Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all,

my dad just rolled his morris traveller on an icy road into the ditch luckily he's not hurt but the car is damaged. who would people recommend for getting the car repaired.

the damage seen as of tonight is as follows:
Dented roof
Windscreen doesn't fit
Door doesn't fit too well
Wings dented
rear wheel bent
rear axle possibly damaged

So where would you recomend?

Cheers,

Will.

just strolled down there with my dad to see the car :





she looks in a sorry state.

Will

Glad to hear that no one has been hurt - looks like your Dad had a lucky escape. You'll need to get to get a full structural inspection carried out on the car as there's likely to be other damage that may not be immediately apparent and also some chassis distortion. As for recommended repairers, I'd suggest that your Dad contacts his insurance company first before making any arrangements for the car to be fixed. Once they have given the go ahead post up your location and I'm sure people on here will be able to suggest somewhere suitable for quotes / repairs. Good luck - I hope it's saveable!

Thanks for that,

He's getting it recovered today so hopefully we'll have a better idea of whats what. its a shame as it was a nice car hopefully its not written off.


Cheers,

Will

hope he has fully comp insurance because........

Glad to hear that your Dad wasnt hurt, but I bet he will be sore after that. This shows how strong a traveller must be.

Wonder if Travellers are prone to going over????

If you can, get an independant inspection done. In my experience insurance companies are keen to write repairable cars off based on the repair estimate from their affiliated auto body centre. At this time of year these places will be packed with work so it might not be in their interests to submit an 'repairable' estimate. The insurance company will most likely tell you it is written off which suggests it's irrepairable but in some cases what they actually mean it will cost them too much - the cost is based on the estimate from a garage that is uninterested or not geared up to repair that sort of car economically. Getting this level of detail and explaination from them is a near impossible job and treading that path will only cause frustration and a realisation that, whatever they may suggest in thier advertising blurb, your interests and choices mean nothing to them.

Get It to JLH. As soon as poss. The BEST man around!!!
Check out the OTHER site for details. Or PM me for details. I have NO conections with the company just think he is one of the BEST Minor men around!!! ATB Mick

Some more news on the car, it was recoverd this mornning and an engineer is coming round too look at it on monday.

Here are some pictures of the recovery/damage.













Cheers,

Will.

a very sorry sight to see.

hope you can get it fixed up, but the roof looks the worst and you can't get repair panels for that bit. it could knock out but still take a lot of filler to get the dome shape back.

i did wonder if the engine would purge itself of oil if left upside down for that long and it appears to have done so. messy!

The insurance company had heard of Minor Miracles in Devon and they seem quite interested in the job. anyone know anything about them?

Cheers,

Will.

That is repairable. If it is written off, then buy it back .

It says a lot about the strength of the little car. All the glass and wood is intact. A lot of modern cars would have come off worse even with their encap approvals.

The sad thing is that the anti roll bar and rear teles didn't help.

Isn't it sad that the front wing was pushed in in the process of turning the car back over. It looked fine when it was upside down.

youngcamper wrote:The insurance company had heard of Minor Miracles in Devon and they seem quite interested in the job. anyone know anything about them?

A member on here - neilchadburn - bought his car from Minor Miracles so it might be worth sending him a pm for some feedback on the company: http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f= ... r+miracles

thanks for that, I have done that.

Anyway it looks like she's getting repaired. Because my dad had an agreed valuation of £5000 we can keep the car regardless of if its written off ( obvioulsy we will have to buy back the car) and the insurance company said we can either use one of there garages or they'll give us the money to get it done somewhere of our choice. I must say I fully recommend Footman James as they have been very helpful. Dependant on Minor miracles quote we may well be going there.


Cheers,

Will

thats terrible but at least nobody was hurt as you can mend the car . I dont think your dad could of had the accident in a worse place it looks desolate thank god for mobile phones . Hope you get it back on the road

Personal favourite way of doing that would be to fit another roof from a doner vehicle. Done right, it'll be strong enough and a lot easier than getting that roof straight again. Other than that it looks to have got off very lightly as far I can see from the pics - just cosmetic with wings etc.

Ouch!

I'm glad your dad is still in one piece. Unfortunately I bet you will find that the garage costs for repair is more than the insurance value of the car.

If you buy back the car after it is writen off, that doesn't fix the issue. The roof damage and the fact the door doesn't fit means the front cab section is distorted - for DIY you may be better off using a donor traveler cab & floor to rebuild it - however the donor car is more than likely to need work. Cutting sections from one traveller to fit into another isn't a DIY job.

They should have taken MUCH more care when recovering the vehicle - I hope they didn't just pull it - and then let it crash down onto the suspension ?? And as above - the wing has been damaged during the recovery. You can cut section from a rusty car to get the front roof/window aperture - but need to hope the rear part of the roof is ok.