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This little Mk2 Morris was sitting alone in a shed out in the middle of the Southern California desert without anyone to complete the rebuild, and I just couldn't pass it by after searching for years for an early Mini project to take on. It was missing nearly all of its trim, the engine bay was empty, and the interior was bare, but the shell was straight and rust free so before long it was on a trailer back to my shop.





The car has been repainted by a previous owner, covering the original Red with the White and Black combination, and judging by the strange modern wiring that I stripped out of it, it presumably had some sort of engine swap in it.





The car had just been put together enough to roll it onto the trailer, so the first order of business was addressing the front subframe and the lack of steering. I reached out to the team at MiniSpares and Noah was a great help in setting me up with everything that I needed. While perhaps not 'original', I opted to backdate the front end to mk1 spec as it just fits the external door hinge body so well in my opinion.





The subframe received some strengthening per Vizard's suggestions along with some "lightening" for styling purposes if nothing else. From there it received a fresh coat of semi-gloss black.

The hope for the build is to make it my own classic racer, so I opted for the Cooper S discs up front and began building up new hubs for the car.





A little before and after of the lapping prior to shimming.











The steering arms received a fresh coat of black as well to keep them nice and clean with the rest of the suspension bits.



To continue the performance direction of the rebuild, I opted for adjustable arms from Minispares.





The top arms were looking a little tired, so I yanked them apart and pushed in new bearings after re-coating them.



Naturally hi-los were used as well. I believe I may need to have them machined down a bit for the desired height. We'll see as it all begins to come together.





Then it all came down to assembly.





Still a long ways to go, but it's beginning to look a bit more and more like my vision each day.

It looks very nice, I've seen your posts on stanceworks and been looking forward to an update! How did you end up with the Austin Mini with the twin cam head?

timmy201 wrote:It looks very nice, I've seen your posts on stanceworks and been looking forward to an update! How did you end up with the Austin Mini with the twin cam head?

That car ended up being far more rusty than originally suspected, so it's a longer term project as I want to go in and fix it all properly. My tastes have shifted away from the twin cam setup, but it'll still be a fun build one day.

I wish I could take photos like this!

Mine always just make my stuff look even worse!

Not only can you take great photo's but you can upload them as well !! I wish I could !!!!! Nice looking car as well.

Looking very good, have been following this on Instagram.

Fantastic photos & a great story.

Thanks for sharing.

Andrew,

A brilliant project! Looking forward to following this one. Any chance you will have the car done for the Can-Am Mini Challenge? Even to have it on display would be cool.

I love that second picture, it's such a contradiction in images - so very US barns v so very English cars.

Great pictures and a lovely project.

Flygirl wrote:Andrew,

A brilliant project! Looking forward to following this one. Any chance you will have the car done for the Can-Am Mini Challenge? Even to have it on display would be cool.

Fingers crossed! That's the deadline I set for myself and I would be so happy if I could drive it up there for that weekend.