This has a fresh air heater with fan on left side, but also has a blanking plate over the intake pipe hole in the firewall. Why would this be? To explain I took over the re-build of this car after the owner suddenly died so never saw it before dismantling.

It just circulates air in the cabin. There’s no external fresh air input.

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ex-NSW Police 1970 MK II Cooper S
VMCI #43

Thanks winabbey, that's all I needed to know.

What you have is typical of Australian-built Cooper Ss: they had a UK sourced metal bodied heater unit with a fan in the left hand side and an opening on the driver's side for a 'fresh air' tube from the front of the car. But the fresh air tube was never fitted to the Mk1 or Mk2 models in Australia so the hole in the firewall was blanked off with the round plate.

Because it was easy here are some photos of the UK setup. Australian minis never had the hole in the body.

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1986 Mayfair (998 auto), 1974 S, 1974 Van, 1972 PMG Van

Too many minis

That looks like a later UK set-up from the pedals.
I fitted the full fresh air duct on my 1970 Mini K - I was not aware that the Oz built cars did not have it at the time. It was a pain but all the holes were already there: from the heater unit the duct feeds below the pedal box, then up through a horizontal hole in the parcel shelf (next to the demister duct hole) then forwards through the bulkhead before finishing at the grille.

This is one of the reference shots i found when I was working out what I needed and where it all went - my arrangement is the same, but because I have a K there was a foam backed hinged flap under the parcel shelf hole that I needed to remove first - I think this is a legacy of the engine bay fitted heater.



Cheers, Paul.

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1970 Morris Mini K

Yes it is a later one (1986) but I assume that would be the same as an earlier UK one.

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1986 Mayfair (998 auto), 1974 S, 1974 Van, 1972 PMG Van

Too many minis