Morris Minor Owners Club

I've replaced the front end of my '59 traveller with chassis legs and inner arches and am about to start on the floor pan and sills (one side at a time, its not a big garage). I guess that I will have to remove the lower woodwork when doing the sills to stop it catching fire. The woodwork is in good condition save needing re-varnishing, but should I take it all off to coat all sides? Is there a problem aligning when putting it all back together?

What's the best order to do the floor work without it all turning to jelly? The floor panels have got the inner steps on so I was thinking of leaving the box strengthener in place until the floor was on and then taking the strengthener out and rebuilding the non existant sill. I've already got all the bits (for the nearside anyway) from MMC at Birmingham.

As a follow on - I'm planning to do my Traveller's woodwork this summer. Any suggestions as to how far to go with preparation i.e. filling gaps, sanding down and what coating is recommended. Is it normal practice to sand down to bare wood or just enough as a key for new coating? Is outdoor eg. yacht varnish more suitable as opposed to one of the microporous treatments?
Any advice would be appreciated.

I have all new wood for mine so any advise on what varnishes to use would be welcome here too.

Thanks

Finish is the minefield area, concours cars like yatch varnish because of the finish, however its not very durable on a car that is used alot and kept outside, Steve foreman recommenda Burgess Varnish but I have not seen it local to me so I went to my local Dulux centre explained the porblem and they came up with a modern 2 part varnish that has a sort of bonding coat that goes on 1st followed by a top coat.
But 1st on advice from the concours section after rubbing down/cleaning up, give the wood a few coats of clear cuprinol this soaks into the wood and helps preserve it for far longer and was what the factory used in the 1st place, which is why the original finishes lasted longer, the expert to speak to is Steve Foreman of Woodies.

Thanks Kevin, I'm sure sanding down to bare wood is essential anyway whatever coating is used. Lets hope for some reasonably long periods of dry weather so that it can be done bit by bit.
Not bothered about concourse so need to go for most durable and practical I think.

Whatever varnish you use you will need to sand it lightly and give it a new coat every year otherwise the rain just wears it away.

Why did I write concourse??? There's one of those at Euston railway station!!
newage - I've been a bit lazy with regard to the annual spruce up, not been touched for three years, however it's not had much wet use and almost always garaged. This winter has taken it's toll though with house move the car was left outside in rain a few times. I'm fairly sure the timber was completely stripped about three years ago and coated. I suspect it's treated with one of the microporous products. Doesn't look like a gloss or matt varnish finish. I may try and contact the previous owner to find out what was used. In spite of that a strip down to bare timber is on the cards methinks. I want to treat with clear Cuprinol as Kevin suggests.

57 if you are doing all the wood buy a 5 litre can of clear cuprinol because if its not been treated for some time (most have not) you will be amazed how much the wood will soak up.

That's right Kevin, it's amazing how much the Cuprinol is drawn into timber, even if it's been done before. Not cheap stuff but well worth the outlay if it's going to delay premature expense later. Yes you're probably correct most have not had this luxury.
I'm surprised to learn that the timber was treated at the factory during build, however more labour intensive in the 50's and 60's. I wonder how thorough it was though??

Well our concours man rigged up a bath type thingy, looked more like one of the kids paddling pools with a frame, filled it up a few inches with cuprinol and left it a few days then turned it over did the same again for the other side and lastly left to drain for a time, he did this for all the woodwork, so god knows how much cuprinol it soaked up but it must be as near rot proof as you can get and if doing a total rebuild/ wood off job probably worth doing, I wonder if the put the wood in a bath originally ?

Bath type "thingy" might be a bit difficult with timber on car but I hope to saturate end grains and joints as thoroughly as possible. Possibly something could be thrown together to dunk the bottoms of the rear door uprights insitu.
Yes it would be interesting to know if the timber sections were all dunked in a bath of preserver, say overnight, prior to assembling on vehicle. It wouldn't interupt production if it were done in rota. But then how much do you want to spend on Cuprinol when there's a profit to be made?
Probably just a quick brush on was more likely.

We soaked (big bath type thing) all of the wood for our summerhouse in Cuprinol for 3 days and the blummin wood is still going rotty on the surface!

A few years ago a man working in the Cuprinol factory in Frome, fell into a vat of the stuff.It killed him ........But he had a lovely finish!!!!!!!!!

The way to treat the side rails with Cuprinol is firstly clean out the drainage holes with a screwdriver, then stick tape along the bottom to seal them up.
Then pour Cuprinol in at the top very carefully and a little at a time. It should then soak into the side rails rather than coming out of the holes.

No doubt the poor fellow's body was well preserved Rasputin.

I remember reading that tip re the siderails somewhere previously newage but like a lot of things, had forgotten - thanks for timely reminder. In fact it probably wouldn't do any harm at any time because the area around those holes must be quite vulnerable as they are virtually impossible to access with varnish.

I've just stripped and recoated my travellers wood."last week" I stripped it back to bare wood as the original yaght varnish had flaked and the exposed wood started going grey, but with numerius sanding sheets and a detail sander I got it back to one colour,
I then made a monumental hickup I treated it with a Dark coloured SADOLIN, walnut I think, ayway on a black car it looked awful....so it got re-stripped.
In the finish I used Sadolin natural coloured finish now she's all lovely again.
anyway if it's a daily used (like mine) and left out in all weathers i highly recommend sadolin, I used it on an OAK front door 5 yrs ago and Oak being well know for it's ability to shrink and expand has only just started showing signs of needing some attension. Prior to that yahgt varnish was used and needed re-coating EVERY year.

ello lads ,im doing my wood soon,this bleach on black areas that has been talked about , jst normal household bleach rubbed in with rag is it ,cheers boys

Welcome justoons. Does the Sadolin require any sort of basecoat?

I've only ever used one of these microporous wood treatments once before and that required a same make basecoat on bare timber, subsequently it only required a light sanding and a maintenance topcoat.

Can't remember who posted but I think oxalic acid was mentioned to treat the dark bits. Don't know if it's readily available though or from where!

Can't remember who posted but I think oxalic acid was mentioned to treat the dark bits. Don't know if it's readily available though or from where!

Dennis recomended it and as a joiner by trade he knows what is what with timbers. I would have thought you may have to get it from a trade source as I cant remember seeing it for sale although if you have a local Dulux centre or similar they should be able to get it for you.

Thanks Kevin, my son in law, who's into chemistry reckoned probably only an industrial chemicals source. He also went wittering on about rhubarb leaves as the source of oxalic acid. It's possibly sold to the general public under a trade name of something commonly known eg. phosphoric acid = rust converter.
An internet search might be on the cards.