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SP450andLE's Austin Mini 1000 LE


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Discussion here: //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/30253-sp450andles-austin-mini-1000-le/

Well, this is my Mini Build.

It’s a 1976 Austin Mini 1000 LE, in pimento red.

The interior is almost standard, except I have replaced the front seats with some better condition ones from a later LE (I still have the standard ones), and have fitted arm rests from a Renault r12, and a custom-painted steering wheel (pretty shoddy, tbh)

The engine is slightly tuned, with a free flow manifold and rather large exhaust… :thumbright:

The body is getting rough, with some pretty dodgy paint touch-ups, and quite a few dents, along with a little bit of rust here and there – some nice patina. But it still shines like a shiny thing… :lol:


Future plans:

Install 1100 engine, because the old one is tired and in need of a resto

Paint up the 4.5x10” Cooper S Reverse steelies in Old English White, and fit these to them: http://www.minisport... ... 032RS.html

Do the interior up in Old English white with pimento details (piping etc). Maybe a different colour carpet to break it up a little. I will most likely re-con 2nd hand interior parts to keep cost down.

Eventually a repaint in the standard colour scheme

LOWER IT

Fit Old English White retro roof racks

Fit black bonnet (possibly fibreglass) with scoop and a different badge (watch this space…)

Possibly fit wheel arches – either group 2 or something custom made…


And that’s about it. Basically, I only want to do things that can still allow the car to be returned to original – i.e. I will keep all original interior etc.


Piccies:

Interior.jpg

DSC_0077.jpg

DSC_0073.jpg

DSC_0055.jpg

IMG115.jpg

IMG119.jpg

IMG107.jpg


Chur :mrgreen:

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

^^ Is it possible for a mod to move the above 2 posts to my SP450 discussion thread?

Anyway, I did some stuff.

I took things off.

DSC02916.jpg

And cleaned things.

DSC02915.jpg

DSC02919.jpg

Then someone came round and agreed to buy my brothers Mazda. Which means we soon have no spare car for me to use :(

So my Mum suggested I do more stuff. So I did.

DSC02922.jpg

DSC02921.jpg

DSC02920.jpg

DSC02924.jpg

The engine is pretty much painted, just needs bits put back on with new gaskets to make it look nice and complete. I'll then get the 'bay done quick-smart so I can drop the powerplant in and get it to my standards in the running department (which is basically just 'so long as it drives and doesn't die too often' :wink: ).

This is basically a photo update, because words don't agree with me right now. :lol:

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Right, I'm getting sick of not being my usual slack self - I have done more stuff :lol:

I've carried on painting bits, and bolting them back onto the engine. So it now looks like this: DSC02932.jpg

The rocker cover is only a temporary one, will eventually go back to body colour. And a lot of the silver bits will become Old English White.

And here's a quick pic of the original mini carb, and the nicely cleaned 1100 one :D

DSC02931.jpg

I'll be painting this coming weekend hopefully, CarColours forgot to give us hardener, so we have to wait for that, and the booth is pretty much full 'till the weekend anyway.

Luckily I have pretty much got the engine ready, 'cos now I have got another job, working on the boat right next to the one I got (kind of)fired from working on :lol:

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IT LIVES!!!!

Vids to be uploaded tomorrow, but we got it running this evening, after a long day of doing stuff, buying stuff,doing more stuff, buying stuff we forgot to buy in the first place, doing stuff, and fixing stuff we did wrong.

But we got there in the end.

It runs ok. Will put in new points, condensor, rotor, plugs, reset the timing & fuel mixture and play round with all that stuff.

Was pretty surprising how well it ran, tbh. The fuel in the car was at least 6months old, and had been sitting in the tank not doing anything for all that time. Might have been a mix of 95 and 98 too, so not even decent fuel :lol:

Pic of completed engine bay:

DSC02985.jpg

Hah, just noticed one hinge is still masked up :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Relatively boring update...

This has been running nicely, got to Kumeu and back no problems.

Drive up to Kaiwaka (Dad's place) and leaned the fuel off a bit there, as it was uber-rich. Drove back nicely. The drive up was awesome, Dad in his R19 going pretty quick, me behind in the Mini also going pretty quick. I think we scared a few holiday-makers :oops::lol:

Then I drove it down to Meremere and back for the 4&rotary nats drags. It ran awesome the whole time, even climbed up the bombays close to the speed limit in 4th gear! :shock:

Some lady took a photo (from the passengers seat of a car) of us on the motorway going down the drags, was kinda strange lol.

I'm getting sick of trying to judge my speed by ear when cops go past, need to get the speedo working soon :lol:

Had to move the alternator over, as the belt was being stretched a bit (and was super loose too, despite being tightened previously).

So chucked some washers in like so:

IMG034.jpg

So belt now looks like this:

IMG035.jpg

Much better :D

I've also been tightening things up to try and stop the various leaks.

And there's heaps of mayonnaise appearing in the oil filler cap, probs just from when I waterblasted the engine. I'll be putting a different rocker cover on soon, so I'll most likely do another oil change then too, so the mayo will probs stop appearing then (it's not overheating or using any fluid).

Also, one of our cats scratched me:

IMG005-1.jpg

Little poop :lol:

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  • 2 weeks later...

More alternator problems :rolleyes:

It keeps coming loose, probably due to a lack of a washer on the slidy adjuster thingy. Yeah.

So a simple fix, probably tomorrow mornings job :wink:

Have been at my Dad's for a while. Ran nice going up, ran nice while up there, and ran nice back. So pretty happy.

Trip back was interesting though, one lady gave me the finger, and another wagged her finger at me. Strange. I should make a note to go faster next time so I don't see these finger-flipping/wagging women :lol:

Also, a new noise started, sounded a bit like a cicada. Annoyed the hell out of me.

Turned out it was a cicada.

Also, belt started slipping real bad when I pulled up to some lights in Albany, so I sprayed some belt grip stuff my Dad gave me, fixed it for the short trip home.

Driving videos to come sometime in the future.

Discuss etc: //oldschool.co.nz/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=28143

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have good and bad news.

Good news:

I have found why the drivers footwell becomes a puddle when it rains/when I wash the car.

Bad news:

Because rust...

P1000470.jpg

So I'll get rid of that at some stage soon.

For now I'll stick some brunox on it, as well as the patches of surface rust on the floor. And I'll whack out the sizeable dents on the footwells too.

More piccurs:

P1000476.jpg

P1000474.jpg

P1000472.jpg

Discusssssssss:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=28143

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  • 3 weeks later...

I took the right rear drum off today. Came off nice and easy, in a cloud of black dust.

So I decided that I'll have to go round the car cleaning/adjusting things before the nats.

The drum itself was pretty pitted in places, but it'll do for now. I'll replace with (hopefully) alloy ones in the future.

The pads were still pretty good, just need a light sanding.

I didn't actually do anything with the brakes, will do when i have time to actually work on both sides at once.

Pics to come later

Oh, and I weighed one of the cooper s steelies I have - 4.5 kg without a tyre. And then i weighed an alloy (the one I took off to get to the drum) and it was somewhere over 6 kg, it maxed out Mum's kitchen scales :lol:

So is a (skinny 10in) tyre likely to add that much weight? Or should I chuck steelies on pre-nats? I like the look of steelies anyway, so am inclined to swap wheels anyway. But opinions on this would be good.

And it has 6mm rear spacers -should I remove for added gymkhana win + added track fun/inevitable crashes?

Ahh, that's it for now.

Time for dinner, then St paddy's celebrations!

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Bit of a sad update...

Took the head off, 'cos the gasket was long gone. Wanted to get it crack tested and amchined down a bit, so took it into the shop.

The guy had a look at it and said "was it running real rough?"

I replied "nah, it wasn't too bad"

Then he said "Really? 'cos those valves are the most recessed I've seen on a vehicle for a while!"

So I said "oh."

And yeah, turns out it needs a full overhaul, 4 valve seat inserts, decoking, seats & valves machined and something to dow ith grinding something.

Bye bye $700, hello -$400 in my bank.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Rightyoh mah hoe....s, got the head back today.

So this is what was done...

:arrow: Strip head

:arrow: Crack test

:arrow: Supply and fit 8 valve guides

:arrow: 4 valve seat inserts

:arrow: Reface 8 seats

:arrow: Reface 8 valves

:arrow: Replace one exhaust valve (as the one that was already in it was apparently from an 850, and I was lucky it hadn't gone all kamikaze-spec. Damn shoddy previous owner!)

:arrow: Reface head

:arrow: Final wash, fit new seals, assemble head.

To the total of $720.

So poor now.

I'll try get the thing running again this weekend, so long as I don't die from uni assignment overload in the meantime :lol:

Discuss etc: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=28143

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  • 1 month later...

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