American 65 Cooper S mostly original unrestored

[Johnny]

Hello,
I'm a long time visitor first time poster. I'm located in South Western Pennsylvania.
I recently drug home a Surf Blue and White 1965 Austin Cooper S. This car has been stored in a heated townhouse garage in Maryland for nearly 27 years. The previous owner purchased the car in 1983, drove it for a couple of years then thought about doing a restoration. It has been sitting since 1986. I have papers, receipts, ect from another former owner 1974-1983.

I have been doing alot of cleaning and sorting. Hope to get the Heritage certificate within the next couple of weeks.

The body seems to have had a fairly decent repaint I think in the mid 70's. The roof seems to be original paint. The shell is in really nice. I will need to patch a couple holes in the A-panels. The battery box seems a little soft in some spots. The rear of the car was bumped under the rear tail light and bootlid area. I think I can pull this, but I feel the bootlid is too far gone. The nose, bonnet, doors quarters, floors are perfect no rust and strait. This car was heavily undercoated.

The suspension is still hydro, subframes seem strait all original. Original wheels and hubcaps.

The interior is all original, nothing has ever been taken apart. Very nice original paint and seats, panels etc. Somebody cut speaker holes in the rear shelf, need to fix this. There is a Corbeau drivers seat that was purchased in 1974. The only thing I plan to do in there is install new carpet.

The original engine is long gone. It has a 1300 Gt Silverseal that was purchased in 1984/5. 11 stud large valve head. The previous owner was having trouble with this 1300 gt engine, had it rebuilt, new 1 3/4 carb and VP7 cam installed and was never able to get it to start again. This had alot to do with him putting the project aside.

I have started to remove undercoating in the front wheel well. I'm coming up with some very nice shiny factory primer. I plan to pull and rebuild the subframes, repaint the underside. I do not intend to do a bare metal restoration. I plan just a simple repaint and keep it as original as possible.

Oh yea, it has about a 4 foot tall CB antenna in the center of the roof.

Hope to get some pictures to work.

[greyghost]

geee that's a tidy example.
good to see that you are not going to restore it, i'm currently doing the same with mine.

[mk1]

Hi Johnny,

What a fantastic example of a more or less untouched Cooper S! You have certainly dropped on your feet with that one.

It is amazingly rare to find a really original Cooper S in any condition, but to find one as good as yours is truly remarkable! It reminds me of Surf1275's car MEG which he imported from the States a few years back!

I too, am very pleased that you don't plan to do the "standard" nuts & bolts restoration, you would turn a truly remarkable time warp car into just another shiny Cooper S.

I look forward to following your progress.

Good luck,

Mark F

PS. Not too sure about the CB aerial though

[steve1071]

What a fantastic find. I'd be very surprised if there are any S's like that left in the UK waiting to be unveiled.

I would echo Mark's comments about keeping it as close to how you found it as possible. Except the CB aerial, of course!

Good luck with it.

[almondgreen]

very nice car...
I would be tempted to keep the arerial....

[guru_1071]

very nice car...
I would be tempted to keep the arerial....

and some speed stripes!


its a nice find, i just dont think you would find and s in that condition in the uk now

[steve1071]

If a car turned up like that at Beaulieu with a for sale sign on there would be mass panic!

[guru_1071]

If a car turned up like that at Beaulieu with a for sale sign on there would be mass panic!

there would still be fools offering £1000 quid..........

[Johnny]

Hi all,
Thanks for the nice comments.
It's amazing what is still out there, just when you think it's all gone. I found this car advertised online. It was on Mini City Ltd cars for sale section. They are a long time Mini parts specialist, they keep a low profile, and I guess not many people look there.

The previous owner was sure this car was just a old 850 that someone put some S badges on. I'm looking forward to getting my Heritage Certificate to be sure of what it is.

Another interesting thing is a local friend of mine lives about 15 miles from me has another 65 S. Much nicer perfect shell than this car. His cars 6 didgits of his ca2s7l vin number is within 7 numbers of mine. I want to see if the engine numbers will be consecutive or not. The two cars may rolled out of the factory together.

I do not have any pictures that capture the magnitude of the CB aerial. It's really something it may be over 5 feet, the car looks like its radio controlled.

[nick@dunsdale]

The previous owner was sure this car was just a old 850 that someone put some S badges on. I'm looking forward to getting my Heritage Certificate to be sure of what it is.

Dont think you have any worry's there those bootboard brackets are original factory spot welded on. also looks like the correct S distributor that would have been swapped over from the original engine.

The list goes on and on, i doubt that has never worn an 850 badge.

What an excellent find, you are very lucky.

[ricardo]

Brilliant! Excellent find!

Regarding the vin/chassis numbers, the engine number may not be sequential. When I started restoring mine, I met someone who was finishing another Cooper S. Later we found out the vin number was exactly before mine, ie, my friends car ends in 60, mine in 61! Great coindidence too, although mine was sold in Porto and his in Lisbon. Engine numbers have 7 digits between them (his ends in 70, mine in 77). Both cars registered around the same date too.

[steve1071]

From the few photo's it looks very correct, deffo an S.

What are the two lurking behind the engine?

[UHR850]

I love it too, just the way it is brilliant! Enjoy it !

[Pete]

Lovely find, so similar to my old car, same age too ! They certainly do still come up like this in the States and until the recent decline in our exchange rate cars like that were well worth importing. Original ratty cars don't seem that popular over there, 'ol 'MEG' didn't get so much as a nibble from any US buyers.

[Johnny]

Surf 1275, MEG was such a wonderful car. I remember it quite well. One of my all time favorites. There is something so special about original cars. To be Surf Blue and White just takes the cake, probably my favorite color combination. Such a vintage feel. I did not know that it has moved on.

Steve1071, I do have some other cars in the garage. The Green one is my U.S. spec Mk 1 67 Austin Cooper S, and the red one is an English 69 Austin Cooper S.
The 67 was a great find. It was an original engine, numbers matching unmolested car, never rusted, welded or wrecked, all original panels except the bootlid being replaced sometime. The interior was like my Blue 65, just cleaned it up and put new carpet in. I repainted it and have been enjoying her for the last 10 years. Just treated her to a new set of Rosepetals and Dunlops this past summer.

The 69 is an interesting car, a little rough around the edges. I have not solved much of its mystery, but it lost its original identity when it came to the States. It has many aftermarket accessories that I think were put on when it was new, very well done. It has a 66 Cooper S engine. Thanks to Marks online catalogs I was able to determine the aeg163 head is an Oselli Stage 1. I'm wondering if the whole engine is Oselli. It has a pair of H4 SU's, header, 1293cc. etc The car pulls really really well. When I bought this car 6 years ago the previous owner was sure it was not a Cooper S and it was not running, he had the fuel line fitting at the carb installed upside down.

[Etienne B.]

Johnny, your S looks fantastic !
Do you have a picture of the engine bay ?

Enguerrand, look at this car ! even more original than mine !

[Craig]

Yes , an engine bay picture would be GREAT !!

Craig

[Johnny]

Well here is a picture of the engine bay. This is the only place the previous owner had started his restoration process. Luckily I have most of the original pieces, just need to undo some things.

You may want to get your sunglasses look away.

[Johnny]

I have come up with a couple of questions.

Is the area of the nose panel and vertical support behind the grille that is painted black as seen in this picture the way it would have left the factory? Should this area be painted black?

Is the air ducting that connects the screen behind the grille and the heater one continuous piece or is it two pieces coupled near the area it enters the passenger area?




Thanks,
Johnny

[InimiaD]

What a fantastic find. well done.
In answer to your Qs the Brit market S's slam panel strut is usually at an angle to clear the oil cooler. The top of the strut looks to be in the correct position though.
The Air intake hose should be a 2 piece starting with a reducer just behind the grille connecting to a smaller diameter hose which connects to another reducer/enlarger by the bulkhead.
from there it should be the standard size hose to the heater intake.
Unless of course the export S's were put together differently.
Some of our more learned members would know.