Morris Minor Owners Club

'Misty was purchased by me in February as a 'Buy it now' item from ebay. She was located in Southend on Sea, a fair way from here, and after a mechanical check from my uncle, we purchased her.

It was my mum who drove her home, and with new brake pads, brake fluid which didn't look like it had been changed in the life of the car, and patches of ice, the journey home was "interesting" to say the least!

The picture shows "Misty" as we bought her[frame][/frame]

We had noticed some 'bubbling' of the paintwork, and small patches where rust grinned through. it was then i decided to take a wing off to see how far below the visible part it extended.

you can guess what's coming next...

There was a rather lot of it!

Everything had been given a liberal coating of underseal, and removal of this showed areas where welding was required; the rear spring hanger for example...[frame][/frame]

to cut a long story short, we are now well into the restoration - the drivers-side sill and the rear spring hanger have been done so far, all the rust killed, and red oxide primer applied.

non-structural areas are to be fibreglassed, and this is also well under way.

The front wings are probably savable, but i have neither the time, space, nor expertise to do this; i have, therefore, taken the decision to replace them with some high quality fibreglass ones.

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after a fair lot of work, the first batch of welding, rust treatment, fibreglass, sanding, underseal removal, greasing of all nipples (and re-discovery of some under years of underseal!), she's coming along nicely :[frame][/frame]
- a plate needs bending and fitting to the underside here - the spring was pretty much attached by underseal - amazingly, she passed an MOT a little over 12 months ago![frame][/frame]

Looks like there is a fair bit to be done, just as an aside what are you using the glassfibre on when you are putting new metal in elsewhere.

I'm using fibreglass to repair areas such as the kickplates, rear wings (fronts being replaced, bottom of the boot, around the bottom of the roof etc.

all then being cut in with filler before being over-coated and prepped for a full respray

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Hi. Will you let me know how you fix or refabriciate your guttering as I have a car that needs that done and I havn't a clue how to do it, so needless to say I am very interested in following your restoration.

Keep it up. Its going well.

will do, and thanks

i did a bit today (but due to lack of a garrage and a leaky gazzebo plans have been put somewhat on hold!) and it looks like i'm going to be able to straighten them with my favorite tool... a hammer! kill the rust with some jenolite and then use P40 fibreglass filler and then P38 body filer.

good luck with it! i brought mine from ebay thinking it was a clean one and turned out like yours! there worth it once there done though!

Been a while since i last posted.
In that time, most of the welding had been completed, zinc primer applied, followed by stone chip guard, red oxide, grey and top coat where appropriate. the engine mounting holes just need re-drilling and the engine bolting, but with gravity on my side it has been rested in place for a couple os days now - started 3rd time - not bad for 3 months odd disconnected!

I would not just weld a plate over this area, a full rear spring hanger chassis section is needed here and are available for only £20 or so. Cut the whole thing off back to the boot floor and weld a new rear chassis leg/spring hanger in place.




It is also not a good idea to "repair non structural areas with fibre glass". The car was made of steel all over the body and any rusted areas should be repaired with new fabricated repair sections out of 1mm steel.

thanks - i'll take that on board.
with respect to the spring hanger, though, we've now ground right out and fabricated a replacement out of 4mm steel plate.
the pic above was a temporary patch to help with the stretching of the new (too short) boot aperture panel - needed something solid to weld to :p

were you still interested in my old wings, john?

Matt

Hi Matt,
yes, I'm still interested in the wings thanks! I'm planning on combining getting the wings with a trip to
Bucks for another reason/

When do you need to get rid of them by?

cheers
John

As soon as possible, but I'm happy to wait for you to collect them.
Matt

packed off to the workshop today.
aiming to finish her off this week.
watch this space.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46862234@N ... 8226_11392[/img][/frame][frame][/frame]

most of the welding finished today...[frame][/frame]