1964 Austin Cooper S - Portugal

[ricardo]

The car is a 64 built Austin Cooper S, red & black, 1275cc. The chassis & engine number, along with the dated parts (8 64 & 9 64) tie up with an early October build date, but because this was a CKD car, maybe it was built later (?). First registration date was March 65. Already asked for an heritage certificate but was told by BMIHT they only knew the parts were exported in the 17th of September and didn't have any other info. I asked for a full list of the previous 13 owners, but still waiting for it. All I know about its history is that it was being raced in the late 70's disguised as an MK2.

Sold to my father in 1988, the car was used for an year or two and then put in storage until 1992 when it was put in boxes. He never got to restore the car, so now that he passed away, I decided to do it. I found out that the original engine was long gone, suspension was a mess between hydro and dry bits (the car is one of the very first hydolastic cars, going from Parnell's book), but luckily the rest of the stuff, more or less, was there.

[ricardo]

.

[nunecos]

We will wait for further developments...

[ricardo]

The shell went to a guy 200km away to be repaired... my mistake! It was cheap & done quickly, true, but now I regret it. He didn't want to use new panels (except for the boot floor) as they are too thin and he made the sills, A panels, a few bits around the headlamps, etc, himself. Result: the sills were made in one piece and I only saw it when they were already in place. Spare wheel bracket welded in the wrong position, rh tank floor piece mounted the wrong way, no earth strap nut, etc... Live and learn!

The shell got back to my place where I stripped the remaining paint/primers, corrected the panel beater job except for the sills, and then off to the paint guy! At the moment, I'm still waiting for it...













Next chapter: engine.

[ricardo]

As I said previously, the original engine was gone... probably when the car was raced.
I tried to find a complete S unit here in Portugal, but gave up quickly. Thought of having one shipped from UK, but it was too complicated (the seller didn't help) and after a short period I gave up as well. So, started to buy bits individually. 4 years later and a lot of money spent, here's the result...

The block was at +60, with one cylinder heavily corroded and so it was sleeved back to STD.








The extra hole for the modern oil pumps was drilled and tapped.




The gearbox was refurbished with new bearings, shafts, etc... Also put a x-pin diff. 3.44 final drive.










Camshaft option went to SW5-07.




Crank is an AEG316, rods are AEG521.






The head is a 940/1805 casting with some work done.








All the electrics were refurbished with new brushes, bushes, bearings, etc.






And finally, paint time!






Assembling the rest of the bits:
















And job done!




And here is a video of it running

[scott6058]

Your a very talented young man.
Greatest work.
Talk to you soon Ric.
Scott

[chris-pilling]

your doing a top notch job there!

[SMOKE GREY]

Excellent effort very impressed, looking forward to more pics.

[Etienne B.]

It is just excellent !

[IAIN]

A very nice job, it looks like new.
Is that a concertina type by pass hose ? I have see them split up the side of the hose !
Where did you get your wire hose clips from ?

[greyghost]

thats a great looking motor.

is that an original oil cooler or a repro?

[ricardo]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Is that a concertina type by pass hose ? I have see them split up the side of the hose !
Where did you get your wire hose clips from ?

You're right, that is a concertina bypass hose. I already bought a new one (kevlar) and I am planning to fit it before the engine goes to the car. Do you think I can do it with the cylinder head in place?

I used the original large clips for the radiator hoses, just had them zinc plated. As for the small ones, I bought a few of those concertina type bypass hoses just to get the clips. Look on ebay, they should be easy to find.
But the original clamps for the PCV and heater hoses, were this type:



I only had 2 at the time, but already found more 4. Still 4 missing for the servo hose and heater hose. I will swap them when I take the carbs apart to fit the engine to the shell.

is that an original oil cooler or a repro?

Oil cooler is an original item. When I bought it:

[IAIN]

[quote="ricardo"]

I already bought a new one (kevlar) and I am planning to fit it before the engine goes to the car. Do you think I can do it with the cylinder head in place?



Yes......... take off the water pump !!

[ricardo]

Just managed to swap the bypass hoses and fit the kevlar hose without cutting it or taking the head/water pump off. It's possible to do

[Austin Costin]

lovely job Ricardo, hows the shell coming along.

[nick@dunsdale]

Just managed to swap the bypass hoses and fit the kevlar hose without cutting it or taking the head/water pump off. It's possible to do

Yes back in the day we used to fit them in place with everything still attached, large lever and a small amount of soap, in saying that i would have been wary of using a lever on that nicely painted engine.

Looks great nice series of pics

[970s]

Excellent Job!
When will the whole project completed?
Keep going!
Must be one of the best S around!


AL

[JC T ONE]

Woaw--thats a very good job you are doing there

will look foreward to see the progress.

Jens Christian

[ricardo]

Hi,

I have no idea of when it will be finished. I would like it to be during next year, but it will depend on the time available for the assembly.
At the moment I have almost every part ready, but can't go any further without the shell, which is still at the paint guy... with no progress since the last 2 months
I will add a couple more pictures soon.

[ricardo]

Moving on to the front subframe... The suspension was originally hydrolastic but the car had been fitted with shocks all around.
The hydro hoses were very bad and thinking about reliability I decided to convert the car to dry spec.




Original MOWOG stamp:




The top arms buffer holes were already enlarged to accept the shock pins:




Subframe was sand blasted and then converted to dry spec:










Top arm pins were really rusty/stuck and were a pain to remove!










Drive shafts still showing the original blue strip: