished Mk1 door hinges which have been fitted with new pins and are primed ready for paint. The hinges on the car at the moment (particularly the drivers' side) are very worn and it's difficult to close the door properly.

In addition to that, I have been digging through mine and my dad's collection of MG and Mini spares, and uncovered the old genuine Moto-Lita steering wheel which used to be fitted to our MGB. My dad replaced it with a nice shiny wooden one a couple of years ago, so this wheel has been collecting dust. It's a proper period accessory and would really look the part in my mini, so I've decided to make good use of it! A part of the leather is quite worn so the leather might need sorting out (possibly by a local saddler), but the shiny metal in the middle should polish up nicely with a fair bit of elbow grease

I'll just need to source a proper boss kit for the wheel, preferably one which allows me to keep the original center + horn push. Luckily my dad is off to the UK soon, so I'm sure I'll have him bring back some goodies

Here's some pictures of this latest score:



These catches are obviously not in mint NOS condition, but I can probably put some elbow grease into them and make them a bit shinier. I'm just happy that I now have some original spec catches which actually work!



These hinges have hardly any play in them whatsoever, and at a fraction of the price of brand new ones. I'll soon be considering sorting out my doors as not only do they shut poorly, but they don't even seal against the door rubbers so water & air easily find their way into the cabin. You can also see the moto-lita wheel in this picture, I haven't measured it yet but looks to be about 14" diameter.



Oh and also, here's a bonus picture of my antics at work a couple of days ago. We needed to get this lovely chair from one shop to the other, and I knew I had just the solution

[minimans]

Ah! Mr Bean Strikes again!! I hope you were on top when it was delivered

[/quote]

[W1NG3D]

I was going to get a picture of myself sat on top, but I weigh near on 80kg and felt that I'd probably be exerting way too much pressure on the little roof

[Trotbags]

I'm sure I spotted your car on Taupaki Road recently. It looks great.

[mk1]

Glad to see things are moving on. Its great to see a true rolling restoration.

You can enjoy your car & enjoy restoring it all at the same time.

[W1NG3D]

Since the engine swap I've had a few niggles which have needed sorting out on this car, most recently I had to get a new steering rack fitted as it finally failed its WOF (warrant of fitness) due to excessive wear. Had this done professionally at Minibitz and as always they did a great job.

Another issue I had was a loss of compression in cylinder no. 3 which worried me greatly. Luckily it turned out to be a fairly simple fix, after a day of removing the cylinder head I discovered that the aftermarket air filter bolt had worked its way through the inlet, and wedged the inlet vale on cylinder 3 open! Once this was removed, it turned out there was no damage to the valve or to the seat, so I bolted everything back on with new gaskets and it was running sweetly again.





I've also had to replace the fuel pump which finally packed in after a long 50 years, so with the help of my dad a brand new facet solid state electronic fuel pump has been fitted which works well, plus there are no more breaker points to worry about.

Other things I've had to sort out include re-fitting parts which have literally fallen off. For example, one of the bolts holding the front number plate came loose, and this resulted in the number plate half falling off and making a horrible graunching noise as it rubbed against the tarmac while I was driving along in traffic. I was worried this noise was the radiator fan hitting the cowling, but when I got out of my car to inspect the "damage" I couldn't help but laugh. A couple of new bolts had this sorted out but I'll have to repaint the damaged corner of the number plate holder which got a bit ground down against the road.

I also had to fashion a new bracket to hold on the horn, as it fell off and actually broke the original mountings off the front lip of the car. I thought this would be a good opportunity to fit an aftermarket air horn kit I had sat in my garage, but there isn't quite enough room and I still quite liked the original sound of the lucas horn.

I'm sure I spotted your car on Taupaki Road recently. It looks great.

That would almost definitely have been my car, I live just off Taupaki Road and drive along there nearly every day. You might also spot my brother's mini driving around there too, his is a green mini with a white roof also but is a Japanese spec '94 SPi Cooper, in the darker British Racing Green. His also lacks the carrying capacity of mine with the handy roof rack

Glad to see things are moving on. Its great to see a true rolling restoration.

You can enjoy your car & enjoy restoring it all at the same time.

That's exactly what I enjoy about this car, I'm able to add bits and pieces to it while still driving it nearly every day. The engine swap had it off the road for a week or so, but that sort of brief hiatus isn't too bad as I have a '66 MGB to drive around as a "backup vehicle" - ironically the British classic in the worst condition out of our family's cars has actually been the most reliable, and leaks less water than my Mini despite being a convertible!

[mk1]

Jees!

That was a close escape.

M

[timmy201]

I had the same problem with my number plate. I thought I'd broken something major, and it just turned out the plate was on a jaunty angle and scraping on the road

[W1NG3D]

After a bit of hassle trying to get hold of a set of these wheels, I've finally managed to get my hands on a genuine set of LP883 Cooper S 4.5" rims! I had them fitted with Yokohama A008 tyres this afternoon, and as soon as I got home I got to work prepping them for a repaint, as they'd been done in the wrong colour which looked far too yellow. Here's a before and after picture (the after shows the first coat of paint, got a few more to do yet!).





I can't wait to finish them off, re-inflate the tyres and finally have a decent set of tyres on my car, as I've spent far too long with two chinese trailer tyres and two re-treaded Firestone Cavallinos which have seen better days.

Also here's a bonus picture, I was rummaging through my dad's box of MG parts the other day, and came across a genuine original Wilmot Breedon locking fuel cap - and I was even more lucky to discover it happened to fit my mini's ignition key. He won't be needing it any more as he plans to convert his MGB to an electric car, so it's now fitted to the mini and looks very nice and period



I'll update this post with a picture of the Cooper S wheels once I have them fitted on my car!

[W1NG3D]

Finally got the 4.5 S wheels fitted with some A008 tyres and some old hubcaps I managed to shine up a bit, and gave the car a good clean and polish for a bit of a photoshoot. I love the way these wheels look, perfect for the car in my opinion!

[rich@minispares.com]

that looks great

the only thing I would throw away is the mirrors, they look too far forwards on the doors

[W1NG3D]

that looks great

the only thing I would throw away is the mirrors, they look too far forwards on the doors

You can blame my dad for that fitment
I think if they were the smaller round mirrors they'd probably be alright in the current position, but obviously the torpedo bullet mirrors stick out a fair bit towards the front of the car and this wasn't properly taken into account at the time of fitting

[W1NG3D]

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.

[W1NG3D]

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 have 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.



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

[mk1]

Wow! What a great adventure!

It's great to have received an update to your story & hear that you and your little Almond Green car may be reunited in the not too distant future.

Happy Mini-ing.

[W1NG3D]

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

[AndyPen]

Like a lost child returning home - this is going to be quite a reunion

[Fanfaniracing]

Cool!

So you will have a very happy Christmas then!

[W1NG3D]

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...

[jay weinstein]

Hope all goes well with the shipping...Is the dog going along to guard it ?