An American Moggie ~ My '59 Morris Minor 1000 2-door saloon

[chrisd87]

That oil pressure gauge looks like a capillary type, so you'll need a pipe with the correct unions to connect it to the engine. A T-piece will also be necessary if you want to retain the oil pressure light (which would be advisable).

[Fingolfin]

I've been busy! So busy that I keep forgetting to post. So here's my progress.[frame][/frame]The gearbox crossmember is now in handsome undercoating. Looks ten times better than it did! The whole underside will soon resemble it. Anyone know anything about the engine steady cable that comes out of the letter 'N'?
[frame][/frame]The seam welds penetrated quite well!
[frame][/frame]The 2/5 leg is firmly in place.
[frame][/frame]The depressions in the new panels didn't come out all that pretty, but they did firm up the panels quite nicely. Both the spring hangers have been located properly, so far as I can tell, and I welded them in - took them back out when the welds didn't penetrate to my satisfaction - welded them back in. Some of it is now ground down, and tomorrow it all will become so.

Finally, some patches, not ground down:[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Most welding is now complete. Grinding will be mostly finished tomorrow (what a horrible day it will be ), and my hope is to have Mog with its bottom pointing down again by Thursday.

[taupe]

Hi Fin

Great progress there ! I like the textured finish on your panel pressings Theyll be much stronger than just a flat sheet.

In your last pic, the small indentations in the floor panels either side of the transmission tunnel are for cable and pipe clips, so unless youre going to use screw clips it would be worth fitting them whilst the body is still rolled.

Good luck with all the final grinding.

Taupe

[katy]

Anyone know anything about the engine steady cable that comes out of the letter 'N'?

See page AA.27 of the BMC manual

[Fingolfin]

I've done some more, but haven't quite got the remaining grinding done. I'm toying with finishing it either tomorrow or Monday. Either way, in the next three days, Mog will be tipped back over.[frame][/frame]The tires are now mounted and balanced. To my surprise, I seem to be running 175s! I thought it was on 155s. But you can clearly see the '175/70R14' at the top of the tire. Anyway, they're so pretty!
[frame][/frame]Underseal scraped off of the rear seat floor. Good thing, too - look at the rust! But it's sound enough that it can be ground down and not replaced.
[frame][/frame]The big part of today was cutting out the spare clamp mount and letting in a patch. It's a very complex shape, and it took me a couple tries to get it right. Tomorrow (or Monday) the mount itself will go back in.
[frame][/frame]I made several half-cones and welded them over drain holes as covers - should protect them a little better than just being exposed. They were painted in weld-through primer first, but they'll get a coat of etch primer too, and maybe a light touch of undercoating.
[frame][/frame]A little panoramic shot of the interior as it looks right now. Bit colorless.

The grinding certainly is taking a while. But another day of work should see Mog back with its floor parallel to the surface of the planet.

[Fingolfin]

Amazing how one day turns into two weeks. But you all know how thorough I am. Anyway, Mog's belly is done, and here are the photos to prove it! But let's start with the small stuff first.
[frame][/frame]The big gauge cleaned up very nicely. It's almost in mint condition!
[frame][/frame]All the gauges in a row. All I need for them now is a voltage regulator to step it down from 12v to 10v, and the kit for the oil pressure gauge.
Now structure stuff!
[frame][/frame]All the seam-welds (and nearly all the welds in total) ground down! What an achievement that was.
[frame][/frame]Some new clips welded on, and the Eastwood brand seam sealant. It's thick as glue and stinks, but it sure seemed to seal the seams.
[frame][/frame]Now that looks good! Etch primer over the whole surface. I did spray the etch primer over existing paint, after testing it on some of the paint to make sure there were no adverse side-effects. I may yet be proved wrong.
[frame][/frame]And, finally, undercoated. Notice that I did the steering slot at the same time...that was somewhat difficult.
[frame][/frame]Here's the floor. The boot has been stripped of rust and old underseal, and so has the rear seat floor. Soon it'll look similar to the underside.

Upcoming is the cleaning and painting of the front suspension and the rear axle and springs, the refitting of the braking systems, and the electrics. Interior, glass, instruments, and many other things to follow. I have roughly a month available before school.

[benb]

Looking good Fin! Its a good feeling to get paint on isnt, what colour are you going for original or something modern.
well done looking forward to seeing the finished car.

Ben

[Alex'n'Ane]

175?! Are they on standard width minor rims? If so they will look very 'balloony' and will be frankly rather unsafe, there will be so much sidewall movement the tyre will come off the rim under any real sideways forces. The welding looks very good though.

[Fingolfin]

They sure don't look, ah, "balloony". I will, however, take them to a tire shop and have a professional evaluate their suitability. (read: I asked dad, he said he didn't know.) Having done so much already to be safe, I don't want to risk losing a tire or having a blowout when it's preventable!

I'm going to stick with the current color, the maroon, which isn't original but is quite nice. The original color is Clipper Blue, I believe, which you can see on Mog's ceiling.

[Fingolfin]

I went on a trip (and got some Moggie bits), and I've been a busy bee since then. Things are really starting to come together on Mog. But first, meet my next project, Stiltzkin!
[frame][/frame]
It's not in great shape, obviously.[frame][/frame]But it'll be great fun to rebuild! Stiltzkin will be even more my own than Mog. I'm considering some upgrades to this one, like a 1500cc A-series and disc brakes -- but we shall see.

Now Mog!
The steering rack is cleaned up:[frame][/frame]
The wiper motor is cleaned up (but not reassembled yet, this is just the casing):[frame][/frame]
The rear springs are cleaned up:[frame][/frame]
The new rear axle is cleaned up (though there's an oil leak from one of the drums, not localized yet):[frame][/frame]
The battery box is done (except grinding):[frame][/frame]
And now my favorite part. The t-bar in the boot supporting the wooden floor was loose, so I knew I needed to weld it in; but, after testing one of the tires under it, I decided it would be best to take the opportunity to raise it a bit. So here's the result:[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]I also fixed the crack in the center of the rearmost bar, and welded it firmly in. I can rock the car with it, so it's strongly in. Oh, and the boot floor is painted!

I feel somewhat confident of getting it on the road within three weeks. I only have four available weeks in the summer remaining, so it's going to be tight.

[DaisyMayFozz]

Looking good Fin!

what year is stiltzkin? and did he come with any parts?

[Fingolfin]

I have no idea about Stiltzkin. I can find out some information from the body number plate, I'm sure, but Stiltzkin is missing his car number plate and the engine I'm going to use in it probably isn't original (though it is 1098cc, so it's a Minor engine).
It will come with quite a few parts though -- fiberglass rear wings (which I loathe but Trav wings are hard to find, aren't they?), engine, gearbox, propshaft, front and back doors, bonnet, and maybe front wings. All of these are in fair shape, so once the structure is fixed, Stiltzkin will be remade pretty quickly.

[thecount]

Hi there Fingolfin,
looking like a heck of alot of work there and done well too your fairly plowing through it whata great effort! Was wondering with the pic and comment about your gauges and needing avoltage regulator for 12v to 10v, is it not a 12v car? Are the State side Minors running 10v electrics? Interesting stuff I wonder why
Anyway keep it up, can't wait to see the end product and really looking forward to seeing the next project happening, ove Travellers but hey are about as rare here in Aus as they are in the States.
Cheers
Gav

[Fingolfin]

No, no, Stateside Minors (and most cars I'm familiar with) run 12v, but the electric Smiths water temperature gauge (I think) runs on 10v -- like the later Minor fuel gauges. Black-faced speedometers come with a little green module on the back, which is a resistor that steps the voltage down for the later fuel gauge; but Mog came with a magnolia-faced speedometer, so no green module. Or maybe I made all that up?

Thanks for the encouragement, though! I tried to get a lot done today, and I think I accomplished that.

The battery box is officially done:[frame][/frame]
The floor is now painted:[frame][/frame]
And the interior color has been fixed, first with a base coat (over existing, sanded paint) of white:[frame][/frame]
And then with the new gold:[frame][/frame]
I'm not sure I like it -- it's enormously ostentatious -- but it'll have to do. I haven't the time to strip it off and do it over.

If my suspension parts ever come from ESM (and the U-bolts from the local machine shop), I'll put the suspension and steering back in. The wiper motor will come when I manage to get a soldering iron. Thereafter will be seatbelts, the seats, the gearbox, the doors, the glass, and many many things in between. In twenty days. Yeah.

[DaisyMayFozz]

If you don't like the Gold, you could paint it body colour when you are painting the body?

[Fingolfin]

I could, but I don't know if the maroon would look good inside. I've seen other Minors with maroon dashes, and they can look good, but I think it'd take a lot of work. Most importantly, I've decided not to do the body color right now -- so perhaps I'll do the interior when, in a few years, I do the body.

[dunketh]

That gold looks amazing. I think it'll match the burgundy nicely.

This whole topic thread is an inspiration. I'm roughly equivalent to your 'Page 1/Step 1' of my own rebuild and its interesting, if at times worrying, to see what lurks behind the various levels of underseal and past owner bodge-ups.
The tear-down process is a scary time.

Looking at the quality and completeness of the job you're doing, I'd happily bet on this car lasting another 40+ years. Well done!

[davidmiles]

epic effort there Fin, you're a inspiration to us all.

[DaisyMayFozz]

up to you fin, I think that the gold looks good as it is, so nothing really to be bothered about if you like it as it is! Anyway, this is going to be a cracking car with all of the work you have done to it!



Chris

[Fingolfin]

Well, I've made a decision. The gold is gone, because I kept getting more and more dissatisfied with it; but my decision is this: I've been focusing too much on aesthetics, and that's a dangerous game. I have roughly twenty usable days left in the summer, and it's theoretically possible to get the car reassembled in that time, but not if I spend it all painting and stripping and painting again. So the engine is staying like it is, because it runs; the new interior color (ivory) will stay like it is when I've finished it; I'll prime whatever bare metal is left, but the looks of the car are the least of my concerns.

It's exciting though that I've passed a big milestone: the first mechanical element has gone back into the car![frame][/frame]The steering rack cleaned up very nicely, and the new gaiters from ESM (which finally arrived) make it look like new.
I also got new front spring mounting assemblies:[frame][/frame]
The dashboard, upon stripping, revealed many many layers of paint:[frame][/frame]At least six different colors.
Here's the etch-primer coat inside, after sanding very extensively and getting almost all the old paint gone:[frame][/frame]
Finally, here's a shot of me! [frame][/frame]
I didn't take a photo of the ivory coats, but I'll do that tonight. Tonight I intend to set Mog on its wheels...