XWV 654A 1963 4-door saloon

[Dryad]

This is the start of a long-overdue restoration of my '63 4-door saloon which I've owned since June 2010. It was my daily driver for a few years when I took it off the road to do some welding, namely the boot floor and N/S rear spring hanger. Because of other committments it took me a while to get around to it, and by the time I had done those it needed work to the sills and chassis legs. As I had my Traveller restoration project (see BJH 914F thread) in the garage it had to spend its time outside braving the elements, which haven't been too kind to it! Anyway, as you will all know having no Minor 'on the road' is no fun, so these two Minors have swapped places for now. Today was assessment day, and to be honest I expected it to be worse than it is, just rot in the usual places; it needs a full L/H chassis leg, a half R/h leg, new L/H boxing panel and sills, both rear 1/4 floor pans need replacing, repairs to the driver's floor, repair to the L/H inner wheel arch and tie plate, minor repairs to the R/H outer sill and both central crossmember ends need replacing. I will also replace all the brake pipes, wheel cylinders and master cylinder, and will probably swap the tired 948cc engine for a 1098 version from my very first minor, which is in excellent condition and relatively low miles on it.

So, here are some of the assessment photos. Note that I cleaned off some of the rust around the L/H front spring hanger to see the extent of repair needed.

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[Dryad]

And the two crossmember ends...

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[Bill_qaz]

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[Dryad]

Wouldn't 1963 already be a 1098 engine?

I think mine is a crossover Minor because it has the combined red stop lights/indicators but later front indicators/sidelights. It also has the earlier wipers and the pull starter switch. The V5 says it is fitted with a 948cc engine and that was what was in it when I bought it.

[Bill_qaz]

Delete

[myoldjalopy]

First 1098 engine fitted to Minor 1000 was Sept 62, so a 63 car would be expected to have that size engine.....unusual for someone to swap in a smaller engine though! If that's what happened.
The final 'facelift' was Oct 64.

[Bill_qaz]

Deleted

[Dryad]

Sorry to be a pain but I'd rather keep this thread about the restoration of my Minor rather than its history, otherwise people will have to scroll through lots of unrelated comments to see the restoration progress. But as a final note on this matter;

1)The engine casting says 950 so definitely 948cc
2) It has a round heater, not the fresh air heater they had later on.
3) The person I bought the car from thought it was made earlier but registered in 1963, and may have sat in a showroom unsold because people wanted the latest version with the upgrades.

If you want to continue this please can it be on the General Discussion section instead?

Thanks.

[Dryad]

I suspect most people start on a Minor restoration thinking things don't look too bad...and then they remove a wing or two! Today I removed the L/H wing and of course found hidden horrors hiding below bubbling rust. If it's not found by a few taps of a hammer then an angle-grinder mounted wire brush will soon do so. I also suspect some people will just give up at this point, and this is where I almost found myself today. But apart from the sills, one and a half chassis legs, three quarters of the floors, the crossmember ends and inner wings the car IS actually quite solid! And I have seem much worse cars restored, so I will carry on. Meanwhile, here are some photos of the horrors that lurked therein...

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[Paladin1962]

Certainly looks daunting, but still well within reasonable repair. When I first started out some 40 years ago puttering on old cars, I had to pass up several that I really wanted, but didn't have the abilities required at the time, like welding and (proper) painting. Spurred on by articles in restorer magazines, the type that start out with the owner literally finding a radiator badge and then building a car behind it, I gradually acquired some level of skill in several areas. Bashing out patch panels, removing kludged wiring harnesses, rebuilding engines... not a master of any of these, just enough to get by.

[Dryad]

Certainly looks daunting, but still well within reasonable repair. When I first started out some 40 years ago puttering on old cars, I had to pass up several that I really wanted, but didn't have the abilities required at the time, like welding and (proper) painting. Spurred on by articles in restorer magazines, the type that start out with the owner literally finding a radiator badge and then building a car behind it, I gradually acquired some level of skill in several areas. Bashing out patch panels, removing kludged wiring harnesses, rebuilding engines... not a master of any of these, just enough to get by.

That's essentially how I started. Initially with Hillman Imps and Minis in the mid-1980s, but bought myself a cheap gasless MIG in the mid-90s and taught myself to weld (on my Morris Ital van!). Didn't get myself a Minor until 2005 and the rest is history. Yes it is daunting, but I've learned not to look at ALL the welding that's needed at once, and instead just concentrate on one small area at a time.

[OGY985K]

Looks very similar to the 4 door I’m near to finishing. The ‘wing off…ah’ moment is familiar! Mine is this thread (which needs updating) viewtopic.php?t=76961

[HARBER07]

Looks very similar to ours!.

Don’t be put off replacing the A-post if you’re going down that route. They’re not as bad to re-align as people make out.

[kevin s]

looks better than ours did, I even had to cut the back of the roof off and weld it back on!

[Dryad]

Time for a small update; some progress on the inner wing. Tomorrow I'll do a bit more...hopefully!

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[Dryad]

...and a bit more.

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[mikec4193]

I really enjoy seeing this stuff...born with rust under my finger nails...watching the pieces and parts coming together is always fun to see...

Good luck with the project....looks like it will be a fun little car when it is all sorted out. As my dad use to say "One bite at a time".

Thanks for sharing on here.

MikeC

[Dryad]

I love a rusty jigsaw puzzle, so I'll probably start on this section next.

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