Next project - ‘62 997 Austin Cooper

[Dearg1275]

Filling in the history where Steve left off. Steve’s dad sold it in November ‘73 to one cousin who had it for a year when it was registered by to other. Brothers it would seem from the surname. Then it moved from Ambleside to a chap Buneside, Kendal in March 75.

It seems that this was the guys first car. He worked in steel fabrication and made a few bits for the car, notably a more than strong sump guard.

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And an Italian leg roll cage with the leg off set. From the gauge of the steel they must have been building cattle presses.

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Not the most elegant of items but I’m sure they worked.

The car was used in local events until the then owner moved to the far north of Scotland just 20 miles from me. He brought the car with him but did nothing with it up here. It languished beneath mattresses and other junk in a dry garage until he was forced to move it owing to divorce. It was actually his ex-wife that suggested to him that I might be interested. She worked in the local garage where I usually had my minis MOTed. Strange how these things happen.

D

[Dearg1275]

How lucky can you get? I’ve just stripped the car back to its shell and found I had very nice surprise.

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Not only that but the radius arm shafts were pristine, not a mark on them. The car hasn’t moved since the late 70s so these should be genuine parts:)

D

[AndyPen]

Love this kind of history

[Dearg1275]

The roof on this 997 was dented and creased all over and has bad corrosion in the rear corners. I had thought about fitting a new lid but they are not cheap, they have to be collected and 1,000 mile round trip to fetch one didn’t thrill me. I decided I had nothing to loose by trying my hand at panel beating.

I haven’t power in this shed so it was sweaty work with a body file, hammers, dollies and spoon.

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There’s still a bit to do at the front but I’m content it will turn out fine.

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To make life easier I could do with some roof and gutter bits. If you think you can help take a look at the wanted section.

D

[Costafortune]

A mate of mine has owned this the last 35 years, a 1071S. It was used and rallied in the Kendal area in the 60's and 70's, maybe someone up there remembers it.

[billycooper]

Its defo a Westmorland number "JM" , i don't recall the car, ill do some digging !

[Dearg1275]

Roof update. I spent two days bashing away and got to point where I was making it worse or going round in circles. So I have accepted I’m not of professional standard and that a thin skim of filler with be needed. I found that it had more dings I didn’t know about all filled with copious filler. I don’t doubt that once the rest of the roof is stripped of paint more damage will appear.

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I was dreading to find what horrors lurked beneath the masses of filler on the scuttle to wing joins but found a nice bonus. Yes there is some accident damage but it should beat out.

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D

[Dearg1275]

Having cheered myself up about the roof I thought while I was in a good frame of mind I would give the shell a good looking at. Always depressing. First was the usual panels list. The wheel arch extensions had not helped.

997 panel list.

Front panel
L&R wings
Inner wing grill
L&R inner A
L&R outer A
R door step
R quarter panel
R inner sill
R quadrant
R wheel arch closing panel
R jacking point
R outer sill
R wheel arch
Rear lower panel repair
Rear boot floor repair
Rear valance
L rear quarter panel repair
L wheel arch
L inner sill
L jacking point
L outer sill
L sill closing panel
L quadrant
L wheel arch closing panel
L&R drip rails

So it’s a good shell isn’t it?

Then to the detail. The right hand wing had been replaced and there was damage to the scuttle on that side. The question was how far the damage reached. Steve was able to confirm the accident damage and how it happened. It was run into the back of a car at traffic lights. So, the damage could have travelled a fair way. Looking carefully there was damage to the upper dash rail, the seam on the door aperture had opened up, the parcel shelf was bucked ,the inner skin of the A pillar is slightly twisted and the front bottom corner, by the wheel arch, of the quarter panel is just not quite right.

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The damage to the parcel shelf indicates that the bulkhead cross member has moved back somewhat. That is more concerning as it will throw out the alignment.

The question now is whether I can correct this by releasing the damaged panels on this side so allowing the bulkhead to be moved forwards again or would it be better to have the body shell pulled back to shape first. Your thoughts would be appreciated.

D

[Dearg1275]

Now that I know the front crossmember has moved back slightly it made sense to check the subframe.
I screwed a pair of studs into the top of the towers and this was the result.

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The studs are not parallel as they should be. It is not a big discrepancy but if I correct the shell it is probably going to be difficult to impossible to fit the tower bolts to the subframe when it comes to rebuilding. Now it’s head scratching time as to how I straighten the subframe. Always something!

D

[Dearg1275]

Subframe problem solved using gate post and a length of timber. It really was very easy and the subframe nowhere near as stiff as I expected.

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D

[Lakeland997]

If a body shop is going to pull a car straight, in my experience, they prefer it ‘panels on’ so that they have something to attach onto.

[Dearg1275]

I don’t think the shell is up to being pulled at the moment. It stands a chance of behaving like a chicken wish bone and coming apart unpredictably. I’ve had a good look again today and better understand what has moved. Now that I have the subframe straight and dimensionally correct I will have a go myself and use the subframe as a check.

Thanks,

D

[Dearg1275]

It looked like some extra muscle would be needed to get thing straight again.

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With another shove beneath the parcel shelf to push the top of the crossmember forward the parcel shelf straightened out. You could see the inner wing rotate forwards and down. I stand a chance of having the wings sitting level now. With the A pillar pushed forwards I dollied what remained of the high spots flat. Even the fold in the top dash rail just disappeared.

It’s the first time I have used one of these and I am amazed how controllably you can move things around.

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D

[Dearg1275]

Work on the shell will have to take a back seat for a while until I have space in my cramped workshop (no power in the shed where it lives at the moment). My efforts are now aimed at building the engine and fettling parts to keep me occupied.

I’m building up a 997 engine, but not quite to standard spec. It will wear Omega 1100 sprite flat topped pistons at 20 thou over size giving it a capacity of 1082cc. The head is a 12G 295 with larger inlet and exhaust valves. The larger valves requires the block to be pocketed. Luckily the block I have has already had this done. Quite what head was on here before I’m not sure about, however to get the compression ratio up to the 10.25:1 I was looking for there was a fair chunk to take off head and block. This because the 1100 engines had a stroke 100 thou longer than the 997.

I decided along with the guys at Southam Mini Metro Centre to take 50 thou off the head and then do the final measuring of valve lift and clearance before skimming the block. All looked good so a further 40 thou came off the block.

Now I’m of a pessimistic turn of mind so had to check again. I thought that a good margin of error would be the thickness of the head gasket. So, to check I set up the valve train using rockershaft springs with no head gasket. The valve clearances were set to zero. The camshaft was rotated by hand and everything cleared. To be sure I was not missing something I then over closed the valve clearance until I could feel the valves being obstructed by the block. With the rocker shaft springs instead of the real thing it was easy to turn and feel the first contact. Thus reassured I can now get on and build the engine.

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[Dearg1275]

Well, battle has commenced. With a bit of shuffling things around I made just enough room to get the 997 on the spit.

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The afternoon was spent straightening a much folded inner wing and taking out the last of the impact distortion in the front foot wells. This was courtesy of a very large hammer initially to get things moving.

I usually start my restoration at the rear and work forward but I’m rather keen to trial build the front to check I have the accident damage sorted and the drivers door hangs correctly. I’ll leave the original left hand wing in place until I’m happy with the front end. Better order some panels.

D

[Dearg1275]

The rusty front panel is now hacked off and the acres of braising used to fill the gaps ground away. New panelage is on its way and the left hand original wing is trimmed back to its original contours. The right hand inner wing has been pummelled back into shape but will benefit from having a front panel to control its shape. Final repairs to the inner wings will happen when the new front panel is in position. Somewhere I have a big bucket of self tapping screws.

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I will have to cut out the rear section of the left hand wing to allow the new scuttle panel to be offered up and aligned. I know others just cut things away but I like to do things incrementally.

D

[Dearg1275]

The front scuttle is gone, which revealed corroded areas in the top of the bulkhead where it forms the filling in the sandwich between the top dash rail and the scuttle. There was also rot at the base of the inner skins of the A pillars. These will repair and, as this is a Cooper, any join will be hidden beneath the black trim. There was no sealant or lead loading in the lower windscreen edge sandwich so it’s is little wonder things have rusted away.

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This removable section allows me to fit the scuttle and check it against the original wing contour.

The drivers door no longer hangs down at the back. The bottom of the apex panel still needs to be forwards a tad but that will wait until the new ones are fitted.

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[Dearg1275]

I ran out of welding gas and other than twiddling thumbs until Monday I looked for more problems to solve.

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The door is otherwise good. A rummage through my panel off cuts turned up the top of a mk3 door skin. There is no flange to dress over but it was too good not to use.

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The outer bend needed tightening but otherwise it matches in well.

D

[Dearg1275]

I now have a nice big bottle of gas, enough to do perhaps two more minis! I welded up the door repair section and made a capping for the folded edge so it all lined up. An amateur’s stab at lead loading and I have a result.

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There are a few low spots in the lead but I didn’t want to go round and round in circles for hours trying to get it spot on. A touch of modern filler will sort it later. At least any porosity in the weld with be well sealed, which was the idea.

D

[billycooper]

Keep the updates coming !, the door repair looks good, keep as much of the original panels as you can !