Morris Minor Owners Club

hi im paul from Ireland im recently got offered a morris minor for free its early minor 1000 and needs a bit of work . It has been sitting in half covered shed with turf for about 20 years or so i was wondering if you could share some of your noweledge with me ..
can early front be put on later minor?
were is the bonnet release button ?
are parts readily available in Ireland?
were are the major rust areas which are hard to rectify?
are the body and chassis separate items?

thanks for your time
pauld1 (currently a mini owner)

Hi Paul,
Welcome to the world of Minor ownership. There are several other Irish owners on the website so maybe they will get in touch.
As a Mini owner you will already be familiar with the concept of rust. Basically what you can see on the outside will be worse on the inside.
If the car is free what have you got to lose? Remove the sill cover panels under the doors and what you see will give you a good idea of the work needed. Also the A post in front of the doors. The chassis is not separate but with the aid of an angle grinder and welding torch repairs are fairly straight forward.
An early grill can be fitted to a M1000 but the earlier the grill the rarer and more expensive.
If you stretch your hand towards the back of the parcel shelf near the steering column you should find a metal rod with a loop on it. If you pull it firmly the bonnet should open the first click, the bonnet release lever is then in the centre, in the gap between the grill and bonnet. Push the lever down and lift the bonnet which should have a self propping stay.
Most of the parts are available by mail order, just check your bank balance before you start restoration

Probably not still there but there used to be a Morris Minor place in Ranelagh Road Dublin in the 1980s

Hi Paul, Welcome to the message board

Don't forget to take a look at the 'new member?' thread at the top of this forum. And if you click on this link you'll find details of the Irish Morris Minor Owners Club and Northern Ireland Branch websites: http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/index.ph ... ic&t=28792

Hello Paul and welcome to MMOC ! I hope you realise what you're doing.....

Welcome Paul. Take no notice of Moggies becoming addictive. I joined as a teenager not too long ago .........1979 to be precise. I could give up anytime I like.

Have fun with the work - it can be addictive, but as they say, the journey is it's own reward.

hello there. the minor doesn't have a separate chassis so all the structure needs checking chassis legs ( were the engine bolts to) and the centre cross memeber need to be checked. enjoy minoring!!!

thanks for all the replys guys and girls seem like a friendly bunch on here pity there's no Irish morris minor forum thou

Welcome to the Forum Paul

There is a forum on the Irish site but it looks like it not fully up and running yet.
http://www.immoc.com/index.php?option=c ... t&Itemid=3
You will find though that theres always someone on this site and questions can usually be answered in a matter of minutes!

Theres a guy called Ken in the Portlaoise area restores and does parts, if you contact the IMMOC you will get his number. All the UK dealers will post parts to Ireland, I use East Sussex Minors as I find them reliable and they post very quickly. They have all parts listed on line.

The bonnet release is under the drivers side of the dash and is an oval metal thing!! you pull to pop the bonnet.

Hi Paul
Where in Ireland are you If you fill in your location in your profile people will know where you live. I am in Co Mayo
Regards Ian

Hi Paul.

I am the mag editor for the IMMOC. If you want you can pm for details etc and I can send you a membership form for the club and I can give you Kens number if you want ??? Our website immoc.com was only recently launched so its just getting off the ground.

Heres my editor instinct coming in - perhaps you'd be interested in doing an article for our mag on your car and how you found it etc, but pm me anyway and we can have a chat.

Welcome to the board. Its great and you won't regret it. I started out with one car when I joined and now I have three !!!. Minors are additive.

Hi Paul, membership form if your interested ?

http://www.immoc.com/attachments/007_IM ... 20Form.pdf

hi ian ill definatly bee hanging about as seems to be good knowledge on here and ill defo need it. The cars a wreck to be honest im going to try hoist it out on saturday and maybe bring it home aswell tune in saturday for more... ian i could be interested in a article pm me more please

hi there this is a great site here ,best of luck with ur car
regards eve .

Hi everyone
Back again after a while only got a chance to pull the moggy out today with tractor !!
Have a feeling that the cars to far gone to do any work waht do ye think sell it for parts?
how much would it be worth for parts ??

Hi and welcome back! Well the door tops and glove boxes may be salvageable but to be honest I think I'd use the tractor and pull her to a shady spot for the wildlife, so she could end her days there.

Wow, not quite what I envisaged from your first post, one of the most 'tired' looking minor i've ever seen. As said, it does look very much beyond repair, strip anything off it such as the door tops, steering wheel? etc. Or hopefully there may be another minor owner locally who would be happy to take a few of the bits off, but indeed she would make a nice garden feature somewhere, to rust in peace.

Hi Paul. In Boulogne there's a garden full of old cars, mostly Citroen 2CV's, that have had most of the glass removed and filled up with top-soil. They have been tastefully converted into planters and look really good. May I humbly suggest you do the same ????? [frame][/frame]

[frame][/frame]Looks nice I think...