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Progress on my Morris Mini Pickup


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Not really that antique, but definitely unique. In March I picked up this 1975 Morris Mini pickup. The front chassis had been cut up to put in a Suzuki engine that colapsed the suspension. It apparently was driven up until about 2004.

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First thing (after getting rid of that home made bumper) was get rid of the Suzuki engine.

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That is when I got a good look at all the re-bar that had been welded in to try to support that engine.

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Got started on the body work, then stopped as I thought I had located a donor for some panels, but now back to fabricating everything.

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This is the floor from a Toyota minivan that will soon be my new floor.

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I bought a 1275 cc engine and sub-frame from Chile, but it is taking forever to get it here. So since I'm upping the engine 30%, I'm also installing disc brakes and stainless lines.

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Lots more pics on my site. I'm hoping for some progress in the body shop before I get back in Jan. Then I'll be dividing my time between the Mini and the Renault.

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  • 5 months later...

Not as much done as I'd have liked, but at least the floor is cut out and replaced. I'll assemble the rear sub-frame next week to fit it. Got new knuckles and bushings from the UK via Florida, Spokane, and NY. They have 14,000 miles on them before installation.

Still waiting on the engine from Chile.

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  • 9 months later...

Finally some progress to report. I've given up on waiting for the engine that was supposed to come from Santiago. If and when it gets here I'll just have to find another mini or something else to do with it.

i found another one. Actually a complete from clip from Japan, in a yard in the port in Chile, so it is on its way. A paperwork flaw kept most of it at the border til next week, but my body guy, who went to get it, stripped a few things off so I could get started. Here are a few pics... and the update is on month 25 of my site.

When it gets here we will graft the front of this 94 Rover Mini, including doors, to the back of the 75 pickup, switching over to left-hand-drive.

This will give me a 1300cc engine instead of the original 1000cc, plus air conditioning, automatic transmission and roll-up windows in the doors (never an option in the pickups). I'll scrap (hopefully sell) the disk brakes on the 94 ans install the Cooper-S discs that I bought, keeping the power brake booster from the 94.

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Thanks

Here is the finished alternator and subframe. Ready to install.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The rest of my front clip arrived, so we are ready to fuse the two parts together. I won't be able to get there till the middle of May to disassemble the engine and see what I need, but my body guy can now start, putting the Renault on hold for a while.

I will have to figure out how to use the necessary parts of this dash with my wooden dash from MiniSport.

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I also bought a pair of 1998 Toyota seats locally that I will re-upholster along with the door panels for a final look. These have arm rests and good back support. I showed them to a friend last night and he is going to the same place for the other pair to put in his 59 saloon.

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I've now set a target. I'd like to be driving this by the end of august!!!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Obviously owned previously by someone who knew nothing of the anti-corrosive benefits of coolant/antifreeze

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Taking a break from the nuts and bolts while the WD-40 soaks in, I cleaned up the manifolds (and painted the exhaust)

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  • 2 weeks later...

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[TD]I pulled things apart and measured. Now have rings, bearings, water pump, thermostat and timing belts, plus other things on order.

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Body shop is getting some done on the welding.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is a little more, showing how the inside of the door frame looks on the finished side, and how the roof corners are modified to accept the window frame of the roll up doors.

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And now I have the parts to assemble the engine. This all came in one nicely packed box from the UK (48 hours). Bearings, rings, water pump, thermostat, kit to convert to double timing chain and tensioner, alloy valve cover, complete set of gaskets, etc. Also picked up a set of 12 pt sockets since that is what the rods are assembled with, and large sockets, as I had to borrow 1 1/2" and other large sizes to get it all apart.

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Now it's back to Bolivia where I hope to get to Tarija by the end of the month and start the assembly.

Edited by Richard1 (see edit history)
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  • 1 month later...

updates after 3 weeks in Tarija. I slip away for a few afternoon's of playing with the car, so I've gotten some things done. Won't be able to finish the engine, as I forgot to order lifters, and the ones I pulled out once I got the 12 pt sockets were badly pitted.

But I did get a lot cleaned up and painted.

Here is the heat shield I had chromed.

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Body shop has been aligning and welding. Had to form new rocker panels and door frames that fit the channel of the new front and doors.

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Meanwhile, at home I cleaned up and painted the engine

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[TD]Used my new blaster to bead blast the lower half of the injector body[/TD]

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[TD]Then moved on to painting the rest of the parts that go under the hood

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  • 1 month later...

Back in town to get a little bit done.

Here are my tail light bezels. After straightening and filling one, I had molds made and filled with melted beer cans. Then filed, sanded, and yesterday I polished and drilled them.

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Upholstery is now ready.

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In a few minutes I'll start assembling the engine, but meanwhile, here are a couple of shots from the body shop, where they finally went back to work on replacing panels and forming the body around the new doors. The first shot shows the joining of the new front clip to the original rear.

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  • 1 month later...

I took the afternoon off the other day and assembled the engine, so it is getting closer

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And my body guy finished expanding and forming panels to make the cabin and fenders match the doors

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I also made stainless trim pieces for the seam on the rocker panels under the doors.

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Do those injectors work OK? .From what i understand,they werre a stop gap to keep mini's in production right up to the end and had a lot of criticism levelled at them.. As a kid in New Zealand we would soup our mini's up by dropping in 1100 cc engines fitted with DCOE webers etc . The carb location would mean that the speedo had to removed or shifted. Quite an experience to hear the engine note coming straight out of the dash.... :-)

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Richard what you and your "bodyman" have accomplished is simply incredible. Without your intervention this rare little ute would have more than likely been consigned to the rubbish heap. I know it was the first thing you took off but that homemade bumper in the first photo does suit in a way as I'm sure this little Mini thinks it's a Mack truck. Good work.

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  • 4 weeks later...
There are a lot of hot points to retract the sheet metal. Too many I have the impression: it's looking like I was doing that job as I never totally understood the process!

Watching him do that brings back memories of the Hungarian immigrant body guy who taught me in the 50's when I was 13 years old. That was how things were done. No body putty in those days. What you didn't fix that way had to be filled with lead or tin.

Watch how he moves the door frame into place nest to the window frame on the door.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

In the weekend I just spent in Tarija I got a few things done.

First put the rear wheels with 3/4" spacers on. From there we could see what needed to happen to finish the design of the flares, bringing the rear in closer to the wheel well and narrowing it a bit so it just passes the tire position. What you see here is the final design (except it is missing a little tail piece in the front.

Then the front discs. They will set the track 6 cm wider in front than the rears with the spacers, so the flares needed to be 3 cm wider (about 1-1/4 ") than the rears on each side.

So a little forming, welding, forming, etc. In these pics the front one still needs some rounding, plus forming of the ends. But you get the idea. Then we will add the inner liner, welded to the inner wheel well.

Final design

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heating to bend to wheel well

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side_view_front_flare_started.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Fenders are finished, so it is mounting seats and finishing up the details to paint.

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This week I've stolen a few hours away from work to get into details, as we approach the painting stage. Putting in the seats I found that the steering wheel is too far inboard to center on the ones I bought with the arm rests, so I went to the used auto parts store and picked up a couple of u-joints, relocating the steering column a few inches to the outside.

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Also decided that the little chain and pin on the tailgate were not of the quality I wanted on the finished truck, so I bought some plastic coated stainless cable and a couple of stainless bolts, chopped off the threads, inserted the cable, etc.

Tailgate_pins.jpg

And painted all the little parts that would need it. Here is the brake booster.

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Finally I got the wooden dash from MiniSport out and modified it to receive the dash cluster from the 94 Rover, adding a tach, oil temp, and oil pressure gauges.

dash_assembled.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

I will be putting in a submerged gas pump, so cut the top off and cleaned up the rust with some electrolysis and a rinse of phosphoric acid.

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Then found that my front chassis is not the right one for my automatic transmission, so I've found a friend with an automatic and will modify mine with his as a template.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Body guy got caught up (or tired of my nagging, so here is this week's progress. Once it goes into primer it starts looking like something.

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  • 1 month later...

Finally got back to Tarija after modifying the front frame to fit the automatic transmission. With a little persuasion, I installed the engine. Body guy swears he won't let up. I hope he is serious this time.

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