Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi I am amazed that in the land of Morris that you choose to spend so much time and effort and cash on rebuilding,well, rust buckets, I would have thought that there were plenty of far better propositions available. maybe I just don't realise the seriousness of the situation,
Anyhow, i note that you mention you found a double skinned sill and removed on of the skins when rebuilding. I also note that another member has commented in another project that the sills are double skinned from the factory, presumably to give the body a bit more strength.
I can't find it just now, but are you sure you should have cut the extra skin out?
the job to date is awe inspiring for any one, let alone an amateur working in the garden, good on you.

tonup wrote:Hi I am amazed that in the land of Morris that you choose to spend so much time and effort and cash on rebuilding,well, rust buckets, I would have thought that there were plenty of far better propositions available.

that may be but its a hobby and it keeps more moggys on the road

Well im still alive and around,

Things have been slow for the last few months, but a boys gotta work I guess

The engine is on its own mounts now so things should be getting moving again soon.


As to why Im doing all this work when I could have bought a better shell? well I was offered the car from a friend and didnt want to let him go to waste. the other reason is because I enjoy a challenge (daft I know)

im planning on doing some work on him today so ill try to get some pics up.

just found this in my email,


(what a handsome chap! )

Does anyone think ill be in the next pirelli calender

thats one big engine and great progress mate

just spent last night reading your whole thread! looks like a big job, but you seem to have the dedication!

what are you doing for suspension? i've read that you're using the lever arms for pivots, are you going to spax's and uprated torsion bars, or going whole hog and getting coilovers?

should be an amazing beast when its finished, and no shortage of tuning possible on that engine. i do worry about understeer!

are you going to be able to fit a radiator up the front?

Spax seem to have the classic fitments pretty well covered but they might not be up to the job of the loads ill be putting on them. Ive had a look in their catalogue and they have quite a few dampers with springs would over them and an adjustable seat so I might try to do something with these to artificially increase the spring rate of the torsion bar.

As for radiators? at the moment im still hoping to cram one in the front panel (not enough room in the bay really) either that or I may run one eight side of the engine and then put the oil cooler in the middle.


I have just come into contact with a guy in europe somewhere fitting one of these to a LADA in RWD configuration! Maybe Igor wont be quite the revolutionary I had planned, but fun none the less

Nice work!

So will you be keeping the standard brakes or going for the 9" wolseley that BMCEcosse highly recommends?

If you want to get rid of one of the axles I would take the one I sold you back! I need another one now

Discs driven by a golf pedal box and servo

Im not quite decided on axles yet but when I am ill definately let you know

Cor! its been windy out there today! Ill have to get some pics up tomorow

Lots of progress to show you all

can't wait!

is that a straight six? what motor is it out of?, are you going to keep it fuel injected? will you need to fit the ecu etc, that will be a powerful motor, that will fly!!!

1mustard wrote:is that a straight six? what motor is it out of?, are you going to keep it fuel injected? will you need to fit the ecu etc, that will be a powerful motor, that will fly!!!

Its a Vr6 out of a Mk3 Golf. 2.8 12v 15degree V6. Out of the box they have around 180hp.

The management will be looked after by a Megasquirt unit. (MS2) ill be using this to run the stock injectors and using the inbuilt coil pack drivers to run in triple wasted spark mode. The MS2 has an air connection to measure manifold pressure, this will take about 10psi (I think).
This means that once he is all running and shook down I will probably strap on a turbo and run a few psi, when the mood takes me I can always go the whole hog with bigger injectors, pistons, rods and some other gubbins: theres 500hp right there!!
Stage 1 (oem power) 180hp
Stage 2 (low pressure turbo) 250-300 hp
Stage 3 (big blower) 500hp!!!

This is all funds permitting and if I feel like it. To be honest I cant see 300 ponies getting boring!

Im hoping to keep the weight arond 800Kg if possible so the power to weight ration should be pretty healthy!

For a bit of an update (and a teaser) here are a few things ive been up to

I have pulled the engine, again,
Made a front cross member replacement
fixed the welder
ran out of gas and changed to fluxed wire (3 hrs of faffing!)
did a weld
re fed the wire
did another weld
re fed the wire
fitted a starter (may refit as not totally happy) spun the engine over and got oil pressure*
I have added re-enforcing bars to the engine bay and started on some braces to the bulkhead.
I think I have sussed the suspension (or at least a starting point)
fitted pedals with servo and resevoir (also feeds the clutch) from Audi A3
decided to fit chassis legs, just to be safe but not yet done
put the drivers seat in and made brum brum noises
made a mounting location for the fuel swirl pot and in the process of figuring out the pumps.
"stabilised" (varnished) the wood and started some sanding, Had to repair some joints my mushing resin into the decayed wood to make them temporarily stable**
done a load of sanding to prepare the surface of the wood for the next stage.
I have found a remote oil filter kit on ebay but I need to check I have the room, otherwise I will just make a couple of adaptors with some braided hose in between.

Heres a little pic of the action that I snapped earlier


*well not pressure as I have the housing off so it was a gush!
** dont worry im not using this wood... its TEMPORARY! I have big plans for this area!

like you say 300 bhp is plenty for that little moggie, the purists will be shaking there heads when that thing goes wheel spinning of the lights!!!, good luck and if i was you i would get rid of the front brake drums if you want to stop!, i am sure you had thought of that already! all the best!

hehe yeah, I did consider going rat look for the sleeper effect but decided that if im going to all the effort then I might as well shout a little.

The plans for the brakes are currently, Mr Grumpy Disc brake conversion (I need some bits if anyone has spares) up front, running off the Audi A3 master cylinder (im using the mechanical brake light switch off the audi too) then once ive decided on an axle I will have a look at what is available for it. At the moment its almost certainly either going to be an escort axle, or possibly Capri (in which case there may have to be some arch work ). Ill probably speak to the classic rally guys to see what my options are as both of these cars get used quite often.

depending on the cylinder ratios and the feel I might change to a custom front setup based on golf/audi calipers. They are ATE single pot sliders but they are also simple and plentyful.

I will be running braided lines where needed and I also intend to use the split brakes that the master cylinder offers. safety first n all

I cant see any reason why a ford pcd wont be the final result so not I can start thinking about wheels

Hey all,

Ive been out to the garage quite a bit recently. Ive pulled all the front suspension off and marked the life out of the floor using an engineers square and an spirit level. Before I cut any thing off I have basically drawn it on the floor and measured the height with some datum points.
Once it was all off I got some bits of surface rust off with the grinder and then zinked the whole area. While I was at it I fitted the welder with a new bottle, liner, neck and tip - much better!!

Then I renforced the joins in the new panel and after grinding the welds I zinked it again.

After measuring everything about a thousand times I have now tacked the new leg in place, next time im out in the garage it will all get a thorough welding.

When I do the drivers side I am going to match it to the passenger side as I can not be precisely sure of its location right now. Im getting quite a buzz now because the engine will be going back in before too long and then ive just got to mock up an exhaust, some electrics and a fuel system before I can fire her up! I cant wait!

does anyone know the ID of the eyebolt holes?

Hi,absobloodylootley fantastic what you are doing,it makes the jobs on my moggy look pathetic,mine is all minor work,cheers,Brian

brian wrote:Hi,absobloodylootley fantastic what you are doing,it makes the jobs on my moggy look pathetic,mine is all minor work,cheers,Brian

hehe thank you

Heres some pics of what seemed to be a solid chassis leg, upon closer inspection the horrors were revealed. Ill grab a pic or the remains that I took off next time im out there)


The drivers chassis leg is in now and its all welded to the engine bars, bar some big stitches. Ive got a load of grinding to do, and Ive got to fab up some braces from the engine bars up into the suspension mounts. These should provide a clean solution to solidifying the front end somewhat whilst still being removeable for access (especially on the drivers side when Mr turbine moves in!)
Once thats all done the engine will be going back in (with some tweeks to the mounts) then I need to make a bracket for the top engine mount and then figure out a brace from that to the engine lift mount.

Then it needs fuel, exhaust, a brain AND FIRE!