This car is sponsored by Pampers

what's up with the diapers? They've been in the car since the beginning.

How do you like my new bucket seat?

Chuck Heleker finished tuning the carbs today. Gunnar took the car for a spin - he said it ran great and sounds much better after the final tune on the carbs.

Here is my full gallery: https://mmalleck.smugmug.com/Cars/1966-Morris-Mini-Cooper-S/12970678_w27vhL#!i=938157666&k=m9fLDzh 

These are pictures of the car that the previous owner took of the car.

//s970.photobucket.com/user/mmalleck/library/66%20Morris%20Cooper%20S/Pictures%20prior%20to%20work?sort=3&page=1

This is basically where we started.

The hardest part is receiving the car disassembled. My advise, always buy an assembled car - not a car, engine, and boxes of parts. At least the car was very complete.

The car had been in at least one front end collision, and front panels and parts had been replaced with non-Australian parts. A lot of our stuggles were with new panels and sheet metal parts that weren't even close to original. I sometimes ordered 3 versions of panels, only to just have Gunnar, or a sheet metal shop make something from scratch. This goes back to your question of why it took so long.

There are lots of parts that are different on the Australian cars - many I had to source from Australia. I'm not going to list out every detail of the restoration here, but I have thought about creating a coffee table book on the car. Mostly pictures, with some text on the challenges we faced.

Mark its a wonderful job you and crew are doing. 

What did you start with? What holes in the parts list did you have to fill?

DW

First, to a restore a car to this level takes a lot of time.

After that, I'd say it was about 50% finances, and 50% Gunnar's schedule of mostly half days. I knew this going in, and the half-day schedule was fine with me, as it equated to a really big car payment each month. 

Gunnar would also slip in some other projects to give me a financial break. This also allowed me to research a bunch of questions, search and buy those expensive and hard to find parts, or find people to work on the restoration of bits and pieces.

With Chuck, I kind of did the same thing. I told him to work on the engine during the slow shop times. There were some machining bills, parts bills, then final bill spread out over about 3 years.

We had one year where we didn't make a lot of progress. This was mainly due to my schedule, where work was really crazy and I didn't have time to interact with Gunnar to answer questions.

Shocker:

To what do you attribute the 5 year rebuild?

Did you layoff for long period of time?

Run out of money?

That was fun to see Chuck in action.

We got the engine running. Working on a video. But, in the meantime, how about a picture?

Link: https://mmalleck.smugmug.com/Cars/1966-Morris-Mini-Cooper-S/i-M5f8mqw/0/L/IMG_20150815_140154_hdr-L.jpg

That is one stunning vehicle!

You need to get one of those bubble trailers so you can take it to shows without getting any dust on it. Well done, it's beautiful! 

Don't use it, otherwise you will impinge on it's value

Thank you for the kind words. I found a site using my pictures as the "gold standard" earlier in my restoration on items that weren't correct, so be careful. I sent them an email pointing out some of those flaws (I hope they corrected them). This is a work in progress, and I really only wanted a good paint job, and it grew from there. I have a detailed thread with Q&A on ausmini.com. //www.ausmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=60051&sid=0210b53b7479a10986cae07040d774da 

The vaccuum pump was rated at 28.3 in. of mercury, and I think the shop manual says to pull the system down to 26 or 27 (I don't have the manual in front of me at the moment). I basically saw that the pump was rated higher than the manual spec, and called it good.

We did mess up on the vacuum process on the left side. After we found our error, we removed the fluid and vacuumed out the system. It seemed to work well. We started with a dry system, and when you're just pulling air it's hard to tell if it's doing anything. Redoing the left side, the vacuum pulled out the residual fluid in the system (messy, but at least we could see it working). We used a cheap air powered pump instead of electric, so fluid didn't hurt the pump at all.

Gallery on my car: https://mmalleck.smugmug.com/Cars/1966-Morris-Mini-Cooper-S/12970678_w27vhL#!i=4268390725&k=9xCkqQj 

Mark,

Fabulous car!  A few years ago, I came across your pics on the interweb.  Your car became the Gold Standard, along with the guy in Sweden and Ricardo in Portugal.  I saved the link and referred back to it on several occasions.  Thanks for posting up so many good pics.

On your Hydro pump, how many inches of mercury did you vacuum to?  25?

cw

Front and rear glass is in...

I finally pumped up the new hydrolastic suspension. I am thrilled to have no leaks!

I only had a Liquid Levers pump without vacuum, so I had to rig up a vacuum system. Black is vacuum, clear is the high pressure line.

While in vacuum mode, I closed the T-valve to the Liquid Levers pump. While pumping up the system, I closed off the vacuum T-valve, and opened the high pressure T-valve.

This stuff is great for sealing any leaks.

Off the bump stops!

Back side of instrument pod.

Oil pressure gauge line.

As far as carpeting goes - this is the best I've been able to find, and matches my original pretty well.

//minisport.com.au/mini-cooper-s-carpet-set-westminster-style-charcoal-on-order

Hello Mark,

 Did your car come with a positive ground tachometer ? 

Mine did not and it dificult to find may dealers who sell the positive ground tachs.   I did find this shop in England.

//thegaugeshop.com/

I am also looking for a better than Newton carpet. Have you heard of Bryan Purves Ltd. ? He has the Karvel with

Hessian backing.  //www.bryanpurves.co.uk

Jim

1.What carpet set are you using? A. Newton Commercial Deluxe (it looks nice, but I plan to replace it with something more original)

2. Did you replace the Hydrolastic Lines with steel or copper ? Or are they original? A. The original lines on my car were shot. These lines are from another car that was converted to dry suspension.

3. Was you car Positive or Negitive as new and have you changed it? A. positive Earth ground, and keeping it that way.

Mark

Hello,

Great photos (as usual) !

I'm also working on an '66 1275 Mini Cooper S.  Hydrolastic. Imported to USA April 1966.

A few questions:

1.What carpet set are you using ?

2. Did you replace the Hydrolastic Lines with steel or copper ? Or are they original?

3. Was you car Positive or Negitive as new and have you changed it ?

Thanks,

Jim

Wiring is coming along nicely.

A wheel - wow, 6 years later and a wheel is mounted!!!

Exhaust sucked up tight and snug. This was a lot of work.

Now you see it...

Now you don't...

Added a threaded hook to hold the battery strap

Not much change on the interior

Boot badges

Gunnar Gordon's shop - Australian Cop car in front, Gunnar's VTEC Mini in the back, and my BRG Mini