Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,

I was unsure where to post this question but then I reckoned that if the "concours" people could't answer it maybe nobody could... it's regarding the heater.

My car is a 4-door, split screen, LHD Saloon. It was registered in February '54 and built in early January or, maybe, December '53.

I don't know if it ever had a heater originaly fitted to it (I think it was an optional extra...). However, the ones available at the time were made by Smiths and were of the round type. I think they were about 30 cm in diameter and were centraly fitted between the dash and the parcel shelf.

I was under the ideia that they were painted in a brownish gold, similar to the dash colour. However, recently I was told that they were, in fact, of black bakelite!

Does someone now which is correct, gold metal casing or black bakelite?


Many thanks,
Pedro

If your car was marked as EXPORT (and one would assume so sinc eit is LHD) a heater would have been standard.

All the early heaters I have seen on early cars are of the gold type.

The black ones were the ones in the early 1000 (Series III) but were hidden behind a fascia (expensive word for a piece of cardboard

Exception to this rule however is my Lowlight, which was fitted with a Clayton unit mounted lower down in the passenger foot well.

I was unaware that export cars had heaters as standard. Already learned something!

As far as I was able to inquire, the gold round heater should be the one for my car, as you confirmed by your own experience and knowledge. The black heater fitted to later cars wasn´t round at all, as far as I know.

However, the heater I saw for sale as being for an early Minor, had a black bakelite cover was also round!

If you could take a look at this link, it is posted on e-Bay.

Thanks again,
Pedro


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MORRIS-MINOR-SERI ... 240%3A1318

Pedro, the heater in your ebay link says "series II" which is for later cars than yours surely, they were round but painted black.

The black heater fitted to later cars wasn´t round at all, as far as I know

There were a few versions over the years and only the final version (with inlet pipe from next to the grille for external air) was not round.
The round ones started as gold with steel front panel, then black smiths with bakelite front panel, then came a round version with external inlet (including pressed steel ducting to blukhead crossmember).

I'm not clued up on export cars, but a UK car in that age would have had a round gold version.
Excess stock of this type was still aroung in 1956/57 and was fitted on Minor 1000 disability cars (together with lots of other old stock SII parts).

Thanks guy's, missed this one To confirm, it would have been the round gold type. Sorry, this was the first time anyone has posted in the concours section for a long time

Thankyou all!

So, round shaped, gold painted with steel front plate it is!

By the way, since the heater I've been offered to buy needs to be reconditioned and, therefore, painted, which gold are we talking about?

I guess it may be quit difficult to know for sure because then, as it happens today still, automakers outsource several components and so even if the colour was generaly speaking the same( gold, in this case), there may be slight variations of hue and saturation.

Having said this, in the case of Minors this age, there were several gold painted components: dash, steering wheel base, steering column, windscreen central pilar inner side, handbrake and heater (as we came to agree...). These were manufatured by different companies (at least the heater, by Smiths) so I would assume that, originaly, they would have slight variations of hue and saturation of gold paint.

Today, cars undergoing full nut & bolt restorations (such as my own...) have these parts painted with the exactly same paint.


All this to say that I shall paint the heater with the same gold paint as the dash... unless someone argues otherwise!

Does anyone want to comment on this?


Pedro

All this to say that I shall paint the heater with the same gold paint as the dash... unless someone argues otherwise!

after 50 years the colour will not be the same as when it was made anyway! So even if a 50 year old heater looks slightly different shade to the dash it may well have started off the same shade.

My very hazy memory is that my gold heater was a slightly lighter gold than the dash but as I never put them next to each other that means very little!

Mine is lighter than my MM dash.

All this to say that I shall paint the heater with the same gold paint as the dash... unless someone argues otherwise!

Well, somebody HAS indeed argued otherwise!

I'll follow your advice and paint it slightly lighter!


Thanks,
Pedro