'66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

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abri
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'66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

I've decided to start a thread for my latest acquisition and pride and joy after its story recently became a bit more interesting. I found the car on a used car website early last year. It was based in Pretoria, South Africa so I promptly got a family member with a list of things to check to go see it. It all checked out and a week later I was driving it the 1500km back to Cape Town with a stop over in the middle. It went without missing a beat apart from a small problem with fuel taking forever to drain from the RH tank to the LH one. As part of checking its originality, I got in touch with the historian of MOCSA (Mini Owners Club of South Africa) who has been compiling a register of SA assembled Coopers. To my surprise he had a telephone number of a previous owner of the car. After contemplating for a few months how unlikely it would be that an ex-ex owner would still live at the same number after all the years, I took a chance. I managed to get through to the original owner's sister in law, who also owned the car for a few years after selling it on. She apparently decided to sell it on because it was "too potent" for her 19 year old son. Turns out this car was in one family from 1967 to 2008. After finding out that the original owner had passed on, I got in touch with his widow and visited her the over the weekend. They had lots of stories of long trips, breakdowns, kids learning to drive in it, birds nesting in it while it was out of service because of a window accidentally left open, towing a fold up caravan in heavy cross winds etc ;) . The original owner, an electrical engineer, also played in a number of bands and used to stuff the car full of band equipment, with guitars sticking out the rear side windows etc. Evidence of his electrical engineering skills are still present on the car today. A little switch that used to light up the boot presumably, a battery cut out in the main cable located in the driver's footwell, a small key operated switch on the front valance for an unknown reason and (in the first pic below) another switch of the same kind next to the LH rear light that operated a fuel cut off switch in the boot. The front parcel shelf also shows evidence of having had a customized dash with "lots of little instruments" (in the words of the first owner's wife). Glad my amp gauge, vac gauge and tacho are then not too out of place in this car 8-)

Probably the nicest of all stories is that the car was a wedding car for the owner and his wife in 1968.
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I had read elsewhere that SA Cooper S's had a gold stripe painted just under the windows from the one A pillar all the way around the car. The wedding pic seems to give evidence of that.

Does anyone know what kind of reverse light that is? It looks like a Wipac S210. I'd be quite keen to get hold of one of those again because the hole in the rear valance is still there!

They also took a long trip through Zimbabwe in 1968, visitng the famous Zimbabwe ruins, Hwange Game Reserve and the owner's wife was kind enough to share some pictures of that as well. Enjoy!
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Some of the pictures are not too crisp as I had to take pictures with a digital camera of the old B&W images.

Any ideas what those wing mirrors are?

Here she is these days, after I had the OEW rims painted in the original gold colour. The previous owner had it resprayed in the original colour and the interior redone...sadly in nothing close to the original fabric. I'll elaborate on that in another post.

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UHR850
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by UHR850 »

She looks O so nice to me :lol:
DOWNTON Mini is what I like a lot.
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gpmini
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by gpmini »

Great story and lovely pics Abri!
abri
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

Edit: pics now fixed, hopefully :oops:

Thanks guys.

It also seems to have had a pair of these fuel caps early in its life. Any idea what they are?

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Last edited by abri on Tue Jan 08, 2013 8:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
JC T ONE
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by JC T ONE »

Great story, and such nice pictures 8-)

car looks nice now 8-)

did you delete the fuel cap pictures ?
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miniminor
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by miniminor »

Lovely car, the gold wheels really suit the almond green. Very nice, any interior pics?
"Get the wheels in line, Get the wheels in line with it! ..... and then slam your brakes on or we'll be in the cabin ! "

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InimiaD
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by InimiaD »

Very nice find Abri. I'm a sucker for Almond Green anyway. ;)

Nice to have all the Cars history as well.
guru_1071
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by guru_1071 »

great story and nice pictures

a bit of history really makes a car doesnt it!
please note, these are my own, individual sales, nothing whatsoever to do with my employer, minispares
foxy52
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by foxy52 »

yep, great pics and story... a question.. did the "s" script appear above or after "morris cooper "badge on the bootlid on south african or nz cars ???...unlike "austin cooper s"... all on one line ..........on bootlid ??!!....because on the cy reg car it looks like an "s" appears after the morris cooper.....i think its just a trick of the reflection on pic ???.....and if z a is zuid afrika what is cy ?? cyprus ,wales lol ...???... ta
abri
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

Thanks for the nice comments. I will post some interior pics soon. I am working on saving a set of original interior upholstery that is about to be cut up to make patterns for replicating them in some other locally available fabric. It's the first time in 6 years I've seen original 1275 S interior upholstery in the flesh. Really, really rare thing around here! Hopefully I can get my hands on it.

I've seen Morris Cooper S's with the small S above or next to the Cooper. I've also seen Morris Cooper S's with an Austin squigly S next to the Cooper on unmolested 1071 S. When changeovers occurred, I have no idea.

ZA is for South Africa. CY is a suburb of Cape Town. That pic was taken at the Franschoek Motor Museum near Cape Town.
foxy52
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by foxy52 »

abri wrote:Thanks for the nice comments. I will post some interior pics soon. I am working on saving a set of original interior upholstery that is about to be cut up to make patterns for replicating them in some other locally available fabric. It's the first time in 6 years I've seen original 1275 S interior upholstery in the flesh. Really, really rare thing around here! Hopefully I can get my hands on it.

I've seen Morris Cooper S's with the small S above or next to the Cooper. I've also seen Morris Cooper S's with an Austin squigly S next to the Cooper on unmolested 1071 S. When changeovers occurred, I have no idea.

ZA is for South Africa. CY is a suburb of Cape Town. That pic was taken at the Franschoek Motor Museum near Cape Town.
...got it .. i have never seen morris coopers s scripted all on one line ??!! or i didnt think i had .although austin cooper s was obv.......... must be having a senior moment !! unless it was only on cars used in aus,nz,rhod,zamb and sa..??..tks for info.....
abri
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

So here is what the original interior looked like on the 1275 S in late '66. These seats and interior upholstery are currently at risk of being cut up to make templates for a new set in a "bottle green" colour at a local upholsterer. I am trying to save them, but can't get hold of the owner thus far :cry:

How does this texture compare to the porcelain green available from Newton Commercial? And to the original UK spec?
From your experience, does the Newton or original UK spec fabric have the same "heat shrinked" lines?

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The famous bucket front seat

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Rear seat, material in very good nick...just needs a proper clean really.

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rear quarter panel

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Here is what my car's interior currently looks like

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abri
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

So I finally managed to get hold of the set of original trim that was at risk of being destroyed. Luckily only one front seat cover was cut to pieces and the rest of the trim was easy enough for the upholsterer to replicate without cutting (after a lot of begging from my side). One of the rear quarter panels is also unfortunately missing. The rest is all there and apart from a few small holes pretty much just required a clean.
I promptly removed the "new" covers from my frames and fitted the originals after a good scrub.

Here they are! (sorry for the poor quality cell phone pictures)

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Next I'm considering sending the remaining quarter panel and intact seat cover to Newton to see if they can make replicas.
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miniminor
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by miniminor »

Those SA spec doors are very interesting!
"Get the wheels in line, Get the wheels in line with it! ..... and then slam your brakes on or we'll be in the cabin ! "

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Nevsmini
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by Nevsmini »

I love these S.African mk1 Cooper S's. I think they were the nicest of all the mk1's built through out the World! Would love to own one some day 8-)
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by Tim »

miniminor wrote:Those SA spec doors are very interesting!
They're Aussie doors, great for a hot climates.

Tim
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abri
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

Yes, they are indeed Aussie doors. The trim however is specific to SA. Below is a pic of an Aussie version with some subtle differences.

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And finally, the car 8-) Again, apologies for the cellphone picture quality.

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JC T ONE
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by JC T ONE »

abri wrote:

So here is what the original interior looked like on the 1275 S in late '66.

Rear seat



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Some Mouse had a taste of the foam ;) have a rear seat that also had a Mouse nest inside the foam, but they didnt chew into the vinyl 8-)
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SteveG
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by SteveG »

The pic of the aussie car is my old car unless i'm mistaken :)
abri
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Re: '66 Austin Cooper S - South Africa

Post by abri »

SteveG wrote:The pic of the aussie car is my old car unless i'm mistaken :)
Could well be, it's probably one of the many I've collected off the forums over time. If I recall correctly there was a picture of the rear of the car as well where I got this one ;)
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