1965 Morris Mini - From NZ to the UK!

[Peter Laidler]

Those rusted-through slats are simple to repair from the rear. Did one late last year with a local pal who has one fitted to his van. Had about 4 not-too-serious rust holes in a couple of the slats and an upright. Scoured the rear surface down with a wire brush and soft soldered in place a suitable length and shaped piece of copper. Made from a length of old copper pipe. Easy to cut, flatten out and bend to suit. Securely soft soldered into place, rust holes gone, made good with a spot of filler. Did what you did, good primer and top coat. Now he's ready to fit his like new, hole-less grille

[W1NG3D]

Iv'e been sorting out a few things ahead of Brooklands this Sunday... first up, I plumbed in the crankcase breathers to the carbs. I've been meaning to do this for a while, as I'm not the biggest fan of open breather systems on road cars, and wanted to reduce fumes coming from the engine bay into the cabin.



It's not the prettiest job, but a combination of a few small lengths of fuel-grade hose and some Y pieces to join them all together seems to have done the trick. I also blanked off the breather pipe on the rocker cover, seeing as the cap is vented anyway. Naturally this leaned out the overall fuel mixture, so I've made an initial adjustment on both carbs to compensate - I'm hoping to get some time to properly retune + balance the carbs prior to Sunday. For now, it's running happily.





The roof rack has also been reloaded with an assortment of gubbins...



And last but not least (and perhaps the most exciting update), new wheels!!

My original plan was to repaint the LP883s, but these came up for sale at a great price earlier this week, and I had to jump at the opportunity - the tyres are practically new, and the BRM style alloys with Speedwell centre caps seem to suit the car much more than I originally imagined! I'm very much looking forward to seeing how it drives on the A032Rs.





I've a couple of finishing touches to address before Sunday along with the tune-up, but fingers crossed for decent weather as I'm not mega keen on driving it to Brooklands and back in the rain

[W1NG3D]

Made it to Brooklands and endured quite a downpour! Sadly the hill climb was cancelled on account of the rain. Bit of a shame as that's always fun, but at least I got a full day out and enjoyed convoying to the show with the Midweek Minis group - even if I did need to throw a couple of towels down onto the floor to dry out the cabin by the time I got home!



Before the show, I dug out a Motul grille badge that I'd bought at Goodwood last year, and decided it looked pretty good in place of the AA badge which I've now attached to the roof rack instead.



It was great to try out the new wheel + tyre combo on a decent drive, they offer a lot more feedback than before and the new tyres are good, albeit not perfectly suited to the wet conditions Definitely keen to give them a more enthusiastic go on a dry day! I'm glad I did sort out the breather system too, it made for a much more pleasant 3(ish) hours of driving on the day, with far less fumes to contend with than before.



Definitely looking forward to more shows and events as the weather improves, and just getting out in the car in general!

[W1NG3D]

Haven't seen much action with the Mini since Brooklands, but a decently sunny spell last Wednesday offered the perfect chance to go for a drive with the Midweek Minis group.



After meeting up at Hilsea Lido car park, we convoyed down to the Thatched House pub through central Portsmouth. Unfortunately we hit a lot of red lights and stop-start traffic, which has revealed what appears to be a clutch-related issue - it's becoming harder and harder to get the car into gear from a standstill while the engine is running.

At best the clutch might want some adjustment, and I'm hoping at worst it'll be the slave cylinder that wants replacing... On a more positive note, the dry conditions meant I was really able to give the new A032R tyres a proper workout, and I can confirm they're fantastically sticky.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to take a look at diagnosing the clutch issue tomorrow. For now at least, here are a few more pics I managed to get on the day!

[W1NG3D]

Well that was fun! What an enjoyable weekend taking part in the London to Brighton run, something I've always wanted to do in this car. I went for the full experience, camping at Cheam on Saturday then heading off to Brighton after waking nice and early Sunday morning.

In the lead-up to the event over the past few weeks, I spent a few evenings preparing the car to give a little peace of mind for the trip. That included an oil & filter change, a complete check of the ignition system, repairing the 12v feed to the coil, readjusting the KAD gear linkage, fitting an extension sleeve to the brake master, adjusting the clutch, and giving it a damn good clean. The end result was the car behaving impeccably all the way through, which I'm very grateful for!

As is evident in all the photos of my car, I opted to "temporarily delete" the bonnet Despite the preventative maintenance, I was a little worried about the potential for overheating in traffic at the Brighton end, so took this little extra precaution to keep the heat at bay! It worked a treat and certainly gave the car a unique look amongst the sea of Minis... But I've definitely added an electric fan to my to-do list before similar journeys in future.

The car's also being properly spoilt now, as I've managed to secure a proper garage much closer to home, where it's now tucked safely away after the weekend's adventures. Happy days!

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

[InnoCooperExport]

Great shots as usual! Always enjoy catching up with your car and the pics you take.

[roger mcnab]

hi great pics but you should get a bigger roof rack that one is getting a bit crowded
cheers roger mcnab

[W1NG3D]

Thanks for the kind words. These days, a big part of the Mini hobby for me is the photography side of things, as well as simply driving & enjoying the car. I made it along to Beaulieu with Midweek Minis a couple of weekends ago, which was enjoyable despite the intermittent rain. I even managed to turn a quick profit by purchasing a Mk1 steering wheel from one trader, then immediately selling it to another for £15 more, not a bad result considering I'm usually parted with considerable sums of money at these events.

I accidentally left the bonnet open during one of the downpours, and this must've got some water into places where it doesn't belong, as I experienced some misfiring when I departed the show later in the afternoon. Luckily it cleared after a short while and I checked everything over with no further issues found, so no harm done.

[W1NG3D]

Long time without an update! Some major life events & changes have diverted my focus away from Minis and the Mini community over the past several months, but I've still been driving and tinkering away in the background.

After a bit of a hiatus since the most notable outing to Goodwood last September, the Mk1 has more recently been seeing a bit more regular use despite the bitter winter weather.



Basically, I've purchased a '92 Cooper Si to use as my long-term daily, but that's currently undergoing an engine rebuild after a piston ring failure just before Christmas. Not sure if that'll be of great interest to this forum being such a late car, but here's a photo for good measure...



To that end, the trusty Mk1 is valiantly enduring the cold as my current daily driver!

To eliminate some of the water ingress issues I've noticed since being forced to take it out in the rain, I've replaced the door seals with a thicker type from Phoenix Trim which has worked a treat.

If all goes to plan the SPI will be back on the road in the next few weeks, after which the Mk1 can take a well-earned rest. I'm hoping to buy a house with a usable garage in the next 12 months, at which point I'm considering taking the Mk1 out of action for a total strip and rebuild. If it's left much longer than that, I fear that the bodywork will deteriorate to the point of needing substantial welding work & panel replacement, which I'd like to avoid if I can. It's solid at the moment, but the paint is way past its best despite my efforts to treat and paint localised areas where rust has begun to appear. I might also take the opportunity to make some cosmetic changes and treat the car to the DIY resto that it deserves (and give myself a challenge at the same time!).

In the meantime, I hope to enjoy at least this upcoming summer season and get along to a few shows and events before that happens.

On a final note, I came to the realisation a couple of weeks ago that I've now owned this car for 10 years, an anniversary date that also happens to be shared with my own birthday. Naturally I went for a nice drive along some back roads and brought my camera along for the ride, resulting in a few rather nice photos from a pitstop at the top of Portsdown Hill!