(This is a series with new parts coming at irregular intervals about, finally, the restoration of Winston an RHD 1978 Mini 1000)
Winston began with a Jeep that was a nice early nineties, Renegade, on Craigslist. It was shiny and oddly cheap, but my brother-in-law kept reading to discover why. Once satisfied it wasn't a bad price for what it was, he went to have a look. It had a leaking head gasket and the transmission wouldn’t stay in fifth gear for very long. Tom always believed that having proper tools, instructions and parts is ninety percent of any job so since the Jeep drove and didn’t smoke or overheat but only dripped from the gasket down the side, he paid the money and for another two-hundred dollars of his own money replaced the leaking head gasket. That left the other problem of the transmission that wouldn’t stay in fifth.
The new mission for this non-daily driver was to drive around looking for better transmissions in salvage yards. He gave the Jeep a full service when he replaced the head gasket and I mean full service. All ends flushed and lubricated and filled and filters changed and cleaned, etc. The works. Then a surprise. The longer he drove it after the total new service, the longer it stayed in fifth gear. It eventually fixed itself. There is nothing like that feeling of winning something in life. Being lucky. Cruising around with your mobile radio gear mounted up the way you wanted it and going places. Getting hit in the right rear six months later and the insurance company totaling out the perfectly like-new Jeep.
A check got cut for a few thousand more than Tom had in the whole project since it had nothing wrong with it. And there he sat, with my sister, looking at eBay motors wondering what to search. Something fun they could enjoy. They both had good University jobs, didn’t have kids nor a giant mortgage. And they scrolled on and on searching within their part of the country until Tom saw it.
(This is the original craigslist picture I lifted from an email.)
“Oooo, a mini!”
Orange. Sitting in the grass yard by a nice house far away from town in that picture. It was three-hundred-sixty miles away in Memphis. He sent an email.
Tom drove the car back, with his dad driving behind in his truck, full of tools and ropes and straps and whatever it might take to get the car home should anything go wrong. The only thing Tom had to fix was the wiring to the blower fan for the heater core and defrosting. Otherwise, he got about fifty miles per gallon all the way back, five gallons at a time.
They named it Winston right away.
They enjoyed it. It was his daily seven miles drive to work car, errands to ACE Hardware car, the I need a fountain drink at the Circle-K car. He couldn’t go anywhere without it starting a conversation. For example, Tom walked out of a 7-Eleven on the campus holding a Big Gulp to find three college girls standing by Winston. “Oh my god, it’s sooo cuuute!”
Oh my god, I’m soooo married!
It was a go-kart that didn’t need to slow down for any corners on a city street. Whipping around and not only was parallel parking easy, but you got in and out of the right-hand-drive machine on the sidewalk!
But life kept going. The garage under the house became crowded with other projects, and as Winston became an outdoors car, any work it needed became a reason to not drive it as much. Especially when it’s own head-gasket began to seep, into cylinder number three. About this time they were planning a move across town, and the house ahead did not have a place for Winston.
I always liked Winston and was off and on looking for one of my own that wasn’t a restored Cooper or 1275GT princess or a rusted parts-car basket case. Tom needed out of his car which was no longer running, but that put a kibosh on deciding what price it would be because what he paid for it a few years before was definitely not the price it would fetch in the current condition. It was obvious now where some body repair and bondo and other slight fix-its had occurred. The thin respray paint job was getting thinner. Flakes showed the original Vermillion Red underneath. So we struck a deal since time was short. I could have it; however, if I sold it in the future, he gets half the money. I was under no obligation to sell it, but I couldn’t just turn around and sell it for scrap right away. So, I could fix it up, do whatever restoration was needed along the way and enjoy it. I thought that was a good deal, so I paid for the trailer rental and he brought it out during their Thanksgiving visit.
(As it arrived in 2011)
When rolling the car off the trailer I got in to manage the brakes, where my foot sunk into the carpet of the driver’s floor, with a crunch to discover a square of the floor had given way. My sister was watching out actions and said, “Tom? Did we just give him a hunk of crap?”
Tom exhaled a chuckle, “Uh, well, I guess we did! Oh no…”
I wasn’t expecting a rust free car here. By far. But after pulling up the carpet and discovering the things carpet hides, I don’t think Tom knew at all how much the coming investigation would reveal.
(Ten years later, Today…)
Meanwhile, we had brother-in-law garage time,
pulling the head and sending it to the local shop to have it pressure tested and measured for any warpage.
(gasket damage here)
It came back clean. I checked the block deck for square. I knew it was going to happen during the visit so I ordered a nice set of ARP head studs to replace the head-bolts; And boy, I’m now a true believer in ARP.
Right before they had to leave, we got it fired up and I was adjusting the mixture. They left after a nice week-long visit and when home from work I fiddled with it here and there until I got the ignition timing points replaced with a pertronix system and set up to the proper degree. Then I got the carb happy. It was a sewing machine at idle and started within a quarter of a turn-over when I hit the key. It was fun to drive at twenty-five miles per hour! Around the neighborhood once in a while. It had no plates. No insurance. Needed brakes pumped up one good stroke to get them to work so I could stop. That was a problem. But Winston still looked good in his new home.
The problems after this point is the rest of the story.
We got it titled in Colorado and went as far as the VIN confirmation and everything they need us to get by law within a specific time, short of getting plates. Which I wouldn’t get until it was safe and ready. It never was and that investigation of problems yielded severe rust brought on by the age-split rubber gasket holding the rear window in place.
(today...)
Before arriving in Colorado, the car sat outside under the Missouri sun, the rear window gasket dried out enough to stretch and split where it was glued together at the factory. At the bottom of the window, where rainwater would come in and settle on the floors, in the corners, and rust the quality seventies English steel. The drum brakes on all four corners also held their water and did a number on the brake-shoe pistons. The suspension had collapsed in the front by this time and was probably entirely original nineteen-seventy-eight as well to go along with it all. I had a project that was beyond just replacing parts. I had a restoration project now that had to be taken completely apart and all parts repaired or replaced.
Replaced more like it.
My parts list was now replacing near everything but the interior and the steering rack and front subframe. All brake corners would get replaced, all suspension parts overhauled, shocks, etc. And after consulting with a Mini specialist, the cost of fixing the body was, well, into the buy a second project car territory and start with that body since it was less rotten. By far!
If you haven’t stopped over at the Restoration Mini website, do so. It is where folks with mini projects are all discussing how-to and what-nots about the process. A very good a active group. I got to meet the webmaster and site owner, Dan, a while ago to discover we work in the same business so anything he does in this Mini world is not his bread and butter, but a passion. So we decided to re-shell Winston, using a project car a friend of his lost interest in. I sent money.
(Disassembled)
(Getting stripped)
That body is the same generation as mine and already by doing this I saved probably two-thousand dollars on the total restoration cost which is the other story; The cost of making Winston whole, and it’s value compared to what I would owe Tom.
The total cost is reaching $10,000 and if it’s $11,000, it will probably be exactly how I want it. That will be a virtually new mini and worth about what I have in it at that point. So I would lose half of that by selling it. As luck would have it, by chance I had helped someone move what was virtually their husband’s estate contents on to people who could use their things and the value of those things happened to be very agreeable with Tom, who was one of those to use such things. Generosity all around, everyone happy, I’m no longer obligated with the mini.
It now sits after a move four years ago involving it sitting outside wrapped up in a tarp for a winter. It no longer runs as the radiator is packed with rust mud. The situation after finding everything wrong is this: It is a 1978 car, with an early 80's drivetrain from an Austin Metro (same thing, really).
Parts cannon engaged.
After this, the only original things left since the body itself is also getting replaced, will be the interior, steering rack, and front subframe. That is it.
I’m about to get everything organized with master lists made of all parts to build complete subframes, suspension, and brakes (including front disc brake upgrades to Cooper-S spec) plus full wiring harnesses. This will be a big single order from Mini spares over in England as that will guarantee not only an overall big discount vs. the American parts sources but also a quicker shipment since it’s worth a lot of money to them right away. Once here I can build or rebuild the subframes and be able to just plug them into the new shell making body deliveries/shipping so much easier.
So that is the story and the plan. Today I removed the SU HS4 carb.
It needs a rebuild on it’s own as the choke sticks and the butterfly shaft are getting a bit wobbly.
That is the start. I am under no illusions over how fast things get done on TV vs. Me. But the good news is that a Mini is fairly plug-and-play. Hopefully, by summer's end, I'll have mine done and ready to drive in Tahiti Blue. I am well supplied with 10mm sockets.
Something very close to this is the goal:
Just no hood stripes. Everyone does hood stripes.
