Morris Minor Owners Club

Well after years of dreaming ive finnaly got me a minor, its a 64 two door, but its rough, and someones already been at it in a big way, some good repairs but loads of bad ones, my questions is, is there a manual which tells what repair pannels fit were (bit like the old veng pannel books) i hope she is not too far gone.
will post pics as i go.
ps merry christmas folks.

Congratulation!! Can't wait to see some pics!!

HI flc, welcome to the board, and congrats on your new acquisition, I use Jim Tyler's book Morris Minor Restoration ( I beleive) and lindsay Porter's haynes manual on restoring Morris Minors also would be good to get your hands on a workshop manual and if you want parts there are many companies as East Susses Minors and bullmotif, the latter is going to have a winter sale as of tomorrow! if you want modifications try JLH and if you have other probs ask on this board, would highly recommend joining the club as there are lots of help and excellent technical tips!

Welcome aboard and good luck with your project.
If you have a look under useful tips
http://www.mmoc.org.uk/index.php?name=P ... ic&t=12197
#It will help you get started

thanks for the welcome and the advise i just bought one of them to help me out, it seams the whole bottom 2" of the car is shot i will see if the cost off parts adds up to the cost of a better example to start with, one thing about the car i like is that it has a full length sun roof. the list of bits it will need is a bit confusing using the pannel part lists. i will post pics of the nastier bits tommorow.

Hi again managed to get my camera working, so hopefully some pics am just putting a list of parts to start collecting, the only part im worried about is the rear wing lip which has been repaired~(badly) and is showing signs of rust reappearing,
but she runs

i will see if the cost off parts adds up to the cost of a better example to start with,

You've got a lot of work ahead there, think twice!

yes it looks bad but good luck

Survey the whole car VERY carefully before you start - the sills look completely shot. That rear wing repair is the very least of the problems!

Looks like a lot of work, have you checked out the chassis legs and spring hangers also? Can you do the work yourself or is this your first restoration? All the panels are available, but it can take a lot of time to make them fit precisely. I have found its easier to work on a rusty car that hasnt been patched up before than to have to remove all the bad work to see whats left below!

Work out sums carefully, thinking about panels, wings, chrome, paint job and interior and then add on about 50% for all the other things you will need........ Minors dont seem to be so dear thes days, I think there now so easy to find with ebay.

But on the other hand the positive argument is, its a great sense of achievment to take a rusty minor to peices and know that youve done most or all of the work to it! You also then know exactly what youve got. Ive restored about 10 minors over the years, each resto usually ends up abou a year long ......

Hi FLC, and welcome to the forum!
If you can weld, have the time, enthusiasm and a suitable workspace, then good luck and keep it up! There are clearly some bad repairs on your car, but that doesn't mean it's not savable, really depends how much you want to do. As for adding up the cost of panels vs what you van get on Fleabay for a few hundred quid, I think thats not really valid as most if not all cheap/project Minors will also have had a lot of bad quality work done in the past for the MOT. On both my traveller and the convertible project, i've found the four layers of metal welded lap repairs.

Even the inner sills can be replaced (but brace that door gap!)

Looking forward to seeing progress! If you can weld, are patient and a good worker, then you can save that car.

Keep us posted.

Thanks for the advice,
i paid £170 for the car unseen just before christmas, it may sound an odd thing to do but my reasoning was that after looking on ebay, the cars advertised as resto's can fetch £500+ and you cant really look till you buy.
so i took the gamble, being as you say most cars will need work, i was a bit gutted when i first saw it, but i have restored a few cars in the past, so am used to dodgy pannel fits ,finding more rot as you go, and increasing costs! so far after inspecting the car ive found.
both sills
left front spring hanger
bottom of both door hinge panels
rear wing lips.
and a few mot patches

the chassis legs look ok
I want to save it, but this may take a while
and the knowing that it will be sound when done seams to make sense, rather than spend near to a grand and have to do all this anyway in a year or so's time.

one thing in my favor is that for the past few years i have been doing motorbikes, i have now got a fairly good machine shop in my big shed, (lathe ,miller, decent welding kit, compressor, etc) so most jobs wont be 'much' of a problem for me to do myself.
ive just bought linsay porters book and although some repairs look a little involved i think i can manage it, (fingers crossed).

im looking at starting with the passenger side sill/lower rear wing area as this seams the worst affected, any advise is greatly appreciated, i will send pics as i go. thanks for the help so far, Mick.

Thats not too bad a list actually! I've seen cars rescued with much worse than that!

cheers
John