Mini Cabriolet


	Scrapheap Dave’s Mini Challenges.


	Mini Cabriolet -


	Mo was my first Mini, its name came from the roof that is made of mohair. Mo started life as a 1 litre city E and was owned by a student who took the car to France. It was later imported back to the UK and a company called Chisholm Trimming in Milton Keynes bought it to turn into a demonstration luxury Mini Cabrio that they intended to take to various shows to get orders. However someone saw it and persuaded Chisholm to sell the Mini.


			Mo was built to a very high standard with split rear seats, leather covered everything including the dash and door cards, plush carpet and mohair roof with thermal inner lining. The engine was a 1300 re-built and painted metro engine with twin exhausts. The dash was a fibre glass custom made job with metro dash inset. The seats were Ford Sierra ones modified to fit and leather covered. Best of all this Mini has a TV built into a leather covered pocket located between the back seats.




		Mo has travelled far with trips to Guernsey and the Lake District (after which a new engine was needed)(Engine was in poor condition when I got it, neglected by previous owner). I have owned Mo for about 5 years now and as anyone that has owned a Mini will know rust doesn’t stay away for long and on a 1984 car is bound to be a problem. After several years rust began to appear around the headlights and along the bottom of the doors, the usual places. Along with the A-panels and rather curiosly the top of the wing.

Unfortunately the original engine was in poor condition when purchased and was soon replaced with an MG metro engine, this gave a huge increase in performance and significant saving in oil. This engine lasted for about a year but after its trip around the lake district got rather tired, at this point I decided to rebuild the original engine, fit new rings, big end shells etc and repair the gearbox, a new hotter MiniSport camshaft of course went in.

The rust was patched up and life went on, however the new engine never really performed and I could never work out why, suspecting valve timing in the end. Then the offer of a 1380 engine came along......


	1380 Engine