Rear Damper link connection to Chassis

[Onblocks]

After 11 years laid up in a garage I dragged out my wife's old convertible MM. After some tinkering to get the fuel pump to 'tick', some points cleaning etc and and a cup full of new petrol down the carbie she started and ran on the 11 yr old petrol in the tank.

Yesterday with growing confidence I began to think an MOT test would be a good place to start. I began with the idea of going round the entire braking system first. With back wheels off I noticed a swinging damper link arm that had detached itself from the chassis. From the look of the link end and a finger in the hole it's a welding job. Now, I can see various patches have been done in the past along this area..Mig wire evidence, esp where the leaf springs attach both ends. I'm thinking is it time to bite the bullet and get a proper fix done? My question is: Is this area a question of cutting out a small panel and getting an expert to weld in a new one? I can't see with the 'mark 1 eyeball' quite what's involved. The other side looks in better shape. I'm in a mind with winter on the way to strip the whole car to a shell(something I've never done before) and send the shell/bits off somewhere to be profesionally, blasted, welded, whatever.... and painted..... and then rebuild a car. Has any one out there done this? I'm short on confidence at the prospect esp chassis welding, but capable mechanically. Good idea/bad idea?

[chickenjohn]

From your description it sounds as though the rear chassis leg/rear spring hanger and possibly the front spring hanger needs replacing. Patches are not a long term repair.

Best to enrol on a welding course or even better a vehicle restoration course to learn the skills needed.

Also a good idea to assess the rest of the car, if this is the only rust then contact your local branch and ask for a recommendation for a local Minor restorer. Which area of the country are you in?

Please do post some pictures of the area and underside of the car, especially any rusty areas.

cheers

John

[bmcecosse]

That damper link arm attachment is a very solid part of the rear 'chassis' leg...... If it has fallen off - there must be some very serious rot there.... It's a huge job to do a complete strip/rebuild - but of course many have done extremely successful rebuilds - of which I am in complete awe. Sadly there are also many 'failed restorations' reported - so you really need to get the complete car thoroughly inspected before you start - so you KNOW exactly what lies ahead, with no nasty surprises half way through. Unlike the Mini/MGB/Spridget - there are sadly no new bodyshells available from Heritage for the Minor.

[Onblocks]

Time I posted an update me thinks!

Well I enrolled myself on a welding course and opted for Tig simply because I knew noting about tig except that it required greater skill to do, apparently - and I love a challenge. So with level 1 and level 2, City and Guilds Tig under my belt I thought again about the Morris and then mooched around eBay for months watching tig machines and thinking they are so much more expensive, maybe I should have done a Mig course!

Watching the restorartion programmes on telly it's all Mig...mmmmm so next time I took our normal car in for a service I asked if they had any recommendations for a welder who would take a sympathetic view on a Morris Minor in distress. A name poped straight out and the call was made there and then. We made arrangements for him to come and see the car and have a chat about it. He's a welder by trade(used to build and race his own stock cars!) and was not phased by what he saw at all. He had a book of all the available MM panels and sized up the job very quickly. So with the battery charged we put a drop more oil in the engine, put some air in the tires and a litre or two of fresh petrol on top of the 2001 vintage stuff in the tank and he drove it home to his garage that evening! Never missed a beat all the way he said.

I've been over today to take some snaps for the Morris file and I attach a link below. I'm very pleased with the job he's done it looks like a good honest repair rather than a 'patch up' that'll need doing again in a year or so. That's what he said had been going on with the area that he cut out (see pics). The rest of the car he checked and reported was in pretty good condition underneath considering its age.

Anyway looks a good job to me and I've got to concede..... I doubt I could have done it as well.

However I learned something new...apparently Tig welding is fine for nice clean metal but for rusty metal it's horrible to try and weld...Ahhhhhh, that's why they all use Mig, it does a better job. Nobody mentioned that at the college but then we never played with rusty metal on the course.

Anyway here's a link to the rest of the pics: http://1drv.ms/1fxmnIl

... I'd be interested to hear what you think of the job.[frame][/frame]

[bmcecosse]

The welding looks fine! And yes -TIG is lovely for bright/clean stainless etc - I used it at work, and it's just like oxy/acet welding - without the fires and heat distortion. But hopeless on less than perfect metal.. MIG is much more forgiving....back to College you go!!

[les]

Nice tidy garage, the owner obviously knows the secret of vehicle restoration, no crap. Which reminded me of a workmate that used to do a few mechanical jobs on cars, he said to me once, if a cars engine bay was a mess, he'd walk away. He went up in my estimation that day!

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Looks like a good neat job, make sure you get some anti corrision sprayed into the new chassis legs to stop it happening again soon!