MODIFIED 1968 Mk2 MINI DELUXE

TIME WELL SPENT

When the first Coronavirus lockdown happened in England, in March 2020, Gordon Jones used it as an opportunity to rebuild his Mk2 Mini.

Words: Karen Drury. Photos: Jim Jupp and Gordon Jones.

Gordon Jones has owned Minis for many years and was a high-profile Mini drag racer in the 1980s to 1990s. In early 2020 he was nearing the end of his Radford Mini project but, when lockdown hit, he decided to switch to working on the 1968 El Paso Beige Mini De Luxe he bought in September 2019. “I got fed up with the other one,” he admits, although work began in secret as his wife, Gill, thought it best that he finished the Radford first. “I started working on the Mini properly on 12 April 2020. I tried to disguise it at first. I was just going to do a little bit and then I got a bit more involved and then a bit more until I was working on it every day in the garage.”

He had bought the Mk2 as a project car rather than a runner. “It wasn’t bad. It was pretty sound but tatty and there was a bit of welding to do on it. There was an engine sitting inside the car and there was oil all over the floor. I bought it from an older guy, named Paul, who had owned it for 12 years. He had stored it all that time and didn’t really want to part with it.”

Paul eventually agreed to sell the Mini, having once planned to build it into a Monte rally Mini lookalike. “He wanted to fit spotlights, bonnet straps and do a rear light conversion to make it look like a Mk1.” We’re glad that Gordon rescued » OWNER PROFILE

Gordon Jones

Occupation:

Semi-retired antique dealer

What’s new?

I recently became a grandad so I’m keen to pass on an interest in Minis to another generation

Any lessons learned from this project?

I was thinking about making a support for the oil cooler feed pipe, to stop it kinking. While fitting a washing machine I realised that the hose guide that goes on the back would do the job nicely

it as Mk2 Minis are rare, having been built only for a couple of years. The Mini came to Gordon with a white Cooperstyle roof and the seller had already had the seats re-trimmed using leather salvaged from a three-piece suite. “It even had a leather boot board so he was reluctant to part with the seats.”

Gordon was happy to keep it looking like a Mk2, “with a little bit of a twist and a few mods.” Originally fitted with Hydrolastic suspension, it had been altered by the time it came to Gordon. “It

Cool Compomotoive alloys. Airhorns are fitted underneath the driver’s side wing.

had beam axle suspension on the back but it was poorly fitted, as the shockers were touching the wheels, so I took it off. It had shocks all round with springs. I thought about fitting a Vauxhall redtop engine but, if you start altering the structure of the car too much, the DVLA may no longer class it as an historic vehicle.” Instead he decided to use an A-series engine and fit conventional Mini dry suspension comprising Hi-Los and Spax dampers. “There are no camber or caster brackets. Spax is good kit.” Front 7.5” disc-braking is taken care of by black anodised 4-pot aluminium calipers from Mini Spares. A new steering rack was also sourced from Mini Spares.

Gordon made his own roll-over jig so that the shell was easily moved during repair. “It cost me a fiver to build the jig. I did a bit of welding on the front panel. The wings were already there, although they were badly dented. I thought I could persevere and get them reasonably good. It came with a replacement bonnet but the bonnet catch was totally in the wrong »

The build

Gordon made his own jig so that he was able to rotate the Mini for easy access druring repairs.

Gordon did the repair work and replaced a number of panels in his garage at home. The floor pans required a few patch repairs.

The underside was painted first. An experienced restorer he was able to paint it himself at home. The wings were dented so Gordon worked hard to repair them rather than replacing them.

Once the underside was painted it was fitted with the replacement dry suspension components.

“...I got a bit more involved and then a bit more until I was working on it every day in the garage.”

The painted shell was then taken off the jig, lowered to the ground and it was built up.

Gordon forgot to fit the new bonnet before painting it so he had to use spacers to fit it. Gordon also built the 1293cc engine himself.

The Mini was taken to Tipton Garage for rolling road tuning by experienced tuner Stephen Miles. The beautifully detailed engine was then fitted.

The 1293cc engine achieved 94.1bhp at the crank. The torque figure was 79lb/ft@5,510rpm.

place. Annoyingly, I had painted the bonnet by then so I had to put spacers on to adjust it. It was a nightmare. The door skins had already been replaced and it had new outer sills on it. The floor pans were pretty sound, although there are little patches in places.”

The Mini came with metal Union flag badges on the A-panels. “The holes were there already so I just cleaned them up and I thought I’d leave them.” At home he painted the Mini in cellulose paint in its original colour of El Paso Beige (BG17). He made sure to follow correct safety procedures regarding use of chemicals and ensured that there was plenty of ventilation for his own protection.

He fitted new old stock Mk1 door handles. “Mk2 handles always droop so I prefer the Mk1 handles. I also managed to get a NOS rear badge and surround and the front badge surround is NOS. I repaired the front badge.” He also fitted a Les Leston flag badge to the boot lid.

“I fitted slightly more modern ‘fat’ bumpers. It should have had overriders but I thought I’d use what I had. The rear quarterlight windows had started to come apart as the fittings had rusted. The ‘68 shell was on the cusp so I could

The leather for the seat retrim came from a brown sofa! Gordon painted them with black leather paint.

fit a pair of piano-hinged windows in and I think they look far better than stainless ones. I did think about fitting mirrors but I don’t have a problem not having any, apart from getting in the garage, but I’ve got used to it now.” Some of the glass was missing. “He had lost one whole side of the door aperture including the glass. Fortunately, I had some that was dated correctly. The wipers are left-hand drive so they are on the opposite side. I just prefer them that way so that the wiper is out of the way of the driver. ”

The Mini had 1970s Compomotive 5x10” multi-spoke alloys. “They came with the car and were in poor condition. I put them in a sand-blasting cabinet. It took a while because they are fiddly. I

“It wasn’t bad. It was pretty sound but tatty and there was a bit of welding to do on it.”

Gordon made the billet alloy boss for the MotoLita steering wheel.

painted them in silver cellulose and fitted new bolt-in valves and Yokohama A008 tyres.” He also fitted NOS BLMC mudflaps.

Inside the Mini the re-trimmed leather seats needed a bit of attention. “They were brown but there were a few cuts and they didn’t look nice so I changed them from brown to black, with leather paint. The black leather-rim Mota-Lita steering wheel came with the car, in a box of parts. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found it. I made the steering wheel boss out of billet aluminium.”

Gordon fitted a Lucas 608 rear-view mirror, as he does to all his Minis. “That’s my trademark,” he laughs. It also has a cream crackle headlining from Newton Commercial and he made up the carpets himself and fitted BMC seatbelts. “I »have got a thing about seatbelts,”

“It also reminds me of a Mini I had in the 1980s. Actually, I did build it a bit with that in mind.”

he confesses. He fitted a modern rev counter and a large orange oil pressure warning light. “That’s my numpty light,” he grins. “When I start the engine I always make sure it has pressure.”

Being in the antique trade he has an eye for period trinkets so there is an Esso Tiger hanging from the rearview mirror and there is also a silver spanner, that his son Luke gave him, in the ashtray. The handbrake came from a Cooper S and atop the gear lever is a gear knob engraved with Gordon’s name. “I had them specially made from silver in the 1980s.”

With uncertainty over supplies at the start of lockdown, he was pleased he had already collected many parts for the engine. “I had the new engine and I had the cylinder head and the camshaft and everything. I just looked round the garage to see what I had got and I had enough parts to build it.”

He built the engine himself. “It’s a pre-A+ engine with twin HS4 SU carbs. I bought this block off a friend. It’s basically a 1293 and it has still got the pistons that came with it. The main bearings had gone. I managed to pick up a new-old-stock crankshaft for it which wasn’t in perfect condition but was useable. He is clearly very passionate about engines and I guess this stems from his drag racing days where performance was all-important to get the shortest time on the quarter mile. “It has a Super Sprint camshaft from Kent Cams, Bryan Slarke cylinder head, big valves, bronze guides, British Leyland new-old-stock lightened flywheel, a balanced backing plate, a grey clutch, a Cooper S gearbox with close-ratio gears and Hardy Spicers, so it’s got full Cooper S running gear throughout. For efficient cooling I fitted a high-flow radiator and a six-blade summer fan.”

The Mk2 is fitted with a Stage 2 exhaust manifold. “It could do with a 3-into-1 but this is a cheaper version and I fitted a cherry bomb in the middle to keep it quiet because it is noisy. It has a 2” Sportex rear box.” Gordon says that there is no sound deadening in the Mini but it was running so loud that he sensibly booked it in with Stephen Miles, at Tipton Garage, for a rolling road tuning session in April 2021. Stephen is the son

GORDON’S DRAG RACING MINI VAN

The Van was powered by a highly modified 283ci small-block Chevy engine with a home-made 175 nitrous shot set-up. It mainly attended RWYB (run what ya brung) events at Santa Pod and Avon Park. “I did enter the Pro Street Challenge at Santa Pod and also took it to Switzerland and Copenhagen where I was asked to do rolling burn-out demonstrations. It was also on Street Machine magazine’s stand at Earl’s Court in London and many other shows and events around England.”

The Mini Van’s best quarter-mile time was 10.3 seconds at 130mph, “although it did run a top-end pass at 134mph.”

Gordon hopes to get more power from the 1293cc engine. Fuelling is taken care of by SU HS4 carbs.

of Richard Miles, of Downton fame. “He changed jets and all sorts of things and it could only manage 94.1bhp but I was hoping for over 100. It might make 100 now as he backed the distributor right down so it stopped the advance on the top end. It was firing well before the stroke because of the camshaft.” After some fettling, including fitting electronic ignition and a new distributor, Gordon reports that the Mini now runs really well.

Now that the Mk2 is finished he is really pleased with it. “I like it because it’s different and it drives differently to other Minis I’ve owned. It wants to go but the roads aren’t that friendly for Minis now. It’s a bit racy to say the least. It’s similar to the Mini Van I used to drag race which had a full race engine. It also reminds me of a Mini I had in the 80s. Actually, I did build it a bit with that in mind.”

For the right money the Mk2 could be moved on. “It can be sold but there’s too much money in it now. There’s quite a lot in the engine. If I took the engine out I could reduce the price by about three grand. Then I could get £300 for the seatbelts and the decent 608 mirror is worth about £150.” Time will tell but, looking at the smile on his face when driving this Mini, we think it may be hard for Gordon to part with it, but then he does also own a fantastic Radford Mini which is now finished and you can read about that in a future issue of MiniWorld.