Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi Brian
I fully recomend going to Steve Forman of 'Woodies' for traveller timber. I have just fitted a set of his timber to my traveller and it is absolutley fantastic!! Superb quality and fit, all grain matched and finished with care, and brilliant customer service. I can't praise him and his timber enough.
The web site is: http://www.morriswoodwork.co.uk/

There is great debate over how best to preserve traveller timber, enough to write a book infact and you still would not find the answer. I have seen the effect of Danish oil and I would NOT touch that awful stuff with a barge pole. So all I can do is tell you what I did to mine. I did months of research before starting anything and came up on what I personally think is the best answer for preserving the timber. All this is to be done before fitting the new timber to the car, and by suspending it from the garage roof so as to coat ALL the way round it, as once fitted you wont get chance to treat the inside again.
Firstley saturate you new timber set in Cuprinol water seal 5 star treatment stuff, I gave about 10 to 15 coats.
Then using the BEST varnish available you can get, thin it down 50% for the first coat, 25% for the second, 15% for third, 10% then 5% and then use straight varnish maybe thinning by 1 to 5% if you think its a bit thick. I gave somewere around 10 coats of varnish (I lost count by then) all the way round the timber.
Then I fitted the timber to the car followed by the ali panels. I found this way worked best for me.
I used a yacht varnish with all sorts of blockers rather than filters and its got a flexible finish to avoid splitting due to expansion in the heat.
This is my way and I hope you and others find it helpful.
Pictures of the finish on my timber will be on my website soon along with the whole restoration pictures and the completed car, give me a few days to update it all and take a look: www.daniel-robins.co.uk

cheers.

I wonder if there's any way that you could get the wood pressure-treated, like they do garden furniture...?

I can second the recommendation for Steve Foreman. I don't have a Traveller but have seen the quality of the timber both on and off and it looks excellent.
If you are going to pretreat timber then good practice is to leave the ends of timber soaking in the preservative for a while - ypu will be amazed how much fluid it will soak up. A day or more is not too long. This way the end grain is protected better and the end grain is where the water will gain access and encourage rot.
The only problem could be with colour so use a clear protective fluid.
When painting windows on the house I always paint wood hardener on any glass rebates before replacing the putty. This makes the wood as hard a stone. Might be worth thinking about to block off the end grain..... its about £10 a 1/2 litre so a lot cheaper than the wood parts.
Another thought is to visit a boat chamdler - their stuff has water in mind!

Brin,

as above, buy the best varnish available (it will pay for itself over & over again!).

I would strongly recommentd that you buy a "conventional" or "microporous" varnish, - not a polyurathane one. Many years' ago I used polyurathane on a sailing dinghy, where the wood became slightly damp underneath the varnish, the varnish peeled of in big flakes (just too waterproof!). The other varnishes allow water vapour to pass through (to a small extent), so that the wood can breathe.
This means that the varnish won't peel off in big lumps.

The usual technique is to apply a 1st coat of varnish thinned with about 10% white spirit. this will penetrate the wood better, and also raise the wood grain. Sand back to smooth, then apply several coats of varnish, rubbing back before the last caot with fine wet & dry.
I dno't think there's a foolproof system for the joints though - the varnish will crack as the timber works, and the above suggestions should reduce the water damage ot he wood.

Colin

As another new Traveller owner I've been reading this thread with interest. Especially as my Traveller seems to have filler in several places where there should be beautiful ash. Can anyone reccomend a good book on restoring the woodwork? I have the MMOC technical manual and it mentions the 'Practical Classics Guide to Traveller Restoration'. I tracked down the publishers, but it is now out of print. Does anyone know where I can get a copy or is there another book they could reccomend?
Mark

Yes
There is one on Ebay at the moment
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... gory=14026

You beat me to it Kevin - I was going to put that link in last night but gave up after the laptop crashed.
There's not much gets past you is there ;-)

There's not much gets past you is there

Unfortunatly for my sins I have to sit in front of a screen all day long (and not just because of my age) so the oportunities to surf a bit are often there, although there seem to be a few others in a similar position, also I prefer a desktop for my PC as there is much less chance of it crashing to the floor

Brilliant! Thanks for the link to e-bay. I'll put in bid today.
Mark

I have also been reading with interest as i am in the process of doing Blodwyns woodwork I have been told that It is possible to bleach the black stains out of the wood anyone know what should be used for this if it is at all possible.

Dennis has some views on this as he is a joiner and has mentioned using some type of industrial bleach that does not harm the fibres of the wood, could you give some more info on what its called and how to use it Dennis.

I thought the Traveller restoration book was a separate book. I have been after it myself for a few years now.
I'm sure it was listed separately when PC had it listed years ago. Anyone know different?

Brian there was someone selling a set of Traveller wood in the Southampton area in the last issue of Minor Matters (july/august).
And yes Scott there is another book as I have a copy, and its called
Practical Classics & car restorer Minor Traveller Restoration by
Kelsey Publishing Ltd in 1994 and the ISBN is 1 873098 30 8