STEWART and KERRY'S 1964 MINI PROJECT
Interesting to note that everyone that we have mentioned the mini restoration to, has a story ‘my mother had a canary yellow one’, ’my brother and his mates had a British Racing Green one’, ‘we use to be able to fit the whole of the girls basketball team in my mini’, ‘I cracked the sump on a rock coming home from town on the dirt road’, ‘we use to be able to pick up the mini with one fella at the front bumper bar and one at the back – handy for very small parking spaces’ and it goes on and on and on. It seems that everyone, except us, has some kind of history with the good old Mini!
What colour to spray? ID plate on the car says ‘Sunset Red’ with ‘Nurberg White’ roof, but our ‘John’ was a combination of someone else’s trial colours. Went to ‘Minis in the Gong’ (Wollongong) in January 2019 and spent hours looking over the 70 plus minis on display. We met some really nice people with lots of Mini knowledge. Only a handful of the cars were 1964 models and only one was an Australian built Cooper. No Sunset Red minis on display. A very helpful David at HAPS was able to track down the colour formula and mixed up Sunset Red in a trial spray pack and it turns out it is not the colour I had been imagining but it is an exact match for a bit of paint still visible under the roof lining.
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By September the bits of the motor and gearbox were degreased, blasted, cleaned, painted, honed, puzzled over, new bearings, bushes, gaskets etc and put together. We felt like we were making progress, but the boxes were still full of bits and pieces.
In fact, by now ‘John’ had no wheels, no front and rear sub frames and anything that could be detached, was! The rear and front sub frames were pulled to pieces, cleaned, sandblasted, painted and reassembled with the addition of some new bits - all suspension bushes, brake calliper pistons, brake discs, brake hoses and bent up new steel brake lines. We made a rotisserie to assist with the restoration of the body. We were also accumulating more bits and pieces as we discovered what was missing. A few visits to other members with the camera (thanks, Glenn, Ian and Jacob). We became online friends with Mini Kingdom, Aus Mini Spares and Minisport. I made several trips to Bellangry to a mini parts collector and the couriers were kept busy delivering parts as I needed them. “Youtube” gave some handy advice at times but generally just a lot of complete rubbish.
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The two front seats and rear seat that came with our purchase, were from three different minis and had been rat hotels for many a year. After much research and help from the people at the Oz Cooper Register, we were able to take them to Malcolm Climpton at Telegraph Point in February 2019 and they are now upholstered with the correct stitching pattern and a colour that would have been used in a 1964 Australian built Morris Cooper.
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That’s about where we are at the moment, lots of parts cleaned, refurbished and painted ready to start reassembling when the body is finished.
More to come later.
Stewart & Kerry Armstrong.
(Thanks for a great story Stewart. We look forward to the next chapter and really look forwrd to seeing it on the road. Col Shaw. Ed.)
More to come later.
Stewart & Kerry Armstrong.
(Thanks for a great story Stewart. We look forward to the next chapter and really look forwrd to seeing it on the road. Col Shaw. Ed.)