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It doesn’t do to get bored. Yet again this project found me. I wasn’t looking for another project - honest. What I have landed up with is a 1973 complete but fully dismantled 1275 GT. The original unpleasant Blaze colour (orange to normal mortals) has been covered first with an equally nasty yellow to be finally resplendent in nappy gold.
Trailering it north over Drumochter on the A9 through a blizzard courtesy of Storm Arwen yesterday was entertaining. This morning posed its own problem. How to get a complete engine unit out of the back of the car when it took four bods to lift it in and now there is just me.
Pirate fashion it had to walk the plank.
Then I broke it down into manageable units.
Getting the unit apart unhappily revealed that the pistons are seized in the block. That then is the next task. You have to start somewhere.

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Bloody Mini virus just wont clear up will it David

Well its whole lot better condition wise than the '70 GT my mate has just taken on.

Looks a great project.

Be interested to hear the gearbox casing casting number.

Rare to see a Blaze 1973 car with a solid remote box....?

Early 73 as they went to rod sometime in 73 I thought ?

Yes February 73. Proper round tunnel.

I have had the block apart as the crank was seized. It turned out to be a frozen piston in number 2 bore but none of the others were much better. I got them all out eventually but two of the rods are rusted and the lobes of the camshaft eaten away. The crank is not bad 20 u/s mains and 30 u/s big ends and they look in good shape. The bores appear to be standard. I think the engine has sat since not long after the crank was redone. I must go and splash some oil around the engines of my other cars or they will suffer a similar fate.
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I have a few sets of rods if you need any

All the internals want chucking in a skip. There are still enough good A+ 1275 cranks, rods etc and new pistons are inexpensive.

hi david
it must be getting cold up in the deep north it is fun driving through snow storms here in australia we do not get that very often but when we decided to move back home from orange nsw i had taken a big load of things home on o big trailer and on the return trip it snowed from lithgow all the way back to orange except when we were going through bathurst to low for snow also it was night time as well but you must do it a lot it has been raining here for about 2 weeks our yard is a swamp i decided to do some work on the clubman on friday better than that zx9 which i will be glad to get it out of here as it is taking up space but i started to get the gearbox 1800 ready for putting in so i can work out the drive shafts they will be short as it has those long steel uni joints from the auto box so i need to get this set up with the discs in place then i can get the length for the cut and weld and sleeve
the new straight cut diff gears fitted perfectly
the rover v8 i got last was well stuck in the bores i had to tap the crank webs to turn the engine over then flog the pistons out they were realy stuck the oil was like molasses but the crank was fine and the bores will maybe need a first over size i hope
well cheers and good luck with the new mini mine is a 1972 other wise it would be impossible to do the v8 with out all the pollution gear
cheers roger mcnab

I’ve just checked over the subframes and they will be fine. The rear one is stamped Firsat and has a sales sticker on it. A replacement then but odd to find a Firsat subframe on a British car. Firsat supplied to Innocenti I seem to recall. Did Firsat date their subframes?
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Dearg1275 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 12:41 pm I’ve just checked over the subframes and they will be fine. The rear one is stamped Firsat and has a sales sticker on it. A replacement then but odd to find a Firsat subframe on a British car. Firsat supplied to Innocenti I seem to recall. Did Firsat date their subframes?

AA377E10-77FB-491B-BECD-CE28E08E48FA.jpeg

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I also had a Firsat rear Subframe on a 72 Pickup…

Probably shipped in when Rubery Owen were on strike.

Yes the whole country was on strike then, coal, steel, railways, builders, everyone.

This got to Number 2 in February 1973. A mickey take on the agitators determined to bring UK industry down.

https://www.google.com/search?q=strawbs ... nt=gws-wiz


The big Rubery Owen strike was March-April 1973 after this one was built.

Andrew1967 wrote: ↑Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:51 pm Bloody Mini virus just wont clear up will it David

Well its whole lot better condition wise than the '70 GT my mate has just taken on.

Looks a great project.

Be interested to hear the gearbox casing casting number.

This is all there is Andrew. No stamping on the casing.
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Thanks David

Looking forward to following this project.

Same here David. I'm interested in following this too. There's something nice about the little 1275 GT. The bronze yellow/black markings one in Mab's recent photo just did it for me. Yes......, nice

Arden 8 port and webers ?

I think a 1275GT in Blaze would look "the Dogs Nuts" An early 1275GT needs to be one of those bright lairy 1970s colours and Blaze is top of the tree for me Great project David.

251 ENG wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 9:35 pm Arden 8 port and webers ?

Do not tempt me. However the camshaft needs a replacement. Is that a fork in the road? Hmmm

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+1 for blaze We have 2 and it is a quality colour on the Clubman
It's also dearg