1975 Innocenti Cooper Export

[Philsa]

Hi

love your restoration. Excellent work and attention to detail.

[InnoCooperExport]

After reading some advice on this forum about how to remove nicotine stains I had a bash with anything I could get my hands on as this headliner was beyond filthy.

After a rubdown in the tub with some sugar soap (as recommended on here) you can see the amount of filth coming off it



You can see here the difference between one I'd washed and one I hadn't done yet. Must be years and years of cigarette smoke built up in there.



I've also started work on repairing the rip in the forward half. Here it is before anything



And here I've started stabilising it with some clear waterbased glue, it needs patching with some backing to strengthen it and hopefully it will end up fairly invisible.



I've also made up the last brake lines, except for the one to join the servo to the front assembly, and the lines joining the clutch MC to the flexi that goes to the slave. I've also largely finished the fuel line from front to back and fitted all the p-clips to the floor. That will be finalised soon and I will paint all the holes drilled for the p-clips with some enamel paint for rust proofing. The bolts for the p-clips are stainless, and will be isolated from the body with nylon washers which should hopefully waterproof the whole assembly.







Still left to do is fit the front to back power cable that will be routed via a mains power switch, which will be mounted inside the cab. Then I can start fitting the rear sub and start building up the suspension. I've got a fresh can of EP90 and 1L of Dot5 on the way so things can be filled up and setup. Happy days.

[InnoCooperExport]

Some of you may recall my effort in getting the correct heater and choke knobs for this car. As you may or may not know; Innocenti, once again not pleased with BMC parts decided to make their own. Unlike the thin knobs marked "choke" or "turn to lock" or "push for air" as on BMC cars, or the bigger knobs marked heater and choke from the Leyland and later days, Innocenti went for two identical unmarked knobs. Oddly enough they felt the choke should be on the right, and heater on the left. Opposite to what you would expect in a LHD car.

In an even more typical Innocenti move they made different knobs for the 850 and 998 cars, and the 1275 cars, not only that some markets got different knobs all together as well. Most likely for safety reasons.

Here we have on the left the 850 and 998 knob, and on the right the 1275 German market knob which is slightly rubbery.


I've been reliably informed other markets took on the German market knobs at the end of the production run, but I don't know the changeover point. It could well be my car (I estimate the build date to be June 1974) already had these, but I prefer the harder more Bakelite-like knobs. Unfortunately I've been unable to get my hands on any of the correct 1275 non-German market knobs. Thankfully a friend in the Inno community was more than happy to send me a number of photos and corresponding measurements. Which after some time with Fusion360 left me with this model.



I then asked a friend of mine with a 3D printer to churn some out for me. Easier said than done it turned out. For a start the threading in the hole I had incorporated into the bottom of the model so it could simply directly replace the knobs I have (they thread on to the cable end, who knew?) wouldn't load on the printer. We still don't know why, instead it was then opted to print it with a slightly smaller hole I could hopefully tap the thread into. If that fails I'll have to glue them onto the cable. Then there was the printing issues which where causing bubbles to form on the print. This turned out to be an errant cooling fan which wasn't doing it's job. Which meant the print was basically melting again on the next pass of the print head. With that sorted he did manage some fairly nice prints which will need minimal tidying.

Here you can see the various prints, the better ones are much glossier and smoother than the others.




I'm hoping they will sand out very nicely, and though they might never look quite like Bakelite they won't be a bad imitation for now.

[UHR850]

A friend of mine have two of these he is willing to sell.
Sent me your mail address and I will pas it on, he is also living in the Netherlands.

Kees.

[InnoCooperExport]

Thanks Kees, I sent you a PM.

[MiNiKiN]

BTW: using a resin 3D-printer gets you a much better surface finish from start.

[InnoCooperExport]

BTW: using a resin 3D-printer gets you a much better surface finish from start.

Thanks, I'll have a look at getting it resin printed if sanding and polishing these out doesn't work.

[InnoCooperExport]

After being forced to take some time away from the Inno build due to some family circumstances and the sudden news from the owner of our workshop complex telling us the roof was going to be replaced, I have finally been back in there and working on the car.

This is how the car spent the last 4 months, all curled up under its cover and a tent for protection.


The roof on the workshop was ancient asbestos and we had to empty the whole shed when the specialist company stripped it. Unfortunately my Mini is on axle stands and we didn't have time to get it on casters and out of there; we got about 24 hours notice things had to be out and my dad was taken to emergency admissions at the hospital the day after we moved all the easily mobile stuff out. What do you mean a stressful time?

But now all is better, the old man is back home and doing well and no more asbestos on the roof.

Look! Skylights!

Now all that remains is for the plastic sheeting to be removed and we will have some wonderful natural light in the workshop during the day.

With all that out of the way, I finally got back to working on my car again. Today's job was getting all the hard lines installed for what is hopefully the last time.



I used a combination of the welded tabs, galvanised p-clips, nylon washers and nylocks, all with a quick dip of copper paste to be sure. I might still shorten the bolts, because they do seem to stick out quite a bit at the moment.





I also did a test fit of the power cable, which thankfully fits the channel under the floor nice and snug. I just need to work out how much to leave at the front and how to route it round the front subframe to the starter solenoid. If anyone has any advice or pictures that'd be greatly appreciated!

[InnoCooperExport]

After another longish break it's time for another update. We got most of the awful plastic removed from the ceiling meaning we have a huge area that's wonderfully lit by natural light. Once we replace the old TL boxes with LED ones it will be really great.



Moving on with the car, last time I posted an update I had just fitted the hard lines front to back and had only the power line to fit before the subframe could go in. Many insurance companies here require that your classic has a mains power cutoff, both to minimise the fire hazard when not in use as well as a theft deterrent. You can either do this with a simple disconnect terminal on the battery or by fitting a (hidden) switch. As I don't fancy rummaging in the boot anytime I would leave the car at a show or every time I park up at home I decided to opt for an extra switch in the cab.

I decided to put mine under the backseat, nicely out of sight and reachable from the driver seat without having to get up and lean into the back. I started with a bit of CAD as seen below to design a plate to fit under the seat for switch and a closing panel to match.



The panel has a lip on top which will have a rivnut fitted for attaching it to the base of the back seat. The CAD template was then transferred on to a sheet of thin sheet steel, cut out, hole for the rivnut was drilled and the lip bent on next door's press brake.

Leaving me with a nice little panel.


Then after lots of measuring and marking I drilled out the holes for mounting the switch on the plate for the opposing side


Lots of measuring, umming and ahing, and marking out I drilled the holes for the bolts that go through the seat base, sadly I somehow got it wrong on one side so I had drill another hole for the rivnut in the plate. Somehow I came up a cm short, still not sure how I did but here we are.

So now this one has 2 holes in the top, but you'll never see them so I'm not too upset. you can also see how the switch is mounted to the plate here, which is done in such a way that you cannot remove it without first removing the closing panel opposite, and the machine screws have allen heads so they're not immediately obvious either.




and the switch in place under the seat.


The panels have now been shot in primer and will painted in red to match the rest of the interior.

Now all I need to do is feed the power cables to it, crimp the eyelets onto it and make sure the terminals don't short out against the closing panel.

[InnoCooperExport]

Oh dear, has it really been since September?! As some of you may know I've been busy with some family issues, mainly my Dad's health, and other cars that took some more immediate priority.

One of the things I've been working on while waiting for the weather to improve so I can paint the closing panel I made in the above posts, is making a start on the interior and fitting up the rear suspension.

As my Dad's health meant we often could only spend an hour in the workshop before it wore him out I could only do a few small odd jobs at a time. So while I wasn't working on the engine gaskets on his Lancia, I decided this was a good time to start on the dashboard.



I started by offering up the bracket that bolts to the firewall and holds the rev counter and speedo. Things are neatly notched on the panel and on the casings so they always line up nicely. Then I fitted up the rest of the dials, water temp, amps, oil pressure (all slightly disconcertingly in front of the driver), and the fuel gauge.



Then the lot was offered up in the car. It's not quite fitted up yet as I want to reinforce the underdash tray which at the moment is still mostly vinyl and some remnants of foam. I'm looking for some foamboard or similar which I'd like to stick underneath to give it some strength. Then when the weather improves and it gets a bit warmer I'll start on fettling the dash proper. I've been told warmer weather helps it not crack when you're squeezing it in.



I also got all the switches and the choke knob in


While I wait for that I've been on with the suspension as well. The original camber brackets were completely butchered and had a huge triangle cut out, God knows why. But at a clubmeet a few years ago someone was selling a new shiny set of powder coated ones for a pittance so I picked them up. Now when the time comes to fitting them I realise why they were cheap. They were absolutely naff.



They wouldn't move over any more and there was no way that top bolt was going in, I started grinding at it to elongate the hole but in the end I realised I would have to cut right to the edge of the metal, if not open it out completely which I didn't fancy. The old cut up ones, however, fit perfectly. When talking it over with my metal wizard next door he asked me why I didn't just repair the originals. So off they went to live with him for a bit while he welded a new piece in there while making sure the angles were all good and it was all strong enough.

I then fitted all the trunnions to the sub, unfortunately with no help available and lockdowns abound I was forced to work out a method of how to lift the sub up into the bootfloor on my own.

Using a plank, and old tyres I got it up there in the end




What followed was days of swearing, lots of time on my back under the car, messing with jacks and more swearing. I even ended up damaging my bootlid in the struggle. Not a happy camper for sure. It will repair but that was a particularly spicy bout of swearing. At one point I couldn't even get the trunnions on the heelboard to line up, while jacking it in place I was lifting up the shell before they even got vaguely in line. Something was clearly blocking it since I had it all fitted up in a trial fit before the hard lines went in. I think it turned out to be the power cable that was fouling on the front member of the subframe and the boot floor. Once I worked that one out I couldn't get the rear trunnions lined up either. After lots of careful and selective loosening and tightening of the bolts mounting the trunnions to the frame eventually I got it all lined up, it also took quite a lot of force with a drift through the floor and trunnion to get it there. If it comes off again in the next 10 years it will be too soon!

With that came my next mistake. When I built up the radius arms and hubs I couldn't find any decent clear pictures so I used some old fashioned logic with the bleeders for reference. Knowing that a bleeder should ideally be higher than the incoming point on the cylinder I argued to myself that it should therefore be at the top of the arm and the brake adjuster at the bottom for easier access. Turns out logic and sense didn't win out this time and I got it wrong. After realising my mistake I swapped over the plates and made up new brake lines.





Then, using the repaired camber brackets the radius arms went on. Always a fun job on the floor when attaching the brake lines on your back on the floor.



And the HiLos went in (though in this case they are AdjustaRides that came with the car) As did the Spax shocks.


I couldn't resist fitting the spare to see how it looks. I'm dead chuffed. The spare has an old 165/70 Dunlop on it for now, seeing how far that sticks out I'm very pleased I bought a set of 145/80 Blockleys for it as these 165s would have been unacceptable for the Dutch MOT.



I still need to do the handbrakes, for which I need some new clevis pins and washers. Hopefully Spring will come soon and then I can start coating the tank (with the madness of 2021 I never got round to it over summer), painting the wheels and start thinking about getting it off those axle stands and on its wheels for the first time since the mid 90s!

[MiNiKiN]

Keep on keeping on! Nice to see your Inno come back together - at least one Innocentist makes progress

[wantafaster1]

Excellent

[BRI MK1]

Hi Daniel hope your well car is coming on can you send me your email cheers Brian.

[InnoCooperExport]

Thanks for all the kind words folks, means a lot. It's been a while again, can't seem to keep any momentum going in either these posts or the build. Just seems to be one thing after another that stalls me again...

Since my last post I've managed to finally fill the steering rack with EP90 and got it the boots all seated and tight enough to not leak. Sadly I had left cleaning out the rack and refilling it far too long and it had gone a bit cruddy somehow, and when I filled it the first time a load of crud came floating up. So it largely came apart again, cleaned it out and left it to dry out completely before filling it with EP90.

After reading the thread on here recently about centering the rack and seeing the tool for it in the WSM I thought it prudent to whip one up. A suitable bolt was found and turned down on the lathe, giving me this rather smart little centering pin.





With rack tidied up and filled, it went onto the car and it beginning to come to the time that I should be thinking about bringing the whole thing off the axle stands and onto some wheels. As my other half has offered to take up the challenge of painting the black inserts in my Firsats I will need a temporary set. Luckily I have plenty of wheels and tyres kicking about that will do fine for it standing around on.







The owner of the workshop complex has a stacker/forklift machine that I had hoped to use to slowly drop the shell onto the front subframe. Sadly after some experimenting it turns out the shell is just a smidge too heavy for it and the weight of the rear subframe is causing it to tip over backwards when supported under the floor on a pallet. It basically means that the whole lot was tipping over towards the rear nearside corner when I tried lifting it up from the driver's side. A bit of a disappointment, but it means I might have to lift the front sub assembly into the shell and then lower the lot. I think I will have to bring the whole thing down a few pegs on the axle stands first so it won't have to lift too high allowing me to get at it with jacks on the floor rather than jacks on pallets like I have now. That should hopefully be more manageable.

It's very likely it will end up on axle stands again pretty soon after getting it down to finish fitting up the last few things that go underneath (i.e. gear shifter, exhaust. final bits of fuel line) anyway. But having it on it's wheels will let me do some final checks on door gaps and making sure I have the clearance for the door trim. Unlike a UK Cooper the chrome trim on the door window frame doesn't just clip on the outside, instead it wraps round the whole frame. This means you need enough space for it otherwise it will scrape all the paint off the inside of the B-pillar. I've seen quite a few Innos where that has happened and I am determined to not let it happen to mine.

[Peter Laidler]

Hi Daniel, You have complicated the steering rack centring pin. All it needs is a 1/4" (?) drill shank to be put through the steering rack and the housing while you align the wheels. Remove and replace the plastic bolt. With a drill shank in place the rack remains solid

As a result of your steering thread I am going to look into why you shouldn't be able to fill or top-up the rack from that centring hole.

[UHR850]

Some assistants for the right place for the export badge.

Kees

[InnoCooperExport]

It's been a while since I lasted updated this, and though a lot has happened not a lot of it was on the car. Not long after the last update everything over here went to pot. Those of you who have been following this thread know I have my dad's health on and off in these updates, unfortunately last summer he received a terminal diagnosis and after some time in hospital and hospice care he sadly passed away. Which unfortunately means I will have to finish this build completely solo, it's taken me some time to muster up the courage to get back into our workshop but these last few weeks before Christmas I've finally bitten the bullet and attempted to get stuck back in.

Now it's just a matter of reaquainting myself with the car and what on earth I was on with when I downed tools in June/July... I hope to add more updates soon. Unfortunately my workshop will be too cold over winter for any paint or glueing so what I can achieve the coming months will have to be seen.

[MiNiKiN]

My deepest sympathy. Surely not easy to get back ino this, as there is so much memories, which I suppose come up. Hope you get back on the job and can find relief in finishing what was previously the project of you and your dad.

[wjskir]

I have been following this thread as a lurker for some time and would just like to say that it has been both invaluable and very very impressive. I have recently started a very similar Innocenti cooper export project (german/austrian spec. the same colour as yours) with my father. I just wanted to let you know how great this thread has been and that I really appreciate the amount of work you have put into it. It has really helped us move forward with our project (and a lot of other people I imagine).

[MiNiKiN]

I have been following this thread as a lurker for some time and would just like to say that it has been both invaluable and very very impressive. I have recently started a very similar Innocenti cooper export project (german/austrian spec. the same colour as yours) with my father. I just wanted to let you know how great this thread has been and that I really appreciate the amount of work you have put into it. It has really helped us move forward with our project (and a lot of other people I imagine).

Hi! I am an Inno Cooper restorer too, though a pre-export. Where are you based?