Water and early Minis don't mix.
Robert contacted me, after reading another contributor's memories of serving an apprenticeship with the Austin Motor Company. He started out his career in the motor industry working for a BMC garage, and has a number of stories to tell relating to the first, Mk1, Austin Minis and Morris Mini-Minors that came through the workshops he worked in. Here are his recollections of working on the early Mini.
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"I was interested to read of a 60’s apprenticeship, which brought back some
memories of my own.
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I started my career in the motor industry in a Nuffield Group garage
(Morris, MG, Wolseley, Riley) in 1959, the same year the Mini was launched.
The Mini was an amazing little car at the time and took the motoring world
by storm with rave reviews. However after only a few days it rained, and
every car caught in a shower came to a halt.
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The reason was quite basic. Apparently all of the pre-production testing was carried out in Spain in a
region which rarely had rain, and the design team had not realised that
rain was common in Britain. Consequently, as the distributor was right behind
the front grille, the ignition system had no protection from water ingress
and when it rained the ignition system shorted out and the cars stopped. The
first fix was a simple metal plate held in place by self tappers, but it did
nothing to help. The next fix which came quite quickly, was a waterproofing
kit consisting of a cover for the distributor cap and coil, and a tube of
silicone grease.The only problem was the grease, which had a low melting
point. If you happened to get some on your hands it was almost impossible to
pick up any tools.
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The early Minis suffered from other water problems too. Water leaked into
the interior through the front wheel arch seams. Today the fix would be an
application of some kind of silicone sealer, but this did not exist then and
to cure this problem our panel beaters were detailed to weld the seams (the
floor pan pressing was later modified). All our cars were undersealed which meant
that when welding was carried out, the underseal caught fire beneath the car.
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As I was the junior apprentice I was detailed to lie on the floor beside the
car with a CTC fire extinguisher to put the flames out. Everything was o.k.
after the first side, but by the time the second wheel arch had been done, I
had inhaled enough CTC fumes to make me stagger about like a drunk. Roll on
Health and Safety! Between my experiences with Mini’s and later 1100’s I now consider my self
somewhat of an expert on car water leaks."
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Thanks for your stories, Robert also sent over a photo of a rare Radford-Mini. Shown below, a typical Mk1 Mini of the early 1960s, one of several to appear elsewhere on the site.
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Visit the motoring memories pages at oldclassiccar for more articles like this.
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