My Second Mini 38 yrs ago

[roymck]

38 years go just after moving house discovered a few doors away a 997 Cooper under a sheet in a neighbours front garden. It had terminal engine issues and the engine and box was under another sheet in the back garden . For very little money I convinced the owner to sell as he admitted it had been parked up for many years and he would probably never get it working again.
We pushed it down the road and it was now in my garden under a sheet as I had no garage . A local purchase of a Mustard coloured Austin 1300GT provided me with a suitable 11 stud engine and box. After my first Mini I realised that the 1100/1300 final drives ratios were far too low so I purchased from Jack Knights in Woking a 2.7-1 final drive . Swapped the final drive housing for the Cooper style at the same time although being advised they were line bored with the gear box and it wouldn’t fit properly and it would leak , well it did and it didn’t .
Engine and box fitted up and working I dropped the suspension by cutting the cones , fitted a second tank and fitted S badges , I had myself a Cooper S ! Sent the old style log book off to the local licensing office with engine change to 1275
Changed the screen for a top tinted laminated one and fitted a pair of Carello Biode headlights.
One problem was that the drivers seat had a black Karobes cover so the previous owner decided to paint the other seats Black! .
Now local to me was a small breakers yard and he had a council contract to remove dumped cars from the road side so it was always worth popping in to see what he had dragged in , but one day he told me of a Cooper dumped that he was bringing in tomorrow. He told me where it was parked and I took a drive down to see it , parked outside an industrial estate it had a council sticker on it , somebody already had the wheels away and it was sitting on the ground but it had a mint brocade interior . I must say that it was terminally rusty though and in those days past saving , even the roof was rotten .
My friend picked the car up the next day , chain through the windows and up onto the back of the lorry and once back in the yard I took everything I wanted from it before it was weighed in . I had a mint interior .
About this time we were asked to exchange the old cardboard style log books for a V5 so in my best handwriting I added a S behind the Cooper and success the V5 came back as a S . Don’t blame me it was a long time ago .
I ran that car for about a year before a guy in a pub expressed an interest in it , he said that he had a Mint Cooper really rust free and he had had it stolen from where he parked it outside a Industrial estate , I didn’t have the heart to tell him the council had towed it away as it had been dumped , but he ended up happy he bought mine with his own interior fitted .
Don’t know what happened to the car but the number plate lives on against a modern car

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[Polarsilver]

Was it Bonny Tyler who sang " Those were the days my friend we thought they would never end "

[roymck]

Nope it was Mary Hopkins !

[miniminor]

Brilliant story