The Register

The E-Newsletter of The Mini Register

April 2008

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New Members

We would like to extend a very warm welcome to The Mini Register to:

Neil & Derek Lynds, Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada

Neil and Derek have owned their blue and white 1977 Mini 1000 (Mr Bean) for 12 years and have rebuilt just about everything. The interior is original whereas the engine has been bored out .030 thou and has had a mild cam fitted. The other change from standard are a set of Rostyle wheels.

Steven Steel, Dumfries, Scotland, UK

Steven's Mini is a 1998 Volcano orange Cooper Sports pack.

Craig Archer, Ightham, Kent, UK

At the other end of the age scale is Craig's red 1963 Mini Cooper.

Neil & Nadine Gavin, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, Wales, UK

Neil and Nadine's 1977 Mini Clubman is bronze with a brown roof. It is fitted with a Stage 1 kit, Hif 44 carb and mild street cam. It rides on 10 inch Minilite wheels and the new beige interior is supplemented by a walnut dash and a wooden steering wheel

"My name is Neil Gavin , I have been a Mini fan for a number of years I currently run a retro Mini Cooper look alike (period 60's style) everyday. The other cars I currently own are:

1. Mini Clubman 1977
2. Two minivans under restoration
3. 1959/1960 Austin Seven under complete restoration to original
4. Roof chopped Mini complete with full race 1380 engine and competition box, 8x13 deep dish wheels, deseamed, petrol cap and lights removed and filled, smooth boot, led small rear light clusters in the rear pillars, this car is very near to completion with only the dash and respray to complete
5. Mini city with body kit, nearly finished for my daughter"

Carol Falcon and Michael Parriss, Cardiff, Wales, UK

"Frankie the Clubman has a 1971 plate and was the first Mini I ever drove when I was 19 - we've had him 20 years. As a giggle I had 69's put on the side for my year of birth and had a union jack put on the roof, added some red leatherette seats and some alloy wheels. We paid 68 pounds for him back many years ago - he lives in Blackpool and my dad looks after him where he is garaged, my dad keeps getting offers from people wanting to buy Frankie but Dad's life would not be worth living if he was sold. I have such fun driving him around when I go to see my dad - I do have a red Mini One as well but cannot part with my old mini - the old mini has only done about 35,000 genuine miles, he is a little tatty inside but I love him - in the Summer he will be moving to Cardiff to be with me......"

Jacques Vanas, Johannesburg, South Africa

Jacques recent acquisition is a 1971 Austin Mini in yellow with a white roof. It is standard at present but he has plans...

"I want to build up this Mini because it is a life long dream I had, but now that I have it I am not sure how to modify it and what route to go. I would like to race it"

George and Rob Harrison, Mere, Wiltshire, UK

"Fire Breathing Dragon" is a great name for a 1989 Mini City E, particularly one without any engine mods! George and Rob are resisting such changes at the moment in order to keep the insurance down, they would however like to put a Metro GTi engine in it in the future.

The Mini is in the garage at the moment in pieces, with the doors and bonnet, the boot hanging, and the engine ready to be stripped. The hardest job so far was taking the seat belt clip bolts off. They were stuck on hard.

Jack Barlow, Warrington, Cheshire, UK

Called "Morrice", Jack's yellow 1978 Clubman 1275 is a work-in-progress that is destined to be a 1400cc Tarmac Stage Rally Car. The engine is a 1380 with forged 73.5mm pistons, Titan 1.5 Roller Rockers, Longman head (big valves and ports) and Metro Turbo gearbox so far, and there is more to come.

Craig Rackham, Dereham, Norfolk, UK

Craig's British Racing Green 1992 Mini Cooper Sport is called Betty and at present is completely original with the exception of a pair of spot lights on the front.

"I'm new to the Mini scene, I've only had my Mini for 4 months and it is my first Mini, I wasn't sure if I would like it but it has grown on me very fast and now I wouldn't be without it. I use her everyday for work journeys and will hopefully will be spending money on her in the summer to give her a makeover and engine overhaul."

Peter Edges, Derby, Derbyshire, UK

With a name like "Gadget", it comes as no surprise that Peter's 1996 Mini Sprite is no longer standard. It has been fitted with a lightened flywheel and a K&N air filter, a big bore exhaust manifold and big bore back box. For the looks department, it has a ground lighting kit and hand made chequered roof.

Steve Mclellan, Blackpool, Lancs, UK

Steve's Electric Blue 2003 MINI Cooper called FLO and in addition to chrome trim items, it features these very effective graphics.

Stefano Corapi, Perugia, Italy

As you can see, Stefano owns a very smart 1973 Innocenti Mini Cooper 1300 export in Bianco Avorio (white) with a Nero (black) roof which he calls Pierino

The Mini is fitted with period 5 x 10 Canonica alloys with Yokohama A008 165/70 R10 tyres although Stefano also has a set of OZ wheels for the car. The engine, interior and body are all in original condition with the exception of a pair of Raydot period fog lights. To help with the standard look, the hi-fi system is semi-hidden and consists of a Clarion head unit  and 3 way compo by Hertz.

"I am a Inno enthusiast and share my passion thru the net forums of the UK, France and of course Italy. My Inno is a lil' beast and I enjoy much when drive it, in fact I use it daily."

Joe Dominelo, Frenchs Forest  NSW, Australia

Joe's 1967 Mk I Cooper S is Titanic Blue and is the process of a major rebuild, we look forward to news of its progress

Joe, the email you gave bounced, please get in touch

Malcolm Lategan, Pretoria, South Africa

Malcolm has owned his blue 1968 Wolseley since 1979. It was restored in 1984 and now sports a 1380 engine

Paul and Catherine Mcnair, Mallala, South Australia, Australia

Paul has bought a pink Mini Van which he is restoring for his baby daughter, this will be a challenge as he doesn't know anything about Minis

"I am a Morris Minor man,  looking for tips ( where do I start...how do you pull the motor out ) this front wheel drive stuff really scares me"

Peter DuPre, Indianola, Washington, USA

We have no details of a Mini for Peter

Clive Beasor, Wirral, Merseyside, USA

Clive is a born again Mini fan, he has just bought his blue Mini 35 (1994) although he has had Minis in the past

David Mulley, Swindon, Wilts, UK

David owns a white 1988 Mini City

Dale Sleight, Mebane, North Carolina, USA  

Dale would welcome some assistance from our New Zealand members, he has a white 1973 Morris Mini 1000 which is in original condition and has covered 73,000 miles from new.

"This Mini Came to the US about 6 years ago from New Zealand, still trying to find more about several very unusual things such as interior upholstery colors Greenish Gold and a Goldish Carpet. Can find no match or info on this,  everybody says red or black carpets only"

Kelly Stum, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, USA

Kelly own a  Pepper White 2006 MINI Cooper S

Members Update

Ron Jernigan

The detail in Ron's restoration of his 1966 Austin Cooper S is very impressive as these photos show

Russ Swift

When Russ is not traveling around the world with his stunt show, he has an excellent collection of Minis back home to enjoy

The red 1965 850 had one owner for 40 years

Looking remarkably like a Freestyle, this is actually an Onyx Tomcat.

The Riley Elf had one owner until 2006

The rally car is for sale.  It does not have a works history but is one chassis number away from one of Aaltonens Safari Car.  I am looking for a genuine works car (If I can afford one)

The convertible is chassis no 1 RSP. I used it for a TV commercial for a Radio Times competition.  They were giving one away as a prize.  Noel Edmonds appeared to be driving.

I converted it for Rover to use as a design study at Warwick University for their forthcoming cabriolet model.   

I also had chassis number 2 for a while. I sold that one to Ken Irwin.

The RSP picture is from the 1992 Rover Track Test brochure.  The car has never been registered and has a mileage of 250.  I still use it on an occasional display.  

I still run 2 MINIs for BMW and we also have the Autotest car that Paul and I used in British Championships

Under bonnet fire

John and Jane Wilson have brought a rather disturbing issue to our attention. Jane's Cooper was left parked outside the house when they were away, during this time it spontaneously bust into flames. luckily a neighbour spotted smoke coming from under the bonnet and called the Fire Brigade. After a certain amount of wrangling with the insurance company, the damage was fixed and BMW covered the cost.

John asked if anyone else had experienced the same problem and thanks to the power of the Internet and the minilist and BMW_MINI_Cooper forums, we found out that this was not an isolated incident and is apparently caused by a fault in either the power steering unit or the ABS.

the North American Motoring forum is compiling a list of affected cars

VOSA, responsible for MOTS etc in the UK, are also reported to be investigating the problem

Response from the Prime Minister

A recent petition on the 10 Downing Street web site was of particular interest to owners of classic Minis

"Several EU proposals across the years are dangerous to the classic car movement. One that has been under consideration is to ban the use of cars older than 10 years. Similarly, Edinburgh City Council is considering the banning of cars over 15 years old from the town centre. These, and similar, proposals directly threaten the classic car movement, and encourage the manufacture of new cars, with the attendent environmental issues of sourcing raw materials, manufacturing, distriuting and scrapping the spiralling supply of new vehicles."

The Prime Ministers answer was

"There is currently no proposal either at EU or domestic level to ban cars over a certain age.

Clearly, vehicle emissions are a concern not just from a local air quality perspective but, increasingly, due to their contribution to climate change. Therefore, the European Commission has proposed setting CO2 targets for car manufacturers, but these would only affect new cars. Also, the targets would be based on averages rather than enforced limits or bans.

There is also no EU or UK policy to provide incentives for scrapping old vehicles. A programme of incentives to phase out the most polluting vehicles was considered as part of the national Air Quality Strategy Review (June 2007). Two scenarios were modelled: the first considered incentives for the scrapping of all cars that were not compliant with the Euro 1 standard, while the second considered Euro 1 standard cars as well as all the pre-Euro cars. This analysis suggested that both scenarios would result in a large net cost to society and represented poor value for money, mainly due to the high cost of useful resources being destroyed (i.e. roadworthy cars being scrapped). This could also involve negative environmental effects, as the petition outlines. As a result, the Air Quality Strategy classified this measure as 'no longer under immediate consideration', which remains true today.

Local authorities are able to develop, implement and manage their own local air quality management schemes, allowing them to focus measures on priorities in their area. The Low Emission Zone (LEZ) operating in London is a prominent example. It currently applies to lorries over 12 tonnes, but will eventually apply to lighter vehicles such as large vans. However, cars, motorcycles and small vans (below 1.205 tonnes in unladen weight) are not affected. For the vehicles that are included, there is an exemption for 'historic vehicles' built before 1st January 1973."

Mini Reshell

This is the final part of Rich Wignall's article on the re-shelling of a Mini

Once all the new paint underneath had hardened fully, I sprayed liberal quantities of waxoyl in all areas, which are not easily accessible with the jet wash, also inside doors, sills and all other box sections.

After some very thorough final checks, I took the Mini on it's first road journey, to the garage for it's MOT, it's the first time I've ever made that the first journey for a restored car, but it ran perfectly, handled like a dream and passed with flying colours. I had already arranged for the MOT tester to adjust the headlamp beams on his beam setter, which he is always happy to do, as long as I leave the chrome headlamp rims off. As it happened, my 'chalk marks on the wall' technique worked quite well and he only had to adjust one of them slightly.

The gearbox is also much nicer to use now that the weak synchro on 2nd gear is sorted out, and it also has some new bearings. In fact, I must confess, the drive back from the MOT was quite 'spirited', despite the presence of the owner in the passenger seat, I took her with me to see how a proper MOT test is carried out, she had bad experiences of the garage she used to go to, they were 'big hammer' types, just intent on making holes in the body, whether there were any or not.

With the MOT passed, all that remained was the fitting of the Radio/CD (not my favourite task!), and few bits of interior trim which needed finishing.

The finished under bonnet area, complete with it's new design of rocker cover. When making up masking for a job like that, I first stick strips of masking tape to a backing sheet of the type that computer labels come on, the tape is then easy to handle and can be cut into squares, or whatever shape you need, without having bits of tape stuck everywhere you didn't need it.

That all but concludes the brief story of a not so brief restoration, all that remained was a few road tests, readjustment of the brakes, sorting out a few minor rattles, the car is now in daily use with a very happy owner.

Many people have asked me if I enjoyed the work, without doubt, yes, I would not have missed it for the world. Would I do another one? Most certainly, this one was the fifth Mini I've either rebuilt, or played a big part in rebuilding over the years. In fact it was 30 years ago when I rebuilt a Cooper 'S' into a 1960 lightweight shell, that Mini became my own Rally car and gave many years of service.

A few 'out takes' from the workshop:

Owner's comment: 'Will the radio aerial be ok?'

Reply, 'Compared with the rest of the body, I am optimistic that it will make a full recovery!'

Even Millie, the spaniel was amazed at the condition of the front sub-frame.

It's now 5 months on and the Mini is running perfectly, no real problems, apart from slightly leaky door seals, and a minor adjustment to the carburetor was required when temperatures dropped below zero.  

Freestyle build

After a month of inactivity, progress has started again and the work has concentrated on the bodywork - maybe the term bodywork is a bit of an exaggeration. Some 1.5mm aluminium checkerplate will be used for the rear engine cover and the nose that covers the battery, the rest has all been made from .8mm aluminium or fibreglass. With the side panels pop-rivited in place, the seat can be fitted which will just leave the accelerator as the only outstanding work on the interior.

The Funbuggies supplied bonnet is made from fibreglass and is usually bolted to the frame, in this case, it will need to be removed to check the brake and clutch fluid levels, and, at the start of every event for the scrutineers. Rather than have bonnet pins poking through the panel, brackets were added to the inside so that the pins could point down through a panel on the front of the frame. Some extra matting was added to reinforce the bonnet around the brackets and with the mat and resin out, a cowl was made for the steering column.

On a standard Mini installation, the hose from the back of the head routes the hot water through the heater and then back into the engine via the branch in the bottom hose. Many people, me included, have linked the hose from the back of the head straight into the bottom hose to keep the water circulating past cylinders 3 and 4. This effectively routes hot water back into the engine, so an alternative arrangement that fed it into the radiator was sought, after considering various ways of trying to "T" the hose into the top hose, the obvious solution was to add a new pipe directly into the radiator header tank.

The last job to tackle before the engine can be pulled for a strip down and rebuild is the fabrication of an exhaust. Luckily the LCB from the Frogeye just fits, a tail section was bought from the local exhaust stockist which not only supplied the silencer but also a section of pipe that could be cut up to provide a 90 degree bend. Another 90 degree bend was ordered from Jetex and the bits can be tacked together ready for welding up on the bench.

YouTube Link

Thanks to Chris Lee for this link to a series of stills showing a lucky escape for Mathew Nesbitt during a rallycross and Lydden Hill.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1q1sqopRpXk&feature=related

Events

9th - 11th May - International Mini Meet 2008 at Lelystad about 50 Km east of Amsterdam in Holland. More details at http://www.imm2008.nl

Sunday 11th May - British Mini Meet, Birmingham, UK

Sunday 18th May - London to Brighton Mini Run - this year is the 23rd run and the 2100 official tickets have already sold out

7th to 9th June - Hay Mini Nationals, Australia - This is the 40th anniversary of this amazing event with everything from show'n'shine to competition - see http://www.visithay.com.au/eventdetails.php?id=73

Friday 13th June - MINI Takes The States - MTTS 2008 starts in Miami and finishes in Los Angeles on August 3rd - see http://blog.minitakesthestates.com/

Sunday 15th June - Cannon Hill Park Mini Show, Birmingham, UK

Sunday 15th June - Normanby Hall Country Park Mini Show - Nr Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire

Saturday 17th June - Nevada City Adventure - see http://new.minimania.com/ArticleV.cfm?DisplayID=1939

That's it, please let us know what is going on in your part of the world.

Keep in touch

Mike Bennett
theregister@miniregister.co.uk

The opinions expressed in The Register are those of the members and not necessarily those of The Mini Register.

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