Morris Minor Owners Club

Help! Can anyone advise me on how to remove the roof guttering on a 1971 Morris Traveller, please? I am wanting to replace the top woodwork.

The gutter is nailed on through the roof. Then the inner side of the gutter is folded over the nail heads.

I guess you have to bend the inside of the gutter up to reveal the nail heads, but they use those nails you knock in and are barbed so that they don't come out.

Good Luck, Hope you don't damage the roof.
Roger

Thanks. I will see what I can do. Is it OK to come back to you if I have any problems? Mick.

The easiest way to remove the guttering is by using a wide 11/2" wood chisel or bolster, it must be very sharp. Place the chisel on the top edge of the gutter and against the roof, angle the chisel away from the roof abd sharply tap it, this will easily cut through the nails. Follow the proceedure all the way around the roof taking care not to contact or dent the alloy roof.

Thank you Jonathon. We have just tried your method and it is coming off a treat. Is new guttering easy to get hold of? Mick

Yes , most traders will stock it. I'd suggest that if possible you collect it as the last thing you want is for it to be bent in transit. We use S.T.Foreman of Woodies for all of our wood sets and fitting kits ,he will gladly offer you advise on how to fit the guttering. If you get stuck though, just ask.

Follow the proceedure all the way around the roof taking care not to contact or dent the alloy roof.

Sounds scary to me - but it's useful tips like these that can be priceless!

Have faith my son !

I'm going to leave my (bent) guttering in place until I get around to a full spray

Just make sure that who ever sprays the car, will etch prime and topcoat the roof edge before you fit the guttering. This is often a neglected area and a constant area for corrosion/erosion of the alloy roof and the underlying panel pins which attatch the roof prior to pinning on the gutter.
Get them to run a thin bead of wet on wet seam sealer on the top edge of the gutter when it has been etched and primed ,to give a good seal. You can create an invisible sealed joint with not too much effort. All adds to longevity.

Thanks to everybody for your advice on how to remove my woody's guttering. I have now got to the stage where I can remove the roof. Mick

Out of interest, is the guttering steel, and would tha lack of seam sealer explain the rust stains at the edge of a Traveller roof I saw the other day and took to be the roof rusting? I didn't know at the time that they were alloy, BTW.

They are aluminium as far as I know. Pretty much all the structure rearward of the roof seal is aluminium on the traveller (except the wood and floorpan of course! ).

The rear guttering is aluminum, I would imagine that the 'rust' you saw would be the eroding of the alluminum . Often the roof gutter is fitted to an unprepared roof and left unsealed which leads to the problem you saw. In the worst case, sometimes the roof and gutter are fitted to unprepared wood, which then only recieves its correct treatment once on the car, this has even more dire results.

Aha - how very odd, these were brown stains exactly like rust. Perhaps there'd been a steel roof rack on there or something It didn't look like that though...

Could it be the nails (?) doing something weird with the alloy?

I don't know much about Ally, but I thought it corroded to a white powdery material - somehow, these were rust stains, and I guess I'll never know what from