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This is the (brief) story of my Se7en that was born on 31-May-1960 (according to BMH).

I grew up in a village near Oxford, and back in the 80's we all raced around the countryside in souped-up, but cheaply done, Mini's. Mine had arrived on a trailer, complete but not working. Me and my buddies fixed it up under the experienced eye of my dad who was an old-school mechanic ("I'm not a bloody fitter - I don't fit new parts I fix stuff"). We got it going and I drove it to work every day and to the pub every night (back then that was OK).

At the time it was just an old Mini with a small engine, so I swapped the small engine and subframe for a set from a smashed 1275GT (1971) at the local scrappy. Of course now I wish I'd kept the 850 and drums, but that was beer money back then. At least I ended up with a decent 1275 and all the Cooper spec stuff from that year!

Here's a pic from the late 80's next to my buddy's Alpine (that sounded like a sewing machine).




Then it was nicked from outside my house, it was the late 80's in Oxford, some of you probably remember, But conveniently my buddy was a local firefighter who knew where the lads took cars to burn them. We found it in a field disabled with no wheels, looked like they planned to come back for more parts. So we pulled it out of the field on a spare set of wheels and towed it straight to a friends barn where I asked if I could leave it "for a little while" to wait for new wheels from the insurance.

Then I got married and left Blighty for a new life in California …

Fast-forward 30-years to 2019 … My kids are grown up, and my wife wants me to stop talking about my old Mini unless I'm going to do something about it. The barn is almost collapsed on it, of course I decide to finally bring it over into the sunshine.

Here' are some pics from the barn, turns out sheep "dust" is a good preservative.





I took a cheap flight to the UK last Easter and my buddy, who helped me build it originally, comes to the barn and we drag it out onto a trailer and back to the workshop. A couple of days and a few cans of beer later, much reminiscing and laughing, we end up getting it started, completely unexpected, no smoke, sounds sweet through the rusted exhaust. Quick wash and bit of T-Cut later for fun, ready to book the boat.

Here's a pic after a weekend of feeling young again.



And here it is at Port Hueneme in Southern California ready for the 400-mile drive home on the back of another buddy's extended F-250 diesel, we couldn't even tell it was on the back!



The body is still remarkably solid, all the roof drains are good, floor is good, just the usual rust around the door hinges. These are the early single-skin panels, so I'm not sure what to do about repairing that, custom patches or cut in the later inner/outer panels. Suggestions welcome.

I'll leave the 1275 in there, it's old too, so I think it's a fair setup. Interior is original, 12-panel seats, single pod, optional heater. Drives well, but front suspension is drooped, so I'll fix that, already fitted new RC-40, wheels/tires, and repro starter button from Mark's desk drawer Plenty to do, but it's going to be fun.

At this point I'll stop and apologize for exporting an old Mini. My excuse is that I didn't just buy one out, I already owned him for 35-years, so really it's a reunion. Anyway, he's here now

I'll post some pics of the LHD conversion and boy-racer wiring clean-up next … remember the 80's

Cheers,
Mike.

Amazing story! Well done for getting it back in that condition. It seems like time stood still for your old Mini

Wonderful, your giving it a new life in dry California where you won’t have to rub it with raw sheep’s wool to stop it from rusting away.

I would say, if the A panels are saveable let in a nice repair especially if the wings are in good order. Do check it out carefully before you waste your time though.

D

Great Story & i agree with your Dad .. Back in the day in the Oxford area the Car Scrapyards were located at Berinsfield + Eynsham + Garsington + also out at Worminghall & Bloxham .. for me it was a Sunday morning treat to visit one & get the needed Stuff .. always the scrap Mini,s seemed to be placed up high ontop of another two cars Happy Days before H&S & other matters were a concern
Smiths at Bloxham is the only Scrappy that still exists best i know

Great Story!

Very few of us are lucky enough to get our first Mini back!
Thanks for posting the story and keep us updated!

Nice story Mike! Glad the car was so well preserved over the years, can't believe it started and ran.

Hope to see you around if you take the car out to any of the Mini events or car shows in SoCal!

Brill story.. congrats...

What fantastic storey and life your Mini has lived, and survived.
Looking forward to further updates.

Thanks for the very nice story, I do recognize a lot in it. Driving to the Cafe, drinking beer and drive back home again. Scrapjarts full of mk1 Mini's, a set of Cooper S rims for a view pounds (guldens) wooden steeringwheels still in place. A lot of fun driving my Minis not standing in a traffic jam, daily drivers in those days, o yes life was fun.

Kees

Thanks for responses folks … and to Polarsilver, my local scrappy was on the A40 in Eynsham … fun times.

I've been doing some initial work on the car, and to start with I'm trying to scope out the longer term plan, but I would like to be able to use it while I poke around. So first I set about taking off the stuff that wasn't in my long term plan, like the multitude of hastily patched in wires that seemed to be only orange/black (probably the only spool I had). It was a real rats nest …



Also note the fancy hand-crafted radiator bracket to get the rad in the right place. It's actually the original rad, so I had it refurb'd at a little local place here, we'll see how it goes in the warm weather, but it looks good for now.

I ended up actually getting everything back to the original loom, it's not in great condition, hard to see colors and had to solder on a few new ends, but I like that it's a good start point without all the mess. Maybe on the list for new loom in the future.

It's funny that most of you are laughing at bodges done by previous owners, but I only have the excuse of being young and broke when I bodged this one

While I was at it I swapped it over to LHD … Not too bad other than the usual fight with the steering rack u-bolts. Obviously I'm storing the original rack along with the other original parts, working or not, some may get fixed and go back in one day. Had to do some origami on the throttle pedal as you just can't buy the old style LHD pedal anywhere!

Here's a pic after the wiring was tidied up, also showing my version of the brake/clutch pipe routing. I tried to look at images online to see how that goes, but my setup is a little different with the 1275GT servo installed.



Recently I installed one of the newly introduced MiniSpares fuel tank senders for the original 12V gauge that I have. I thought it would be fun to see if I could get that working, I remember counting miles for all the years I had the car. It works perfectly, dropped it in, gauge was spot on. Kudos to them for making such a low volume part.

Next up it's poking around the body work. As I said in the last post, A-panels are shot, and I appreciate the advice to scope it out more before I waste time patching things. I've started chipping the original underseal off from under the wing and along the sills. So far found some spots in the sill that are rough, but not much, the floor looks great. It's the very early version of the floor pan that runs all the way up to the door step, so it doesn't have separate sills to replace even. I guess that means nicely done patches are the only way to go. I'll try to research some more about that before I get started.

For now, I'm thinking I may initially go for a recreation of the 80's incarnation of my car. It's actually fairly original except the motor, so I can always go more original looking later. I know not everyone is a fan of the "Carlos" wheels, but it'll be fun …

Here it is with the cheapo ally arches removed, surprisingly the original flanges are absolutely fine underneath. Still lots to do, but so far it's all done with a big smile, even the frustrating bits.



More to come …

Mike.

I hated those Cosmic Arches back in the day but somehow, they now look right, especially just left as alloy.

What's the plan arch wise then as they look so sound?

This is such a cool story! Really looking forward to watching this thread!

Glad to hear that fuel sender from minispares works well. I’m about to place an order for one myself.

Good question on the arches AndyPen … If the scraping shows the four corners to be as decent as they look then I'm inclined to leave it without arches for now so I don't have to modify anything on the old panels. That way if I want to go back to something original looking at some point I won't have made (another) mess for my future self to fix

Good news is that around here I can get away with it, even though strictly-speaking I shouldn't have tread outside the arches, they'd have to ticket a lot of jacked-up pick-ups as well as me ... and no need to go out in the rain

So, I've been stripping the front suspension to get it up off the bump-stops … Found out why … Didn't need the compressor



Also found out that the grease port was blocked on the LH top-arm …



As you can see I had to cut through the pin to get it out, which wasn't too bad once I resigned to it, and anyway the rebuild kit will sort it out.

Here are the 1971 1275GT drive shafts and hubs, the disks are decent, I'll take a closer look as I clean it all up. Full caliper rebuild, some scrubbing and a lick of paint for all the bits coming up next. I still want to keep as many original parts as I can, where it makes sense.



Once I had both sides stripped out I could get a closer look at the panels, which are OK, but not perfect. Problem is I've been reading too many of the rebuild posts on here, so now I've decided to "go backwards to go forwards" as it were, and strip the shell to get it all done properly. You folks all do such thorough work it inspired me to have a go.

Next up, drop the subframe and engine (car is already lifted about high-enough to do that). I already have most of the interior out so I can inspect the floors, etc., which seem good so far. I hope this doesn't become a multi-year effort

As I get started I have a question for the group ... My car has the 1971 1275GT brake servo. If the past predicts the future I'll be whipping the engine out fairly often for various things and it's kind of in the way for lifting the engine. Should I ditch the servo? I see online opinions in both camps.

Cheers,
Mike.

North Oxfordshire was my hunting ground 1987-92 as well. I had various Minis including a red 1970 plate 1275GT and a green/white Mark 1 'S'. Smiths of Bloxham was the best yard, acres of scrap cars - lots of Minis and we had the last of the 1300's as well. Both Peter and Tommy Smith were gruff characters but you could always get a good deal. Berinsfield yard was like the Somme and L.C Hughes bloody expensive. I didn't really do the other yards much.
Via the parts blokes and mechanics at Hartwells in Kidlington I got to know who was who with Minis and struck up a 20 year friendship with a bloke called Geoff Probitts in Kidlington who had a large collection of Cooper/S cars and parts - it was bloody hard getting him to part with any of it. He sadly passed on in 2005.

The other yards I visited was the huge one in Wantage (Haynes) and the now closed one in Newbury, Gordon Passey. Haynes was very cheap - I gave old man Haynes 60 quid and stripped a 1962 Mini Minor to a bare shell.

i do not fit a Servo, but i fit four pot calipers instead .. my preference is those 4Pots from Minisport ( despite their detractors which does include me) have found their 4 pots are good & less hastle than those obtained from MS which are also good but were not as easy to install.. whatever i have both Mini suppliers 4Pots on my cars & also needed fitting of those Brake Pad keeper things that keep the Pads off the Brake Disc to stop Pad on Disc rub noises. + always use Silicone Brake Fluid & that has never been an issue.
But then i am not a purist & just want the car to stop in an efficient manner

Where have all The Scrap Yards Gone .. Long time passing

I'm cracking on with stripping the shell, not too bad so-far, only had to resort to the grinder for two of the the rear bumper bolts. I have all the interior removed, boot cleared out, and all the glass out.



According the the BMIHT certificate it was originally Farina Grey, but whoever did the black conversion in the 80's actually did a decent job. I think I'll go back to original though, maybe with a black roof to pay homage to the 80's version.



Found a couple of bodges from younger me that I'll have to fix ...

The remote installation wasn't carefully thought out;



I'll take a look through the forum and find some pics of how this should look, I think my rough cut is smaller than needed, so hopefully I can open it up to the proper spec.

And the rear quarter aerial looked cool back in the day, but looks like I was late for the pub when I did it, using whatever drill/file I could find.



I'll be able to patch that up, no need for an aerial these days, I prefer to listen to the car as my music.

Next up is to drop the engine/subframe and then the rear subframe, leaving the empty shell. I'll strip around the areas that look rough and decide if I want to send it away for a full strip or just do it myself. I'm liking doing as much as I can myself, it seems the right thing to do after all these years.

Cheers,
Mike.

CaliforniaMk1 wrote: ↑Sun May 10, 2020 6:44 am

Found a couple of bodges from younger me that I'll have to fix ...

Yup, I find those ones most frustrating. My van is full of

"Who the hell did THAT?!? "

Oh, yeah. oops.



Glad to see you are making progress, and it's all looking pretty straightforward.

Al

I wonder if the first owner, who took delivery of it 60 years ago, is still alive - and could have possibly imagined that the car is still around and now in the United States.