Morris Minor Owners Club

ManyMinors wrote: ↑Sat Sep 03, 2022 5:42 pm
Is it my eyes or does it have an earlier model (Series 11) rear wing fitted with the higher cut wheelarch?

It does look like that. Strange......it is common to see later parts fitted to earlier cars, but not the other way around. Looks like a car with great potential though

First wash in almost 20-years. The paint is horrendous and the photos really do flatter it. Since being told about the rear wings not being original, they irritate me a little now, it doesn't look at all right.

A previous owner has been crazily random, it seems - earlier rear wings, fitted with later tail/stop lights for a 1961 vehicle! Let's hope the mechanics haven't been similarly meddled with - imagine an 803cc engine fitted with a 948 gearbox and a 1098 diff!
Good news is it can all be put right as part of the restoration process

Aha, yes. I've got the front bumper off and now setting about the grill. Problem is, the hockey stick screws are so rusty that two have sheared. Trying to get a 8mm spanner on the top nut behind the screw is a pain too.
I've definitely got a 950 engine, no question about it but it's going to need a complete strip down. I don't think it's worth trying to get the engine started though, there's no coolant, a fuel pipe is missing and pretty much every hose has perished or turned rock hard.

Congratulations for taking the plunge! You will regret it…some days. Others you’ll be so glad you did!

As a bit of honest advice from somebody who bought their first “easy to work on” Minor Traveller in only April this year…

A car not used develops leaks everywhere. Having a garage will help you immensely.

They’re not easy to work on. Everybody says that. Let me clarify. They’re simple and uncomplicated, and parts (at least here in the UK) are cheap as chips. but 95% of a job will take you 30 minutes and the rusted bolt for the other 5% will take you two hours. Each job creates 3 others.

I’ve sworn more when working on my Moggy than all other times in the past ten years. I’m not exaggerating.

Then you’ll drive it. Not from a to b but just because you feel like it. In the summer, in the country, with the windows down and the exhaust burbling away, and you’ll realise it was all worthwhile. It’s one of those things…..well….. nothing else will bring you quite so much joy, in quite the same way. It’s an incredibly special thing and no modern car will even come close. Enjoy

Nice one Philip
I have no doubt that I'll get a tremendous amount of pleasure driving the old thing once I've got it sorted but until then, I can fully appreciate there will be an abundance of swearing ahead of me.
I've just shelled out on a new aluminium radiator, quite a good deal for €99 delivered and also a 15L ultrasonic cleaner for the carb and other small bits that'll need a good clean. Now I'm trying to figure out which engine hoist/crane will be best and an engine stand for stripping it down.
After that I'm going to search this place for some advice on a full engine rebuilt kit with complete sets of gaskets, seals, hoses, filters etc. I think I might need a couple of these black things too.

myoldjalopy wrote: ↑Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:40 pm A previous owner has been crazily random, it seems - earlier rear wings, fitted with later tail/stop lights for a 1961 vehicle! Let's hope the mechanics haven't been similarly meddled with - imagine an 803cc engine fitted with a 948 gearbox and a 1098 diff!
Good news is it can all be put right as part of the restoration process

Actually, those are '63 tail light units....
'61-'63 was the interim American style indicators....
Getting those earlier wings would have been harder than getting the correct ones. My '55 should have those, but has the later ones....

geoberni wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 9:16 am

myoldjalopy wrote: ↑Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:40 pm A previous owner has been crazily random, it seems - earlier rear wings, fitted with later tail/stop lights for a 1961 vehicle! Let's hope the mechanics haven't been similarly meddled with - imagine an 803cc engine fitted with a 948 gearbox and a 1098 diff!
Good news is it can all be put right as part of the restoration process

Actually, those are '63 tail light units....
'61-'63 was the interim American style indicators....
Getting those earlier wings would have been harder than getting the correct ones. My '55 should have those, but has the later ones....

OK, but I don't see your point about the lights. All I said was that the tail lights were of a style later than that of the car itself, a statement which is correct - Oct 1963 onward tail lights on a 1961 car!

myoldjalopy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 10:15 am

geoberni wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 9:16 am

myoldjalopy wrote: ↑Sun Sep 04, 2022 1:40 pm A previous owner has been crazily random, it seems - earlier rear wings, fitted with later tail/stop lights for a 1961 vehicle! Let's hope the mechanics haven't been similarly meddled with - imagine an 803cc engine fitted with a 948 gearbox and a 1098 diff!
Good news is it can all be put right as part of the restoration process

Actually, those are '63 tail light units....
'61-'63 was the interim American style indicators....
Getting those earlier wings would have been harder than getting the correct ones. My '55 should have those, but has the later ones....

OK, but I don't see your point about the lights. All I said was that the tail lights were of a style later than that of the car itself, a statement which is correct - Oct 1963 onward tail lights on a 1961 car!

Sorry, subtleties of the English language; the way I read it, I though you were saying '61 lights had been fitted to an earlier car.

Is this an Irish car?

rocco wrote: ↑Mon Sep 05, 2022 9:01 am Nice one Philip
I have no doubt that I'll get a tremendous amount of pleasure driving the old thing once I've got it sorted but until then, I can fully appreciate there will be an abundance of swearing ahead of me.
I've just shelled out on a new aluminium radiator, quite a good deal for €99 delivered and also a 15L ultrasonic cleaner for the carb and other small bits that'll need a good clean. Now I'm trying to figure out which engine hoist/crane will be best and an engine stand for stripping it down.
After that I'm going to search this place for some advice on a full engine rebuilt kit with complete sets of gaskets, seals, hoses, filters etc. I think I might need a couple of these black things too.
EngineMount.jpg

Sorry for the late reply Rocco. Yep, you definitely need new engine mount rubbers!! ESM is amazingly cheap and do pretty much everything, but their postage can be expensive so I find it pays to work up a list of things and benefit from their free postage over £100. Appreciate that might not apply to you though.

Whatever, good luck and well done for taking it on!!

Those alloy radiators are great we have one,, check the mounting bolt threads though, ours were m8 rather than the original imperial thread, not a problem except when you come to fit it and don't have the right bolts to hand......