LHD January 1960 Morris Mini

[Mattjackson86]

Hello everyone! So I do more lurking in the forums than I do posting, but I wanted to share my latest find/purchase here in the USA. It is a January built 1960 Morris Mini in Old English White (well, originally). This was a find out of South Dakota, not much known history to it. Good news is that the body looks to be in decent condition. A bit of rust where the battery box meets the boot floor, both wheel wells have a 1/2" hole that looks to be from dirt/water/rocks/etc kicking up at the wheel well, and one or two small holes i the floor, but overall very solid and original body. Paint wise it looks like for whatever reason is has been painted in a primer on the exterior. No idea why.

I am no mini expert, this is my 2nd 1960 mini, but this one does have single hole sliding windows. I would love your eyes on the pictures to see what looks right, wrong, amazing, or terrible!

All I have done to the car since getting it to my garage in Austin, TX is throwing on some spare Cooper S wheels and tires so I could get it rolling. The original tires were flat/rotten and had been rolling/dragged on rims for who knows how long. So when you see the wheels/tires in the pictures and wonder why, now you know Other than putting those on I just pushed it into garage and thats it. I have not cleaned the vehicle either, so the interior is covered in all sorts of dusty dirt. I will changing the engine oil and seeing if it runs next, but then need to think about my plans for it: selling it to a good home for restoration, restoring it myself, or something else. I had been looking for a solid bodied mk1 to build into an original(ish) looking App K (ish) type racer, but I think this is too early for me to do that too. Hence maybe selling it, but no decision til after the holidays. A matching mini to my Speedwell Blue May 1960 Austin 850 would be nice too.

Certificate attached and the numbers seems to match up to what is on the car (engine number is slightly different).

Another cool thing about the car, window stickers show a 1977 South Dakota parks and rec pass, and a South Dakota inspection/registration sticker. Can't tell what year it may all be from, would love to find out the last time this may have been on the road. Odometer shows 21,557, I'd like to think that this is original given the condition of the car, but I suppose it could be 121,557, or anything else!


Gallery of photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/66318453@ ... 050021068/

[miniminor]

Cant see the images without signing in to Flickr and I dont have an account.
Can you post pictures directly onto the forum?

[UHR850]

I will help you, here ther are

Kees.

[UHR850]

Some more

[Mattjackson86]

Appreciate it! Was just going to look into how to post them without being huge. Thanks!

[Mattjackson86]

So looking at the car closer today and having read some other posts, I don't think the primer you see is newer and painted on top of the original OEW, I actually think it's the original primer and it is the white OEW paint that has been removed. Not idea why, but kind of neat this looks to be the original primer.

[mk1]

What a lovely find!

I really love the look of that very original little Mini.

I have seen cars that have had the paint polished away to expose the red oxide, usually in very hot dry countries. Yours looks like it has been done more systematically though.

What are your plans?

[Mattjackson86]

Thank you! It was a great find, hence buying it without a set plan in mind I love the look over the early minis but it keeps me from wanting to touch it lol. I feel like anything I do to the car, even trying to restore it back (I would say "to original" but it already is) is just going to mean replacing original parts with look a like replacements, but this original stuff is just not holding up after 60 years. Headliner and dash pad are good at first glance, but filthy and very fragile. Only way to keep it original is to leave it as is and not drive it, and thats not an option.

If I end up working on it the end result in my mind will be that the exterior will look stock. Paint it back OEW (though I am a tiny bit tempted to clear coat it as is to keep this original faded look), patch the few minor holes, get the body straight and as it should be. It has been towed at one point from front subframe so the lip of car is bent and the subframe is also a little bent in the front. Subframe and suspension wise I would like to take them all off and restore subframes/replace suspension to get it driving the best it can get and be in the best shape for future years. Again it would look original, but drive like new. I don't see any point to keep what is there now when it is all going to need restoring with parts that are probably hard to find. Just buy new and bolt on was my thought. This was done to my existing 1960 Austin 850 and its nice to have a car that I know just drives as good as can be but look original.

Probably just get the 850 in it working and call it a day for now, this will be the quickest and easiest. I would like a mk1 with a 1275 engine, historic racer style car that I can really drive and not just cruise in, but this car is too early for me to do what I would want to do to it. Maybe meet somewhere in the middle and just park this 850 engine in corner of garage.

Interior wise imo it all needs replacing, seats are crumbling into a sand like substance just looking at them. So go with some Newton kit thats close to the period and look it should be, but I know it won't be correct. But it will be clean and fresh.

Those are my thoughts today, it doesn't sound too terrible of a task seeing as the body is not needing any new panels at the moment. Just lots of things to unbolt and bolt back. Would be my first time doing it all myself which I enjoy, so a good learning experience! Just time and money.

[Dearg1275]

My take on this is that you have an original car, unmolested, with a sound shell. Imagine you were back in the mid sixties and this was your first car. You would just drive it and keep it going as best you could.
Accept it for what it is. 850 engines would take a lot of stick and chasing what they could deliver was all part of the fun. Not electric, but you could keep your foot on the floor and just enjoy its ability to go round corners on rails. In an 850 you don’t have to prove anything, but it’s surprising what you can prove!

D

[timmy201]

On Flickr you can share the “bbcode” on the forum and the images will appear.

Eg this code:

[_url=https://flic.kr/p/2hUyQtx][_img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/491 ... 593c_b.jpg[/img][/url][_url=https://flic.kr/p/2hUyQtx]IMG_20191203_133903 by -MattJackson.86-[/url]

Makes this image

IMG_20191203_133903 by -MattJackson.86-