Scrubworks Fleet: 1966 Morris Minor 1000

[Scrubworks]

It's about time I made a thread about this car, and this in particular seems about the right time.

Pretty much exactly 10 years ago, the young Scrubworks was driving around in a 5 year old Suzuki Swift that her parents had bought her. This was a rum state of affairs, as the entitled youngster wanted a classic car instead. However, her parents said “No, you need something modern with airbags so you don't die in a fireball. When you've had it for two years, you can sell it and buy whatever you want.”

Two years to the day, I drove that Swift into a Suzuki dealer, and sold it. I then took some of the money and laid it down for this beauty:

A 1967 Morris Minor 1000 2-door, that I named “Clear Skies”. There was, for all of us on this website, a point where the car hobby started. This was it for me. This Moggy was my only car, and for over a year it got me around Portsmouth where I was studying, including a dozen or so trips back and forth to Oxfordshire where I lived, and proved wrong all my friends and family who said “Oh it'll probably break down all the time, oh you'll hate driving it, oh it'll probably use loads of petrol.” It never broke down once, I loved driving it, and I managed to get 41mpg out of it on the highway, not to mention that it was tax exempt and about a third the cost of insurance.

I also learned the basics; oil changes, servicing, carb adjustments, rebuilding brakes, fitting exhausts, replacing electrical items etc. It actually inspired me, once I'd graduated, to forego a career in games development which I'd studied for, and instead take up a mechanic's apprenticeship at a classic car place, which ultimately culminated in the not inconsiderable array of skills I have now.

I loved that car, and I'd probably still have it today, except that, one morning in November 2013, I hit a patch of black ice on a country road, and wrote it off against a fence. Fortunately I was fine; I was only going 40 and the fence, whilst it made a thorough mess of the car, ultimately yielded. My boss allowed me to come in on weekends to fix the car, but the first day of working on it, I pulled off the ruined front wings, and about half the bulkhead came with them. Turned out that, while superficially solid, and an excellent driver, the poor Minor was actually riddled with deep, hidden rot, hidden deeply enough that years of MOT testers had failed to spot it (I'd actually only had the car MOT'd barely a month ago when the accident happened). I was utterly heartbroken, but my boss convinced me it wasn't worth fixing, and to let the insurers write it off. I did so, and I used the money to buy a Mazda MX-5 mk1, which began my history with Japanese imports.

After a year or so I started getting Moggy withdrawal symptoms, and bought this:

This one was much older, a 1954 Series II 4-door. This one I called “Scrap-proof”. Fortunately it no longer had the anaemic 803cc engine, which had been swapped for a 948cc unit at some point. I still paid too much for it, even though I probably could have sold the plate for a few quid. My green Moggy had been an excellent driver, but was ultimately rusty. This car was the complete opposite. It had received extensive welding, and was rock-solid, but to drive it was an utter dog. It had no power, the brakes sucked, the split screen wipers were a joke, the heater did nothing, the headlights were about as bright as a Trump voter, and I just hated the trafficators, though they did at least work, and the diff ratio was so short that you had to rev its nuts off just to get over 50.

I did remedy some of that by fitting headlights from a Defender, a bigger carb, a performance exhaust (which didn't really do anything but sounded cool), and a longer diff from a Minor 1000. I also put the skull and crossed lightning bolts decal on the bonnet (hence the car's name).

As shit as it was though, it kept on going in that indomitable way Minors do. I even took it to Jersey and back, and daily drove it for a year or so. It also benefited from the then-new MOT exemption.

Ultimately though, I didn't bond with it. It was too much of a heap, and the tiny front doors on the 4-door don't allow easy entry or exit for someone who is 6ft 5. I stopped driving it for a year or so, and then finally sold it back to the same guy who I'd bought it from, who had been missing it. Kept the performance bits though.

I messed about with other cars for a couple of years, but the need for a Moggy refused to leave me. In 2020, I started looking tentatively for one yet again. I was a bit surprised by how much they had risen in value since my earlier ones, but there were still a few good deals out there. Then this one popped up in my facebook feed:

Same colour as my first one, same exact specification, just one year older, 1966. It even had the same price tag as my first one. Its owner had bought it in the winter with the intention of taking it to classic car shows in the summer. Then COVID arrived, and his plans were dashed. Being older and wiser, I had a good rummage and knock as much as I could over the metalwork to make sure it wasn't a colander, and while by no means perfect, it's pretty solid. The mechanics I wasn't worried too much about. It drove and stopped and steered, and at the end of the day these cars are about as complicated as a toothbrush; whatever was broken, I would be able to fix inexpensively.

And stuff to fix there would be. On the drive home I noted that, among other things, the tracking was toed-in immensely, the carb was poorly tuned, and if you sat at more than 60mph for a couple of minutes, the engine would fuel-starve. Also a few of the controls were out of adjustment, standard BMC/BL stuff really. None of that mattered though, because I had plans.

[Scrubworks]

The thing is, although I love the way these cars look in stock condition, they're such a good platform for modifying and general tinkering, I just can't help myself. I've made a plan to build this car into a fun and moderately capable A and B-road stormer, but without a ridiculous amount of expense or alterations to the chassis, at least at first.

To begin with though, a bit of tuning. The fuel-starvation issue turned out to be because some anus had fitted a piece of clear plastic, what looked like aquarium hose from the fuel pump to the carb. The internal diameter of the hose was too much for the pump to generate the required fuel pressure at high speeds, and the carb would suck dry. Replacing it with a piece of proper fuel line with an inline filter cured that. I also stripped, serviced, and retuned the carb. Now the car runs brilliantly, even better than my first Minor.

I also fitted an Accuspark kit to the distributor, which ended up requiring me to rewire the whole ignition system. You see, this car had had, at some point in the past, an immobiliser system fitted, the likes of which I've never seen before. It used a Bosch ignition coil, very similar the ones fitted to 80s German and Swedish cars, which had a long cable coming out of the back, ending in a key barrel.

Lock the key barrel, and it breaks the circuit inside the coil, rendering the car immobile. It also fed into the wiring for the fuel pump to disable that as well. Now, as any of you with Bosch coils will know, they are ballasted coils. BMC cars of this period are not designed to use ballasted coils. Therefore a ballast system had been retrofitted. They also had cut a nice big hole in the bulkhead to mount the coil onto. I binned the whole system for simplicity, and replaced it with an Accuspark coil. Much tidier.

I also fitted this Mountney steering wheel, that had originally been fitted to Clear Skies when I had my accident. I then sold it to a friend who used it in his Mini for a while, before selling it back to me. The original, school-bus sized wheel is great for relaxed cruising, but this chunky little wheel makes the steering much much dartier. I also fitted a cheap Chinese tachometer. It's awful but it does the job. This will be replaced at some point by a proper unit.

Now, for the proper mods. Back in 2015, when I owned Scrap-proof, I bought a set of four brand new steel wheels from Weller. They're made specifically for the Minor, and they're essentially just copies of the 14 inch original steelies, but 1.5 inches wider, so they fill out the arches much better, and can also accept modern tyres. They even have lugs in the correct place to take the original Minor hubcaps. The obvious thing to do with them then, was to let them sit in boxes in my kitchen for 5 years. I dug them out, and spent a few quid to have them repainted in Old English White, and fitted them with some 175 section Yokohamas. What a difference, both in the look, and the driving. Tyres are the most important part on any car, and these are no exception. Not only does the car ride so much nicer over bumps, but it's much more sure-footed in corners, and probably has twice as much grip. Changed not a moment too soon either; the Kumhos on the old wheels were 20 years old.

To further improve the handling, I removed the lever-arm dampers, and drained and refilled them with SAE 40 oil. The original oil is SAE 20. This has the effect of making the damping much firmer. I feel this may have been a mistake. While the car does indeed drive a bit flatter in easy corners, when the road is even slightly bumpy, the ride-quality is gone. I think I will have to revert to the correct grade oil, or upgrade to Spax gas dampers (expensive, but well worth it).

Another handling improvement and maintenance item was to rebush the suspension. I bought a SuperPro kit for the whole car, and redid the front of the car. Like with the tyres, this wasn't done a moment too soon. Several of the bushes were completely destroyed, and some were original MOWOG ones! MOT testers pulling their weight as usual. While I was there I got a couple of parts remachined by a local engineer to bring them back into spec, as per my BL workshop manual. I also replaced one of the tie-rod brackets and did a bit of welding to one of the chassis rails, as well as coating everything in rust-encapsulator paint. I also had the engineer make me some stainless steel spacers to my own specifications. I can insert these between the lower wishbone eyebolt and the chassis. This will push the lower wishbone further out, and increase the amount of negative camber.

One problem with Minors is the front suspension, especially when it sags after a few decades, is that they end up with positive camber, which obviously is no good for cornering or tyre wear. The wider tyres and my spacers have made the camber ever so slightly negative. Perfect. The Minor's front suspension uses torsion bars, fitted via splines. This allows you a great deal of ride-height adjustment at the front. I reassembled the suspension one spline down, giving a drop of just over an inch.

The rear suspension I have yet to get around to doing, due to equal parts other stuff to do, and procrastination, and winter weather. The nose-down stance that the car now has will be corrected with lowering blocks between the axle casing and the rear leaf springs. The 5-leaf springs themselves will be replaced with new 7-leaf springs from the Traveller, a common mod for saloons since forever. At some point I will also purchase a front anti-roll bar kit, a cheap and effective mod that doesn't fuck up the ride quality.

Now, for the brakes. The main part of these is an Escort XR3 front disc brake kit from JLH.

The discs are redrilled to 4x101 PCD, and they use a custom hub and caliper bracket. This also gives me access to whatever performance pads are available for the Ford caliper. I can also swap to a Ford 4x108 PCD hub in the future if I want. To power these brakes, you can use the original master cylinder located under the floor, but that's weaksauce, so instead I'm going to use this:

A Morris Marina pedal box. A hard-to come by item these days, this has been in my inventory for about 5 years or so. It has, as you can see, a dual circuit master cylinder with servo, and a hydraulic clutch master. The servo I will probably remove for better pedal feel, but the dual circuit master is definitely safer than the original single circuit item, and the hydraulic clutch will be far more consistent; I just have to add piping and a Spridget slave cylinder to to the gearbox. The longer pedals also help, and they hinge from the top, unlike the original clutch and brake pedals which hinge up from the floor. Fitting this pedal box could have been a pain in the arse, but fortunately it was such a common mod to Minors back when Marinas could be bought for £2.50, someone (Owen Burton I think) designed a metal bracket for it (pictured). You just weld this bracket onto the bulkhead in front of the driver, and bolt the pedal box to it. Oh, and you have to cut a giant hole in the bulkhead behind it for the pedals to get through. Then you have to finneagle the pedals around the steering column, but really it's not too bad.

So, we've got the brakes, tyres, and suspension sorted. Next, the fun bit. The engine.

 

[Scrubworks]

Twelve years ago or so, getting a bit of extra grunt out of the Minor would have been pretty easy. I'd have popped on eBay, bought a Spridget 1275cc engine for a couple of hundred quid, dropped it in, and called it a day. However, the days of cheap RWD 1275s are long gone. You can buy a Mini 1275 and convert the block to RWD, but the cost of doing that negates your savings. There are, of course, many other options when it comes to engines. There's the Ford Zetec and Rover K-Series, both of which will squeeze in and make use of the Ford Type-9 5-speed gearbox. There's also the Toyota 4-AGE twin cam from the AW11 MR2 and AE86 Corolla, but finding a RWD gearbox for those is now both difficult and expensive. The legendary Fiat Twin-Cam is also a dying breed, with usable blocks and gearboxes being vary rare. The M16 engine out of the Suzuki Swift sport is an interesting newer option, using a Jimny gearbox to make it RWD, but I don't really want to be fiddling around with all the wires and ECU. There's also the Specialist Components twin-cam kit, which involves putting a BMW motorbike cylinder head onto a 1275 A-Series block. It works extremely well, but is eye-wateringly expensive to build, even if you have a cylinder head and engine block already (which, actually, I do).

The use of these powerful non-BMC engines would also require me to swap the rear axle for a beefier unit, probably from a Ford. I do actually have a 105E rear axle casing that would be ideal, but it requires a rebuild, and quite frankly I can't be arsed.

No, I decided that I wanted to stick with the A-Series engine, and use one that could be obtained reasonably cheaply, and would be a notable improvement over the stock, 1098cc, 48 horsepower unit, but would be tame enough to not overwhelm the stock gearbox or rear axle. As you may have noticed reading this, I am a particular little so-and-so, and I decided that no off-the-shelf A-Series engine was going to be suitable for my purposes. You see, the Minor came with three varieties of the A-Series; the 803, which is about as powerful as Sierra Leone, the 948, which is smooth, and a good worker, but lacks a bit of grunt, and the 1098, which is torquey and reasonably powerful, but because of its long stroke, shakes like a Zanussi on spin-cycle at highway speeds. Ideally the engine for me would be somewhere in the middle. A smooth, short-stroke engine, but with more capacity. The 998 seems perfect for this.

However, there is one small problem; BMC/BL never made a RWD version of the 998. However, one can still be made via several ways. Firstly, you could do what BMC did to make the 998 originally; take a 948, bore it out a little bit, and fit Mini pistons. Secondly, you could de-stroke a 1098 by putting a 948 crank in it; a 1098 is just a stroked 998. Thirdly, you could take a 998 engine, and convert the block to RWD. This would have the advantage of making available the much newer A+ blocks, the ones painted that lovely piss yellow colour.

 

In the end, I've decided to go with the first option. Nobody really wants 948 engines, so good rebuildable cores are available cheaply. I could have used the 1098 block that's in the car at the moment, but I figure I'd be better off selling it on as a complete engine. The cost and kerfuffle of converting an A+ 998 puts me off a bit, and they're all shagged by now anyhow. Boring out a 948 gives me brand spanking new bores at any size. I've decided on a +40 thou bore, giving me 1032cc, pretty much exactly halfway between a 948 and a 1098.

As for the rest of the engine, here's where I get my tuner on. The pistons I will be using are Minispares flat-top units, which will apparently give 10.5:1 compression, a massive increase over a standard 948. The rods will be standard Mini items. The crank, rods, pistons, and flywheel will be balanced as an assembly, and also lightened as much as possible. I want this to be a sewing-machine smooth, revvy little engine. The camshaft was going to be an HT from MED Engineering, but I will now be using an AC Dodd cam, more on that later. As for the cylinder head, I will be using a 12G295. If you don't know your A-Series head casting numbers, this was the head fitted to the original 998 Mini Coopers in the late 60s. It is the best factory BMC smallbore head money can buy, and they're rather rare these days. At the intake, I will be using a pair of MG 1100 HS2 carbs, which I scored off a friend about a decade ago. The exhaust will be the performance item I bought for Scrap-proof, which I saved and is in my garage, awaiting its re-emergence. And I will be building the whole engine in my living room :).

So, first thing was first, I needed a 948. I picked up this one from Stamford for £70.

It came out of an Austin A35, and seemed perfect. It had a crank, sump, timing cover, pulley, front plate, and of course a block, so I took it all home, and pulled it apart in my living room.

Unfortunately, the only usable parts out of this engine turned out to be the crank and the front plate. The timing cover is an early sort, which uses a felt seal, which is crap. The later ones use a conventional rubber seal. The pulley is bent. The sump is a colander; I will use it, but I'm going to have to cut the bottom off and remake it. The block itself had some nasty scores down the wall of the fourth cylinder, caused by the gudgeon pin coming loose. I knew that when I bought it, but I hoped that the boring out process would eliminate the grooves. Nope. The engineer I took it to said they were too deep. The only way to save the block would be to sleeve the fourth cylinder, at a cost of £200. Instead, I bought another 948 block, this time out of an A40 Farina, at a cost of £50. The old block will make a nice paperweight until it's rare enough to sell.

Next thing, the cylinder head. As I said, 12G295s don't exactly grow on trees. A good rebuildable core goes for about £200-£300. I managed to win this one for £180, although it was out in the wilds of Herefordshire.

There was an interesting story behind it. The chap who sold it to me told me that it had belonged to his friend, and that back in the 70s he had bought it, had it skimmed 60 thou to increase compression, and then fitted it to his 998 Mini to go bombing around, before removing the head again in 1975. It had then sat unused ever since. His friend had recently died, and he was selling off all his stuff, including the head. I knew it was obviously going to need unleaded valve seats, but other than that an excellent purchase, right? Nope. I took it to the engineer, and his first words were, “What the hell has been done to this?”. Turns out, aside from the 60 thou skim, the head had been heavily ported, and had actually been fitted with smaller intake valves. Basically, its departed previous owner had tried to turn it into a racing had, and had fucked it up. Cost to put it even vaguely right? £700. Fuck. Another BMC paperweight. I set about looking for another head.

I found a chap in Dudley with a 12G295 that he had had fully rebuilt, including unleaded seats, new valves, a 45 thou skim, and chamber-matching.

It even had a complete set of Cooper rockers with it, all for £650. Beats £700, so I went to fetch it, but I took my other head with me, thinking the guy might be interested in it. In the end, I was able to swap my old head for a freshly reprofiled AC Dodd camshaft, and a set of new followers, a value of about £150. A bit of a result really.

The new cam has a 252/252 duration. This is a smidge less than the 256/256 duration on the MED cam I was originally going to buy, but AC Dodd's cams are apparently shit-hot in the world of Minis, so we'll see how I get on.

This brings us up to the present day. The engine block is at the engineers, waiting its turn on the boring machine. In the mean time I'm going to repair the sump, do a lot of degreasing, and paint what engine parts I can. I'm going for MG Maroon; it works well in a green engine bay, and will have the added bonus of annoying any MG purist who sees it in the Minor.

[Matty]

Following with interest as this is basically a lot of the stuff I want to do to mine

[Scrubworks]

14 minutes ago, Matty said:

Following with interest as this is basically a lot of the stuff I want to do to mine

Start hoarding parts about..... now.

[N Dentressangle]

Old skool! Takes me back 😄

[wuvvum]

That's an interesting approach to the engine issue.  I completely agree - the 948 is smooth but gutless in a Minor (just about copes in an A35 though) and the 1098 has plenty of torque but anything over 4,000 rpm it sounds like it's about to put a rod through the block.  An "in between" engine with a bit of tweaking sounds like an ideal solution.

@barefoot - is it acceptable to name cars if one doesn't give them people names?

[Scrubworks]

1 minute ago, wuvvum said:

  An "in between" engine with a bit of tweaking sounds like an ideal solution.

It'll be a Minor *actual* 1000
 

1 minute ago, wuvvum said:

is it acceptable to name cars if one doesn't give them people names?

That's very much my policy. Same with pets. I'd call a dog something like Jaffa Cake or Borkster. Calling it David just seems silly 😋.

[High Jetter]

Oh that was a good read! Looking forward to your progress!

[Matty]

10 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

It'll be a Minor *actual* 1000
 

That's very much my policy. Same with pets. I'd call a dog something like Jaffa Cake or Borkster. Calling it David just seems silly 😋.

Our youngest has named mine already. She keeps asking how "he" is doing. I'm trying to pretend it hasn't happened 

[barefoot]

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

@barefoot - is it acceptable to name cars if one doesn't give them people names?

11 hours ago, wuvvum said:

@barefoot - is it acceptable to name cars if one doesn't give them people names?

The editor of VWBus once complained to me about some of the buses he features and their owners, the utter, utter twats who insist on naming their vehicles. I was obliged to point out to him that he constantly referred to his Karmann coach-built T5 as 'the big bus'. He was gutted. 

In answer to your question, I firmly believe that 'the beast' and similar is for total twats, clearly beyond all help, but I'm willing to consider all names on an individual basis.

11 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

That's very much my policy. Same with pets. I'd call a dog something like Jaffa Cake or Borkster. Calling it David just seems silly 😋.

Oh dear. You have obviously never owned a dog and been obliged to spend twenty minutes calling it back in a busy park. The bloke stood shouting, 'Woo Jaffa Cake, where are you?' always looks an utter twat when stood next to the chap calling, 'Come on Steve, it's time for breakfast'.

 

Incidentally, this is a great thread that somehow I'd missed, I'll be reading through the whole lot later on.

[Mally]

28 minutes ago, barefoot said:

The bloke stood shouting, 'Woo Jaffa Cake, where are you?' always looks an utter twat 

 

Incidentally, this is a great thread that somehow I'd missed, I'll be reading through the whole lot later on.

You may wish to reconsider the gender, or maybe change to 'person'

[Asimo]

13 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

I removed the lever-arm dampers, and drained and refilled them with SAE 40 oil. The original oil is SAE 20. This has the effect of making the damping much firmer.

I tried that, but used SAE 90 gear oil. The bolts that hold the dampers to the bulkhead started breaking…

[abelw44]

What a great read, so well written and very funny to boot! Largely well beyond my technical ability, and in some places even my understanding, but I shall be following with interest nonetheless!

Keep it up!

Sent from my TA-1052 using Tapatalk

[Shite Ron]

2 hours ago, barefoot said:

I firmly believe that 'the beast' and similar is for total twats, clearly beyond all help, but I'm willing to consider all names on an individual basis.

I agree with your sentiment if referring to some tarted up front wheel drive shopping trolley but would not refer to John Dodd as a total twat (eccentric maybe) having watched his ‘beast’ on you tube, any other car though is not worthy of the name.

[tooSavvy]

'My' MM1000 yellow P.O. Telephones van had been serviced by the 'old hands' in the depot..... Those spongey top-hat bushes (for the bottom link/torsion bar end) had been supplanted by a metalastik leaf shackle bush = cut down to length 😉.

*I sourced a minor saloon carb/manifold and junked the "10p hole for a restrictor" throttle cable plate 👍

GR8 reed

[BorniteIdentity]

16 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

that her parents had bought her.

the tiny front doors on the 4-door don't allow easy entry or exit for someone who is 6ft 5.

Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the wrong stick, but you're a 6'5 woman?  

We must meet.

[High Jetter]

It made me pause for a moment too, but that's what I sensed from re-reading it!

[Scrubworks]

19 hours ago, barefoot said:

Oh dear. You have obviously never owned a dog and been obliged to spend twenty minutes calling it back in a busy park. The bloke stood shouting, 'Woo Jaffa Cake, where are you?' always looks an utter twat when stood next to the chap calling, 'Come on Steve, it's time for breakfast'.

Our last family dog was a German Shepherd called "Storm". I always thought roaring "STORM!" at it from a distance was sufficiently badass :P. I did advise my stepdad not to call, of all dogs, a German one, "Storm".

Glad you're enjoying the thread.

[Scrubworks]

18 hours ago, Asimo said:

I tried that, but used SAE 90 gear oil. The bolts that hold the dampers to the bulkhead started breaking…

You may as well had welded the top trunnions to the chassis 🤣.

[Scrubworks]

15 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Apologies if I've got the wrong end of the wrong stick, but you're a 6'5 woman?  

We must meet.

My family has been very tall for generations on both sides, though I will concede I am an............ unusual woman. Something about my factory engine-management system not being compatible with the chassis type. Mods are ongoing to correct this ;). Some mk1 Homo Sapiens purists really don't like what I'm doing, but as always, you do what you want with your own car ^_^.

[BorniteIdentity]

5 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

My family has been very tall for generations on both sides, though I will concede I am an............ unusual woman. Something about my factory engine-management system not being compatible with the chassis type. Mods are ongoing to correct this ;). Some mk1 Homo Sapiens purists really don't like what I'm doing, but as always, you do what you want with your own car ^_^.

100% concur. 

The mod crew who insist that every car must be decked and wrecked I do - admittedly - find challenging.* 

Those who quietly go about making the modifications and changes that make them happy have nothing but my full support.  Doing things for the right reasons is always the path to happiness. Some of them look rather good 😉

*FULLY accept this is my problem and nobody else’s. 

[wuvvum]

9 hours ago, Scrubworks said:

I will concede I am an............ unusual woman. Something about my factory engine-management system not being compatible with the chassis type. Mods are ongoing to correct this ;).

You are not the first Autoshite member to be in that position, but you are by far the most likeable.

[BorniteIdentity]

It’d be interesting to know whether @Dick Longbridgeself moderated or had a post deleted for them. 

If it was ANY reference to @Nicola Hthen that was completely different. They were a shit stirring, attention seeking, self crusading chode smoker - hell bent on educating everyone in their own mould. 

I have two friends who are trans (M to F) and my world is richer for them being present. One even has a Nova SR. 

[bunglebus]

Maybe we can keep this thread about the Moggies, I'm certainly interested to see how this one turns out. 

I'd quite like a Minor one day (the car)

[Dick Cheeseburger]

3 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

It’d be interesting to know whether @Dick Longbridgeself moderated or had a post deleted for them. 

If it was ANY reference to @Nicola Hthen that was completely different. They were a shit stirring, attention seeking, self crusading chode smoker - hell bent on educating everyone in their own mould. 

I have two friends who are trans (M to F) and my world is richer for them being present. One even has a Nova SR. 

Nothing sinister going on here. I quoted you and then realised I'd not read your reply properly, hence deleting my comment straight after. Blame it on me having a poor night's sleep and only being half awake when posting. 

S'all good man. 

[tooSavvy]

41 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Maybe we can keep this thread about the Moggies, I'm certainly interested to see how this one turns out. 

*I'd quite like a Minor one day (the car)

*I think you may be conflating the M Jackson pun:- 'Video, Michael?' 'I'll have Aladdin!'

Gets coat.....

[Scrubworks]

40 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

Maybe we can keep this thread about the Moggies, I'm certainly interested to see how this one turns out. 

I'd quite like a Minor one day (the car)

Don't worry, this isn't the first time my gender has derailed a thread 😆.

Regular service will be resumed, am putting together a new update post for tomorrow.

[holbeck]

Interesting thread.  Especially where the world is with A series engines these days. 

I last had an 'A' powered car at the end of the 80s,  when anything other than genuine Cooper S parts, were both cheap and plentiful!

[Matty]

2 hours ago, holbeck said:

Interesting thread.  Especially where the world is with A series engines these days. 

I last had an 'A' powered car at the end of the 80s,  when anything other than genuine Cooper S parts, were both cheap and plentiful!

Have a look at minisports website and weep. Ultimately I'll want to put a 1275 with a few choice tuning bits in mine but fully expect to part with at least 1500 quid. A fully built 1380 which was my dream lump is the fat end of 5 grand. Thing is though its all relative. Look at the bills that modern shit are capable of throwing up. I've joined the a40 club and the spares secretary has just had two mk2 gearboxes rebuilt by Hardy Engineering and are offering them at 250 quid each. That's frankly amazing. Bits might have got dearer but properly old cars can still be cheap motoring once you've paid the entry fee