Hello Everyone.

New guy here and owner of an Austrailian 64 Cooper. I spotted mention of ausmini.com on the USA MiniMania site and found my way here to take a look. When I discovered the Cooper Register I was happy to see my little hotrod listed. I would like to point out the colors listed for 3628 (Marine Blue & Toga White) are in fact correct for the Mini as it is now. However according to the vin plate it left the factory with Dusk Blue & Iceberg Blue applied to the the sheet metal.

Approximately 15yrs ago on MiniMania I followed the progress a forum member made on the restoration of his 64 Morris Cooper located in Australia. When it came time to paint the Mini he chose Toga White over Marine Blue combo rather than the factory colors. It was a complete strip down and rebuild. One day he announced the Cooper was completed and offered it for sale on the forum. We worked out a deal and put the Mini in a shipping container for a trip to southern California.

For the most part the cosmetics are the same as the day I bought it. Underneath I have reworked most of the mechanicals. Replacing the 998 with a 1275 sporting all the goodies (Keith Calver head, twin 1.5's, 266 cam, 1.5 roller rockers, 123 Dist, ARP hardware ...) mounted atop a full syncro tranny. Along with the improved lump came 7.5 disk's, coil springs with hi-lo's, adjustable shocks and suspension arms.

The Mini has proven very capable and a blast to drive in our local canyons.

Does anyone have a photo of a Mk1 Cooper painted in Dusk & Iceberg Blue to share? Was that color combo exclusive to Cooper's? Here in the States as far as I know we never received any dual color Mini's (other than black or white roofs). It would be great to get an idea what my Cooper looked like off the showroom floor.

John

Hi John,

Welcome to Ausmini. A few of your fellow country-men with Australian Minis are members here.

Thank you for posting your car's ID plate. I'll arrange for your car's paint details on the Cooper Register to be corrected.

You'll see on the Cooper and Cooper S registers that it was common in Australia for those models to be painted duo-tone. It became an quick and easy way to identify a Cooper and an S back in the 60's and 70's.

In case you aren't aware of the shade of those two blues, here's a link to the colour card section - viewtopic.php?f=25&t=66469

Hopefully someone with a photo of a car in those colours will post it here.

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

if it's anything like the two-tone green colour combination, then it'll look fantastic - osmond green over saxon green as seen here

http://www.shannons.com.au/club/enthusi ... -cooper-s/

_________________
did I tell you that I won a trophy?

I just realized where I have seen your car before. And he got it for free.
http://www.minicooper.1hwy.com/about.html

winabbey, Thank you for the color card link. While our Mini looks great in the darker shade of blue I think I'd rather have it painted the factory dou-tone. I'm even more hopeful someone will have a photo of the Dusk Blue & Iceberg Blue combo to share.

simon k, That is a handsome color combination on that Cooper S. Thanks for posting the link.

gtogreen1969, Yes that is our Mini. You can see how much work was done before before it found it's way across the Pacific ocean. I had lost track of that link (actually surprised it is still live). Thank you for that!

One quick question regarding our 64 Cooper ... would it have been fitted when new with an AUS or UK style boot lid? It has an AUS boot lid which I feel helps identify the country of origin. But I seem to recall reading the CKD Mini's would have had the UK style boot lid. Any thoughts on that?

John

I believe yours is correct.
The Australian boot pressing started mid 1964. I had a look at my Cooper photos and it was somewhere around YKA2S1 3000 at the end of the 997's.

Excellent. The AUS boot lid is better suited for our USA plates as well.



I no longer own either of the Honda's but the Mini is still in the garage.

John

Wow. I have never heard of that colour combo before. I think that Dusk blue was only on '64 models and the only coopers i have seen have been nurburg white roof with the dusk blue body. Yours would have to be a really rare combination i would think.
I really like the dusk blue on mine.

_________________
Tim
Dusk Blue
1964 850