*First i really apologize for the photo quality. I don't know whats up. Time for a new phone I guess.*
I really love them. Always have. From the time I was old enough to know what they were I wanted one. I have had to work on a few. At work I brought a 67 Cooper S 1275 back to life after a 15 year span, We restored a Riley Elf and I have had the pleasure of driving the 63 Cooper S that Maria Graça Moura Relvas won the 1965 Grande Rally Benfica in Portugal.
Honestly when I started working in restoration I thought I would be inundated with offers to buy cool cars cheap. It never happened. I mean there was the dude that offered me his 27k miles Dino 308tg4 for a discount but that wasn't exactly impulse buy pricing.
So when a car pulled up last Wednesday and an acquaintance offered me his car I made an appointment to see it. And then I bought it.
It was raining buckets. At least an inch an hour. Ransom had to buy new shoes afterward. The old F100 defroster was simply not up to the task and we drove those 5 miles of windy mountain roads at like 12 mph.
So what did I buy? a Canadian market 76 mini with a 1098. It has had new floors and a mk1 front end installed in the last decade. The seller is a skilled fabricator, machinist and CNC operator so I don't fear the quality of work as much as I usually would.
It has been off the road for just under two years. It went down on power so he had a second cylinder head rebuilt with a valve job and surface and went to install it and saw a score in one of the bores so he planned a rebuild which never happened. It has sat under a HF temporary carport out in the woods since. So for a a non running mouse piss filled mini I handed over 2000 of my hard earned American Simoleans. Inspection shows cooper S front discs and 12" minilites. Suspension is on Hi-lo's.
The seller is tall. At least 6'7" so he swapped seats. Sadly this meant cutting out the back seat cubbies.
What was in boxes inside was the bulk of the disassembled engine.
Seems to be short the carburettor.
There are some questionable things done to the car. The rear deck cut for a huge subwoofer
The twin evils of atomically crappy ebay headlights AND hood pins!
Brake bias valve, broken seat support and a big mouse nest
Vacuumed out the bulk of the mess. Carpet will be pulled soon. It stinks
Looks like he installed a column drop to go with the seating position.
But I also bought another bunch of stuff from him
Cripes, I am so sorry about the image quality
Anyhow. Remember that he is a fabricator? I also met him years ago because he loved what I had done to my Fiat and wanted to reproduce it with his mini.
So we have a stainless turbo manifold, aluminum intake manifold with a ? throttle body, Custom carbon fiber intake bits, Modded DSM intercooler, TD03 Turbo, innovate LC1 New in box, a new Wasted spark coil
Still sealed MS2V3 from DIYAutotune, relay board, stimulator, relay cable AND a main harness in case the relay board didn't suit him, trigger wheel, downpipe,
one of those fancypants injector boss drill bits
Can you imagine how much time he had in modeling this valve cover, creating a tool path and the actual machining, let alone the cost of the material!
So I ended up giving him a few more bills for this unfinished turbo kit because, I agree that some positive manifold pressure on this motor would be pretty sweet
First thing. Make it smell less bad. I do have to work next to it afterall. Carpet out should do the trick. Then pull motor and get it to the machine shop so they can tell me which pistons and bearings to order.
A coworker is a mini guy and has a bunch of parts for me to go through including a set of seats.
Anyhow end of the first 24 hours has little done other than sorting.