Donald, our first Minor

[Marc S]

Hi all,

Just joined, as we have inherited a 1960 Clipper blue saloon.

My wife's mum bought it in 1989, and it stayed in her possession until she passed away a few years ago. The poor old car has stood under a car port, in a garage, in a garden...in fact all over the place for the last 7 years or so, until it was delivered on my brother-in-law's trailer all the way from Norfolk a few months ago. It's sat in here ever since

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Over the last few weeks we have given it a full service, repaired the carb...or at least I attempted to, I need to set it up properly yet...fitted a new battery, and gave it a good wash, boy did it need it!

I think you can see that my wife is pretty chuffed that we've made a start

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Needs a little bodywork, the bottom of the driver's door and front wing are the worst, they've been attempted before by the looks of things. We'll try and restore all the paint we can, and then it'll go off and have the other parts painted.

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We'd like to bring the car back to its former glory, and I'm sure I'll find lots of questions to ask, but hopefully I'll be able to offer some help and advice in return. Looking forward to getting to some shows - we normally attend Japanese events in our '84 RX7...a tad different to Donald!

[samuria]

looks a nice car. hope you both enjoy driving it.
where in norfolk did it come from?

[sid]

nice car..nice wife..and RX7's aren't bad either! my sister and niece both have RX7's,1983 i think,and take them to shows

[bmcecosse]

After all that time - worry about the condition of all the rubber parts - brake cylinders/brake hoses/suspension bushes and most of all the tyres - look for any side-wall cracking. The grip of these old tyres will also be 'degraded' - i would seriously suggest a new set!

[Marc S]

Thanks all

I think it was based in King's Lynne...

Our RX7 is a little different from the standard car...

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Anyway...back to Donald
He has had wheel cylinders all round, some brake hoses, and few other bits and pieces...my brothers-in-law made sure it was safe to drive. The Nankang tyres are in pretty good shape, I'm not sure if the Father-in-law put them on. There's a few spares in boxes, with a new fuel pump service kit...so I guess he planned to do that.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Welcome!

Clipper blue is one of the best minors colours, in my opinion anyway.

Happy motoring

[don58van]

It looks really nice. Good colour

I particularly like the name

How do you plan to use it?

Don

[Marc S]

It is a nice colour, or at least it will be. We made a small start on the paintwork last night...

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Only managed to get the bonnet and front wings done so far...it's a slow process, working very gently to restore the paint without cutting too much away. There are a few areas that will need a lot more work, but all in good time...we just wanted to make him look a bit better, so he won't be too embarrassed to go outside


He won't do too many miles, we'll take him to local shows, and take the odd trip out on sunny Sundays, just to stretch his legs

[minor65]

Brilliant improvement on a brilliant colour

[Marc S]

Thanks mate!

Finished the first round of polishing last night. Still plenty to do, but this will allow us to get a good coat of wax on the paint, and get it outside

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[samuria]

looking good, well done

[Marc S]

Well, the old chap passed the MoT test today

The guy said that structurally it's one of the nicest Minors he's seen in a long time. It's had quite a lot of restoration over the years...I'm glad my Father-in-law is a stickler for good practice, stainless steel fixings used everywhere. Good man!

We'll clean up the interior a bit, whack a bit more wax on the paintwork...and head off to our local Classic car show on Sunday

[Stephen R-P]

What product and technique did you use to get this kind of shine? It looks great

[Marc S]

What product and technique did you use to get this kind of shine? It looks great

I used a product called Polarshine, not sure if it's available retail? It's a finishing compound, and removes very little paint with each pass. I used a DA machine polisher at a medium speed, with a standard medium grade sponge pad.

I topped it with some Chemical Guys Jetseal, which is a great all round sealant, good for paint, chrome, glass, plastic - everything apart from the windows and rubber!

The car needs a lot more work in some places, but we wanted to protect it more than anything, so it needed to be freshened up before we could apply a coat of sealant/wax.


If you're local to us, I'm more than happy to help or demonstrate products etc, for any club member...just arrange a weekend that suits us both, pop over to the workshop, and I'll get the kettle on

[crossby]

Very nice car. love it! บาคาร่าออนไลน์

[irmscher]

What a difference the car looks lovely

[Marc S]

thanks guys

We've joined our local club (ESMMC) and attended a couple of meetings, absolutely loving driving Donald around I have to say!