Australian doors

[Etienne B.]

Evening chaps,

Sorry for my ignorance but what are the differences between British and Australian shells ?
I seem to remember a post regarding fitting Australian doors to a British MK1 shell, but I cannot find it (was it on an old MK1 forum ?).
Which modifications would be necessary to do so ?

Yes I know, not for the purist ... I am just thinking about a new project around a rotten MK1 shell saved from the scrapyard.
The idea is to built a new Mini for my wife - as I sold hers !!!!!!

Cheers,
Etienne

[rich@minispares.com]

the doorhandles are flush fitted on the aus produced doors and look pretty neat

the door catch is different to a uk car - ive just bought loads of nos uk ones for minispares from a mate of mine in Australia!

[Etienne B.]

Thanks rich, I was talking about those doors, which MK1/2 UK lookalike handles ??
They look neat inside as well.

[Etienne B.]

Another nice one (from my point of view that is !).
I suppose this one is in England now ?

[rich@minispares.com]

ive got a niggly feeling that the b piller is different.

im sure one of our upside down friends will know 100%

[java gt]

I asked the same question a while back on the early mini forum as I was hoping to get a set of doors shipped over but it fell through.I would still like to get them and maybe someday it will work out.Anyway here is the reply I got from one of the upside down guys.

A bit more detail, I was rushed earlier. Wind up window doors were introduced here in 1965 and no major changes were made to the door apertures, so the first style of doors will fit a Mk1. The latch mechanism they use is almost identical, but altered slightly on the passenger side to have a locking snib that sticks up through the top. As mentioned they swapped positions of the D shaped nylon door buffer and the cup that it fits into, but I think that the sliding window door ones can be used and they fit into the same location on the body with no problem. Having said that, I have heard people say that they had trouble with the panel gaps when fitting Australian doors to UK cars. Its possible that the jigs being used were not quite identical, so you might end up with worse panel gaps.



The early windup window doors have external handles which look fairly similar to the ones used on sliding window doors, but are a bit different at the front of the hook. There was a black plastic boss attached to the door skin to try to make them safer, but it rarely works. There's a flat spring which is supposed to hold the handle level, but they always break and its very common to see Australian minis with their handles hanging down at an angle. On the inside there was a plastic lever to open the door and a matching plastic handle to wind the windows down, both are a bit fragile but can be replaced with identical looking metal ones from other cars of the period, possibly 1100 or even Morris Minor? They have a square shaft rather than the large hexagon fitting of the later UK door handles.



The later doors that Mister D mentioned were a response to Australian safety laws. They came in around the end of 1970 or start of 1971 when the Clubman was introduced. They have a flush lift up exterior handle, which we call "flappy" handles. Their internal handle is borrowed from the parts bin and was used on a lot of Leyland cars, neither handle is very strong or reliable. The latch mechanism looks similar to the UK Mk3 ones, but I don't know if it is. The rear part of the door apertures were changed to accommodate the latch. Interesting to hear that the later UK vans had the same aperture. All Australian Minis had external hinges right up until the end of production in 1978. Our doors kept the pockets, although they are narrower, so we have flask shaped gin bottles. The pockets have been re-designed slightly as well. They are better finished internally, in my opinion.




The windows themselves are really good. On a hot day you open the rear side windows (no fixed rear windows on Australian Minis) and turn the quarter vent windows right round so that they scoop big blasts of cooling breeze through the car. It also works when the side windows are fogged up in winter, although it tends to be less fun then. The wind down section is big enough to pay tolls or go through a drive through, assuming you have long arms.




Australian doors were exported to South Africa and used on some of their cars too. The Aussie doors look similar to some of the UK conversions and Innocenti doors with quarter vents, but ours have a piece of stainless trim in the front lower corners that distinguish them.




Tim

[Spider]

We had 3 door types here;-

Sliding Window - These are interchangeable with the UK Sliding Window doors

Early Wind Up Window - These are like those on the Cooper S seen above, with a similar but different (and I don't think interchangeable) door handle to the sliding window type. These fit the body shell in the same way the Sliding Window types do and are interchangeable as a complete door with them. These were introduced about 1965 (5 years before you got them in the UK!)

Later Wind Up Window - These came about as a requirement to meet the requirement for what is loosely termed 'Burst Proof Doors', though essentially similar to that above, the door handle - as Rich alluded too - is different, a flat 'flappy' type, to reduce outward protrusions, same inside for the door opening handle and lock, but the window winder handle stayed the same (BTW, same handle as an MGB I believe), and the latching Mech itself was changed to what is termed a 'Disc Type'. This is similar to (some say the same, I've not had them together to check) what was introduced in the UK I think with your MKIII's (around 1970). Being a bigger latch than those fitted earlier, did also meant a change in the B pillar to make room for it (as Rich also mentioned). We started getting these doors around mid 1970 and the last of our Round Nose Minis were fitted with them.

All our Minis, start to finish had external door hinges.

Round Noses were of course the first type manufactured here from 61 and these finished about 71.

These are our later doors;-



and the B pillar;-


The 'Clubman' style started in early 71 and ran through to the end in 78.

[Etienne B.]

Thank you very much for these informations, that is instructive.
Just a matter of personal preference, but I do not like those flappy handles, they seem too Japanese for my liking.

Were there more differences in between Australian and British early shells, say before 1970 ?
Also which is this blue seen on the car in my third post ?
Is there a web resource for Australian finishes (paints, trims) ?
This just because I am curious, as I won't replicate an Australian car - better importing one I guess.

Thanks again,
Etienne

[Spider]

I've not had a UK based shell long enough to study in detail and often it's only when assembling that some of the smaller details differences come to light.

I'm reasonably sure that our shells were very similar in 61 (when our local production started) to that of the UK in the day, however I think we started departing from this shortly after we got Hydro Suspension.

Our shells are essentially similar to UK MKI shells, right to the end of our local production, however there were mostly small changes along the way, with probably one or two big changes, notably the change to the Clubman style front end, however, back from the firewall, the shell was mostly unchanged. Even our rear windows are all MKI sized.

I think one big difference between our post 66-ish shells and the UK ones are the floors.

I'll also add that many of the departures from the UK car came about because these cars had to compete with buyers expectaions, which is based on all cars on the market and also a strong desire (and government incentive) for local content, so that often came down to what the local component suppiers had on the shelf.

No disrespect and I don't want to start a war!! however just a casual observation comparing a UK built car (especially the later ones) and Aust assembled, our local cars I felt were a bit better, though there were many things we did stuff up and certainly towards the end of our local production, the cars were woeful to say the least. Very rough.

[minibitz]

Aside from other changes already mentioned Aussie cars have a narrower number plate pressing on the boot lid. Rear quarter trim cards are held in at the top with a piece of stainless trim riveted to the top rail, not welded like UK cars.

[1071 S]

Actually we had the same wide rear number plate panels as UK cars until 65 (64s were wide while 65s had the new narrow style).

While I'm sure there were some subtle differences, (ie the floor channels and covers our hydro cars had) about the only easy way to separate Oz bodied cars from their UK cousins is to look at the drain holes at the corners of the roof gutters. While UK cars have a scalloped slot, Oz cars have two drilled holes....

I've had Oz (sliding window and windups) and UK doors on my UK built cars and as far as I can see the external dimensions of all the doors are identical (allowing for production tolerances).

Cheers, Ian

[java gt]

The removable front slam panel on Aus Clubbies was a great idea,pity it was never brought over to UK cars.

[Old English White]

I imported an Australian "S" to the UK some years ago and rebuilt it, adding English doors in the process.
I would say there are many differences between the Aus and UK shells when you get down to it, particularly on the later cars - Mine was a 1967 model. As has already been said, the floorpan was different - having channels to contain the hydrolastic pipes. The sills were different - not having all the usual vents or the small vertical drop down flange at the front. The roof gutter drains as mentioned, the courtesy light switches are higher mounted as one picture shows, the boot floor doesn't have the spare wheel mounting...... That's just some, as well as the doors and bootlid differences. The body and chassis numbers are stamped into the shell too. Of course that is just the shell. The interior was different, so was all the glass and much of the brightwork - largely stainless steel rather than chrome plated, different rear lights, wiring loom and a full headlining more like an English Mk3. I'll try and find some of my older photos but many have sadly been "lost".

Fitting English doors made me think that the original Aus doors were perhaps slightly "smaller" as I ended up with much tighter door gaps and quite a bit of alteration/adjustment. As somebody has already pointed out, the catches need swapping around and altering too. It was quite a bit of work. The big advantage was being able to find a car with almost zero rust!

[Old English White]

This photo shows the original Australian seats (almost) matched with English door cards fitted to the English doors.
I did away with the original courtesy light switch holes. On the earlier picture you might be able to spot the Aus rear lights which only have 2 screws to retain the lens.

[850man]

The first 6 months of round nose Mini production in Australia in 1971 introduced the burst proof door locks to comply with our Australian Design Rules.
Our Australian doors were modified to use the lift up external door handles from the Morris 1500, the interior door handle from an MGB and a modified door latch from a Marina. The B pillar was also changed to suit the new striker plate assembly. These modified doors carried over to the Mini Clubman in Aus and were produced untill 1978.
A very small amount of round nose panel vans were produced in 1971 with the burst proof door locks (roughly 150) and only a handful survive today. I am lucky enough to own one.

The English boot lids were used on our cars up until 1964, when we changed to our own type with the smaller number plate flap.

[Old English White]

Nice to see a proper "working van"! Don't see many in the UK now.
By co-incidence my Cooper S came from Melbourne.

[Sean1380]

Funnily enough, quite a lot of our Serf Effriken (South African LOL) Mk1 Minis came fitted with Auzzy doors.

[Spider]

Funnily enough, quite a lot of our Serf Effriken (South African LOL) Mk1 Minis came fitted with Auzzy doors.

I have wondered about that. Did they make them locally or import them?

Were there any other Aust bits fitted to any of them?

[Sean1380]

I must take a look at Ryno Versters book - it must have details, but I have a sneaky suspicion the doors came from Auz.

[cheleker]

I first learned about the doors as South African, but quickly found out they were designed and produced in Australia. Ryno isn't clear, but one could guess from his wording that the doors were produced in Australia and imported rather than being made in S.A..
They didn't last long, unfortunately. By the time the Mk 3 was offered for sale, the Australian doors had disappeared and the horrible English ones were being used.