Mk 1 1966 1275S FVE 916D

[MichaelCaine]

Having recently joined the forum, and thoroughly enjoyed perusing through the various restoration project blogs that have been uploaded, I thought that I had better look to provide my own and hopefully benefit from the huge wealth of forum member experience that is so evident on this forum.

I have had lots of Minis over the years, starting with a Mk 2 998 Cooper - white with a black roof (PHR 151H). I paid £225 for it, and sold it 2 years later for £600. I try not to think what it would be worth now. I then had a series of 1275 GT's - when they were very cheap, undesirable run-abouts, a couple of Mini 1100 Specials, a self built Avonbar 1380 engined pocket rocket, and then a few of the later Rover Coopers including an RSP. I was always looking for a Mk 1 Cooper S - but despite scanning the Exchange and Mart every Thursday - I never managed to acquire one. I came close on a couple of occasions - but was always about £50 short of the eventual selling price. I did gain a dismantled Mk 2 Cooper S via a friend who died, but it wasn't a Mk 1 so I eventually sold it. (Later finding out it was one of the Merseyside Police cars!) Then mortgage, house, marriage, children (2 boys), family saloon, caravan holidays etc, came along and the Minis faded away.

As time went by, my 2 sons became fascinated by Minis. They would point out a mini when we were out in the car and were always convinced that their first cars would be Mini's. (And when the time came - they were!)

A few years ago, I picked up a 1964 MK 1 Mini project and installed it at the back of the garage. Then we moved house and I got involved in extending and refurbishing an old family house (with a large garage). As renovation works progressed nicely, my Mk 1 Cooper S fascination kicked in again - and I would regularly scan through the classifieds, gumtree, ebay etc. but any Mk 1 S always seem to sell very quickly. Eventually, on a rare day off, I spotted an advert for a 1966 Cooper S, in reasonably close proximity to us - so I phoned early morning and set off.

The car was yet another unfinished project. Apparently it had been started 25 years ago, and had gone through a few owners, but no substantial progress has been made. As with many projects, it had lost a lot of the valuable bits and pieces, but it had some previous history, a Heritage certificate and the numbers all tied up to the history. The work that had been carried out was of a basic 'MOT standard' and all needed doing again. The 'voice of reason' inside my head was shouting ' leave it alone - go home'. So I bought it.

I tucked it away in the garage, fending off the questions from my wife such as 'how much?' Over the past 18 months or so I have been trying to collect up a good chunk of the parts needed. I have been lucky with a few gems, although there doesn't seem to be any bargains on e-bay any more. I have just ordered the first lot of panels from Mini machine (floor, boor floor and front panel) and hopefully this winter I can get started.

There are many queries to try and decide on. Is it worth keeping with the original colour, (white / black roof) or going with a colour scheme that I prefer, is it worth trying to put the hydrolastic back in (a fair bit of the equipment is there) - or convert to dry. How determined should I be to try and get the correct dated units that are missing, is a 333 box essential etc. etc. I guess a lot depends on the inevitable - the amount of cash available. Hopefully when we get back to some good old autojumbles etc. I may find some more useful spares.

I seem to have attached some photos, a couple of older shots of its history and a couple of its almost current state. I have in my minds eye, a vision of it finished. Hopefully, it will be something like it.

[Aginley]

Looks great. Nice to see a few more pictures and details, 1275?

[Andrew1967]

Great project Mr Caine and welcome to the best Mini forum

Looking forward to more details and pics in due course.

People will say 'It's your car, do as you please' .. That is of course very true.

How original do you want to make it ? .. that's up to you. Everything is out there to do it.

In answer to your questions ... in my opinion.

1 - Don't change the colour.

2 - Keep it Hydrolastic - you might be lucky in that its a '65 built car and has standard Mini hydrolastic displacers like my 65 built but registered late 66 S. I'd get a Heritage certificate to find its build date and option specification.

3 - If you keep it as a standard 1275 S then you should fit a 333 box. They can be expensive to find but sometimes you can find a bargain - but don't hesitate as they are snapped up quickly, especially good casings.

Regards

Andrew

[Fanfaniracing]

Hi and welcome to the Forum! You will get all the answers to your questions and even more!

My opinion to the colour: keep white/black as i like that color combination.

I am more on the dry side of the suspension. I like to drive my mini very sporty so in my opinion i have more possibilities with the Dry setup.

If you have a 333 Gearbox, use it. But the money spent to get a 333 gearbox, you probably get a very good 22G1128 housing and can buy good internals for the same price... ( i did it that way...)

Hope to see some progress this winter...

Regards

Fabian

[jay weinstein]

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your new project.

[WMU 211G]

Welcome to the forum and what a great project, it's something we all think / daydream about happening one day.

As for the colour choice, the original combo it left the factory in is nice but the change to blue later on is also part of the car's history (the same goes for the Cosmic wheel arches and rear screen wiper!), I'd be tempted to go down that route but as said above it's your car. What colour are you thinking of and are you worried about the affect it might have on resale later on..?

[mk1]

Welcome to the forum!

I look forward to reading more soon.

[Costafortune]

Restore it to how you want it. The last thing the world needs is another factory original 'S'.

Dark metallic blue with a silver roof, Benelite grille and Cosmic/Dunlop wheels. You'll get the seats and door cards done in black leather for less than the Tarts Boudoir gold brocade.

Why not? They were crying out to be personalised 50 years ago and a whole industry sprung up to do just that.

[ian hawkes]

Cambridge registered too! .

[Rubber Sprung]

Looks like it had recliners when it was white/black .

[AndyPen]

I am still smiling at the wife question of 'how much??"

Looks like a good basis of a rebuild and if it were too easy, we probably wouldn't do it would we???