Newbie, 1st moggy!!

Post by **Kieranzxt** » Sun May 18, 2008 11:21 am

Hi,
Ive been given a 2 door 1971 Minor 1000. Its a bit sad looking (i'll post piccies later) and needs lots of welding (usual places - floor, sills etc).

Where the best (cheapest?!!?) places for repair sections (I live near Manchester but work near Barnsley)??

Both doors have sagged quite a lot, and have to be lifted to close them. Is this an A pillar problems or just bent hinges etc?? (Can they be adjusted). Either that or Im thinking the car has lost a lot of structural strength and is sagging in the middle..Joy!!

Im planning to pull off the wings (all fibreglass), boot and bonnet and see just how bad it is. If its too bad, I may just look for a better one!!

Any tips, piccies, links would be greatly appreiciated!!

Cheers,
Kieran

Post by **dunketh** » Sun May 18, 2008 7:08 pm

Good luck! I found most places to be pretty much the same price.
It all adds up, you may find a 'free' Minor more of a poison chalice than a gift.
(fingers crossed thats not the case of course)

Got any pics?

Post by **youngun** » Sun May 18, 2008 7:11 pm

Your best bet for parts is a company called ESM http://www.morrisminorspares.co.uk/, ive found them to have the best compromise of price and convinience!
Doors sagging is an interesting one. It may be that the hinge plate bolts have worked loose and as such the door is sagging down. The hinges bolt to threaded plates that sit inside rails in the A pillar, these allow for a lot of adjustment.........http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u118 ... July07.jpg

Its unlikely that the whole car is sagging in the middle, the Minor is a surprisingly strong beast, even when its rusted to "*&+!!.

Pull off the wings, and sill cover plates (also known as the kickplates), this will give you a much better indication as to whats going on. Dont bother with the Boot lide and bonnet as these dont hide anything usually!

good luck, and dont you dare scrap it!!

YG

Post by **Kieranzxt** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:47 am

Post by **Kieranzxt** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:56 am

The part of the a pillar the door fastens to seems "loose". I'll probably see a lot of rust when I pull off the wings....

Cheers,

Kieran

Post by **youngun** » Mon May 19, 2008 12:35 pm

It may well be that the A pillar is very very very rusty! To be honest your mog seems to have rust in all the usual places. All the panels are easily available, and as long as your methodical and take your time they are all simple enough to replace. Expect to spend about £1000 doing all that. Ive spent £800 ish doing my 4 door and it was in a lot better condition than that!

Post by **Kieranzxt** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:20 pm

Is £1000 a professional price?? Im planning to do all the work myself, and the repair sections dont look that expensive?? Ive done a few other resterations so quite handy with the mig / tig welder!!

Can anyone point me in the direction of a parts diagram that shows all the different repair sections, where they go, what steel I should have in the mog...??!!

Kieran

Post by **Welung666** » Mon May 19, 2008 9:05 pm

Try http://www.morrisminor.dk/minor_cat_e.htm for panels, I don't understand a word but the panel pics are fabulous.

Post by **bmcecosse** » Mon May 19, 2008 10:52 pm

Lots of work ahead there - survey the whole car very very carefully before spending a fortune on panels. Look especially at the main crossmember underneath the car where the rear ends of the front suspension torsion bars are located - this will almost certainly be rotten and is both expensive and quite difficult to renew!! Your car looks to be on the extreme limit of what's worth saving. There was a much better one in Cars for Sale - which only just sold for £50.

Post by **anexisWeasle** » Tue May 20, 2008 2:29 pm

Hey cool. that looks like its in the came condition as mine. I swear i saw one like it in leeds neer costco?. was it the same one?. I rember seeing rust around the boot. It was teh same colour and evreything

Post by **youngun** » Tue May 20, 2008 6:38 pm

Kieranzxt wrote:Is £1000 a professional price?? Im planning to do all the work myself, and the repair sections dont look that expensive?? Ive done a few other resterations so quite handy with the mig / tig welder!!

Kieran

Nope thats by doing it yourself! Body panels soon add up in price!

Post by **8009STEVE** » Wed May 21, 2008 12:26 am

Cummoon. I have repaired worse, and so have some of you. It just takes time and money(lots of both).

Post by **chickenjohn** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:08 am

Yes, it looks savable to me, as said above just panels, some skill and lots of time.

Post by **Kieranzxt** » Wed May 21, 2008 8:45 am

Some more pictures...

Drivers side kick plate removed

[img]<a%20href="http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm29 ... ucket"></a>[/img]

Loose door reason....

[img]<a%20href="http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm29 ... ucket"></a>[/img]

The central crossmember looks ok passenger side, but has lost the last 4" from the torsion bar mount to where the end of the floor should end. joy.

Losing faith a bit in this project......

Kieran.

Post by **Pyoor_Kate** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:01 am

You have got a *big* project there Kieran, it's definitely on the cusp of what's worth the effort to save. Given its condition you may want to think long and hard about whether you want to do it. If it was free, it may be that it's better to let it go to another home; and get another (less rusty) one for you to work on. If it's your first resto project you may want to pick something a bit less... rusty.

On the other hand, if you've got the time and the patience (and the money) it'd be incredibly rewarding to get it back on the road. But you are almost certainly looking at new floor/chassis panels front-to-back, new inner wings, A posts, bases of the b posts...

It really depends on what you want to do

Post by **bigginger** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:08 am

Indeed. The A posts terrify me (or rather, fitting them does, but you know what I meant ;) )

Post by **chickenjohn** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:33 am

I would still restore it if it was mine, I would also order A pillars and a new rear inner wing section- those patches will be hiding more rust. Take lots of measurements, brace up the door gap with angle iron (welded between edge of dash and B pillar) and cut the lot off for replacement.

Then bolt the door to new A pillar and shut the door to the b Pillar and tack the new a post in to new inner wing make sure door opens and shuts before fully welding.

Its all possible, I expect it will take a couple of years and a lot of spare time but the car will be worth it in the end as you will know its will be 100% solid- waxoyl the box sections and it will stay good. As for finding a better project, most are in this sort of state now and those that appear to be better just have patches and underseal hiding simmilar damage so are really no better, and you have paid for the same damage just hidden better.

I'd start with new spring hangers at the rear.
I've had to to exactly the same work on the current project.

Post by **Pyoor_Kate** » Wed May 21, 2008 11:42 am

As a side point, the cheapest panels are not necessarily the best idea. The panels on my mog were too short in places, and probably too long in other places. The quality of the metal in some of the cheaper panels isn't great, and you may be better off getting better panels that are more expensive.

Post by **chickenjohn** » Wed May 21, 2008 1:00 pm

LMC Hadrian- are OK, while not always perfect are usually good enough to use on the underside without too much fiddling. For wings, doors etc, I prefer to make up sections/ buy repair sections and repair any rust rather than replace a perfectly good fitting wing.

Post by **d_harris** » Wed May 21, 2008 10:53 pm

I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT GET THE CHEAPEST PANELS the [removed] ones are complete pony. totally the wrong shape and size, I spent as much time (and prob money) making the [] ones fit for purpose as if I'd got the proper ones to start with!

[Sorry to remind folks of the T&C's - I'd guess the interested parties already read this post anyway...
In line with the T&C's the reference to that particular supplier has been removed. Ray 47368]