Our 1960 Austin Mini 850, Pippin, came to us not even turning over last month. Of course, we bought him as a project car to tinker with... so no biggie. In fact, that's exactly what we wanted. :D

We diagnosed the issues: bad battery, ignition switch wired to windshield wipers (and vice versa), bad carburetor. We replaced the battery, rewired the ignition/wipers and got the carb rebuild kit in the mail Friday. Did a thorough soaking of all the parts we kept and scrubbed it clean all the way into Saturday. The carburetor was put back in late last night... it had a leaking fuel line (if I remember correctly). By then I had to go to bed, but I asked Jimmy to wake me up if there was any progress.

Not even a few minutes later he ran inside and told me the Mini was running! He'd fixed the issue. It sounds nice too. I'd post a video if I could figure out how to take it off of Facebook, haha. Jimmy posted it!

Our Mini has a 998 engine in it. We have the original 850 engine as well, but we want to keep this engine.

 

Cool! Definitely post pictures or a video when you get a chance. I remember the first time I got mine running, it sounded terrible.

Jeff

 

 

Oh yes, it sounds horrid!
The fuel issue was with the cut off needle not working right... wasn't seated all the way. I like the one that was in it more than the one that I just got from MiniMania so if it keeps leaking, the old set is going back in...

Here is a video... Click me

So to get it on the road...
New tires
Throttle return spring
New left rear blinker bulb
Put the seats back in
New wipers
New door locks (didn't come with keys)
Get everything wired up right
Should be ready by summer!

 

So just to keep an update going... we bled the brakes yesterday and as Jimmy put it, "He stops!!"


Haha. We're so stoked. He's almost road legal! New tail lights too.



Also, for those who are interested and haven't seen yet, here's a blog monitoring his progress: http://project-pippin.blogspot.com/