Morris Minor Owners Club

Thats good advice, When I did my 2 door, I completely sprayed all the new parts without thinking they needed to be trial fitted. When I came to assemble the lovely shiney parts, thats when I found things did not fit properly and paint got messed up! In fact there are lots of nice things to mess up the fresh paint like fitting the window glass and almost everything else when you dont have much room to work.

It all sounds a bit chicken and the egg, I'll get as much fitted as I can before I get the top coat sprayed on, no point scratching a nice finish.
I've got a bit of a neck showing this picture, I'm nowhere near this stage yet, the doors need adjusting, the gutter needs welding on, the front wings need adjusting to reduce the door to wing gap, I'm nowhere with the bonnet restoration.. I just couldn't resist getting the old girl out in the afternoon sunshine for a photo.
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I assume that you will dissassemble the car and spray each panel seperately with top coat inside and out. If not the car will last 5 mins as the primer is not water proof. Best to carefully seam seal most joints too, prime again and then top coat.

Jonathan you took the words right out of my mouth

I'd recommend taking all the black paint off new panels. It's really only there for when they're in storage & transit. One part of the panel might be ok under the black paint, but another could have old surface rust sitting underneath.

davidmiles wrote:The inside of all four wheel arches will be getting a liberal application of waxoil, once ive finished adjusting and touching them. With any luck the protective coat put on by the manufacturer will hold out ok. If it had been patchy I would have sanded it off but it was immaculate.

The work is coming on really well! Keep it up!

I agree with Jonothan though, waxoyl alone is not enough. Give the underside ofthe front wings and the inner wings a good coating of anti stone chip paint, seam seal any seams or welds and when dry prime and top coat. Don't waxoyl untill the wings are fully painted.

You can test the manufacturers coat by wiping with cellulose thinner to see if it is cheap transport paint that needs to be removed or is decent primer. If it is the cheap stuff, it will just wipe off with thinners.

Are you going to paint the car yourself?? After doing all that work yourself, it would be great to see you paint the car in cellulose yourself too!

I recon that you really need to do the painting. When it goes well it is really satisfying, when it does not, then just sand it back and start again! Also means that you are all ready to sort out any future scrapes or rusty bits that got missed.

ptitterington wrote:I recon that you really need to do the painting. When it goes well it is really satisfying, when it does not, then just sand it back and start again! Also means that you are all ready to sort out any future scrapes or rusty bits that got missed.

Absolutely! It is great to be able to point to a smooth shiny panel (or whole car) and be able to say "I painted that".

Blimey Rich, I hope that you are not here nicking all Daves ideas to use on my pickup!!

Right, lots of advice for me there. I was thinking of getting it trailered to a pro paint shop, then again, painting it myself will provide a future of self taught touchups that will help me keep the vehicle in good condition down through the years of ownership. Mind you, its not easy to get a good finish the first time compared to an experienced spray shop.
The panels could be removed for painting to ensure total coverage, once I have them correctly adjusted, that said, they at least will go on easier afterwards. If I'm painting it myself I could slow manage that strip and rebuild process myself, whereas If I'm paying a paint shop its probably by the hour, phew! Its a long way off still before I have to make that decision. In the meantime I'll concentrate on getting the small bits sorted, like the gutter I still haven't plucked up enough courage to weld on.[frame][/frame]

The gutter tentatively clamped in place on the underside of the roof flange , using the door to get it all in position, I am trying to get it to match the one on the nearside. At least Ive got one on there for comparison...[frame][/frame]

With the changes Ive already made to this part, I still needed to take 2 centimetres off the bottom end, and cut in a V to enable me to bend it into position. Finally got it right, marked it up ready to weld on. But not today, such a lovely sunny day is set aside for... a beer and a good car magazine in the garden.[frame][/frame]

The flange looks pretty well pitted and holed to me from the last pic. I'd be tempted to restore this area too as the rust you think you have eliminated with 'rust treatment' will be back to haunt you, especially after you have spent days preppinf for final paint

I had a girlfriend with a badly pitted flange but some antibiotic cream sorted it out quite quickly.

Oh I can't stand a badly pitted flange either, I'll get that sorted.
I was walking up the hill behind Lewes castle near the courts today, having spent all afternoon in front of the judge, (giving evidence, not having it read against me) and I turned the corner an there was a lovely old 1963 green Morris 1000 van, sitting on the roadside patiently waiting for its workman owner to return. We had a great chat he was a really nice guy, he's said he may enter a few shots of his working van on here. Anyway, I got to take a close look at the door seals, gutters, bonnet side gap, sill trim piece to rear cargo side joint. So I got a lot out of the encounter. Its great seeing these vans in their normal working environment, even in this modern age. I asked him if I could take some pictures before I found I'd left the camera in the office, damn.

ptitterington wrote:Blimey Rich, I hope that you are not here nicking all Daves ideas to use on my pickup!!

Peter, your last comment about tha flange made me spit my tea out!

ptitterington wrote:I had a girlfriend with a badly pitted flange but some antibiotic cream sorted it out quite quickly.

lmao

I'm getting over some hefty dental treatment, feeling a lot better now, I went to a car boot sale and picked up these grease guns for a pound, good ole car booties, never know what'll turn up, I don't know if they will fit my pickups grease nipple points, but hey ho not bad for a quid.[frame][/frame]

next in my toolbox is this new torque wrench made by AM TECH. Now somewhere on here I once saw torque setttings for various morris minor bolts, anyone else know where it was?[frame][/frame]

Torque settings are in the workshop manual.

with your new torque wrench its very important to unwind it completely after each use so that it doesnt get "lazy"
I have some Amtech gear too and while it is cheap and cheerful I would make sure its regularly checked against a known good one (as an example of the am tech Gear I have an angle grinder of theirs and it needed motor bushes after half a sill because the springs were shot)