Im a little confused. We have all of the most recent documents for the mini, the reciepts for parts bought, labor done etc. We were told this was a mini cooper s 1000 modled to look like the britax cooper that was in santo carlo race. But the speedo cable and on the title it says it's a rover. I just want to make sure we actually got what we paid for.

 

your long answered is found in the story here:
http://www.aronline.co.uk/index.htm?ado15ado50f.htm

so you thought you bought a 1975 cooper s? hmmmm, unless I'm mistaken there was no such thing unless you have at Innocenti .... the only Cooper in 1975 would have been an Innocenti; the UK Coopers went out of production in 71 until reintroduced by Rover in 1990 or 91 .... (see also Walton's "Mini Cooper and S", 1982 & 2004)

using the catalog of Owner's Manuals as a reference in 1975 the models of Mini (UK) would be

MKIII 850 & 1000
1275 GT
CLUBMAN
(not including truck/van etc)

someone recently posted a model timeline, I have not cross referenced to this ...


But don't panic if you find an occasional part labeled Rover, as relacement parts today may well have that label. I just replaced outer sills which came labeled 'genuine Rover part' .

have you posted pictures that I've overlooked?
edit, OK I found your original attachments .... yellow car right?

You may want to take a slew of pictures and post them someplace for a few folks to look at as your car is as you said ... modified. Obviously it has a MKI grill just for starters so question is what did it start life as, and question 2, what is it today.

and PLEASE don't get me wrong a "what is it" ain't bad as long as you are happy with it. My 79 has other older bits like: 7.5 inch cooper disks, MK1 grill, MK1 tail lites, MK1 boot lid; and a newer MG Metro 1275 ... Did you "get what you paid for?" .... only U can decide that...

 

heres the link to minimania.com that has all that was advertised http://www.minimania.com/web/id/8117...ale_Detail.cfm

 

ahhhhhhh

as the ad states: This is a very nice 1975 Austin Mini 1000 Advantage that has been modeled after the "Britax Mini Cooper S"

This is a 1975 Austin Mini 1000 - it is not a Cooper S - but has some mods to make it look like the Britax. From what I can see that primarily refers to the yellow / black color scheme. If you were told verbally that it was a Cooper....well maybe you heard what you wanted to hear? I'm not familiar with a model called 'Advantage' ?? (for what it's worth, when I show my car, which I do regularly, my poster of features begins: 1979 Austin Mini Saloon 1000 NOT A COOPER. That generates a TON of discussion with folks who think every Mini was a Cooper ala our MINIs)

About your car: obviously has a custom interior and paint. The grill has been changed to a MK1, with some associated body work and approriate bonnet. The engine has some minor mods visible: a spiffy valve cover and a K&N (type) cone filter in place of the standard air cleaner. They say it has the unleaded head - this is good so you can safely run unleaded gas. The valid MOT means what the ad says but I would not necessarily take that as the car being solid...mine had a valid MOT too and OH lordy lordy what I found in the first two months!

As I read your posts it is not running already - sounds familiar - sorry 'bout that. Remember what I said about the base auto hobby shop? Some hints from my first 6 months of ownership:

1. Now is a good time to get the battery, alternator and ignition system checked. If you can't get this at the base a good chain auto parts store will at least do the alternator & battery for free. (I got a 'brand new battery' when I bought mine. It soon died and receipt in hand I went off to AutoZone. "Did you get 10 starts out of that piece of junk battery?" Sigh

2. Get over to the base hobby shop (I'm kinda fixated on this huh?), get the car on a lift and inspect the underside carefully....lift the carpets and look at the floorboards. Look at this site for the 'where to look for rust' sticky.

3. While on the lift get a grease gun and grease the 6 fittings HEAVILY....keep pumping grease until clean new grease comes out. {two on front suspension each side, and one at the rear} You have no idea when this beast was last lubed. Mine rode SO MUCH better after I did this - the suspension was virtually locked up. You may need to bounce the suspension to unclog gummed up greas passages (base HS can help here....) Then clean up the mess you created. Consider getting the underside steam cleaned. Do NOT rest easy if you see thick new undercoating. It can hide a multitude of sins.

4. Change the oil and filter. 20-50 is the oil of choice, don't even THINK synthetic....you want simple dino' oil. Check the 'pot oil' in the carb' .... Don't know that you need to fill the carb with oil? Better get reading.....

5. Use ONLY Hi-Test / high octane fuel, 92 or better. I tried 89 once... only once. If the engine is de-tuned you might get away with lower octane but these older engines expect 'the good stuff'. Investigate what 'octane' means and you'll understand.

6. It look like you have 10 inch wheels - if soo that's good IMHO. Does it have disk brakes up front? If so that's a VERY "Cooperizing" modification. I have 7.5 disks on my 79. The later models that came with disks had bigger disks that will not allow mounting 10" wheels. Small wheels and disks is a very 'Cooperish' mod....

7. You have a K&N (or clone) cone filter. These are usually foam / last forever / filters but need to be cleaned. Go to the auto parts store and ask for a K&N cleaning kit and clean & oil the air filter. If it falls apart I was wrong and you had a paper one - never seen that but possible

***********
what about ROVER on the title?

Got a clean title? If yes, I would not worry about it cuz the average person at DMV was just trying to find SOMETHING in their computer to fill the blank. Many re-titled MINI end up as BMW. For your piece of mind what does the VIN plate say? My 79 says Austin Morris Group British Leyland Limited...and there was also BMC at the time and and ....


better question is if the VIN is actually your car. A LOT of re-vin out there. In other words IS your car a 1975 .... I'd say from the pictures it probably is. It certainly is NOT an injected Rover re-VIN'd as a 75. If you want to find out its (supposed) parentage you can pay for a Heritage Certificate which will tell you when & where it (the VIN at least) was manufactured and the first sale (dealer sent to).

btw - O-6 retired sendng here .... don't ignore those base priv's .... when they are no longer available you'll kick yourself.

 

Hi..The Classic Mini has gone through 14 different parent conpany names

startinc with BMC,and ending with Rover group..........

 

I also agree that its probably a real 75. The main question is did you get what you want? The deals done and if you're happy I wouldn't second guess yourself. I don't care for the yellow myself but I'd pay $6500 for it if its as nice as it looks in the pics.

 

yeah. I (his wife) fixed the car. I already bought a new battery and clamps and grounding cable, and installed it all myself, which I have to say having it in the boot is a huge pain in the butt, literally, bending over for 20 minutes to get all that done, then I looked under the bonnet, and noticed that one of the connector wires to the coil was disconnected. Theres a few parts that we are going to need to get eventually, like the brake fluid containers are fairly rusty, and I would like to get new wires and cover them with braided steel cables, more for asthetics than anything. I had the guy from heritage garage overnight the speedo cable to me, so the speedometer and odometer should be up and working tomorrow before I go to work. we've been using our GPS as a speedometer. lol. Our horn isn't working at the moment, and I'm going to look into that, see if it's just the wiring or if the horn itself is faulty. I got a voltage/electricity tester today, and im definatly going to be using that little baby this weekend at the garage. I took incremental pictures of the engine, and I will be posting those in a few if I remember what I did with the camera, and if any of you can make suggestions on what needs to be done just from a picture, that would be wonderful