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1963 Morris Mini


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Got her home and gave her a nice clean out. Found a few beer bottles, packs of empty smoke cartons, socks, gloves, 20c and a semi scratched dvd of The Bucket list. Apparently has an A-Series 1300cc metro in it

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Not to bad at first glance but soon found a few rust holes but surprisingly not to shabby.

-Rust hole in battery box

-Rust holes in drivers side sill

-Rust near FR headlight

-Rust holes above grill

-Cracks along FR wing (looks a tad rusty under it)

-Leak in FL wheel

-Broken gas key still in cap

-Rust inside passengers floor (seems to leak)

-FR indicator apparently doesn't go after guy had a fiddle

-No brakes at all apparently (came with a box of worn cylinders and valves)

-Most likely more to come

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started looking at the rust areas grinding them back to find such things as

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Not to bad really from what i've seen so far. Brothers coming over to bring his cutting discs and mig to weld a new seal :)

Pumped the tire up so its not just sitting on its rim.

Also tried to get it started....but to no avail...Going to buy some new points and rotor for the distributor see if she appreciates the small gifts I get her

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Well brother came around had a hack at it....and these are the results:

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Bit of a cut into the floor....bout the length of the rusted seal itself :?

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Bit more in there than I actually thought

Well he ran out of cutting discs and the welder pretty much didn't go so will most likely just be a large part of the car missing

for awhile. Hopefully this weekend or next the mig will be operational and that should solve most of the large rust problems.

Also went and tried to hunt down some wheel cylinders for the rear...Took longer than I thought to find some but Repco seemed

to know what they were talking about and I got the 2 rear for $42, new points and rotor...which also took awhile as for some reason they

had no idea what it was, same with the rotor and condenser....only if I thought of bringing the whole distributor in first.

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Well the points fitted quite nicely but...the rotor....seems like they gave me the 43D/45D rotor which seems to be a bit longer and completely different shape

so in a matter of seconds couldn't take the pressure and split in half....luckily the cap and the rest of it is fine.

Goodbye $20

Been looking at new 25D distributors with the electric ignition instead found a kit that has all the parts or a complete ranging from $120-$180nzd inc. postage from the UK

Perhaps in future a good investment so I won't have to push start it so much.

The cylinders took fit...even tho it was about a day to try get the pin and screws off the drum. The shoes were rather....worn to say the least

hence the box of brake parts I discovered 4 reasonable shoes to put back on.

Thinking about it now I may have to go back and look at them....May have put them back together a bit wrong...also missing a spring or 2 and a spacer

(which looks like a square of metal the guy put back in there because he lost the originals)

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Been pretty bored waiting for money to flow into my account so I can buy some extra parts... and a battery

sat down tried to sand what seems to be some type of exhaust paint on the grill, bout 5 hours worth of sanding

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Black won't come off so I thought meh I'll see what it looks like ground down and primed

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Didn't come out to bad bit flakey on the inners but hardly noticeable

Also thought the little wing mirror could do with a touch up

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Not to shabby now to ask the bro nicely to use his spray gun to give it a nice black finish

Also saw the car doesn't have any horn system so I bought a mini horn to throw in till I find

some outrageously loud air horns or train siren like on Goodbye Pork Pie

But this will have to do

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Also thought this would be useful and cheap

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Just sold my mountain bike so there's the money to fix the front brakes and finally get her to run....hopefully :?

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Also took both door cards off might give them a clean redo the wooden card as at some stage in its life it has become wet.

Also spotted a stamp on the back saying

Fabco industries ltd

22MAR1973

Wellington

Kinda suits the non-original doors and windows tho bit more room....would be nice to get her original tho

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Played around with the non going indicator.......it now works!!! but for how long...the connection might need better tending too...

seal is a bit of a mission trying to fit the chrome surround and glass cover back on...

measured the the gap in the points cleaned up some plugs...Got given a brand new coil from the brother he was going to put on his minor

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which can be found there^^^

Seems to be getting a bit neglected after his new found play truck

With the new coil cleaned plugs and original rotor (still don't know if it even needs replacing) and brand new points.....she doesn't want to go...

Back to the drawing board I suppose

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Pretty much haven't done much really but I did buy a new battery....then had to carry it home after getting the wrong bus not sooo fun

Also tried to suss out the source of where the car isn't starting which i'm extremely certain its the leads due to the fact that the lead between the coil and dizzy isn't getting any power to it at all....Bought another handbook so hopefully that one shows me the wiring loom and might begin progress on that once I have the book and funds.

Also maybe getting a powermax rotor to go in the dizzy just to give it a bit more of a reliable start hopefully

not much of an update on the car really...but I did manage to draw and paint some decently accurate by my painting standards of the mini and one the choice of colour the gf likes

Just waiting on the brother to weld my floors then I'll jack the front check the wheel cylinders and pads...hopefully not to much replacing needs to be going there...also put the back drums back together properly as I left a spring out :?

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Here are some photo updates....not much really just new coil, battery, gauges that came with the car that I forgot about, the water damage on the door cards, small sanding on the gear stick frame and my wicked draw/paintings of the mini

New coil

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Engine bay (leads will soon be replaced with ones that work!

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Lovely new battery so much easier to test things now rather than a jumperpack :doubt:

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Stamp on the door car plus the water damage so this means I have to replace the wood otherwise the doors stick out

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My awesome painting of what the car looks like now....Should enter this in a kids drawing competition (also yes I suck at drawing wheels)

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Dellorto carb

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Also some guages the guy had in the car....They weren't even hooked up but i'll probably just sell them anyway and find a smiths taco

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This is about all I've done lately just waiting for Tori to weld my car up and for me to stop being sick....Soon as the weather becomes nice too

Will finally get around to doing something maybe clean out the carb or try fit the dellorto one on or see how she sizes in there, maybe take out

the heating system still in there unless I find a heater motor then its warm driving from here on in!! 8)

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Well flatmates boyfriend who is a mechanic looked at it can't do much since I don't even have a bulb tester...but he seems to think it could be the leads also maybe find some copper ones or something.

Also todays accomplishments.....finding out how to take the fan heater module out of the car...to my amazement I didn't realize that you just loosen the nuts and slide it out....should have looked first huh. But still deciding if I want to go find a heater motor to actually power it and make it work for that extra warmth in winter instead of being trapped in a somewhat small icebox

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Well todays progress consisted of checking the volatge around the dizzy to see whats going wrong there...not much found its pretty crazy might just give it a bit of a wash, grinding and cutting rust, welding the cut holes, taking the seat out see how the floor is also taking some old foam deadening out

Also bought this, hopefully will show me a bit more about the car and wiring

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Finally got that heater unit removed

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not quite sure yet if I want to put it in the shed for later so I can put it back in at sometime or just sell it off

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Took the guard off to see what lurks behind

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And this is what I found, Just a bit of a carry on from the front of the wing near the headlight

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Which got cut out today

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Resulting hole

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Don't go looking for rust...because you will most likely find it, bit of a brush down lather up with some rustkill of some type and fill the wing seam

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Hand & eye sized up with a bit of hand bending, who ever said we need proper tools and machines?

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Apart from that the floor and sill got welded up few small bits need to be finished but not bad might make some sill vents back in it to make it look legit

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Also got a new powermax rotor to ease the start ups hopefully but apart from giving it all a wash clean all the connections maybe trace some wire

all I can think of now at the moment but if anyone knows much about wiring you're welcome to have a stab as it's not going anywhere fast

Also on agenda...find wire to connect new horn so I can atleast wait for people to walk past and toot at them

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Well todays effort was somewhat... not very advancing turned out to be more of a scout mission

First of all i soaked the dizzy in some warm water and washing powder to get rid of the massive amounts of scum

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Came out looking pretty nice instead of covered in black grease and dirt

then outside to jack the car up (brother kindly gave me a hydrolic jack.....why I no have one before?!)

started cleaning out the drum brakes and actually putting them back together properly but to my amazement I only have

two of the actual springs I'm suppose to use but I have these for the front ones i'm not quite sure if they do the same job

because they have different shaped hooks so I guess I'll have to go hunt some down from somewhere

One on the left are the ones I need and I have 4 of the right ones

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Top of rear drum

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Bottom of rear drum

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Also stupidly hard to find a diagram to even look at but at least the service manual I got was a decent help

(also its pages were practically brand new looking then i realized as I had black greasy hands I smeared them on the page...)

Also noticed one of the rear drum covers were rubbing...then spied myself a massive side difference and dent which i perused to bang out

Dented Side

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Non dented side

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Also I'm not quite sure if that gap is suppose to be that huge compared to the other side

The new red Powermax rotor to the old original

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Powermax one looks a bit....roughly made

But one thing that was found and had a homejob done on it was seeing that the points were sitting on the dizzy plate and possibly earthing to that and losing power

so from the old set of points the plastic was broken cut to be flat and drilled a bit bigger then screwed to bridge a gap between them....this will hopefully sort the problem....hopefully!

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More of a noticeable side gap near my fingers

So apart from that I now have 1 rear working brake/handbrake and a hopefully functional clean distributor.

Also on my adventures of being in the wheel well I spied some surface rust which might need to be treated.

Next few days will consist of budgeting how much new front cylinders are (if they even have the right sizes) new springs if the others don't seem to do anytype of good

fixing the numberplate lights which I spied today fiddling with parts as I went around the car and maybe cleaning up the lights since they seem a bit weak...possibly bad connections, wires are fried or bulbs had enough and become knackered

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Well I checked the prices of new brake shoes today pretty cheap bout 35 for 2 pairs so thats sweet still no idea on cylinders for the front tho hopefully not to much...

Went and bought 4 new sparkplugs for her today.....which was a well invested amount on $28

looked at the points gap and timing pretty much did it by eye and changed a few leads around and wallah SHE LIVES!!!! bit smokey from the ehaust gasket as in....a lot due to oil burning so will throw the one i bought for it the other day hopefully solve the problem

Least now all i need is a few cosmetic touch ups and front brakes and shes hopefully on the road once again!!

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Well after 3-4 days of trying to get the exhaust heads off to replace the gasket...and much much wriggling of the whole exhaust system it finally got replaced!

Runs like a beaut bit loud tho....might not be so legal

Really only needs a new airfilter join so it actually runs smooth and probably an actual carb manifold that fits instead of having to eye it up and screw it on

Also finally got my grease gun so many nipples are to be lubricated!

few things still to fix:

-Wheel cylinders for the front

-New brake shoes (optional but most likely a good idea)

-New oil filter & oil

-Buy a single wheel nut....it was missing one :s

-Tune the engine

-Weld rest of sill on

-Weld the battery box hole

-Weld the front holes up and remove dent above grill

-Possibly get a new muffler

-Cut and replace front bumper panel so it doesn't look like swiss cheese

-Fix lights so they work properly including all indicators

-Clean up steering column wires so Horn actually works

-Bare metal the right wing/front right panel then rust primer bog and paint

-Get a pot of paint made so I can actually paint the car

-Few cosmetic bits here and there

and most likely more to come as it starts driving on the road (and possibly breaking down)

But yay first stage pretty much complete, after its road legal slowly restore her back to an original state and looking smooth

Also might try get a video of it running with its current exhaust just to see how it goes

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well it's been a stupidly long amount of time since i've done really anything to it did have a few pics but turns out my computer decided to wipe all traces of them so thats fun... but here is some pics of some bits i have done and much much more to come since yay a job that I get money to sink into this project!

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The old gasket which is now replaced and running much better

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Cleaned up the inside of the mini ready to sand and repaint the interior with anti rust paint also make it looks more snazzy

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The carpet that was in it...rather shabby seen carpets from autodec but they are straight haired fluffy carpet. Anyone know where to get the original loop carpet type from?

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Painted the inside up looks better but is now covered by the carpet and seat anyway...but does make it easier to work on when its not hidious

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Then i went and sanded out the rusty bubbled areas of the panels which is actually only the front wings sanded them down...noticed some imperfections so recovered it and starting to sand it smooth ready for a primer coat

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But in other news all brakes are now on but rather ran into a problem...might need to rekit the master cylinder or something due to the fact when i went to bleed it nothing came out for awhile then one single drip came from one valve...leaving the brake pedal to have no resistance at all and feels like its not even attached to anything

-Still need to attach my horn and get it working

-Strip boot repaint it all with the rust paint and clean out the tank and fuel pump filter

-fix the choke in place as the whole dash piece comes out when you touch it

-secure the throttle cable as it jsut falls out for no reason

- and possibly much much more...but soon as the brakes are working and my new ramflo filter comes this week i'll drive it to the brothers and finish welding the amounts of holes around it maybe see if he has some stands i can take the subframe out in the rear as its looking rather....unloved and rusty

Untill I find a camera that doesn't wipe my photos and have money to put into it next week I bid you adue

(also been looking at turbos....maybe to much right now focus on getting it actually road legal first perhaps)

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Picture-less update cause my stupid SD card reader in my comp died....most like every other piece in my computer slowly breaking

Well first things first bought a few new treats for herl ike a ramflo filter (turns out doesn't really fit...so might just get a sidedraft carb or something maybe a pair of twins or even try fit this dellorto carb unless anyone wants to buy that and the filter probably just huck em up on trademe) also a set of wheel nuts...turns out they are for steelies so they don't fit onto my wheels...even tho I actually only needed one wheel nut.

Horn still needs to be attached should only take an hour or something to figure how to mount the thing

Change its oil and filter (people don't want me to do it here due to the fact i'll probably spill it all over their nice driveway)

sand down my bogging jobs around the car and probably respray it at some time (anyone know how much it costs to get a mini resprayed?)

Finish welding and cutting the part of rust that are half attended too which will need to be driven up to the brothers and get him to do it there so he doesn't have to lug it all down here on his truck of doom

Find a carb or airfilter that actually works and fits...and tune it up and watch her roar

Also fill the gas tank...rather empty least it will be less messy to clean out the fuel filters and de-attach the tank and give it a paint

All I can think of at the moment apart from some crummy cosmetic stuff and then hopefully take her in for a WOF either pass or see the large amount of stuff that fails...

Till next time muchahos

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  • 1 month later...

Well I got a few things for it like a smaller air filter - the air filter itself...doesn't fit the carb either so....i'll just homejob up a pipe... was going good nearly got the horn going until it somehow made things worse and I had to rebuild the whole steering column wires

and just a minor setback....of the throttle cable somewhat breaking now not fitting...time for a new one me thinks

Tried tuning it both methods its either I just plain suck or my mate does :D thought I had it going untill i started it up before and a few flames etc were trying to melt my face off

Planning on moving to aussie in January so its either I rush to finish it over christmas and get it road legal...maybe sell it...rather not or hide it away in a shipping container of potatos to Australia and take it for a burn there

Will get more pics of it after I actually finish sanding the hideous parts of bog smeared across its once good looknig body

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