"barnfind" 1969 saloon. "Cooperified"

[Miniminor63]

Hello all,

I have not been active on this forum for a while as I have worked with different cars for a while. This find will however bring me back into minis again

I received a call where I was offered this car.

It is a deluxe 1969 MK2 saloon, originally a white car.

The owner figured he could not finish the car being almost 80 years of age now. He used to own an original cooper around 1970, which he sold, but missed terribly. He then acquired this car, and wanted to build it to be a replica of his old one.

The car was dismantled, painted in almond green/white and lots of new parts where acquired. This was in 1990. The car was then thereafter never finished.

The car is still on original floors and sills. The engine is a rebuilt cooper 998 replica with a ported 295 hear, twin H2S etc, cam unknown but will be investigated. It has cooper S brakes etc as well.

The car also comes with lots of interesting parts like:
2 x pristine Marchal 720 lamps
2 x Bosch knick 180 lamps with covers

seat covers for the original seats with side bolsters. (needs a good clean and to be put on properly to remove the wrinkling)
Loads of instruments, including curved glass pointed beezel speedos etc
grille cover for winter driving.
original rubber mats
double sets of interiors
several sets of NOS ignition parts like champion plug connectors etc
NOS brake parts
Several gearboxes and blocks.

Some of the parts will be sold, but some will also be used on the car as it progresses.

The plan is to get it on the road for the summer.

[jay weinstein]

Very nice car.....congratulations !!!

[Peter Laidler]

That must be the barnfind of all barnfinds! That won't take you long miniminor.

I had a set of those side bolster type seats that collapsed along the side bolsters and the local trimmer in Oxford told me that they couldn't be fixed for some reason, Maybe he said couldn't be fixed eonomically. But he did tell me that the side collapse was caused by 1 of 2 reasons in his experience. Cheap seat covers or drivers with big arses! Phew......., luckily mine were cheap covers!!!

[W1NG3D]

That looks like a fantastic project!

[Miniminor63]

Thanks guys. Took the engine somewhat apart, there is a 997 cooper cam and the 295 head had some mild port work and 33 mm inlets and 28 exhaust valves. New Æ 020 pistons, looks good, i just wanted to confirm the cam before I give it a dyno run.

[AndyPen]

What a great discovery, even the floor numbers are still there

[iain1967s]

Always find it strange that someone goes to the effort of doing all the hard work - shell reconstruction, painting, engine building - and then doesn't do what is actually the easy/fun/rewarding part of screwing it all back together.

Looks like a great project; nice to see it's still on hydrolastic. Good luck and hope to see plenty of updates here on your progress!

ps. What's going on with the battery cable - is it heat wrapped or similar - looks very strange.

[Peter Laidler]

Agree entirely with your para 1 above Iain. I found/find it really therapeutic assembling it all up. My daughter was quite young when I did mine (and later with the Dolly Sprint and MGB GT V8) and we'd sit out in the garage for hours at a time. By the time we'd finished the S she was an expert with imperial spanner sizes and torque figures - and getting hands dirty while assembling all of the individual sub-assemblies. VERY happy days. The sad part was that while I thought she'd go on to uni too study Engineering like dad, she went to UMIST in Manchhester...... to study bloody French - while all her pals were studying engineering!

[Miniminor63]

Thats funny Peter! A part of the reason why I bought this was the 10 year old daughters huge interest in joining me on the assembly work!

[111Robin]

Very nice find indeed, grab them while you can, becoming very difficult to find genuine cars like this, enjoy the rebuild.

[SamHalstead]

What a great discovery, even the floor numbers are still there

Floor numbers?? I just wish mine had a floor!

[Miniminor63]

What a great discovery, even the floor numbers are still there

Floor numbers?? I just wish mine had a floor!

Thats the most common situation and the only situation I have ever been in before!

[Miniminor63]

Well. A rather large order has gone in to the local minispares parts dealer for some parts to complete this.

I have gone over the brakes, replaced the discs and refurbished the front calipers. I also replaced 2 brakes pipes (still original steel ones!) and replaced the brake hoses. The brakes are now ready except for a master cylinder. The old one was unfortunately seized and beyond refurbishment so a new shiny one it will be.

The wiring has also been looked through, and the car will be converted to negative ground, it makes it easier with some additional stuff and also fuel pump replacement.

Lastly I decided to tackle the one single bad place/bodge on the body, which was the inner wing/inner a panel on the left side.

I have successfully managed to cut all the rot out without touching the outer a panel/patinated paint. I should be able to sort out a decent repair on this using structural body glue where the inner wing meets the a post and where the inner and out a panels meet, the rest will be welded as original. Before anything will be glued together all the surfaced will be acid threated to remove the surface rust.

I know this is not according to original standards, but it will be a good sound repair, and will allow the nice patina to be kept and the car to be used. I think the condition of this car defends keeping it on the road instead of taking it off the road for a nut and bolt restoration, too much of the soul will be removed if that is done.

[Miniminor63]

Then its time for an update.

The a panel/inner wing is sorted and the engine is in (I am still waiting for the head gasket, thus no exhaust or carbs yet).

Door gaps is spot on and there is no real lower rear push out of door issues on this one, which is good seals where new in 1991 and have not been used. I also did not need to faff around much to get the doors to fit like this, pretty much put them on and tighten the bolts.

The interior is also 99%, I will just need to mount the screen wash once I have a couple of nozzles for it.






Also, funny enough the car had an ugly aftermarket indicator relay, but I found that the small square thing in a spot welded bracket just next to it was also a indicator relay, which worked!



Everything will receive a real good clean and shine before its going out much.
To sum it up I am hoping the car will be on the road by next week for use this summer

[Miniminor63]

Well, the car is on the road and is registered. We had the cars first trip in 33 years or so yesterday. Decided to be a bit risk happy, so brought the entire family of 4 without bringing any tools for a 40 minute trip.

The last push to get it roadworthy and MOTed happened this weekend. It was not without events. The steering rack decided to develop inner play after some quick test trips on farm roads, so that needed replacing. Also, a bit worse, the engine was suddenly without compression on one cylinder.

Head of, and turned out the previous owner had put large valves (1275 ones ) in the 295 head, so when it was hot/revved the one valve just touched hit the edge of the bore... The reason for just 1 I guess is inconsistencies in valve clearance, lift, or valve recess.

New valve lapped in, and engine greased/taped off, 1.3 mm deep pockets machined on all 4 and engine put back together.

All good now, and the summer driving can commence

Rest scope:

-Look into the typical hydro issue of low front, high rear. Possible swap around on the hydrobags?
-Fit original cooper airfilter box instead of the noisy conical K&N's that are on there now.
-Some tuning to make it go a bit better, needs the choke pulls slightly on low load cruising now. Have been running with AFR gauge, so its spot on power runs (with GY needles).

[miniminor]

Great project, enjoy.
Got any pictures of the bonded/glued repair? Interested to see how that turned out.

[Miniminor63]

Sure, its not the best pictures, bit of a difficult place to photograph.

I cut out and used an acid treatment to treat the surface rust what was on the out a panel.

Then I welded the inner wing repair to the inner A panel (while bolting the inner a panel to the outer through the holes.





I then welded it in on the inner wing, and glued it to the A post on the edge where they are originally spot welded together (very sparsely from factory at only 5 spots ). I then also used the same glue to glue the inner to the outer A panel. It leaves a small edge where the inner A panel remainder meets the new one, so not a PERFECT repair, but with the car being freshly painted and in remarkably nice condition I did not want to repaint the entire thing to make it look as good as it does now.

Finished repair result (bar the missed bit towards the top):

[kevs 1961 mk1]

nice repair ,thatl keep you on the road for a while , cars looking gr8 mate

[Dr S]

Tidy repair that. Mine had a gate hinge bent round to do the same job at one point in time....

[Miniminor63]

thanks guys!