ACS 65C - Mk 1 Cooper S

[richardACS]

Further floor prep

[richardACS]

I would like to ask whether these floors are missing anything in the way of appearance to differ from the original?

The floor needed much manoeuvring to get it to fit in all the locations, fortunately the rear end of the car had remained undamaged so the rear lining up points were helpful. The subframes were fitted in and eventually with the checking of door gaps/A frames the sections were held together with molegrips.

The floor was changed predominately because it was twisted, bent and thin. The new floor would have been better supplied without the outer sill attached for they were fitted with them being slightly out and it necessitated quite a bit of work to create alignment.

[Daz1968]

I used a full m machine floor in my mk2 and it fitted easily and everything else virtually fell into place, boot floor, door steps, inner wings etc lined up perfectly. Only thing I didn’t know till after painting was some of the pipe clips underneath are incorrectly positioned, mainly the one on heel board for hydro pipes and the main one under drivers side floor pan for the pipes near tunnel, I had to work around it to avoid repainting.
I found using this with a new boot floor and bolting my subframes on checking measurements the easiest way to get a nice straight shell. Mine was also twisted and messed about with half floors fitted previously.

[richardACS]

Daz - Thank you that is just the sort of information I need to correct the shell before paint - would it possible to highlight which tabs are not required?

[richardACS]

Images taken at later stages with the floor now installed.

[richardACS]

Preparation of the door steps...

[richardACS]

Before stripping out the original boot floor

[richardACS]

Some of the original boot debris.

[richardACS]

Preparation of attaching points, the original spot welds were quite large.

[richardACS]

Various work in preparing for boot floor installation

[Andrew1967]

Looks like some good work going on there Richard

It's the multi finger tabs that are in the wrong place...I had to move them on HOY's new floor as well. They need to move further towards the tunnel. There are also a couple of extra tabs that need to be added to the front floor and the tabs on the heel board are also in the wrong place.

I'll take some photos tomorrow and post them up to show where I moved mine to (and added). This info was passed to me by Nick W after one of his builds and also his NOS shell.

I trial fitted my new hydro pipes to make sure I was moving the tabs to the correct position.

As Daz said with his, using the MiniMachine full floor and an AustinRover NOS boot floor assembly, gave me a fighting chance to get HOY straight. Everything fell into place without too much trouble.

[richardACS]

Andrew

Thank you for your comments, you mentioned the NOS boot floor and this is one item that was not finished correctly and will just have to now accept that, the difference lies with the far left corner of the spare wheel well, the original has a depression and the new floor does not.

I was told the metal was very thin at this point as to why it was not cut out of the old and inserted to the new, I will take a couple of images to show others in the hope they won't make the same mistake.

You mentioned a NOS shell - what a priceless peice of information sharing item not to mention it's very existence!

[Andrew1967]

Yes, the boot floor is different there on the Heritage ones. That's one reason I was really pleased to have won the eBay auction for the NOS AustinRover panel as it has the earlier pressing in that area.

Will get some pics tomorrow as had a busy day today and haven't done anything in the garage !

Nick's NOS shell is certainly a great referencing point

[Nick W]

The Heritage floor doesnt have the Sling shoe brackets fitted in the sills..

[richardACS]

Nick - please excuse my ignorance but what are 'sling shoe' brackets?

[Nick W]

Nick - please excuse my ignorance but what are 'sling shoe' brackets?

Thats exactly what I said, when it was pointed out to me
There should be 2 brackets welded in each sill, with a nut welded to the bracket showing through the hole in the sill

https://www.minispares.com/product/Clas ... .aspx|Back to

[richardACS]

I guess nick this is not a retro fit?

[richardACS]

In the first post dated 5th September I mentioned my first Cooper S - a Mk 2 with reg no WRR 638G, today I found some long lost images and here she is! The car had the factory recliners but the vinyl was worn. At the time the girl I was dating had a brother in law who worked for Rolls Royce in the upholstery dept, so I had them re upholstered in black leather and fitted a wooden dash which were quite popular at the time - funny isn't it but I wouldn't think of doing such a thing these days!

The one dissapointing aspect I recall with this car was the engine I had reconditioned by a machine guy in Finchley Central N3. He was like an old school professor who had two or three lock up style garages knocked into one with all his machines fixed in. One would stand in this little space by a counter which had countless newspaper on the counter to soak up the oil from the engine bits being delivered. I recall (but don't remember his name) he smoked cigarettes through a holder and had a funny voice.

Nice guy and very diligent, worked on his own but when I reasssembled the engine the tolerances were so tight that when trying to start it it was difficult to keep going - my father said pour in some Redex and this helped lubricate matters.

I believe I covered around 20k miles following the restoration but it never felt really fast and possibly it needed another 10k miles to free up.

[Andrew1967]

Nick - please excuse my ignorance but what are 'sling shoe' brackets?

The rear ones like in the MS link are handed. The two at the front are not handed.

Minimachine do them but do not fit them as standard practice but would have done so if asked. As Nick says, not many people knew about them as most have rotted away long before we get to them to restore.

I have some pics somewhere in the HOY folder....will find them and post up.

Practically, they are a waste of time fitting....but, its another sign of attention to detail, even if you cant see them

Pic attached of the hydro pipe and incorrect positioning of the multi finger tabs

[richardACS]

The other photos that I found were for this wonderful Mk 1 Cooper S, KBL 2D. Sadly I owned this very briefly for it really was a lovely car, it was original had 39k miles on the clock in 1977.

I was on business in Witney, Oxfordshire one day waiting at some lights when this car turned in, in front of me along the High Street. It was such a nice car and even then seeing a proper Cooper S on the road was a rare sight. I followed the car taking in the lines both sides and very soon the owner pulled into a public car park.

I stopped and introduced myself, he was a retired gentleman wearing a cap and had worked at the BMC factory. He'd purchased the car when 6 months old and therefore owned it for 10/11 years. It had no mods what so ever, large steering wheel everything standard except the reversing lights and clear vinyl seat covers! . A little exercise book in the door pocket testified to each fuel fill along with the frequent oil changes.

I left by giving him my card and saying I would be happy to purchase the car should he decide to sell, 3 months past and he rang me to say it was probably about time to buy himself something else! I drove the car back to London followed by a pal in his 998 Cooper, my, how that thing flew - with apparently sparks of carbon exiting the exhaust box.

I paid £750 for the car but sold it within a few months for £1100! - I was saving up for my next must have and needed to raise some cash. According to the DVLA it was last MOT'd in 2016 so I'm guessing it has survived - anyone on here own it by chance? I don't believe I even entered my name in the log book, and would have been owner no 3.

Whoever I sold it too did the old trick of arriving with cash but then asked If I would give him 10 or 20 quid for the fuel home and promised to forward it - so if you are on here I'll PM you my address! This car I should not have sold it was tight, fast and a hoot on the road....