Morris Minor Owners Club

Has anybody found or is it just me that when you replace old parts with new they don't quite fit . I have just replaced my hockey sticks and the joints on the parts don't quite line up with the existing holes in the bodywork. No matter how I pushed and pulled they wouldn't fit. I ended up just using the two bolts that did line up. The fit isn't as good as the old ones but I hope that people will be so dazzled by the new chrome that they won't notice.

dazzle for a few months then

not many new parts are much good anyway

trawl autojumbles and ebay for old stock stuff even mechanical

By next year you will have the Brasso and scouring pad to keep the rust off the new chrome

mike.perry wrote:By next year you will have the Brasso and scouring pad to keep the rust off the new chrome

In hindsight maybe it would have been better to leave the pitted ones on, still we live and learn

After market parts are always a pain to fit. I've just fitted a new heater control valve and I had to grind part of it down in order for the rocker cover to fit. I've got some new hockey sticks to fit too. Hope mine match up better than yours

to be honest stuart they were stinkers, as they didn't line up at all well. You try and do your best to make the car a little more pleasurable to the eye but when your working with cruddy parts it's a little bit soul destroying.

Anyway i'm new to this game so all you can do is learn as you go along.

The chrome shouldnt be too bad on the new hockey sticks. Those and bonnet hinges are brass castings (I think) which take chrome very nicely, unlike the the top grill strip and bumpers which are steel and tend not to last long.
The brass bits are one of few new bits which are better quality than the naff mazac castings used originally. The fit however is something else.. Dimensionally they seem ok, so it must come down to the drilling and tapping of the stud holes which if not pointing in the right direction causes problems. I've found the top centre strip to be much worse fit than hockey sticks and when you mangae to get all the studs through the holes tightening it up kinks the steel pressing which leaves awful looking dimples in the new chrome. (Very common is this when you look at a line of Minors at a show).
Basically all you can do is run a bigger drillthrough the bodywork holes to enable a better fit. Its not right and you shouldn't have to modify a car to do this, but the end visual result works ok.

pjh56 wrote:to be honest stuart they were stinkers, as they didn't line up at all well. You try and do your best to make the car a little more pleasurable to the eye but when your working with cruddy parts it's a little bit soul destroying.

Well so were mine. Tried them this morning. Not a cat in hells chance of fitting. I'm sending them back and have re-used the old ones.