Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello Richie, as Many Minors has said, the pattern wings are thin steel and the fit not brilliant. The Heritage wings are a lot better but they still need a bit of fettling. The steel in the Heritage wings is clearly of the type used in modern car pressings in that it is quite springy and doesn't be...

Meggie, Perfect summary. Depending on how bad the deposits will determine how many goes with the Citric acid you need. Regarding Aluminium parts, my friend did his over about a month, with many heat cycles, and his aluminium parts (at least as many as the Morris) did not show any adverse affects, Al...

A Post script. He used 50g per litre of citric acid, the followed up with Sodium Bicarbonate to neutralise it, about 1.3 times as much per litre. The chemical reaction also created some agitation, which helped shift some residues…

I agree with Stephen. You need to do it in an installed engine, a strong solution and leave it in for a week with plenty of heat cycles. My friend did his 1966 Austin Healey this year. It looked much like yours before hand, but 3 applications, a week at a time, cleaned it completely.
Paul

The company that produces the classics SS bumpers is Group Harrington. I bought some for my other classic and they are excellent. I believe they are made in Malaysia. I did contact them about Morris Minor bumpers, but they said they are not making them, but may consider it if there was sufficient de...

Hello Adrian, I re-read your post and noticed you mentioned door skin, so must be the door. Do you have a pic of the crack? Behind the skin of the hinge mount is quite a heavy structure, made of 1.6mm steel. This usually rusts on the bottom hinge mount, not so much at the top, and even then, is stil...

Hello Adrian, Are the cracks in the door or the door post? I have repaired both, so can give you some idea of what maybe involved. Also, the door has a check strap (curved steel rod) that stops the door opening too far. This is fixed to the door post with 2 countersunk screws. If you open the door t...

Re. Fitting the sender in the bottom hose, this will not work as you will be measuring the temperature of the water that has been cooled by the radiator and will be of no help if the engine is overheating. The solution Bill suggested, in the thermostat housing, is the best one. I have (on a differen...

Hi Richard, I don’t know how helpful this will be, but I have a Toyota box in an Austin Healey. It has a Toyota driven (friction) plate and the Austin Healey pressure plate, so much as you describe. When I had a similar problem to yourself, I took the part number off the driven plate (friction) and ...

The upgrade to the blade fuse is a good move, even if it’s not original. The cartridge fuse (glass tube with end caps) was never a good solution for automotive applications as they don’t like vibration. Additionally, it’s difficult to find good quality ones these days. The blade fuse (unlike the car...

That’s a good result. Nice to find a place that can still tune carbs, especially custom needle adjustments. Worth every penny penny.
All the best,
Paul

Hi Dave, As Manyminors already said, you can get an MOT on the chassis number. I’ve done this on 3 cars, then applied for the registration. On the last one, they sent someone (actually sub contracted) to inspect the car. They only wanted to see that there was actually a car to see and take note of t...

This is a good tip that I think I read in Practical Classics some years ago. If it’s a vinyl hood, give it a good dose of baby oil and let it soak in for a few days. Maybe even a couple of applications over a few weeks. Amazingly it does soak in and the material stats to become a lot more supple and...

We had this problem on our Morris. This is what I found when I took the engine out! A piece of old towel that had been jammed in between the sump and backplate.
I had to use a screwdriver and a mallet to remove it as it was so tightly packed.

It’s not good really. There are a few Old School garages still around, but as you’ve discovered, they need hunting down. I think the need for electronic diagnostics has driven a lot of them out. I use a small independent for our modern, run by a guy in his 40’s who can do old school stuff, although ...

I can attest to the effectiveness of these home made versions. I did the same thing on my other classic 16 years ago and nearly 40k miles. It’s seen plenty of wet weather, but still looks good. I did use a rubber seal on the edge (against the outer wing) to keep the muck out and applied Dinitrol wax...

I made some plastic wheel arch liners for the front wing of the Traveller. I welded on some tabs to take push on Spire Clips, then used some screws used to hold on modern plastic undertrays as these have a large head to spread the load. I did this on another classic 16 yrs ago and the last time I ch...

Hi Stevie I could be that the bonnet has been repainted with an incompatible paint system, such as cellulose on top of acrylic. There isn’t any easy fix other than removing the existing paint and repainting. It could also be that the car has had several repaints and the paint is too thick, so the pa...