'64 Aussie Morris 850

[UHR850]

Timmy, those seats look good. I’ll keep n eye on your progress with fitting them to your mini. No doubt I’ll quiz you later as to how they feel.

I did get to use a pair a couple of years ago when my friend had a set in his car. They are definitely nice and snug and keep you in around the corners, I can’t remember how comfy they were for an hour drive so I’ll report back on that when mine gets used

They did suit his black interior really nicely
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Nice steeringwheel, what is it ? Better picture ?

Kees

[timmy201]

Timmy, those seats look good. I’ll keep n eye on your progress with fitting them to your mini. No doubt I’ll quiz you later as to how they feel.

I did get to use a pair a couple of years ago when my friend had a set in his car. They are definitely nice and snug and keep you in around the corners, I can’t remember how comfy they were for an hour drive so I’ll report back on that when mine gets used

They did suit his black interior really nicely
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Nice steeringwheel, what is it ? Better picture ?

Kees

That one is a MOMO Le Mans from memory. Unfortunately it looked like it had a decent hit at some stage and one of the spokes was cracked so it’s been on display in his garage since

[UHR850]

Thanks

[timmy201]

After a bit more scraping and cleaning I got the window frame ready to go. Nothing sinister was spotted, which was awesome


And after 2 days of frustration I managed to get the window in. I don't plan on every doing that again myself, for whatever reason it was a real pain. This meant I could finally go for a drive, and according to the log book it was 3 months since I last made it off the driveway!


And since I bought the last French Moto Lita with the unusual stamping on the lower spoke, another came up for sale. It’s a black 15” with plain spokes, which is also an unusual combination. It’ll need a retrim, but hard to say no at $35 (£20) after I’d sold the boss

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Lastly, I found this on eBay described as “ VINTAGE COOPER MINI S WOODEN STEERING WHEEL BARN FIND TRIUMP MG” and the description said the owner used to own minis. I looked through the wheel database on the main site and thought it looked like a Springall, and they were supposed to be pretty nice, so I figured it was worth a bid

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The starting price was $61.50 (£33) and I put a little higher than that on, but it ended up selling at the starting price with no other bids

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It arrived yesterday and looks a little better than on the eBay listing. It’s still pretty rough and will need some serious attention to the wood. It’s got a 48 spline boss and appears to be the right size, so I’m hoping the test fit will go well! I didn’t notice the faint name on the rear of the spoke until after I bought it, which validated my initial guess

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[roger mcnab]

hi timmy
well that is a good find with a good sand to make sure there are no splinters a bit of putty and a good coat of lacquer it should look great
years ago when i had my kitchen business nover sold a lacquer called addease it was very durable clear coating for timber kitchen benches
i never used it but it was good i used water based lacquers which are ok there is also estapol 2pack or water based so happy sanding and lacquering
cheers roger

[UHR850]

But first some layers of Danish oil to give the wood some "food".

Kees

[timmy201]

hi timmy
well that is a good find with a good sand to make sure there are no splinters a bit of putty and a good coat of lacquer it should look great
years ago when i had my kitchen business nover sold a lacquer called addease it was very durable clear coating for timber kitchen benches
i never used it but it was good i used water based lacquers which are ok there is also estapol 2pack or water based so happy sanding and lacquering
cheers roger

Thanks Roger, I’ll have a look into that

But first some layers of Danish oil to give the wood some "food".

Kees

I’ll have a look at that too thanks

Well the test fit on the mini column was successful and so was the horn button fit . The boss has a black hammer finish on the paint, which looks to be original?

[graham in aus]

Hi Timmy,
Was great to see you at the weekend on the Rylstone Classic.... great to chat with you and Phil, how good was it to finally get out and do something with the Mini's

I've just caught up on your thread here, that Springall is really nice, what a great find (and price! )

Cheers...... Graham

[timmy201]

Hi Timmy,
Was great to see you at the weekend on the Rylstone Classic.... great to chat with you and Phil, how good was it to finally get out and do something with the Mini's

I've just caught up on your thread here, that Springall is really nice, what a great find (and price! )

Cheers...... Graham

It was good to see you in the real world Graham! It was the longest time I’ve spent away from home in months & great to see so many minis out for the adventure

Last weekend we headed off to Rylstone and did about 900km over the weekend. It was a bit later in the year than normal, but it still ended up really cold and windy . There was over 100 minis and we had a nice smooth trip (excluding the thousands of potholes). It was great to be back out in minis again, I went with my friend in his Burgundy Cooper S and it was definitely a good motivator to get my car back running how I wanted it.





I'm happy to report that I've managed to sort out my ignition dilemma. I was able to find the old laptop and confirm the Accuspark Blackbox was still working fine and still had the same advance curve as last time I used it. I lock wired the spare 25D distributor and put in the blackbox, and it all worked perfectly fine. Last time I tried to use it with mechanical points the timing was retarding instead of advancing with RPM. It all seems to be fine now, which is a relief! I'm so happy it's running well again

[timmy201]

A new year update, it's been a pretty busy time over Christmas with non-mini related stuff but I managed to get a few things done

We made the most of the sunny weather around the new year and finally gave it a decent wash



The rainy day stockpile of engines increased by one with the addition of an Aussie 1098. It has a few unique Australian made parts on it, 29D distributor, timing cover, alternator bracket etc. No plans for it yet, but always handy for parts

I always wanted a Moke

It even came with a long term resident


Another set of carbs for my "to do" pile This is an early 60's Australian manifold and twin carb setup from Peter Manton as also used in the Sports 850. It was similar to the Speedwell style kit where you bought the manifold, one carb, linkage and filters & you kept the single HS2 from the 850

I've got a set of Ramflo filters too, another Aussie made part. These will get a good clean and some new foam inserts



The linkage is there luckily

One slightly quirky feature is you need to buy two identical rebuild kits as the jets aren't mirror images like Cooper S carbs


A couple of period photos of the carb setup. They were available as a kit from two dealers, or complete on the car as the Sports 850 with the extra decals & badges



I've been investigating into my ignition pinging problem and started to notice a few little issues, so I ended up stripping down the Dellorto to check a few things. The first thing I noticed was a seal missing on the spindle bearing. When I removed the carb from the car and tested the bearing with some degreaser it was letting a lot of liquid through, so potentially a vacuum leak.

Removed and stripped for checking over

I bought a couple of new bearings and was able to separate the seals. I thought this was a simple method to check my theory rather than having to remove the spindle and replace the entire bearing

Starting to assemble. I noticed another potential vacuum leak on one of the manifold banking ports

I changed from standard paper gaskets to a Lynx soft mount kit

All back on the engine now.. So far it's all been running great, there's still a few more things to check before I think it's 100% sorted


I had the chance to test fit the H4 carbs too while the Dellorto was off. At the moment they are last in the line after the twin HS2 carbs but they still just look so good!

[timmy201]

I've driven the mini to work a couple of times now (an 80km round trip) since working on the carb, plus we had a Minis in the Gong run too. I haven't encountered any of the previous pinging that I was getting at 3000rpm. The carb has been cool to the touch when I stop even though the manifold is pretty toasty. I think my next plan of action from here is to bump up the timing with the blackbox to similar to my recurved distributor. If the engine still runs fine I think I will swap back to the mechanical advance just to remove a potential failure point.

Here's a few photos of the MITG drive thanks to Mikey






And the view from Cambewarra Mountain Lookout after the sun came out. We had a decent turnout despite the short notice and the 4 seasons experienced during the drive!


Last year during lockdown I was working from home & spotted a job lot of parts on ebay. It got relisted a few times with no buyers so I put in a lower offer mainly as I was interested in one item, a Wibroc mirror. I sorted, cleaned & researched the remaining parts and was able to make my money back and ended up with a free mirror! I've been keeping an eye on them for a few years and they normally seem to go upwards of $100 per mirror for a decent one.


The Wibroc Panorama (with the Continental shape mirror) are my favourite for the mini as the base follows the shape of the external door hinges. I have found the BMC drawings of the metal plate & rubber gasket on the forum and they look easy enough to make. It'll need a decent clean up, but I'm happy to finally have one. The best part is it'll cover up the existing holes in the door from the old ugly mirror that was on when I got the mini.




During the last 9 years I've gone from having quite a basic simple engine bay with lots of room..


..to a pretty packed engine bay. The biggest addition was the heater, which required a few other things to be moved (horn, coil, regulator box, etc). The additional wiring, radiator tank, heater hoses & breathers also just added to the visual mass under the bonnet. I'd really like to simplify and clean up the whole area now


On the "to do" list is:
Move the ignition coil
Relocate the radiator recovery tank
Tidy up wiring
Figure out how to make the breathers look better
Remove heater or extend the heater hoses under the manifold and hide it a bit more

I was able to sort out the coil by using one of the early Australian alternator/coil brackets. Luckily the recent 1100 engine I picked up had one on it, including the coil clamp too (eagle eyed readers will spot I had one of these on the red 998 before I removed it for the other type). I had to extend some of the low tension coil wires to get them to reach, plus I needed some new plug leads as my coil lead was not long enough.



I'd ordered a new rocker cover breather takeoff on ebay a while back after I'd figured out the thread (1/4 BSP). The new one is a better match in finish & is a lot slimmer in profile than the old brass one. After photo on the top, before on the bottom


The breather filters were removed for the moment and I added breather lines to the air filter. I'd like to get a preformed hose with a 90 degree end for the flywheel breather to make the hose sit a bit lower.


Another before & after from the last week. I also trimmed some other hoses to length - fuel filter & recovery tank as they were a bit long.


I also did an oil & filter change and hopefully now I'm all ready for Minis Down Under (60 years of the mini in Australia). Just a wash and we should be there!

[roger mcnab]

hi tim
your engine bay sure looks different now than 9 years ago have you thought about fiting the heater under the parcel tray they are compact and not as big as the one in the engine bay
might be able to send mine as i am looking at putting the old laser one from the sons old laser ghia as it is about simular size but i think it has 4 speeds
will let you know if interested
that is a great view at that lookout have not been there for a long time pity as it is a great area
cheers roger

[AndyPen]

Just to say, what stunning views

[timmy201]

hi tim
your engine bay sure looks different now than 9 years ago have you thought about fiting the heater under the parcel tray they are compact and not as big as the one in the engine bay
might be able to send mine as i am looking at putting the old laser one from the sons old laser ghia as it is about simular size but i think it has 4 speeds
will let you know if interested
that is a great view at that lookout have not been there for a long time pity as it is a great area
cheers roger

Thanks Roger! I have thought about an inside heater, but I do like the simplicity of the engine bay heater as there is no heater tap to fail or any electrical wires either

Just to say, what stunning views

Thanks Andy!

Here are a few photos from Minis Down Under “2021” from last weekend. I was a bit apprehensive about the drive as it’d been a while since I’ve driven that far solo & I’d made quite a few changes to the ignition system & changed to a new type of oil. I went up earlier on the Saturday afternoon and stayed with my brother to save a bit of time on Sunday morning. The weather Saturday was actually pretty nice and I had a really smooth drive up. I think it was the first time on the freeway at 110kph and it is really comfortable at that speed.

Sunday morning I made it over to the show through some intense rain. I used the chamois to clean it up a bit and had a good day looking at all the minis. Big thanks to MCCNSW & Michael Benton for their hard work. Unfortunately my camera work was horrible (I’m not sure if it was dirty or the lighting was a bit strange) so I didn’t get any decent photos






On the way home I had 2 minis for company & the rain at the end of the freeway was probably the worst rain I’ve ever driven in (in any car). After a bit of careful driving we made it home fine

Overall:
Engine ran great & great on the freeway
No issues at all with the rain
Saw loads of fantastic minis
Windscreen seal has been fully tested and had no leaks!
The girl at the drive through said “OMG I love your car”
All in all a great weekend

[AndyPen]

Can't beat that - despite the rain!!!!

[Tim]

Looks like a great show. Pretty risky doing a Mini show on carpet. Mine aren't house-trained.

Tim

[timmy201]

Can't beat that - despite the rain!!!!

Yes it was a great day out and awesome to see many faces and cars at a show again!

Looks like a great show. Pretty risky doing a Mini show on carpet. Mine aren't house-trained.

Tim

Would you believe they made it mandatory to have drip trays under all the minis?? they even made commemorative trays with the logo on them

[timmy201]

As a lover of all mini things that are cheap and shiny, I bought another Sports rocker cover. This is the third one I’ve had (the first two were sold) and it looks to be the best one so far. It’ll need a quick clean up and I’m yet to decide on painting the recesses in the top, or leaving it all raw. I’m glad to have it in my hands, as the seller took 4 weeks to post it and stopped responding to my messages for a while..


I also had the first drive with this Moto Lita, as it never made it past the test fitting stage last year. I think it’s 14” and has a nice thick leather rim, which is really nice to hold and is a bit more sporty in the curves compared to the stock Mk1 wheel


We managed to squeeze a MITG drive in last Sunday around all the recent rain. Our plan to drive up our favourite mountain pass wasn’t possible due to a road closure, so we ended up at Kiama instead





I was hoping to have a few more updates but I haven’t had a chance to get to the garage other than the MITG drive recently. I was able to get an infrared thermometer to check some of the engine bay temps, and the intake manifold was reading about 75C and the carb was reading 30C in an ambient temp of 25C. Previously the carb felt the same high temp as the manifold, so it shows how much of a difference the soft mount kit makes to the intake temp

[Peter Laidler]

I realise that there are certain times/mileage conditions on using your H (historic vehicle) plates. But in reality, are you ever stopped and checked? They've got a similar system in Germany but such cars are rarely stopped and checked.

[timmy201]

I realise that there are certain times/mileage conditions on using your H (historic vehicle) plates. But in reality, are you ever stopped and checked? They've got a similar system in Germany but such cars are rarelly stopped and checked.

Ours is currently 60 days plus club events. You get a log book to fill out, and if you don't fill it out technically the car is unregistered and you can get fined. I've never had mine checked or heard of any issues, but it only takes a few bad eggs to ruin it for everyone.