Description
Purchased this Mini early 2022. The chap I bought it from explained it was originally his Mothers car (in standard Studio 2 trim) but it needed wings, front panel and some other body work and was stored away in her garage from 2009 until 2015/ 16 when he acquired it and carried out the necessary work and decided to go ‘retro’ with it and fit Mk1 rear lights, centre dash clocks, original 1275GT Engine, 10” wheels etc. He painted it in Audi Mercury Grey along with the Kawasaki Green roof & mirrors. That green ‘theme’ was carried into the interior, with bespoke trim, using a green diamond stitch on the seats and door panels to match.
He decided to sell it due to lack of use and having a baby on the way. Having been into minis back in the day, I decided I wanted another Mini in my life, and having looked for a while, saw this and, for me, and it ticked all the boxes!
The only issues I had were that there was a bit of smoke on start up, and the engine had been hand painted in bright green! So my plan was to use it for the summer and then address these over the winter.
Driving it home to Brum from Ellesmere, I struggled to gears. I just assumed it was either a slave or master cylinder issue. So it went into my garage, fully intending to sort it! However, as so often happens, life got in the way and it was nearly a year before I got round to looking at it. I tried all the usual fixes, but no luck. So I took the plunge and decided to check the clutch (although I was told it was only a couple of thousand miles old)
The problem soon became apparent, the locking washer that holds the whole clutch assembly onto the end of the crank had disintegrated, damaging the slot in the end of the crank, and the flywheel was working its way off the crank!
Another long period of time passed whilst I decided what to do. Try and repair ‘in situ’ or take the engine out and repair properly. As I wanted to get rid of the green paint anyway , I took the engine out. I did look to either buy a 2nd hand engine, or a performance one from mini sport or similar. My boy racer days are long gone, so decided to rebuild the engine itself, and on recommendation, took it to Willenhall engines (image of their receipt can be seen with the pictures) it was the typical thing, whilst they were replacing the crank, may as well do the other usual bits. Bores were too scored to get away with a honing and new rings, so went for a rebore and bigger pistons. So the engine is now a 1293cc.
With the engine out I decided to strip the engine bay and make it more presentable. This involved removing the subframe too. This (and the rear) were replaced in 2016, so just required a clean.
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So with everything removed, I repainted the engine bay and front wheel arches. With the engine back from rebuild , and gearbox given a clean bill of health from JDM, time to get it back together.
I didn’t plan to, but I started replacing virtually everything as I refitted it! The list is almost as long as my waffle!
Steering Rack & TR ends (mini sport)
Alternator
Electronic ignition (spark rite)
Alloy rad (fletcher)
Fan blade
Maniflow manifold
Inner pot joints and outer CV joints
Clutch assembly and flywheel
Slave cylinder
Brake master cylinder
Brake pressure valve (gen. Rover)
Discs
Pads
Virtually all nuts, washers, screws, fixings, bushes etc
New and Additional engine steady bars (upper and lower)
Engine mounts
Subframe mounts
Everything else stripped, cleaned and painted as required, including painting and detailing engine before refitting.
Whilst at it, I replaced the rear drums for mini fins and replaced the rear shoes and brake cylinders.
Tyres were replaced for Yokohamas A008’s including the spare. New battery too.
Once back together and running, I had it MOT’d August last year for the first time since 2021 and it passed with no problem or advisories.
The centre clock binnacle wasn’t fixed properly when I bought the car and the fuse box which had been re-routed from the engine bay wasn’t fixed either, so last winters project was to fit a flat dash from the MGOC(£200) as I think it adds to the look of the interior and gave me somewhere to put the fuse box, relays and route the wiring more efficiently. At the same time I fitted a new Mountney steering wheel and replaced the steering column upper and lower bushes. Also new seatbelts and stalks were fitted.
With such good weather this year, I fully intended to use the Mini most weekends, but didn’t seem to get the chance! One of the first runs out in April, I found it had a bit of a ‘stutter’ under acceleration. So I had Carbcare come out and re-jet the HIF carb and re-set timing etc. Now runs perfectly!
As you can imagine, with it basically being a ‘new’ engine, it runs faultlessly, and sounds superb through the RC40 exhaust. Oil pressure is bob on, and temp hardly fluctuates. We went out on a 80 mile run on one of the hottest days, and had no issues whatsoever.
Other items of note are:
AVO shocks all round
Hi-Lo suspension kit
Uprated bushes all round
Minilights
Security wheel nuts
Minisport brake callipers and Mintex pads
Uprated headlights
QR Front Grille
Bits that were on my to do list for this winter would be either vinyl spray or replace the roof lining (has some overspray on drivers side)
Remove the rear subframe, clean it up and whilst off repaint the inner rear arches and give the shocks a lick of paint (as per the front) have new stickers for these!
Fit arch trims to either side of back seat (have these too)
So why am I selling, after all this work and expenditure? Well, as you can see it’s hardly been used! In fact it still isn’t run in from the engine rebuild. My wife’s not a fan of going out in it (we are too big and too old, to be fair) but the main reason is now storage. I have recently inherited a project escort from my late brother, which has to live in the garage, and the Mini is currently under a cover, and it’s too nice to be stored outdoors over the winter having always been garaged. Also the money would be useful for putting towards the escort.
It was MOT’d on the 24th September (did overshoot the expiry date by a couple of weeks!) again with no problem. I appreciate there’s some discrepancy with the mileage. The car had done 55, 207 miles up to 2009 when it was stored. It was then retro fitted with a centre speedo in 2016 (the Studio 2 had a 2 clock binnacle in front of the driver) the one the guy acquired was 2nd hand unit which showed 93, 487
So it’s ready to be enjoyed and used by another Mini fan! The colour/ interior/ spec may be a bit ‘marmite’ but that’s Mini’s. They are either fanatically standard, or very unique to the owner/ builder. If you like the look of mine, I don’t think you’d be disappointed, so come and have a look and I’ll take you spin.
There’s not much more to say, but I’m bound to have omitted something (even after all this blurb!) but please feel free to contact me with any questions, if you want to have a picture of anything in particular or to arrange a viewing.
Have a few bits to go with it, brand new sump guard, the old crank which might be salvageable, Haynes Manual and other useful Mini books, Spare gaskets and fittings, arch trims (as mentioned) lots of receipts!
Please study the pictures carefully as they form part of this item’s description
Thanks for looking!
