Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Continuing the occasional series of threads looking at just one car, and collating our memories of them, I don't think the Mini in all its forms has been done yet.

So how about it? The first production Minis hit the roads in 1959 so there must be a wealth of Mini-related tales out there to share

To start it off, as a child my fastest ride in a road car was in a (Mini-based) Cox GTM, fitted with a tweaked 1275 unit in the back. I'm sure I remember seeing 125 on the car's speedo (not that I'd ever advocate driving at this kind of lick, obviously, ever, err)

Rick
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[bob2]

well what can I say, as you know I am mad about them, have started my obsession (cannot call it otherwise) on old classic cars via minis (I still like them and wouldnt live without one).

I know I am biased but they are great fun to drive, quite impractical and uncomfortable but still great fun especially a tweaked one.
Would love an early cooper or preferably an S one day but they are going up in price faster than I can saveup so its improbable I'll ever buy one.

Rick you forgot to mention the little countryman belonging to your mum, did it have a tweaked engine too?

[Rick]

bob2, yes I learnt to drive on Mum's 1967 all-steel estate, GVU 146E. From memory it had an 1100 engine in it, with the 12G295 head that currently resides on (or near to...) the A40. Somewhere I've a few photos of that Min, must see if I can find them.

Someone contacted me a while back, with a Cooper sat in their garage with the engine out. Must chase that one up...

R
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[Rick]

Which reminds me, these photos of a 1964 Austin Mini were taken circa 1990 or thereabouts, while on a camping trip with my folks and brother. It originally belonged to the mother of the bloke who ran a local garage. He'd made a start on it - replacing both front wings - then I think ran out of steam.

He was up for selling it to my brother (£100 was mentioned I think), but for some reason or other it never went ahead. The old garage is still there, but whether the Min is still inside or not I'm not sure. It still shows up on a DVLA check. One to check next time I'm passing that way I think!




RJ
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[47p2]

The worst car I ever bought for my wife was an immaculate Clubman estate with a genuine 19k on the clock. At the time it would be around 5 years old and was bought new by my mates mother. When she passed away my mate inherited it and ran it for a year. I bought it from him as he preferred his Datsun 120y.


The 2 good points
The only good thing about this Mini was I almost trebled my money after suffering it for 2 years.

It looked great once I spent some time valeting it with its red exterior and gold coachline, tinted windows and special wheel trims.


Some of the bad points.
Every now and then it would stick in reverse gear, not a problem though, just switch the engine off and put it into neutral and it was fine for another couple of weeks.

One day when trying to start it I thought the battery was flat as it was turning over very slow. Once started I let my foot off the clutch pedal and it almost stopped, I asked my wife to dip the clutch while I watched at the engine bay, the crankshaft could be seen moving back and forth.
I stripped the block from the gearbox and when I lifted the block away leaving the gearbox in situ I looked in to the top of the gearbox and saw the centre main bearing cap sitting on top of the gears and thrust washers chewed up in beside the gears.
Odd I thought, never knew they made them like that. It turned out that the engine must have been a Monday build and not torqed up when built. Over the years it had worked loose, the gearbox sticking in reverse was a case of one of the main bearing bolts lodged at the reverse gear and every now and then it would coggle over and jam.
The problem now was getting hold of a main bearing cap that would fit, they are all unique to each engine so I had to make do with the closest fit and do a bit of doctoring. New main bearings and thrust washers and rebuilt it and everything worked fine.

On another occassion my wife was driving it when she hit a pothole during bad weather and it shoved the engine back 6 inches and cracked the sump. A 14lb hammer was given the job of bashing out the bulkhead and making everything line up again, while some liquid metal was applied to the hole in the aluminium sump.

Next saga was when a slate fell off a roof and through the bonnet, the same day a van with a towbar reversed into one of the back doors and buggled of without letting us know. My coackwork skills were put to the test with Davids Isopon and aerosol cans.

This all sounds rather like a horror story but it wasn't all bad, I paid £450.00 for the car, we had it for about 3-4 years and when I went to a car showroom and asked for a trade-in price against the Renault 25 I was offered £1500.00. Of course I snatched the salesman's hand off and done the deal.
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ROVER
One of Britain's Fine Cars

[lowdrag]

And yesterday, to my great surprise, I saw am Mini pickup on the Le Mans ring road. In immaculate condition, grey as it should be, LHD and driven by a youngster. Lovely!

[SV8Predator]

[Penman]

Hi
Had a number of them over the years, as company cars, though I never actually owned one.
Had a Hydrolastic one arouind '65 which seemed alright at the time until I had the later ones when they reverted to the earlier suspension, that gave a much nicer ride.
The ones I used between '71 and '76 were a mix of ordinary bonnet and clubman and I must say the clubman was better for under bonnet fiddling.
Had one inboard CV joint failure, at relatively low mileage, when stripped we found it was full of what looked like liquid mud and all the ball bearings had a surface like miniature oranges.
Had to be very careful on some roads, when getting pupils to do TIR, because if they managed to get close to 90 degrees at the end of the first move you could actually hit the kerb with the sump because it stuck out further than the front wheels.

I remember stopping, one night, to help someone who had broken down with a snapped accelerator cable, I moved the choke cable over to the accelerator linkage and managed to get her and her kids back home with a handthrottle .

Don't forget the rubber glove cure for water on the dissie before they put a decent shield in front of it.
That was another advantage of the clubman, it had a bigger shield.

Some of those school cars went to over 100,000mls on the original clutches although they did have a tendency to start juddering at around 70,000.
Whereas the one I had in the early '80s which had the metro type (simplex ?) clutch went at about 20,000.
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Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10

[bob2]

Penman that clutch on the A+ must be the verto type.

[poodge]

My mum owned a 1976 Mini 1000,an ex-rental car.Flogged to within an inch of it's life,it suffered further abuse by mum without a whimper.One day,whilst moving house,she decided to pull in to a layby off the highway.Unfortunately,it was one used by the then traffic police to weigh trucks.This meant a concrete trough right across,some 15" wide.Mum didn't notice said trough,and blithely drove across it.The dog was thrown of her usual back seat position,but other than that,the car didn't seem to have come off too bad.When I opened the garage about a week later though,a pool of oil under the car pointed to a cracked sump.When removed,there was actually a hole the size of a button.Obviously,the piece had fallen out just before mum got home.We got it tig welded,and I inherited the mini a couple of years later.By then,one of the plugs was wont to oil up,and cause it to run on 3 pots.hence i carried a plug spanner,to swap one of the plugs over to the oiled up cylinder,and then continue on my merry way.I had the "mincer" for a year or two,before stupidly swapping it for a VW beetle with rusty doorposts.But that's another story.I have to say though,I have never since driven any car that handled like the mini.
After I sold it,I saw it around a couple of times,having been re-painted red,and tidied up a little,driven by a young lass.I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

[Roger-hatchy]

At a Mini meet in Deutchland just recently

A friends little ???, he is a mini fanatic.

He has a mini countryman as well as a Radio control scale model of the countryman.
He travels to Mini rallies all over Europe.

Can't remember what it is

Roger

[Fluffle-Valve]

I built this one for my wife.
Fitted a 1340cc Turbo Metro Engine in it.
De-seamed it as well as fitting an oil cooler and inter-cooler.
Sticky A008 Yokahama's.

It went like a rocket..... I loved it.

Sold it to the brother in-law and he crashed it and it finished up as a "Write-Off"...


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Series 3 1972 LWB Truck Cab Pick Up. My daily drive.

[Nic Jarman]

Christmas 1986, my daughters were 2 1/2 and 2 months old. We were going to my wife's uncle for Xmas dinner but we had cooked the bird and had most of the dinner in the boot of the Mini. We set off in the morning and it was a cold and wet day. On the M11 I noticed the temperature gauge was getting a bit high and it continued upwards. I saw a bridge over the road so I pulled over under it. I looked at the girls and said " at least we wont starve". When the Mini had cooled down a bit I checked under the bonnet and was fairly satisfied that it was a stuck thermostat. Of course all the tools had been removed so the turkey would go in the boot. I had to do several hops to get to Ilford where we had Xmas dinner albeit a bit late. The Uncle's lodger tried to give Nicole ( 2 months old ) some turkey and told us we were wicked parents for not letting her have a Xmas dinner . I borrowed some tools and removed the offending thermostat then made it home OK.
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1936 Morris 8 Series 1
1973 MGB roadster
1977 MG Midget 1500
Dax Rush

[Penman]

Hi

[lowdrag]

Talking of Minis, I saw a most immaculate grey Mini pickup on the Le Mans ring road yesterday. Absolutely stunning.