mini cooper for sale
Discussion
i am looking for a 998cc/1.0 ltr mini cooper for my 1st car.it has to be a 1993 onwards.i am looking to spend upto about £600 and maybe upto £1000 for the right one.it can be a standard one with no mods as i am willing to upgrade it myself or maybe a few nice little mods.manual only!
any help would be nice!
cheers dan
any help would be nice!
cheers dan
Hi Dan,
I doubt you'll get a Cooper for that and, as has been said, they are all 1275cc.
You could, maybe, do what my 12-year-old Grandson has done and find a good earlier 998 Mayfair, then re-build it into a Cooper 'look-alike'.
I got him a 1986 Mayfiar with, fortunately, very little rust, for £150. The paint was dreadful, so he stripped it back to bare metal all over, then I did a bit of welding for him. He sprayed the primer, then I painted the top coat in Tartan Red/O.E. White roof. He does the vast majority of the work himself, but the more complicated things we do together.
He has totally restored the suspension, brakes, interior and now he is doing the engine out from 998 to 1063 cc (that's +0.080"
So far it has cost about £1400, but when it's finished it will be like a new car and a Cooper replica, except for only having a single 1.5" carb. To fund this he has asked all the family for help, done several car-boot sales, saved all his pocket money, raided my parts store and had some other help.
When the car is finished he'll be 13 and will be able to drive it on private roads and old airfields. He has joined my motor club so by going out to marshel he will be able to drive on the closed roads and tracks.
However, we do have very full workshop facilities at my home and he is very committed, spending almost every weekend working on his Mini. If you let me have your email, I'll send some photos.
Good luch with this.
Peter
I doubt you'll get a Cooper for that and, as has been said, they are all 1275cc.
You could, maybe, do what my 12-year-old Grandson has done and find a good earlier 998 Mayfair, then re-build it into a Cooper 'look-alike'.
I got him a 1986 Mayfiar with, fortunately, very little rust, for £150. The paint was dreadful, so he stripped it back to bare metal all over, then I did a bit of welding for him. He sprayed the primer, then I painted the top coat in Tartan Red/O.E. White roof. He does the vast majority of the work himself, but the more complicated things we do together.
He has totally restored the suspension, brakes, interior and now he is doing the engine out from 998 to 1063 cc (that's +0.080"
So far it has cost about £1400, but when it's finished it will be like a new car and a Cooper replica, except for only having a single 1.5" carb. To fund this he has asked all the family for help, done several car-boot sales, saved all his pocket money, raided my parts store and had some other help.
When the car is finished he'll be 13 and will be able to drive it on private roads and old airfields. He has joined my motor club so by going out to marshel he will be able to drive on the closed roads and tracks.
However, we do have very full workshop facilities at my home and he is very committed, spending almost every weekend working on his Mini. If you let me have your email, I'll send some photos.
Good luch with this.
Peter
tinks v8S said:
SORRY LOOKED AT PROFILE
still a lot of dreaming
What a very helpful comment this is. still a lot of dreaming
Nothing wrong with dreaming, and getting a mini is perfectly obtainable. My brother had one from 15 as did I and we both spent a long time doing them up for when we could drive.
Dan as the other guys have said real Coopers are 1275 and from 1993 onwards. My advice would be to look for a City or Mayfair 998 from 1990 onwards as these have unleaded heads and will not need converting.
If you have the knowledge and facilities then it should be a matter of money and time.
I've given my grandson a 12G295 (original 998 Cooper) head and it will have unleaded seats fitted. What a nice head casting the 295 is, especially with the slightly larger inlets we are fitting and the gas-flowing I've promised to do on it. He also found an original 998 Cooper tubular exhaust manifold in all my spare parts, but he needs an alloy inlet manifold for a 1.5" SU, if anyone has one going cheaply for him.
Also he found an original 510 Cooper 'S' cam, which he's 'blagged' from me plus a set of 1.5:1 offset roller rockers he's said he's 'borrowing'.
Calculations indicate it'll have about 60 bhp when finished, so it should be quite crisp for a small-bore engine.
I just think it's great to encourage the next generation (and, in my case, the one after that). Not all of them want to just play computer games, watch cartoons and listen to 'crap' music.
The best advice to them is to have a dream, then make that dream real. It can be done, just go for it!
Also he found an original 510 Cooper 'S' cam, which he's 'blagged' from me plus a set of 1.5:1 offset roller rockers he's said he's 'borrowing'.
Calculations indicate it'll have about 60 bhp when finished, so it should be quite crisp for a small-bore engine.
I just think it's great to encourage the next generation (and, in my case, the one after that). Not all of them want to just play computer games, watch cartoons and listen to 'crap' music.
The best advice to them is to have a dream, then make that dream real. It can be done, just go for it!
what year should i look for then but i want it as new as possible. i quite like this one:
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/164406.htm
any thoughts?
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/164406.htm
any thoughts?
That one looks interesting but, IMHO, the wheels and wheel arches spoil it. I really hate 13" wheels and they do tend to spoil the handling. I think I can discern some rusty wings from the photos and, maybe, a dodgy A-panel. One might wonder what the rear sub-frame is like and the sills/rear side pockets.
Actually the condition of the body structure is the most important thing. I've just built an engine for a 1999 MPI on which there is a lot of rust, so the age does not really determine the condition.
The thing to do is to get as basic a car as possible, but with a sound shell and with all the bits so that you can restore it in your own time, to the spec you choose, and know that it's all done properly. Then it's all your own work, you know it's all good and can drive it with confidence. One thing you don't want for a 1st car is one that is heavily modified in appearance as you'll just struggle to insure it. It needs to be sound, strong and look standard.
Actually the condition of the body structure is the most important thing. I've just built an engine for a 1999 MPI on which there is a lot of rust, so the age does not really determine the condition.
The thing to do is to get as basic a car as possible, but with a sound shell and with all the bits so that you can restore it in your own time, to the spec you choose, and know that it's all done properly. Then it's all your own work, you know it's all good and can drive it with confidence. One thing you don't want for a 1st car is one that is heavily modified in appearance as you'll just struggle to insure it. It needs to be sound, strong and look standard.
wooooody said:
nice but i am now haveing to wait till im 16 so i will have to see what there is when im 16.i think a vauxhall nova is nice car to do up.dont worry im not a chav so im not stupid!putting chrome wheels and neons on it etcthanks for everybodys help.
dan
Wildfire said:
tinks v8S said:
SORRY LOOKED AT PROFILE
still a lot of dreaming
What a very helpful comment this is. still a lot of dreaming
Nothing wrong with dreaming, and getting a mini is perfectly obtainable. My brother had one from 15 as did I and we both spent a long time doing them up for when we could drive.
Dan as the other guys have said real Coopers are 1275 and from 1993 onwards. My advice would be to look for a City or Mayfair 998 from 1990 onwards as these have unleaded heads and will not need converting.
If you have the knowledge and facilities then it should be a matter of money and time.
Hopefully you will get lucky like I did when searching for mine.
£4k was brimging up loads of fairly tatty MPi Coopers, tha late ones rusted really badly.
Then I stumbled across one advertised as mint condition for £4k ono. So I went to take a look, turns out she was very particular & at 3months old it was in the local body shop being fully resprayed at Rover expense due to the poor paint finish.
Then it turns out it's a Ltd edition called a Mini Classi Cooper, on of the last 85 non Posepack cars, last one I saw sold for £6500 with 55k on the clock, mine has 16k now.
£4k was brimging up loads of fairly tatty MPi Coopers, tha late ones rusted really badly.
Then I stumbled across one advertised as mint condition for £4k ono. So I went to take a look, turns out she was very particular & at 3months old it was in the local body shop being fully resprayed at Rover expense due to the poor paint finish.
Then it turns out it's a Ltd edition called a Mini Classi Cooper, on of the last 85 non Posepack cars, last one I saw sold for £6500 with 55k on the clock, mine has 16k now.
Wildfire said:
phumy said:
Sorry but real Coopers and S's finished in 1973, wash your mouth out.
True, true, but not as the majority of people know. I am just in the process of getting my 1971 Cooper S going, and my father's 1972 Cooper S.
Built to relaunch the Cooper marque in 1990 , badged a Cooper , drives like a cooper S , converted by John Cooper to an S spec , this car owned and driven by John Cooper himself for three years . Like the Cooper produced till the early 70s it's just as much if not more a Cooper
Good luck with finding a 998 , loads about and Cooperman's grandson is doing a sterling job on his mini , he's even been here helping on my cars ...knows his stuff to .
You dont have to agree, but post 73 coopers just dont have the heritage. In the 90's it was just a car manufacturer jumping on the bandwagon to make some extra cash by calling them Coopers, the engines were no where near the sameas the originals or as quick as a true Cooper or Cooper S.
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