1965 Morris Mini - From NZ to the UK!

[timmy201]

Nice work on the new/old badges! They look so much better than the reproduction ones

[W1NG3D]

After a week passed since painting the roof rack, it was nice to get the Mk1 out of the garage and see how it looks before it got too dark on Saturday evening. I reckon it's turned out alright



Having taken the car out for a decent drive the previous weekend, I also thought I'd whip out the plugs to see how they looked. They were quite white, indicating that the engine was running a bit too far on the leaner side. It was being a little tricky to start from cold even with a fully engaged choke, which added to the evidence of the mixture being too weak.



I made some small incremental adjustments to both carbs' mixture nuts, and eventually settled on a slightly richer setting than before. The results were quite evident once I warmed up the car and went for a night-time drive up the road - a feeling of hesitation I'd noticed before at part-throttle is now completely gone, and the engine definitely has more "get up and go"!

I attempted to film the trip by mounting my phone on a magnetic holder, the video quality isn't the best but it did capture the audio pretty well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a72ZgIfOsTk

[W1NG3D]

I took advantage of some fantastic weather and got the Mk1 out to the Port Solent car meet this morning.



I've recently bought a few bits to dress the exterior of the mini up a bit, like an old suitcase which sits nicely on the roof rack, and a new pressed NZ oval plate which I've fixed to the front of it as a nod to the car's heritage. A couple of the old 3.5" steel wheels have been plonked back on top as well, and everything is held on securely with some subtle olive green bungee cords which are super simple and don't look too out of place. There's a perfect space left for a jerry can, so I'll keep an eye out for one at the local charity shops and swap meets to add to the display. I've also got an original pressed Mk1 Morris grille on the way which should arrive this week, and will really add to the "sleeper" look I think. Will still keep the cooper grille aside in case I decide I prefer it though!





Haven't done much to the interior since cleaning it out a few weeks ago (still haven't wired in the rev counter), but I recently found this little scale model which I'd bought at Goodwood last year, and had since forgotten about - given it's modeled on a '65 Almond Green car with a roof rack, I just had to stick it in the car somewhere!



In the engine bay, I'm a bit annoyed with the red 'T bar' rocker cover bolts, as the T bit seems to have fallen out of the one on the left, and despite fitting these with a brand new fitting kit (new rubbers etc), oil is seeping out. I think I'll get some good quality rocker bolts and new seals etc from DSN to replace these, and have already ordered their new thermostat engine steady which will clear the twin carbs, so there'll soon be even more anodised red bling to keep clean



The fuel gauge has stopped working completely now, and I suspect the sender is at fault - it always reads empty. To ease my range anxiety in the meantime I'm just making a habit of filling back up after every outing, so I know I've got a full tank before setting off. Petrol is getting so damn expensive these days



Hopefully these spells of nice weather will become more frequent as the daylight hours get longer, I'm really keen to get along to lots of mini shows and events this year, so I can finally enjoy the Mk1 properly after it's made the long crossing over from NZ and since spent a lot of time sitting around during Covid lockdowns and wintery conditions, not to mention needing a replacement engine in that time!

[W1NG3D]

I got a call a few days ago asking if I'd like to display the Mk1 at Bingley Hall next Sunday, so of course I said yes it'll be my first time attending the Mini Fair and it'll be nice to have my mini on show along with some other 1960s models in the Pride of Ownership display. That said, there are some jobs that definitely need doing to get it ready!

Fortunately I managed to get hold of some nice bits this week, which should help. A friend kindly gifted me a pair of original Lucas headlamps without sidelight holders, which are useless for most UK-spec cars, but ideal for mine since the sidelights are located in the indicator units being an NZ-built CKD model. I also ordered up a new thermostat housing and engine steady kit from DSN, this is their latest design which will clear the twin carb setup, and it arrived very quickly. Finally, and most obviously in the photo below, my search for a good Mk1 Morris pressed grille was successful!



I'll be spending some time hopefully fitting these parts during the week, but my first priority today was completing an oil change. In an effort to produce some YouTube content, I did a bit of filming so this took longer than expected, but I was at least able to finish this crucial job and also fit the new grille at the end (just need to edit the video clips together now). I'm pleased with how the car looks with the original style grille on it!



I'll share the YouTube link once I finish pulling the video together, where I'll also walk around the car and show the roof rack setup and the new badges which I photographed earlier in this forum thread.

[timmy201]

The pressed grille looks great!

[W1NG3D]

The pressed grille looks great!

Cheers, I'm very much inclined to agree! I was quite lucky to find one in this condition. It should come up really nicely with a bit of elbow grease.

I've uploaded a video to YouTube - it mostly covers the process of doing an oil change which I'm sure most of you are very familiar with, but I also do a bit of a walkaround of the car, and show the new grille fitted at the end too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWuOuCxijDo

[W1NG3D]

Well that was a surprisingly trouble-free trip! Made it up to Bingley Hall and back for the Mini Fair this past weekend, with about 8 hours of driving all-in. I was far from the height of luxury with no carpets, no working heater, and straight cut drop gears whining all the way - but the Mk1 didn't let me down and attracted a few onlookers at the show. It was great to see so many other lovely cars and chat to other enthusiasts throughout the day.

I couldn't resist spending some money on the day, so the engine bay has been treated to yet more DSN anodised red goodies in the form of a rocker cover cap and bolts. Specialist Components also got some of my money for one of their lovely weighted gear knobs, which made a surprising difference to the feel of the gear change on my way home. I also managed to pick up a new original non-locking fuel cap in great condition, along with a near mint Mini-Minor workshop manual and owners' handbook, because why not.







And I also couldn't turn down a Mr Bean teddy



I did take quite a few more photos of cars other than my own, but I'll probably upload and share these elsewhere to save cluttering up a forum post!

[AustinSevenMkII68]

Just want to say I really like reading your stories about the journeys you and your Mini have been through, the continuous improvements and the fact you use and enjoy your Mini, keep ‘m coming!

Cheers, Ronald

[W1NG3D]

Just want to say I really like reading your stories about the journeys you and your Mini have been through, the continuous improvements and the fact you use and enjoy your Mini, keep ‘m coming!

Cheers, Ronald

Thanks Ronald, really appreciate your comments a lot of the fun of owning & working on a mini is sharing our stories and experiences as a group of enthusiasts. I've met some great people and made good friends over the years on the mini scene.

[roger mcnab]

hi
saw a pic in a article in mini mag 320 about your mini in nz with some one sitting on the roof in arm chair with the guf rego showing
just thought you may like to know
cheers roger mcnab

[W1NG3D]

hi
saw a pic in a article in mini mag 320 about your mini in nz with some one sitting on the roof in arm chair with the guf rego showing
just thought you may like to know
cheers roger mcnab

That person was me, wearing a mullet wig

With the south coast enjoying such great weather, I've been taking advantage of this by using the Mk1 as my daily driver over the past week, and also got it along to Brooklands Museum today for their annual Mini Day. I met up with the Midweek Minis group at the top of Portsdown Hill to some glorious sun this morning, before we traveled up in convoy which was good fun.





Sadly the sun didn't follow us all the way, and it was quite overcast for most of the day at Brooklands, but still enjoyable. I decided to pop the hub caps off for the show this time around, just to see how the steelies look without them - must say I think it suits the car, although definitely highlights the need for the wheels to be refurbished properly as they're not in the best condition!



Naturally, I had to attempt the hill climb again this year, despite having trouble with the exhaust falling off last time Luckily that wasn't the case today, and the car made it up successfully despite being fully laden with myself, three passengers, and all the stuff on the roof rack! It seemed to surprise a few people on its first run, I don't think many were expecting it to make quite so much noise or make anything close to a "brisk" pace up the hill.



After completing the final permitted attempt up the hill, I parked up with the Midweek cars again, and was later informed about a small puddle that had formed underneath the fuel tank - it turns out the rubber fuel hose from the tank to the electric pump had split near the pump, but fortunately this was quite easy to rectify with the help of some friends at the show. I cut off the split section of the hose, and there was enough length remaining to connect it back up again and this solved the leak so I was able to get home safely - and I certainly wouldn't want any fuel to be wasted by leaks, what with today's prices and all!

The car's tucked away now and I'll be replacing the entire fuel hose for peace of mind, as well as fitting the new thermostat housing & engine steady I bought a couple of weeks ago, before clocking up any more miles. That said, the past few weeks have been pretty manic with two big Mini events and lots of other life stuff going on in between, so I'm not sure when I'll have the energy or time to tackle these jobs (as minor as they are!) - hopefully with a bit of downtime over the next week or two I'll find the motivation to pick up the spanners again.

[W1NG3D]

It's been a while since my last update! The Mk1 has seen a surprisingly high number of miles being clocked up recently, thanks mainly to my primary car (a 2006 MINI Cooper S JCW) being off the road for a couple of weeks for repairs, which forced the classic back into daily driver duties. I also made a couple of trips to Downton, including being on display at the Downton Motor Club's annual show for the 75th anniversary of Downton Engineering.



I was also invited to a photo shoot for the car to feature in Mini Magazine, which was scheduled for this morning, so over the past couple of days I invested some time into tidying up & properly cleaning the car to make sure it looks its best.

One thing that started to let it down recently was some nasty flaky paintwork around the roof gutters. This has just been getting worse and worse over the past few months as more paint has continued to chip off:



Fortunately, I still have plenty of leftover paint from the last round of touch-ups I did, so I got to work sanding and preparing the affected areas for a rust preventative primer.



By the time I'd worked my way around all of the problem areas and done some haphazard masking, pretty much the entirety of each side's worth of guttering needed repainting.



The cellulose rattle can did the job rather nicely, it isn't a perfect colour match to my existing "flavour" of Almond Green but it's not obvious at all thanks to the curvature of the guttering keeping it nice and separate from the bodywork.



All in all I'm happy with the results - this is the same area shown in the first photo of the flakey bits.



This got the car looking nice and refreshed ahead of the photoshoot this morning, so it was all good to go...

Or so I thought!



Despite the amount of reliable motoring I'd gotten out of the old girl recently, this morning she must've been feeling very camera shy, and decided today was the day for the crankshaft bolt to work its way loose and wedge itself between the pulley and the radiator bracket, making an awful racket in the process. Of course this had to happen on today of all days, and just a couple of days before Beaulieu too!

After waiting 4.5 hours for the tow truck to arrive, we got the car loaded on, but when we arrived back at base the truck just couldn't get up the driveway as it was too steep. Of course this also meant we couldn't push the mini up, so with the BINI freshly back from having the timing chain replaced, it was pressed into service as a surprisingly effective tow vehicle to pull the Mk1 up the drive.



The remainder of my afternoon was spent on removing the radiator and its associated gubbins to extract the wayward crank bolt, and attempt to replace it with a spare I planned to nick off my spare engine.





As you can see, this bolt is way past its best after getting jammed between a rotating pulley and a hefty bracket. You can see here where it gouged the metal out of the rad bracket, in between the two bolt holes... I reckon people would've heard the racket a mile away as I pulled over!



Fortunately I still have my old engine, mostly complete including a good serviceable crankshaft bolt. I had all sorts of fun and games trying to get it off, and had to get a bit creative to introduce some extra leverage.



Hey presto! This'll do...



I was worried that the threads in the crank might be damaged, but luckily they were A-ok. The replacement bolt wound in with ease, and was torqued to spec before the reassembly process could then begin.



The above picture also shows the return of the rum bottle washer reservoir rather nicely

Refitting the rad was much fiddlier than removal, as it was quite an awkward affair to get the two-piece cowling all lined up and bolted into place, but I got there in the end. Nearly there...



I happened to have a spare thermostat along with the new housing I bought from DSN a while ago, so those were fitted along with a new gasket. The new housing will allow me to fit DSN's new engine steady designed to clear twin carbs, but I figured I'd save that for another day and focus on getting the car back into good running order first.

And run it did! After filling up with coolant, it fired up beautifully and I wasn't greeted by any leaks or other such nasty surprises. It's been a bit of a manic day after all the fun and games, but at least it's back on the road for Beaulieu. Time for a beer I think!

[W1NG3D]

Made it to Beaulieu without any hiccups!



After all the fiddling in the engine bay and the addition of the rum bottle (which turned out to be a popular topic of conversation!), I made a last minute decision to unbolt the bonnet and show off the engine - helpfully distracting from the rather scruffy bodywork





I managed to avoid the temptation of spending too much money on parts, but I did find a brand new dash liner kit for a bargain 15 quid, which will be going in soon. The current leatherette panels were originally red and have been badly painted black, which is quite obvious on the passenger's side which is also a bit ripped (you might be able to see some damage just underneath the air vent in the pic below).



All in all I had a fantastic day out, saw plenty of beautiful cars, and enjoyed catching up and chatting with other Mini enthusiasts. I think a forum member came up to me to talk about the car just as I was setting off, but I must apologise as I didn't catch your name, so if you're reading this, thanks for stopping by

I took some more photos of other cars on the day, which you can check out in this Flickr album if you're interested; https://www.flickr.com/photos/193243045 ... 299739980/

[W1NG3D]

Not much of an update, but I got out for a short yet enjoyable drive yesterday evening, and was joined by a lovely '65 Cooper S.



Since replacing the thermostat a couple of weeks ago, the engine has been getting up to proper temperature - I think it must have been running a bit too cool before. As a result, the mixture setting wasn't actually quite right on the carbs, so I got these adjusted and re-balanced which has made for smoother running and better part-throttle driveability. One carb was set a bit too far on the rich side so fixing this should also help with fuel economy, which is more important than ever with the current petrol prices.

The ill-fated photo shoot for Mini Magazine has now been rescheduled for July 9th, so I've booked another couple of days off work to give the car a proper once-over. I plan to replace the dash liner trim, fit the extra DSN engine steady to the new thermostat housing, and just make sure everything is really nice and clean (there's been loads of dust in the air recently!).

Anyway here are a few more photos from the meet-up yesterday!

[1071 S]

".....The remainder of my afternoon was spent on removing the radiator and its associated gubbins to extract the wayward crank bolt,.."

Just think, 20 minutes now means that that afternoon could be spent doing something more enjoyable than just removing the radiator

Cheers, Ian

[timmy201]

I’ve just reread this again from the start and what a great story! How do you find the mini scene overall in the UK compared to NZ? I’m always jealous when I see the big mini shows with traders and used parts

[W1NG3D]

I’ve just reread this again from the start and what a great story! How do you find the mini scene overall in the UK compared to NZ? I’m always jealous when I see the big mini shows with traders and used parts

There's obviously a massive following for Minis here so the scene is very much alive, and there are definitely more big events compared to NZ. I'm quite fortunate to be where I am on the south coast, as there are multiple local groups and clubs for Mini fans (including classics as well as BMW MINIs). One of the best things is definitely the second hand bits on offer at some of the shows - that's done a good job of lightening my wallet

[W1NG3D]

Couple of small-ish updates on the Mk1.

I took a couple of days off work last week to get the car ready for its rescheduled photoshoot, which went ahead yesterday. The weather has been absolutely glorious, although this proved to be a challenge when working in the makeshift tent garage... it basically became an oven!



While I didn't get round to fitting the extra engine steady, I was able to replace the dash liner with the bargain set I picked up at Beaulieu, which has made a massive improvement to the interior. Along with that, some new stickers and badges now adorn the car as well.



Much better than the old damaged liner!



These switch labels seemed like a fun addition...



And this finishing touch turned out surprisingly well - the old holes from the 'S' badge are now covered up by a new little badge which is a little more befitting of the car in its current form. Some love it, purists probably hate it, so a Marmite emblem seems appropriate



One of the other items I picked up at Beaulieu was a very cool retro Motul oil tin, this is now loaded onto the roof rack and a new decal has been added to the rocker cover to tie this in with the rest of the car.



Naturally I spent a lot of time cleaning the car to get it ready for the limelight! The scorching heat made it tricky but I was able to get some half decent results from a good rinse and contact wash, hand polishing all of the paint & chrome (including the steering wheel and carb dashpots), and applying a synthetic wax to preserve whatever shine I was able to muster. The paintwork is far from perfect so there's only so much you can do, but I reckon it turned out alright!

Coming soon to a magazine near you...



As you might be able to tell, at this point I got my own decent camera out, although it was no match for the photographer's professional kit - I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he comes up with

After the shoot, it just so happened that a local school was holding a fete nearby and had invited the local Mini club along, so once we were finished getting pics I drove straight along and joined some other Minis to bask in the sun for a while.





It looks like we're set to enjoy plenty more sunshine in the coming days, but hopefully this lasts right through the next couple of weeks as I've been invited to display the car at Goodwood's Breakfast Club on Sunday 24th, which should make for some great photo opportunities! Until then I hope to get out for at least one or two drives to make the most of the weather.

[W1NG3D]

I met with a friend yesterday to work on our cars - we both wanted to fit tachometers, so it made sense to kill two birds with one stone and tackle both at the same time. His car is a lovely 1275 S, also a '65 like my Mini, and we were both going for a similar setup with new 80mm Smiths gauges fitted in Minispares tacho pods.



We began with the S, and before making up the proper wiring, we tested out the gauge under the bonnet to ensure it worked as expected. That went well, so we then proceeded to carefully rout the signal wire from the coil, as well as a switched 12v feed from the fuse box, through into the cabin.



Then it was simply a case of finding an earth and hooking into the dash illumination circuit, and most scarily, drilling a hole to fit the tacho pod! It all went to plan, and the gauge fired into life.



For simplicity's sake, we basically took the same approach on my car as well.







It turned out that we had to use a different coloured wire to pick up the coil signal due to my car being fitted with an electronic dizzy, but once that was figured out, the gauge sprang into action, and this "flight" style tacho has the added bonus of having a really fancy sweep action when you switch the ignition on - super cool! I got a video of it here: https://vimeo.com/730799564

[W1NG3D]

Had an early start this morning, no doubt I woke up a few of the neighbours when I fired up the car at 6am to head along to Goodwood for the Breakfast Club! Really enjoyed spending a Sunday morning in a great setting with loads of interesting cars, including multiple other Minis. The coffee and bacon rolls were a bit pricey, but that's to be expected I suppose, and in fairness it's a fantastic free event so I can't really complain!

Being amongst the first cars to arrive after gates opened, I was fortunate enough to be ushered into one of the paddock sheds which made for some great photos.

Below are some of my car, but I took plenty of others which can be viewed in full hi-res on my Flickr album here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/193243045 ... 237894149/