1972 Austin Mini MK3 with Magic Wand Shifter!

1972 Austin Mini 850 Description

The car is a MK3 having been built in 1972, but it also features the well-known "magic wand" shifter. For anyone who knows much about these cars, this is a rare combination as normally a MK3 should have a remote shift linkage which comes through the floor near the driver as opposed to through the firewall. As far as my research has led me, this car came off the assembly line with this combination. The car also features the standard rubber-cone and shock suspension system.

This car currently has 83,982 miles on it with much recent work performed (see list below).
The engine is a BMC (British Motor Corp) PreA+ 850cc Inline-4, in transverse mounting position.
The Mini sports a manual, 4speed transmission. No known issues with transmission.
It is also right hand drive and still features its original United Kingdom license plate on the front (L registration).

Duringwinter 2014-2015,I went through the tedious process of having the cylinder head rebuilt, which included:
- Carburetor tuning, so the engine runs great!
-New Intake and Exhaust valves
-New hardened exhaust valve seats, so the car can now run unleaded 87 gas without the need to add lead substitute
-New valve guides
-De-carboning all pistons
-New copper head gasket
-New cylinder head studs
-New valve cover gasket
-New larger impeller/higher flow water pump
-New spark plugs (NGK)
-New 3-core radiator
-New fan belt
-New thermostat (82degC)
-New oil filter and oil change
-Chrome valve cover bolt/washer kit
-MOWOG green cylinder head and valve cover paint job
-New coolant hoses for entire coolant system (bypass hose, radiator hoses, heater core hoses)
-Fresh coolant, of course

Other recent work on the inside of the car includes:
-Recently completed as of March2016: Replaced front rubber cone suspension with new cones, replaced old aluminum strut trumpets with Mk1 steel trumpets (more durable in my opinion), added new bump stop rubber, added new rebound stop rubber, rebuilt upper control arms with new grease fittings, knuckle joint nylon cups, arm shafts and a fresh coat of paint.
-New heater core
- Completely stripped, POR-15 painted and rebuilt heater core housing
- Addition of Innocenti Mini wood-grain center binnacle, which allowed for adding coolant temperature and oil pressure gauges
-Completely rebuilt dashboard and parcel shelf
-Replaced transmission shifter with non-broken one
-Custom trunk liner
-New distributor and spark plug wires
-Front seats and rear bench seats redone with new upholstery
-New floor carpeting

On the exterior of the car, there has also been a fair amount of work performed between 2011 and today:
-The car was stripped down paint-wise a few years back (2011) and much work was done to it at that time. The major work included the panels listed below being replaced, primer painted, followed by an exterior respray with Deep Cherry Red Pearl (2011 Chrysler color RP/JRP). I do have one pint of this paint left for touch up work, if ever needed in the future. The pint of paint comes with the car sale.
-Replaced left and rear quarter panels with new replacement panels
-Replaced rear lower valence panel with new replacement panel
-Replaced front grille with NOS
-Upgraded to Wipac Halogen headlights for better night driving
-Yokohama 10" tires, 165/70R10 (Total ~$1000, with wheels below)
-Mamba 10" wheels

-You will notice a wire harness coming out of the lower front grille in some of the pictures. This harness is for a light bar which is NOT sold with this listing. Car is wired fortwo fog lights andtwo driving lights on this bar, with switches to operate them separately. Light bar which was on this car mounted via towing holes below bumper, so there are no drilled mountingholes in thebody.Lights connect via quick-disconnects, so it is easy to add your own favorite lights.

The bad:
-The engine does leak some oil. For anyone that knows Mini's, they all leak some amount of oil.
-There are a couple of rust spots on the car. There is a bubble in the paint below the left side headlight (1-inch diameter bubble, next to two smaller bubbles - total 2-inches long). There is a line of small bubbles in the paint in the right side A-panel (measuring 2.25-inch by 0.25-inch total). There is also some rust near the wheel arches towards the bottoms only (see pictures).

There is NO rust on the battery box area. Thereare NO rust holes from the trunk area to the outside. There are NO rust holes from the passenger cabin to the outside.

I have a clean Indiana title.