Morris Minor Owners Club

Iain Hall wrote:Just to stir the possum if you want a FWD Minor then surely the way to go is to use a Subaru as your donor rather than an Astra ...

Other than the flat 4, can I ask why? Surely most are 4wd...

Robins wrote:I was keeping out of this to, but chickenjohn you have just gone to far! john if you dont like modifieds then why are you in the modified section??
The chap was asking for advice not instructions!
The cars we buy belong to us and as owners we should have the right to do with them as we please, there are some superb 'floorpan' jobs out there! and diesel conversions, i know of one minor combining both and i take my hat off to any one who can do it and make it work, not something ive done or plan to do but credit to those who have.
[moderated, Ray]

Of course the other way of looking at it is, the more 'bad' minors, and the more that get scraped out there the more your standard original ones will be worth got ot be good from your point of view bring on the crusher

No, it is better to keep as many Minors as possible, this "rarity = value" is a flawed argument, there is strength in numbers as regards future parts supply etc. Rarity does not always = value. Many people like the Minor because of the numbers in the club scene and the availability of parts etc.

I would not say I was going too far! Nor do I dislike Modifieds at all, as I said, I admire very much decently done modifieds. However, putting all the running gear of an Astra diesel under a Minor is a crazy idea! Just run a diesel Astra as an economical daily driver and keep a Minor as your fun weekend/ show car. One has to distinguish between a decently done properly engineered modified car and a bodge job.

Yes, I agree, owners have the right to do as they wish. However, we are talking here about historic vehicles and with owning a historic vehicle comes the responsibility of the care of our motoring heritage, some thought should be given to whether the modification is really such a great idea or even if the potential modifier is capable of excecuting the work to a good standard.

With care, these historic vehicles will last a long time and will be passed down to future generations to see how Britain used to make cars when our country was once deserving of the title "Great" and exported all over the world.

History, and heritage to be enjoyed by as many people as possible!

Would you modify Big Ben with a digital working, or fit a diesel engine to the Flying Scotsman?? Of course not. However, replacing the steam engines in Tower bridge was a good idea. Modify only for excellence in engineering, not for bodgery.

I am merely providing food for thought, and provided an excellent suggestion of a means by which people who so wish could have a modern car mechanicals with Minor looks. And that is for a company to make a Minor fibreglass kit- car with a suitable chassis to which could be fitted the running gear of your choice. Plus there is the demon of the BIVA test, the loss of historic status, the dreaded "Q" plate and road tax forever more on the poor car. Lots to think about.

And Robin, I was giving advice and not instructions! This is a public forum and we are allowed to voice our views are we not?? Or is free speech banned here as well for fear of "offending" someone????

"there are some superb 'floorpan' jobs out there! " I wouldn't put the phrase "floor pan job' and the word "superb" in the same sentence! Please! Let's see a proper chassis, decent engineering (and better still use a fibreglass body).

chickenjohn wrote:
Would you modify Big Ben with a digital working, or fit a diesel engine to the Flying Scotsman?? Of course not. However, replacing the steam engines in Tower bridge was a good idea. Modify only for excellence in engineering, not for bodgery.

not modified for excellence in engineering, out of date and impractical

bad examples, both are single builds, morris minors are in there thousands.

I also remember a moggy having peugeot 205 gti running gear. Nothing wrong with any engine in a minor done properly IMO

James[frame][/frame]

REMOVED

Robins wrote:Well chickenjohn, you are wrong, there is no freedom of speech on this forum, as if you read my last post you will see that moderator Ray has deleted much of what i said!!!!

Obviously some people hold strong views and opinions with regards to Minors and there's nothing wrong with expressing them here, however personal criticism of fellow board members will be removed. I've edited the above post but it's nothing to do with "freedom of speech", just about respecting other people's views & opinions even if they differ fom our own and allowing people to express those views here without being subject to personal insults. It's the season of goodwill so hopefully this will extend to fellow Minor owners regardless of their views on standard, modified, custom etc

well if you moderators are going to keep editing my posts and taking the point away from what im getting at then i may aswell just remove them all together and stop wasting my time as im clearly not the sort of member wanted here.

charlie_morris_minor wrote:may i ask why you are going down the astra route? if it is because you have a good one sitting in a bent / rusted out astra and are looking to save some money the cost of all the parts and modifications may far out weight the cost of buying a new engine.

as for Q plate it would appear to be a bit of a mine field at present with many reporting no problems whilst others end up with a Q plate. I am currently fitting a fiat twin cam to my car.. do I want a Q plate.. no but if i end up with one so be it. as for the cost of road tax .. I can happily live with that as I will have the car I really want and have wanted for almost 20 years. If you can not possibly live with a Q plate then you are taking a risk and certainly your finished car will not be worth what you paid + hours effort put in.. but that goes for any restored moggy just ask the poster on this site trying to insure a van for 25K because that is what it cost him

fitting a twin cam, easy mod, dvla will want the changes section on the v5 filled in and a letter headed confirmation from an independent garage that the engine you fitted is the one you say it is and it's been fitted properly, your v5 will come back with the new engine number and cc, you keep your reg and nothing else changes, It seems to me that there's a lot of doom & gloom merchants on this site who just want to be negative about everything. From my experience the dvla are as good or bad as the person who looks at your case, if you go to your local office, be nice, thats usually all it takes, I've done some serious mods and my local office were very good, they wanted photos and thats all, they will decide what course your case should take and there's no way of knowing what they will decide, I've put 3 serious mod jobs through, 2 sailed through and the one with less work done met with some red tape but dvla staff all have their own little individual rule books.

And to the grumpy old folks, please stop the negativity, there's some hard work and inginuity gone into a lot of these projects and remember customisation is down to individual taste, you dont have to like the thing but you should respect the effort thats been put into it!

I have 2 front wheel drive transverse diesel minors and I like them!

Well said mgfw, in the world of Minors this needs to be repeated OFTEN

Getting back to the matter in hand, vauxhall fwd unit into a minor? yes it can be done, I used a peugeot 1500 diesel but there's a lot of work involved, the dvla are only interested in safety so you have to make sure it is of a very solid construction, there are 3 ways, 1 you can retain the rwd by using a gearbox conversion system, 2, you can make it front wheel drive the way I did, 3, you can transverse it across the rear wheels and make it mid engined 2 seater, below is a picture of the work I had to do to make it front wheel drive (transverse), this is over engineered but I wanted to be sure it had no weaknesses. this photo will probably put you right off the idea.[frame][/frame]

Well personally I'd love to read your build diary or see more pictures of your build mgfw

See the links on mmo Theres a whole webpage, and a few more of the build threads. They seem to have been a lot more friendly and accepting than SOME on here.