Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi everyone

Long time, no speak I think. I've been busy with a new house, my business and my other car!

To cut a very long story short Hebe has been languishing on a farm in Wales until I had room to store her. I still lack a garage (know anyone in Bristol who will let me keep her there and work on her?) but the agreement with my friend was that I pick her up as soon as I have a driveway large enough to store her - which I do.

She's still in the completely stripped down phase. I'm desperate to work on her but perhaps time and money are still against me. It's a sink or swim moment with the whole project and my partner and I have agreed a stay of execution for Hebe for a few months while we finish our house and see just how much I can work on her on a budget.

The chap who took Hebe to wales now doesn't have a tow-bar on his car and we don't have a tow bar on either of ours. I'm planning a 120 mile round trip to pick Hebe up but wonder if a flatbed 3.5 T Flatbed would be okay?

I have access to ramps and Hebe now has everything taken off her except the wheels and the suspension.

Is it safe to transport her this way? The pickup would be 12ft * 6ft5in.

Or perhaps someone in Bristol would like to be charitable and help?

Nikki.

Hi Nikki, sorry I cannot help but just thought I'd welcome you back on here and say hello.
Car will be fine transported as you describe, tie it on with good thick ratchet straps and avoid anything that resembles a sharp edge, it does not take much to cut through one of these.

Hi Jonathon. Cheers!

I'm going to try and save up to go on a welding class. In the meantime I'm going to busy myself with rear diff renovation as well as brake line removal, Master cylinder removal and keeping Hebe away from a certain garage of disrepute!

;)

Nikki.

Nice to hear from you again Nikki and hopefully things will start to progress in the right direction.

I guess she's too banged up for the old RAC/AA free-tow trick?

Push her out in the road and tell them you broke down on your way home to Bristol.

Working on a car like that in an open driveway is never going to be a success. You really will need covered storage - at very least a carport.

Working on a car like that in an open driveway is never going to be a success

Both my last project and the present one have been done on the driveway.

Must have much better weather down your way than up here!

hi nikki
right yes the flat bed will do the job fine what you will need is a old matress or wood so that you put the car right up agast the head board putting the wood or matress between the car and flat bed head board , you will need a min of 3 rackets or tie downs one around the back pushing the car foward towards the cab or the truck one over the front pulling it back that will do teh braking and accleation then you will need to put one throw the inside of teh car to keep it stable that should do it but teh straps need to be strong as 1 kg of carring weight = 3/4 ton of braking weight or somthing like that
hope this helps if you get stuck for straps i could get you some from work big stronmg ones but will need collection and returning
chris

Hi Folks - thanks for the advice.

I'm wondering if a covered Luton would do the trick too - it'll be cheaper to hire and less trouble over the M4 Severn Bridge!

Yes, I'd like to have a garage to work on Hebe in - but I've seen restos work before on driveways and there's even a fellow restorer a few doors down with a VW bus.

Ideally I'd like a garage but haven't found one yet.

The project is really on the balance between happening and not. If I can make significant progress without too much money spent I think it'll happen. The one thing my partner doesn't want is a rust heap on our driveway for a long time!