1968 Wolseley 1000

Indeed, 1 of 3 or 4 in the UK and 341 out of 456 ish ever made.

Quite a rare piece of kit!

I will post the spec up later in the week once I have gone through the paperwork but as you can see it is full of period modifications.

That’s the one……

Welll….. about 6 weeks ago on the way to Hooky Classics at Hook Norton Brewery (every second Sunday of the month) I came to a halt near Oxford BMW and with limited tools had to call the RAC who were phenomenal. An ex Army Tank Engineer and this was his first job after 24 years in service, went out of his way and was more than happy not to be plugging diagnostics in.

I did a compression test once home and had 180, 175, 50, 25…… that was a dry compression test and not wet. I put the Car back into storage and replaced rear fuel lines and pump which had started leaking but had trouble finding anyone to take on the work. Several Mini specialists were emailed and called but no responses which was quite disheartening, one local garage I went to is a proper old school engineers and work on all sorts of older metal with the focus being on Jaguars. Graham the owner was more than happy to take on the work investigating what the problem is and carry out the work plus a few other items.

Happy to say the car was dropped off today and I had I call confirming it was the HG and they were going to take off the head and keep me updated.

I’m looking forward to getting the W back when it’s done and just enjoy it for the rest of the year, more to come!

Yup, the vendor went quiet soon after I posted on FB it had curse word itself!

If it was a Cooper it would be worth twice what I paid, it’s rarer but does not have the ‘badge’ so intrinsically worth less, think polo v’s Fabia ? I’m basically driving a half price Cooper!

On the plus side I’ll now know that it’s put together again properly and ‘might’ look at building it out to full Cooper S spec next year!

Head being resurfaced yesterday ready for the rebuild

Back today, thanks to Birks Motorworks in Thame for the fantastic work they have done rebuilding and resurfacing the head. Ive done about 60 leileisurely miles today just enjoying it.

I’ll try and add a few shots tomorrow when I’m out and about again as long as the rain holds off!

Now this is very cool. I knew they were South African and quite unusual, but I had no idea there were so few made. Watching and following.

I really like that. And until I clicked this thread, didn't even know they were a thing!

I've only seen external hinge, wind up window Mini doors once before on an Elf that gave up it's dashboard for my van, but I can't remember if it had quarter lights. I'd just spent £80 having the front end repaired and a respray in Ford red velvet, so didn't contemplate the swap. That was the late 70's though.