Morris Minor Owners Club

yet again not minor related hugely, but deffinetly classic motoring orientated.

i have an austin somerset, which was free. alas, after taking it apart, i came to the concluion that although the running gear (minus the engine), chassis and panels where in good nick, and the main body was pretty u/s. having lost the will to pour money into the cavernous money pit that is already is, i thought about cutting my losses and junking the whole lot.
Untill, i saw a lovely little running one not to far from me. thus, my thinking has changed to getting this running austin and use it as my everyday car and keep all the nice bits of the other rotten/dismantled austin and junk the rotten body.

to me, this sounds like good logic, as it gives me a nice little running restoration project with a whole mulitude of free spares.

however, the parents have yet to see this point of view.

Everyone who owns a classic car is of questionable mentality . Keep taking the tablets . Personally I hate to see anything scrapped a quick look at Taupes restoration shows just what can be recovered to working order. But the choice is yours

i to dont like seeing things scrapped, and having seen some total wrecks be reborn at concours standard, their could be a glimmer of hope for the body shell. someone might have a really rotten shell and might appreciate my body shell

I have always liked Somersets, I still fancy one. There is no reason why an A40 cant be used daily just like a Minor or A35 can.

Of course the parts situation is nowhere near as good as that of the Minor, at least for body panels, so its usually a case of repairing whats there.

I saw one at a show once with an MGB 1800 engine and overdrive gearbox, apparently it went quite well....

Go for it, there arnt many left. Be different.

Don't scrap it whatever!!

If you have given up on it then let someone else breath fresh life into it, the car deserves it!

Trouble is, when confronted with a pile of rust it's easy to get disheartened, but on a sunny spring morning when you have woken in a good mood, and can get the MIG out from under the junk, and find some metal offcuts from the local skip, you can soon find your enthusiasm afresh! Also, don't forget you've got the parents to convince-didn't work last time, did it?

They were quite solid cars, though yours it seems is not now quite so solid (But after nearly sixty years, we can't grumble). You still used to see them in the 1970s but that was before they would have been regarded as "Classic". Indeed it was only in the late 1970s that the term "Classic" was first used.

The Somerset was not noted for good road holding, so I'd be careful putting more power into it. All the B Series engines are pretty flexible (My friend has a ZA MG Magnette and with "Only" 60bhp, it pulls really well).

As to an every day car, it depends on what "Every day" entails. For every day, I would normally advise something with Minor or Minilike spares availability. The Somerset is not the sort of thing you can get parts for at the drop of a hat, so even a car park scrape could mean a long drawn out repair. Added to that, it will use more fuel than a smaller classic.

Even though it could cost more to repair than it will be worth in the end, I'd still prefer to see someone take it on and if it was a choice between it and a modern car, I'd take the Somerset.