Morris Minor Owners Club

For Sarah's MOT this year I took her to a classic car garage in Exeter who failed her amongst other things on rust near the centre crossmember, but they then refused to patch it saying it would be dangerous and "if you get it done somewhere else then don't bring it back to me because I won't pass it".

Took it to another guy who used to work at an old BMC garage who happily plated it and passed the MOT. Got an advisory list as long as my arm though!

I wouldnt patch the car near the centre crossmember, get them to cut out all the rust and weld in a proper butt- welded section.

Any patch next to the crossmember will have to be seam welded to pass the MOT. Butt welding isn't going to make it better, unless the welder is a specialist, it could make it worse.

Try getting in touch with your local branch. Someone there will be able to recomend a sensible tester.
I had problems when I moved down here and tried to get the Marina Camper tested. Doors were in primer, and the rest of it part repaired for painting. Tester said he would fail it due to filler in the windscreen pillar. I didnt bother arguing and pointing out that the reason theres filler, is it was rotten so I cut it all out, and seam welded in a section from a scrapper, but just went elsewhere, where it passed first time.
Annoying really that appearances cloud judgement. Previopus week I'd took a nicely restored 1930s 8 cylinder Railton there, and he passed it though he barely looked at it... Given the low mileage that car does I'd sooner have a really thorough test on it.
So much for the new computerised system...

rayofleamington wrote:Any patch next to the crossmember will have to be seam welded to pass the MOT. Butt welding isn't going to make it better, unless the welder is a specialist, it could make it worse.

Not if all the rust is removed and painted on both sides to preserve it. A butt weld is a seam weld. An overlap weld WILL make it worse as the lap will trap moisture against bare metal letting rust start again. Obviously the best answer if there is a hole in the floor or sills near the crossmember is to replace the whole section with a new panel but this means a mini resto rather than work to get the car through the MOT. "Happy plating" as was done here, i.e. a cheap MOT style ovelapped patch with a bit of underseal slapped over it is just going to make the surrounding metal rust even more over time.

Its the bane of any restorers life having to cut through all these old rusty patches, often four or five layers of crusty metal thick!