1975 Innocenti Cooper Export

[wjskir]

Cool!

I'm based in Vienna, Austria. Ive been driving Mini's for years (bog standard 70's 998's mostly). Have taken the dive and bought a inno around a year ago. It had been fairly heavily modified over the years and I have been collecting parts to bring it back to its (somewhat) original glory. I'm bracing myself for a big fat minispares order that I will hopefully be able to pick up and smuggle back to avoid the painful post-brexit import fees. I have just about finished stripping the car and will be sending it to the body shop and then painters in the next few weeks.



So much to do.... But InnoCooperExport's thread gives me hope....

[MiNiKiN]

Cool!

I'm based in Vienna, Austria. Ive been driving Mini's for years (bog standard 70's 998's mostly). Have taken the dive and bought a inno around a year ago. It had been fairly heavily modified over the years and I have been collecting parts to bring it back to its (somewhat) original glory. I'm bracing myself for a big fat minispares order that I will hopefully be able to pick up and smuggle back to avoid the painful post-brexit import fees. I have just about finished stripping the car and will be sending it to the body shop and then painters in the next few weeks.

So much to do.... But InnoCooperExport's thread gives me hope....

Hawediehre aus Graz!

I too run a thread on the restoration of my pre-export 1300. Luckily I placed my mahoosive MS-order prior to Brexit (or the majority of it) - it was a PITA right afterwards.
Í make progress, but less than I wished. Engine is completely refurbished now, along a few subtle period mods. But the chassis still needs the sills, the A-panels and boot floor welded back in.
LG Marcus

NB: You are not a born and bred Austrian, are you? Your English is far too good.

[InnoCooperExport]

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).

Thanks for the kind words! I hope you guys manage to finish it together, always great to hear of more Innos getting rescued. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need anything. Do you have the parts book PDFs? I've spent many hours poring over them, much like the recently discussed "slinger brackets" Innocenti had their own way of doing things and they're not all immediately obvious.

[wjskir]

Hawediehre aus Graz!

I too run a thread on the restoration of my pre-export 1300. Luckily I placed my mahoosive MS-order prior to Brexit (or the majority of it) - it was a PITA right afterwards.
Í make progress, but less than I wished. Engine is completely refurbished now, along a few subtle period mods. But the chassis still needs the sills, the A-panels and boot floor welded back in.
LG Marcus

NB: You are not a born and bred Austrian, are you? Your English is far too good.

Servas!
Correct! I am a "Mischling" . I checked out your thread. Great stuff. Also cool to know there is someone nearby who seems to know what they're doing .

Thanks for the kind words! I hope you guys manage to finish it together, always great to hear of more Innos getting rescued. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you need anything. Do you have the parts book PDFs? I've spent many hours poring over them, much like the recently discussed "slinger brackets" Innocenti had their own way of doing things and they're not all immediately obvious.

I might take you up on that! I don't have the parts book PDF's (at least nothing inno specific). I have plenty of the usual Mini manuals and repair/resto guides. I have a Italian maintenance guide that I found in Italy- my girlfriend is Italian which helps with a lot of these inno things. Also comes in handy when ordering parts from Italy as she enjoys haggling the prices with the Italian vendors. I think they enjoy it too...

I don't suppose anyone has measurements for the location of the side repeater's? I will be getting the holes drilled soonish. If I cant find the proper location I will just eyeball it but I thought I would ask first!

Cheers!

[MiNiKiN]

I can make an actual template on A3 from an original front wing, if that helps.
Just got to bring myself going into the freezing cold (i.e. garage)

[InnoCooperExport]

Like all best laid plans something always seems to come up. I've not had the time to get stuck into this again since my last update as my mum ended up having a kidney transplant which has kept me out of the workshop for a while. I can only wonder what life will throw at me next while I plug on to get this car on it's wheels...

Most of my spare time has been spent keeping my R50 Cooper on the road, but I have very briefly managed to get the handbrake bit installed on the radius arms on the Inno, the cables run to the inside of the cab and the fuel pump finally fitted up after painting the bracket for it about a year ago! Now to find all the clevis pins to fit the cables to the brakes themselves and to fit them up to the handle. I'll need to modify the handbrake warning light switch bracket as when the p/o welded in the new floor he seems to have made the handbrake bracket a smidge too low and it won't take the switch bracket anymore. I toyed with the idea of elongating the hole on the handbrake bracket on the floor but thought maybe that the handle shouldn't have any vertical adjustment on the mounts, the switch is maybe a bit less vital to remain locked in place.

I'm still on the hunt for some wheelnuts, it was my hope that a chap I know in the Dutch Inno community who was attending IMM in Italy this year could find me some, sadly after searching high and low he found the square root of FA. I recall a chap on here told me to get in touch and he could make me some stainless ones through his business but I can't find the message/post anymore... Onwards and upwards. Hopefully I'll be able to clean and coat the tank in this fine weather we've been having, and maybe the autojumble I'm attending tomorrow will yield some good finds, it has in the past.

[roger mcnab]

g'day mate
i sympathise ?with you about your frustrating problems over here in oz it is hard to get what you want the guys i was getting parts from sold the business and did not tell me or answer calls so i had find another source
are the wheel nuts metric not that i can help just curious it is like my v8 mini project hard going
well keep at it cheers roger mcnab

[InnoCooperExport]

And just like that it's 2024 Wish I could say I've made huge strides on the Inno but the sad truth is I haven't achieved anywhere near what I had wanted to this year.

I managed to get the handbrake setup as alluded to in the previous post, and then with a set of rear wheels mounted I locked the rear brakes on and dropped the rear end off the jackstands onto some ramps. Then I dropped the front end a few inches until it was level with the back again with the engine and subframe assembly underneath the engine bay.



One major hurdle I've cleared is that I have finally got the engine and subframe in! A friend of mine had some time off from work and said he would give me a hand doing it, so we just got stuck in. It really is the only way.

Using the hoist with an engine balance mounted to the rocker cover studs we lifted the whole assembly up into the bay, with a jack under the "legs" of the subframe to keep it level.





The only annoying thing is that I was hoping I could leave the radiator in place which was very much not the case... So now I have to work out how to get that back in, sadly the WSM is as much use a chocolate screwdriver in that regard. Oh well, I'm sure I will work it out. Eventually.

Next job will getting the whole engine wired up, I picked up some ethanol proof fuel hose at a trade show back in November so I can plumb most of the fuel system in, once the weather picks up again in spring I can coat the inside of the tank and repair the paint damage on it properly. Hopefully once that is done the first start won't be far away.