Morris Minor Owners Club

I have a 4-door saloon (1968) which is in need of a lot of welding and panel replacement; L/H front chassis leg (half), front crossmember, front inner wings & flitch plates, sills and boxing plates (left and right), rear of the boot floor, rear back spring hangers/chassis extensions, rear inner wings and central crossmember ends. Also, rear wing flanges. In my investigation of the work needed, I lightly bashed away three layers of rusty plates on the rear L/H inner wing and now the rear L/H door doesn't close quite as well as it did. From this I concluded that I shouldn't have been so rash in my investigations, and that there would be a sensible order in which to replace panels. As an experiment, I lifted the car with a jack placed in the centre of the central crossmember and this made it easier to shut the door. Any suggestions? (Please don't say "scrap it"!). I have some photos which I could put up somewhere if this is any help.

Hi Dryad

you will find the door gaps will move when its rotten as th whole damn thing moves I wellded a piece of scrap in to try and help preserve the dppr gaps, once I get to the stge of welding the a, b and c post back, Im planning to clamp up, fit the doors and play with them untill they are right.

oh and if you set up a photobucket account you can easily post photo's by using an IMG link in your posts, this linck is given when you view your gallery on your PB account. Thats how I do it

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/sills.htm

It's not a moggy and I don't think it really answers your question fully, but gives a good explanation how to weld and keep door gaps etc.

Thanks for the info. I particularly like the red wine gauge! Welding bars between door posts is a good suggestion as well. I'm just wondering if there is a sensible order in which to replace the panels that would help keep the body's shape. Perhaps the sills? I'll set up a photobucket account and upload some pictures of the horrors that plague my sleeping hours...

Dryad,

I am just nearing the end of my weldathon, and have done almost all that you say needs doing on your car.
I have a comprehensive photo album on photobucket. Have a look at that, hopefully it will answer some of your questions. Dont hesitate to PM me though if you need advice, chickenjohn also knows what he's on about so he's definately worth talking to.

My album: http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u118/yamahafs1e/

all the best,
YG

Thanks for the praise Youngun! I know a few things but I also know there is a lot more to learn. Yes, the mig welding.co.uk site is very good, neat welding, and great advice.

I am nearing the end of our convertible restoration. I agree with the above:- brace the door gaps, absolutely vital on convertibe and a good idea on saloon too.

As for the order of resto, I like to start with the bits the wheels attach to, so chassis legs (front and rear) first and spring hanger plate. Measure, measure, measure before you cut and get the suspension mounting points as close as you can. I aim for 1/16" within original (~1-2mm).

Once the car can sit securely on its wheels, then I like to restore one side at a time, or one wheelarch at a time. When an area is done, all rust gone, I like to zinc prime (two coats) ,seam seal and paint in chassis black. I like to remove as little material at a time as possible to keep the shape of the car, even if this means tack welding the end of one repair piece onto a bit you're going to cut off later.

Look at Younguns pics, he's done a great job on his car.

Thanks youngun and chickenjohn. It's really encouraging to have this kind of support on this site. I think I'm going to be messaging quite a lot in the coming months (years?!) I had another look at the underneath of my minor again this evening and became quite depressed. It seems that I'll need a whole chassis leg on the N/S rather than the half I'd already bought. And the C post had been bodged by a previous owner, and the box chassis that goes around the bottom of the rear inner wheel arch seems so have rusted away at the bottom - does the floor of the car form the bottom of this?. I keep wavering between Restore or Scrap. I'll probably restore as I've spent a load on new panels anyway, and I can't bear to see another Minor bite the dust.

Ive found that on a minor, the rust you can see when its together will be doubled when you take it to bits! I thought i had found all the rust on my car even when i got down to a complete bare shell, yet when i rolled it onto its side and started de-waxoyling and grinding i found more!

I know what you mean, its always much worse than you thought when you start with the wire brush to remove old paint etc. Its taken me 3 months to replace all the rusty bits on the traveller. Just concentrate on one area at a time and don't worry about all the other bits, its seems like an endless task but there comes a time when all the new panels you bought have been welded onto the car and when you shut the door, you don't get a pile of rusty coloured dust falling from the car.

There does? ;)

I can add that once the rust is gone it's gone for good. Of course babying it helps. I repaired my 12 year old convertible and eliminated the double metal in the passenger side front leg, the sills and the cross member. 30 years later and it looks the same with only paint as the protection. Like I said keeping it out of the weather helps.

I've set up a Photobucket account now, so you can all see the horrors;

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w50/ ... CF0068.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w50/ ... CF0061.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w50/ ... CF0073.jpg
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w50/ ... CF0069.jpg

More to come.

It wasn't quite as bad as this last summer, but I had to leave it on my (gravel) drive over winter with only a dust cover for protection as I already had an Austin 1300 in my garage. Now the Austin's back on the road it's Morris' turn, but the winter did its worst on the rust coated panels, as you can see. It's going to take some time.

Looks like a year or two of graft Sure it isn't what you need to hear, but I don't remember seeing a saloon that bad

hmm yes a lot of work

i wonder if it is worth all the effort

'course it is - or so they tell me

Blimey, thats a lot of work. An awful lot of work. Do you really want to go through with all of it?

I thought that would be the response! Good job I didn't post the pictures of the sills and the chassis!!! But, there are some good points; the engine is in excellent running order - one of those reconditioned ones with the strange serial number. The interior is ok-ish. The body from about half way up is good condition. The chassis is ok, apart from the ends near the boot and the L/H chassis leg. It's got an almost new exhaust and tyres. I've been through the utter dispair of realising what a rustbucket it is, and now I've got through that I just see it as a BIG challenge that just HAS to be tackled. It would probably be cheaper and easier to go and buy a Minor that needs a patch welded here and there, but half of the fun of car restoration is the challenge of bringing back to life a car that's on it's very last legs (wheels). That and the fact that this particular Minor was our wedding car, and my wife would never forgive me if I scrapped it So, restoration it is.

By the way, did you notice how someone thought it was an 'excellent idea' to put a sheet of polythene between the rusty inner wheel arch and the patch they welded on? Nice thinking, Mr Bodger!

Your engine compartment looks just like mine did, but the rear of yours is in a bad way. Nothing that cannot be fixed though. Good luck.

Have to admit that even I had to scrap one (a pick-up) in the same kind of state. Don't you dare do that - I wouldn't these days