I am new to both this forum and the Morris way of life so apologies in advance for my ignorance!
I have recently bought a 1967 4 door for my wife as her 40th birthday present (not til Christmas) and it needs a few odds and sods doing to it. It seems to be mostly sound, very little body and chassis rust, the tiniest of oil leaks, rads ok, engine and gear box sound, you get the idea. The only concern of mine is there is hole that will need welding underneath. As far as I can tell it is not one of the more often mentioned disaster areas (which is why it didnt put me off buying it) but I wanted to double check with some experts. The hole is on the offside just by the crossmember but it is not where the crossmember is joined to the chassis, it seems to be the outer skin of the floor. It is about 12 inches from the door sill going towards the centre of the car if thats any help. Is this a disaster or can it be easily repaired?
It is the left side. I am not sure if this will help or not, if the vertical lines are what I think are the sills and the chassis and the horizontal lines make up the crossmember then the mark under the crossmember is the hole. The floor is solid (I have had the carpets up) and I cannot see any daylight or touch other metal when I put a finger in to the hole.
If its the left under the front passenger foot well, if its just above the silencer, then you need a new exhaust heat shield as this is what is holed. Can you take a picture?
I can take a pic but not for a while as I'm at work but I have found a pic of the underside of one on this very site: http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/technica ... Minor.html
Where the black line is for crossmember, about 5 mm to left (in this pic) of where the kink is in the line would be where the hole is. This looks closer to the front of the car than on mine, is it that the pic is of a 2 door and mine is a 4?
From a little further examination it looks like the hole could be in the outer sill (again, forgive my lack of knowledge if this is clearly wrong). Is this a major and costly operation to cure if that is the case?
If its in the sill structure, I would remove the kick plates and outer channel- 5 nuts+bolts along the bottom and four screws on the inside- and have a look inside the sill. If its painted and reasonably clean except for the hole, you can cut a square out to sound metal and butt weld in a piece to fit.
If the insides of the sills are brown and crumbly then its best to replace the whole lot- hopefully saving the inner sill step.
If it does need replacing is it a job for a newbie or is it best to get a garage to do it? I am pretty mechanically minded but have never done this type of thing before.
is the hole in the vertical part of the outer side of the car the bit that leads up to the door or on the flat floor where your feet would go. and are you describing the hole from inside the car or from underneath.
I do know of a chap who has used an arc welder for years to do his repairs but he recently changed to Mig and found it much better! So its possible, but likely to blow holes.
mig would be the prefered option. you could end up with have more holes to weld up using the arc. Not doubting your welding skills, minors seem to have a fine grade of steel. that'll be the old british leyland and bmc for you.
But even the later motors are made of much better stuff than more modern cars! On the resto course I've been on, fellow students working on Triumphs or VW's have been surprised at the thick gauge of steel used on various parts of even late Morris Minors.
