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

[jvickholm]

Really great job!

We had the same problem with that steering column bolt.. It turned out that the previous owner had used some brutal force with the bolts. Luckily we had a spare steering wheel..

[Fingolfin]

Thanks J! Sad you had to use a different steering wheel...

Here's a little mockup, done (quickly) in Microsoft Paint, of how I think the gauges might look when put into Mog...[frame][/frame]
Left to right, speedo, tachometer, water temperature, oil pressure, and ammeter. May switch it around so the oil pressure gauge is in the center, so the pipe doesn't have to wrap around as much wiring.

I think I like this setup. It's quite easily visible through the steering wheel, and if I decide I don't want to gauges someday, I can just switch out the glovebox cover for a different one. I'll paint a spare while I'm at it. I'm unsure about keeping the cover pull...but if I don't, I'd have two big screw holes to fill, I guess with putty.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Fin, I dont know if you made a bonnet prop up yet but heres one Ive just repaired and you may get an idea of sizes.

http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=40334

[Fingolfin]

Thanks David, that's quite helpful. I have yet to do the strut, but that's high on the list.

Did a bit of work this past weekend. Had little success, unfortunately, but maybe some in the future. Here's me with Mog:[frame][/frame]
Upon close inspection, I discovered the B-pillars at the waist rail were cracked (both sides, but here's the left):[frame][/frame]
So I took off some paint, welded the cracks up, and ground down the welds:[frame][/frame]I did prime and paint the repaired areas, too, but I don't have a good photo of that for you. The paint was a good match, but, it being my first time spraying on an exposed part of body, I didn't do a great job of feathering the old and new together (in fact I didn't do that at all). Try and try again. At least it won't rust!

I cleared the rust out from under the guttering (both sides again):[frame][/frame]
And then primed and painted them in body color:[frame][/frame]
I also put in sound deadening on the ceiling. It's a dense but somewhat thin fibrous material, something like carpet underlayment, but denser.[frame][/frame]I reglued after the initial try fell off.
Then I began assembling the new headlining with parts from the old. Took me a lot longer than I anticipated.[frame][/frame]
Fitting it in the car went well until it came to putting in the front board.......... [frame][/frame]ONE CLIP WENT IN AND THE OTHER JUST BOUNCES! IT WON'T MOVE!
My own fault, I think. I had them both quite close to going behind the cant rail (with the use of a hammer and screwdriver), and when the left one slipped behind, I figured the other would follow without much more effort. Nope. Dad and I tried for a further hour to get it to move, and it just acts like it absorbs the shock of the hammer blows. It won't budge in the slightest with just 'a good shove' as the instructions say.

What do I do now?!

(You can see I ate up the paintwork inside. I don't care about that; the thing I'm afraid of is ripping the lining.)

[Fingolfin]

How about a brief sojourn into the artistic side of Mog? [frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Ah, I meant to add: I also knocked out that dent (you can see it in the last photo, in the roof near the front cant rail) this past weekend. THAT was a good job done.

[Fingolfin]

Well, you can call it progress, Lizzy, or you can call it regress.

Dad and I decided it was most likely that the front board was too thick, so the obvious solution is to get the thing back out and make a different former out of thinner wood.[frame][/frame]Mog's a bit small for him.
We worked together, but dad did the heavy effort. He used a cake frosting spatula, which is somewhat flexible and quite long, to get under the clip:[frame][/frame]
But it was a tight fit:[frame][/frame]
The clip did finally come out, with lots of work from both of us, and then it was easy to slide the rest of the lining out:[frame][/frame]But the sound insulation has drooped, so dad's going to give a better adhesive a try while I'm back in Fulton.
This is what the dash looks like right now (not that you haven't seen it before):[frame][/frame]
And the right front wing, which is original, and was repaired many years ago using fiberglass (and it's starting to rot away):[frame][/frame]Yeah. That's getting replaced someday.
I also greased the steering rack (ten strokes from the gun), which is a good simple job done.

Hopefully dad will have opportunities to readhere the soundproofing, and remake the headlining former, so that the headlining can go in without much difficulty when I return 22 November. At the same time should be the glass.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

If yoout trimmed a bit off the sound proofing the wood may fit back in place? Worth a try perhaps.

[Fingolfin]

It's not implausible...I may give that a shot. Round the corners off maybe. The front piece of soundproofing goes down to where the interior light sits, and originally there was a small patch of horsehair there, which wasn't connected with the main horsehair patch. I just kept it as one piece because it was simpler.

We'll attempt the thinner former thing too...I have a good feeling about that. I go home again in three weeks for Thanksgiving break, so you'll get some progress then, I think.

[Fingolfin]

I thought it may be interesting to go through some old receipts and come up with an idea of how much I've spent on Mog's restoration.

Mog's purchase price: $4500

Total parts purchases from the UK:
Bull Motif: $898.81
ESM: $1110.38

Estimated parts purchases from the US: $400

Cost of welder, supplies, and lessons: $800

Total: $7710, or $8.28 per day owned.

At least I got Stiltzkin for free!

[DaisyMayFozz]

£4809

ahh well, its all been worth it!

[Fingolfin]

Well...indeed it has been worth it... Thanks to Thanksgiving break, Mog has a headlining now! But first little stuff.
I tried the fit of the frontispiece while Mog was still in the corner, just to see what it would look like:[frame][/frame]Looks good with the white grille!
Then I put the soundproofing back up with plastic cement, since the earlier adhesive hadn't done well:[frame][/frame]
Then Mog got rolled out into the driveway and I cleared out the garage:[frame][/frame]
Then Mog went in the middle of the garage, and I started on the headlining. I ended up reusing the original former board (dog chasing his tail, I know ) and it went in like a charm, but I had difficulty getting all the wires to reach their screws. In the end, they did...[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]...but as you can see there are wrinkles, and some slight gaps at the outer edges. So I'm going to warm up the garage nicely, come Christmas break, and try to get the wires more taut. I'm considering something like a jack screw so that the wires can be wound taut, similar to this:[frame][/frame]Unless anyone has a better suggestion.
I'll also have to cut the aperture for the interior light better, so that it can screw into place, and there are some other important things to do, but the headlining is in. Next is the glass, but that won't happen for about three weeks.

[Roni]

Warmth really helps. I did mine, also a 2 door, a while ago and had results/effects similar to yours. Be prepared for the tightening of the cables to have to happen more than once as the new lining settles into its new home.

[Fingolfin]

Well, I think you were right, Roni, but I had a mini-disaster while tautening and won't be doing it again. I'll detail that below. Anyhow, Mog has had plenty of progress since my last post!
First I repainted the interior bits that had gotten damaged in the original headlining debacles.[frame][/frame]By the time this photo was taken, I had already adjusted the headlining; I heated the garage to about thirty degrees Celsius and kept it nice and warm for a few hours, then began tautening the cables. I got the rear three pairs quite tight, and those really made a difference; then I began on the front pair, and -- believe it or not -- both of those cables snapped apart near where I was pulling (or more accurately jacking). So those cables are not terrifically taut, and were actually so short that I had to attach them to different screws than the ones under the dash -- and I won't be touching them again, so fearful am I of snapping them more.
Then I played with the driver's door window, which (see above) won't roll up properly on the trailing edge. I discovered that some of the felt is missing in the top of the channel, and the window slants so that the leading edge hits the top first:[frame][/frame]I'm going to add some felt and see if that makes a difference -- I think it will, as the window has a lot of movement back-and-forth.
Then I took a stab at disassembling the hub, due to the oil leak in the axle:[frame][/frame]This particular hub came off, with relative ease, by using a giant pair of channel locks on the nut, and then a pair of crowbars on the hub itself -- took less than an hour once I figured it out.
A fellow at a local auto shop drifted the new oil seal and bearing into place and gave me some high-temperature hub grease:[frame][/frame]
Then the camera died, so no photos of refitting the hub, but I cleaned the backplate before refitting and it all looks like new in there. Photos of that to come.
This is my favorite part. I repainted the passenger door upper and reassembled it all (with a major gaffe in not setting the window into the window winder, which necessitated redisassembly ), and then dad helped me put that door on:[frame][/frame] I also painted the lugnuts, because some were rusting, and clipped on the boot badges.
Windows and electrics to come next week.

[DaisyMayFozz]

Excellent work fin!

[Fingolfin]

Thanks Chris! This week has slowed down a bit for Mog -- went to a party, you know, and the glass guy is like molasses in getting over to my garage -- but some work has taken place anyhow.
I put the ignition switch back in, and as you can see in another thread it's the wrong one, but it fits and works:[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
You can sort of see the repair I did on the waistrail here; the weld buckled after I repainted, so I had to do it again, this time with a small amount of polyester filler. More importantly, you see that the passenger door can lock now. [frame][/frame]
Then I cleaned up the glass, and it actually looks like glass now! Scraping off the old adhesive/rubber was annoying.[frame][/frame]The glass goes in Friday. Tomorrow is wiring, and Saturday I'll repair the left-front wing and undercoat the three wings that need it. After that comes brakes, engine painting, gearbox cleaning, and putting those things in the car...

[irmscher]

Doing a nice job

[Fingolfin]

So tired.

Yesterday and this morning, the big job was the right torsion bar; the right-hand side has always been a little droopy, so I (with desperation and a terrifying amount of labor) got the adjusting arm off the bar and moved it up a spline. It didn't look to good inside.[frame][/frame]But I got it all nice and clean and greasy, so now it slides back and forth happily, and the system is reset on the correct spline.

Another big job has been the wiring. How does the subloom (for the indicator circuit) connect to the main loom? No idea yet, but the bulkhead has some of its gadgets home now.[frame][/frame]
Finally, I've been working very very very hard on the glass. Got the molding on...[frame][/frame]THAT was a horrid job. The rear glass alone took me two hours.
Then a glassworking friend of mine came over and we started putting the glass in. The right side window went in with no trouble and about fifteen minutes of work.[frame][/frame]The next window was much more difficult for some reason, and we tore the gasket a little bit, but nothing dramatic.[frame][/frame]Then I bent down those clips.
The rear window WOULD NOT go in. It was horrible. The friend is coming back sometime early next week and we'll try again, but I just don't know. We didn't even try the windshield yet, because it has a chip in the bottom center and we're afraid it will crack (it is laminated, so bleck!). But Mog now has two doors and two windows...[frame][/frame]

[Fingolfin]

Not too much today, but it's some. Mog looks nice now![frame][/frame]
I did a bit of wiring, getting the electrical dash switches in place.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
And the fuel system is mostly in place (except the electrical parts).[frame][/frame]
Tomorrow is, of course, Christmas, so I'll be taking that off. The next week will see the wiring mostly completed, and the brakes begun.

[Fingolfin]

Well, I did a lot on Mog today, but didn't take many pictures. Worked on wiring -- Mog now has all its dash switches (except the panel light switch, which has to wait for the other gauges) and the speedometer:[frame][/frame]Looks good with the white dash!
And of course if the starter switch is in, that means the solenoid is in...[frame][/frame]
And I stripped and painted the propshaft, which I'd been meaning to do for ages.[frame][/frame]

I also did plenty of other wiring work, misplaced lots of tools, almost broke a finger trying to get a bolt out of one of the rear dampers...fun day. Hopefully soon the wiring will be finished.

[Fingolfin]

Lots accomplished today, and lots prepared for tomorrow.
The dome/courtesy light is up, though there's no bulb in right now:[frame][/frame]
I began fixing my mistake on the left front wing (the sidelight aperture was too high up):[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]I have to get a hole saw, but it'll have the new hole sometime later this week.

Then I worked on my favorite part. I modified the driver's side glovebox cover to take Mog's new gauges:[frame][/frame]
The gauges fit quite well, and look wonderful in the car:[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
And I made an effort to clean the gearbox:[frame][/frame]
More done, but I'll relay that tomorrow. Hopefully the rest of the glass will go in sometime this week.