Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello all.
I'm looking to replace my current daily driver (1.0l VW Lupo), for something older, with altogether more character, ease of maintenance, reliability and (as I'm 23 and by no means flush) cheap to insure and free to tax!
I've always been interested in classic cars for their looks and how basic they are. My first car at 17 was a 1989 Defender 90, 2.5l 4 cylinder petrol. I was always a keen and fairly apt mechanic, but since owning that, I've had to learn fast . A few years ago I got rid of the old 2.5 lump and bought a 3.5l RV8 on fleabay, which I immediately set about rebuilding from the ground up with the help of manuals, the Difflock.com forum, and some (occasionally misplaced) confidence! Shortly after completion I went off to Uni and could no longer afford to run her, and fell out of my tinkering ways for temptations of alcohol, getting up in the afternoon, and the flesh... O yeah, and academia .
Since Graduating and finding a steady job, I have taken the landy out of mothballs and used her for my daily driver over the past winter. She's never missed a beat in the 5000 miles since the rebuild and I've regained my confidence that I am, in fact, pretty competent with a tool kit and a MIG. However a combined mileage of 12mpg is not conducive to my wallets well-being, hence the second car!

So, the reason for changing the Lupo? I'm fed up with little orange lights that come on on dash boards, offer no inkling as to the actual problem, cost a fortune to get fixed (anyone here thats not an electronic engineer know how to reprogram an ECU?), and in my opinion are entirely unnecessary and spoil the joy of motoring. Add to that the last MOT required replacement of both lambda sensors (at £250, and another unnecessary part IMO) and the gearbox sounds like its about to implode! If it has carburettors and a distributor, I'm a happy chappy .

I've always loved the look of the Minor, and am looking for something with a little more load space, so I've decided to save up for a 1000 Traveller. My problem is - I know virtually nothing about living with them!
I've read the article on places to look for rust already, owning a Landy I'm proficient at that one... What I really need to know is what to expect from it as a day-to-day runabout.
My questions:
What sort f MPG, are parts expensive, how's the ride quality, what's the heater like, does it steam up a lot in the cold, what's the weight capacity like, are the rear seats easily removable, how easy is sound deadening for motorway use, how intensive is the care of the woodwork (oil or varnish?) etc? Oh and also quite importantly, are the unleaded head valve seats hard enough to reliably run LPG? I've got most of the bits and have already converted the Landy, so I know its a very simple job.

I'm not looking for another 'project' vehicle, as off-road modifications are never-ending for the landy. And I want something that will get me to work every day without any fuss (so electronic ignition will be the first and only initial upgrade).
When my insurance drops, a 1275 turbo engine will be on the cards, and if I get paid more, something bigger
Looking for something tidy that requires little to no work to get it going, is £5k a reasonable expectation?

So that's a bit about me, enough of my ramblings: over to you

Tom.

welcome! i'm no expert on travellers (we're lumbered with 5 saloons instead!) so i can't advise on woodwork care, or loadspace.

i can tell you that rear seats fold forwards to give more space, i believe the back should remove completely, and the base hinges forwards, but don't take my word for it!

i'm no expert on lpg either... but i have got an unleaded head on my minor. you can get 'reconditioned' unleaded heads for £160ish, i got mine done for £100 by a local machine shop. some will tell you that unleaded heads are a waste of time, but if the hard seats are even more important for LPG then sounds like a good idea to me!

you should find minors very easy to work on. it's all 'meccano' engineering, and any problems you do come accross, i'm willing to bet you wont have been the first person to find them, and they'll have been covered on here already, or there'll be someone on here to answer any questions you have!

£5k sounds like it would get you a pretty good traveller! you may find a lot out there that already have nice modifications like electronic ignition, and a servo. some will tell you that they're a waste of time too, but i've got both on my minor and i'm pleased with them!

i should warn you about your fear of orange lights though, there are 2, sometimes 3 orange lights on a minor. one will come on as soon as you turn on the ignition (that's just the low oil pressure light). another one comes on when the filter needs changing (handy!) and some will have an orange light on the dash that flashes with the indicators. none of which are much to worry about!

You should get a perfectly good Traveller for a LOT less than £5k!! Unleaded heads are obtained from later Mini engines - and cost v little - and yes would be essential for LPG running. Driven reasonably expect 35 mpg on petrol - some will tell you they get 40+, but that has never been my experience. On LPG should be v cheap to run - I wish I had it!! Note if you install LPG yourself - Your Insurance Co may not like it,

Thanks for the replies.
All of that sounds good to me! Meccano engineering is what I like . Coming from the RV8 background, I view electronic ignition as a must, but then they are hardly known for their bulletproof HT systems... nor oil pressure actually, so my mistrust of that means I will be fitting a pressure gauge at some point to supplement the orange light
The oil filter light is a nice touch too, but then I am prone to possibly over-frequent oil and filter changes any way.

At those prices for parts I can see things getting rebuilt for the fun of it. Unleaded head will be a definite must for me then, as LPG is worth the initial outlay for a cost equivalent of 60+ mpg (conservatively) in the long run!

For future reference of anyone interested:
When I bought my landy it had an LPG kit fitted, and an installation & safety certificate for the insurance company.
When I changed the engine and subsequently had to uprate some of the LPG parts, I went back to the garage and they checked it and gave me a certificate.
However, for the latest insurance, I went to Adrin Flux, who are a bit more understanding of modified off-roaders. On the form where they ask what modifications were carried out, I listed all (approx 10) including the LPG. In the box where it asked who fitted the mods, and what their qualifications were I wrote: "Me, with a user manual, and common sense."
They accepted it without question.
So I'm guessing classic car insurers will be more understanding than the usual 'highstreet' insurance companies.

Tom.

the low oil pressure light comes on at very low pressure, ~5lbs. usually if it comes on whilst driving, it means your engine has already blown up! if it comes on and your engine hasnt blown up, the switch has packed up

you may find cars on the market that have already had unleaded heads fitted too, and another popular thing is a 'spin on' oil filter kit. these kits have a new 'filter head' which doesnt have the switch for the 'change filter' light. so you may find that never comes on! handily that light can be utilised as a warning light for other things, such as if you fit a manually controlled reversing light, you could wire that orange light in with it to remind you it's still on.

I don't know anything about cars, Martha is my first, so all I have to say is that you have come to the right place for asking advice, everyone here is lovely and very helpful! One day I hope to be able to answer a question myself!!

you just did Katie

Yay!!! I'm good, me!

Sounds like a Minor fits the bill very well. Unless you're looking for something in showroom condition, there should be no need to spend £5k. Half that should see you in something serviceable. Don't be fooled by a shiny exterior though, as there are plenty of pristine-looking rotters out there, along with ones that look tatty but are actually nice and sound underneath.

Fuel economy isn't a problem - a standard engine in a good state of health and tune should give late-30s mpg in normal use, as long as you don't have too leaden a foot! I've looked into the possibility of LPG conversions and one problem is finding somewhere to put the tank. Your only option is really to mount it behind the rear seats, which (depending on the size of tank fitted) could swallow up a fair bit of the boot space. On a traveller, it would also mean losing the large load space when the seats are folded down. IMO it doesn't look possible to mount it in place of the spare wheel, as the wheel rests on top of the petrol tank, underneath the plywood boot floor. Even if it were possible, the tank would have to be very small as the wheel is quite skinny. You could probably work something more elegant out if you ditched the standard fuel tank for a small, start-up only one.

Spare parts are cheap and readily available. Anything that you're likely to need is available from multiple suppliers, a phone call/internet order away. Unfortunately not all parts are of the highest quality. Panels sometimes seem to require a bit of fettling to fit correctly, and there have been duff batches of rotor arms and condensers doing the rounds over the past few years. New chromework doesn't (generally) last as long as the old stuff, which is why good NOS is highly prized.

The Minor's heater is fine, as long as the matrix isn't blocked and the valve opens correctly. If you want more heater power it is possible to fit the bigger matrix from a Mini, but this seems unneccessary to me. You shouldn't get the same condensation problems as you do in Land Rovers, unless you have water leaks.

Ride quality on the Minor is acceptable, and is obviously better if all dampers are in good nick and the rear springs haven't sagged. If you're used to a Land Rover, the Minor will be more than OK (my leaf-sprung Land Rover made a Minor feel like a cross between a sports car and a Rolls-Royce)!

It is best to stick to about 60mph on the motorway in a standard car, and at this speed the noise level is perfectly bearable.

Thanks again for the replies guys

chrisd87 wrote:Sounds like a Minor fits the bill very well. Unless you're looking for something in showroom condition, there should be no need to spend £5k. Half that should see you in something serviceable. Don't be fooled by a shiny exterior though, as there are plenty of pristine-looking rotters out there, along with ones that look tatty but are actually nice and sound underneath.

Showroom would be grand, but totally unnecessary for me (I'm a function over form kinda guy!)

chrisd87 wrote:Fuel economy isn't a problem - a standard engine in a good state of health and tune should give late-30s mpg in normal use...

Plenty good enough

chrisd87 wrote: as long as you don't have too leaden a foot!

Having gotten used to the noise of a v8 at full throttle, it will take me a while to reign that one in

chrisd87 wrote:I've looked into the possibility of LPG conversions and one problem is finding somewhere to put the tank. Your only option is really to mount it behind the rear seats, which (depending on the size of tank fitted) could swallow up a fair bit of the boot space. On a traveller, it would also mean losing the large load space when the seats are folded down. IMO it doesn't look possible to mount it in place of the spare wheel, as the wheel rests on top of the petrol tank, underneath the plywood boot floor. Even if it were possible, the tank would have to be very small as the wheel is quite skinny. You could probably work something more elegant out if you ditched the standard fuel tank for a small, start-up only one.

I've done some calculations from dimensions I found on google and an ebay search, and an oval underslung tank that occupies 3/5ths of the petrol tank space but hangs only slightly lower. 24 litres should see 30mpg (conservative gas prediction) for 150 miles. Not great, but living 2 mins from a station helps, and on long trips I can combine lpg and petrol use. Perhaps even a 'long range' removable auxillary petrol tank would be a possible and cheap solution...

chrisd87 wrote:Spare parts are cheap and readily available. Anything that you're likely to need is available from multiple suppliers, a phone call/internet order away. Unfortunately not all parts are of the highest quality. Panels sometimes seem to require a bit of fettling to fit correctly, and there have been duff batches of rotor arms and condensers doing the rounds over the past few years. New chromework doesn't (generally) last as long as the old stuff, which is why good NOS is highly prized.

Good to know! I like to carry a full set of ignition spares in older cars, so I will be sure to use standard parts. Or are some of these of compromised quality too?

chrisd87 wrote:The Minor's heater is fine, as long as the matrix isn't blocked and the valve opens correctly. If you want more heater power it is possible to fit the bigger matrix from a Mini, but this seems unneccessary to me. You shouldn't get the same condensation problems as you do in Land Rovers, unless you have water leaks.

Interestingly my V8 conversion clears the windows within 5 minutes, even though she leaks as bad as any landy, the removal of the viscous fan helps dramatically.
Still bl**dy cold though!

chrisd87 wrote:Ride quality on the Minor is acceptable, and is obviously better if all dampers are in good nick and the rear springs haven't sagged. If you're used to a Land Rover, the Minor will be more than OK (my leaf-sprung Land Rover made a Minor feel like a cross between a sports car and a Rolls-Royce)!

My parents had an LR leafer when I was 9. I swear I'm still walking funny because of it! The coilers are a little better, but my main long distance vehicle is the Lupo, (so still hardly a Rolls ) or if I ask nicely, my dad's 2.5T Subaru Forrester .

chrisd87 wrote: It is best to stick to about 60mph on the motorway in a standard car, and at this speed the noise level is perfectly bearable.

I'm quite happy with that. At a later date a 1275 (or 1380) turbo and 3.7 diff appear to be the cure for that

chrisryder wrote:the low oil pressure light comes on at very low pressure, ~5lbs. usually if it comes on whilst driving, it means your engine has already blown up! if it comes on and your engine hasnt blown up, the switch has packed up

Seems to be standard practice on most cars! Will be adding a gauge for peace of mind.

chrisryder wrote:you may find cars on the market that have already had unleaded heads fitted too, and another popular thing is a 'spin on' oil filter kit. these kits have a new 'filter head' which doesnt have the switch for the 'change filter' light. so you may find that never comes on! handily that light can be utilised as a warning light for other things, such as if you fit a manually controlled reversing light, you could wire that orange light in with it to remind you it's still on.

Will make sure to look for this when I'm buying.

KatiePotatie wrote:I don't know anything about cars, Martha is my first, so all I have to say is that you have come to the right place for asking advice, everyone here is lovely and very helpful! One day I hope to be able to answer a question myself!!

I felt the same when I joined my first vehicle forum. If you're interested you'll soon become able to spout seemingly pointless pieces of information about your pride and joy, without even realising you knew it!

Nice to meet you chap! youve already fitted right in by the sounds of it! Get on over to the MMOC Young Members Register on here and on Facebook, Theres quiet a gathering over there aswell and a nice social atmoshphere!

http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewforum.php?f=70

'MMOC Young Members' search on fbook, is locked but im sure someone will open the door to you!