Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all, I'm new on here. I love Minors and have done for years. I'm 35 years old now and actually have only owned 2 of them. My first was my 1st car PGN 250E, a light blue Morris 1000 saloon. I sold it after a year or so of driving as I wanted something newer and faster as you do at that age. Those days are long gone and I wanted a Morris again and it had to be a restoration project. Enter BNE 436B .......



I brought it off of Ebay for the sum of £400. My plan is to restore it to a tidy solid usable Minor. It was originally registered as ACC 80B but was brought in 1996 by a number plate 'theif' and the number was sold on and the Minor was re-registered and then just sat in a garage doing nothing untill a month ago when I brought it and trailered it back to the West Midlands.

I'm just in the process of stripping it to a shell so I can see exactly what needs doing to it. Its slow going as I only do it in my spare time and every nut is rusty and puts up a fight!

It has the usual Morris rot places .....







It'll get there though. I'm no stranger to working on classics either as this is my other hobby, been a rolling restoration over the last 6 years ......



Any advice to give with the Morris I'd be more than grateful!

Hi Matt, welcome to the message board! The first picture looks like a good straight car.

My advice would be not to strip off too much at once, go a wheelarch or side at a time so as not to daunt yourself with how much rust you will find.

There plenty of people who have restored cars on here who can offer advice so dont be afraid to ask

DAVIDMCCULLOUGH wrote:Hi Matt, welcome to the message board! The first picture looks like a good straight car.

My advice would be not to strip off too much at once, go a wheelarch or side at a time so as not to daunt yourself with how much rust you will find.

There plenty of people who have restored cars on here who can offer advice so dont be afraid to ask

Many thanks for the welcome David. I think I will take you up on your offer of help. Everyone on here seems very knowledgeable. One quick question, on the drivers side front suspension, the bump stop lines up perfectly with the top of the suspension, although the pass side doesnt. What could cause this?

Matt Morris wrote: Many thanks for the welcome David. I think I will take you up on your offer of help. Everyone on here seems very knowledgeable. One quick question, on the drivers side front suspension, the bump stop lines up perfectly with the top of the suspension, although the pass side doesnt. What could cause this?

Front bump stops are handed, and if put on the wrong side, the do fail to line up slightly. It could be that it's had one replaced at some point, at they were not aware of the handed-ness. Either that or it's had some dodgy repair work around there at some point, and the holes have been put in the wrong place.

I'm in the west midlands to, near Bromsgrove.

chrisryder wrote:

Matt Morris wrote: Many thanks for the welcome David. I think I will take you up on your offer of help. Everyone on here seems very knowledgeable. One quick question, on the drivers side front suspension, the bump stop lines up perfectly with the top of the suspension, although the pass side doesnt. What could cause this?

Front bump stops are handed, and if put on the wrong side, the do fail to line up slightly. It could be that it's had one replaced at some point, at they were not aware of the handed-ness. Either that or it's had some dodgy repair work around there at some point, and the holes have been put in the wrong place.

I'm in the west midlands to, near Bromsgrove.

Great stuff, thankyou for the advice. I'm in Birmingham near the NEC

Sorry, more advice needed please!!

When i brought the car it had a duff battery on it, now everything I ever work on is negative earth, so when I replaced the battery I didnt think to look what terminals were what.I now learn that some minors are positive earth. Mine is a 64 model so has the mechanical starter switch at the top of the bulkhead by the voltage regulator. I connected the battery up negative earth. The black wire to the body and the red cable went to the starter switch. I havnt had the car running yet but I have had it cranking over and had the horn blowing and the lights working and have an ignition light and oil pressure light. Does this mean I've got it right? If I havnt what damage could I have caused if any? There is evidence of a radio being fitted as i removed 2 speakers from the back shelf. I know now this can show evidence of a negative earth car. Please help!!

That pic shows the cable going to the starter button as being red. Which strongly suggests, along with the evidence of a stereo, that it has been converted to neg earth already.

I can't think of any other way of telling.

chrisryder wrote:

That pic shows the cable going to the starter button as being red. Which strongly suggests, along with the evidence of a stereo, that it has been converted to neg earth already.

I can't think of any other way of telling.

Brilliant, thankyou Chris

Hi everyone, bit of advice please. In the process of getting the Morris running. Now I've sorted out the fuel side of it, fuel's getting through and the fuel pump is pumping etc but I have no spark. I have changed the condensor and cleaned the points and changed the leads but still nothing.It has a side exit dizzy cap on it. Now if I'm honest I HATE this. How fiddly is it? I dont think I've got a good enough connection at the coil to king lead at all. What a pain in the derrier. The slightly later Morris's had a simple push on lead connectors to the coil and dizzy cap etc. Is it possible for me to simply just change the cap and the coil to suit this or is there more to it than that cause for future maintenance I cant leave the side exit one on.

indeed, later coil, later cap, and later leads should all go on fine.

chrisryder wrote:indeed, later coil, later cap, and later leads should all go on fine.

Great stuff, once again many thanks Chris

that vauxhall is beautifull!

patricklambert wrote:that vauxhall is beautifull!

Cheers Patrick, I'm quite proud of the SRi too. Not many left now anymore

Well had a good hour on the Morris when I got home tonight. Bolted the exhaust back up and the drivers seat back in temporarily and took it for a spin around the close! This is its first trip under its own steam in 17 years!! Am well chuffed

Well it's been a while since I last posted as I stripped the Morris to a shell to assess everything. I have been collecting panels and researching how to repair this fine car. I started off with a couple of small repair patchs on the drivers inner wing wheel arch ( inside the car ). I ground the rot out of a small hole which turned into a 20p sized hole but with shiny metal all around it so the rot was gone. I then fashioned a small repair patch to go over the home. Welded this in place inside the car and also what you can see under the rear wing. Then seam sealed and painted both sides ? Does this sound a satisfactory way of repairing it? I then moved onto the rear inner wing flange drivers side. I've read a few people's posts on here that the seam isn't really needed and many people either cut them off of leave the rotten sections out. Well what I did was I cut out all the rotten parts to leave me with this ......





Where it is sound I will leave it alone and where it's rotten it'll be cut out. I still have a bit more to do on this but below shows the way I will repair it. With the rotten bits of the seam out I obviously have a gap. I have plated from the inside just over the gap. I have welded on the top and below and have seam sealed and will paint it. Then once all the plates are in place and sealed I will underseal and wax oil them. You hopefully won't see them.

See below ....





Is this a viable way of repairing this area? I know it's not strictly the way to repair this and is not as aesthetically pleasing as an original seam but my fabrication skills are nowhere near good enough to put a new seam on yet so is this a viable way of repairing this area? This car once done will only be a low mileage show car and won't be out in wet weather.

Any advice on my last post please?

hi if it nad been me would have put seam back as it was buy bending 2 right angle strips then welding in like the letter t if you get me but each to there own way

I don't see anything wrong with the way you did it. It's not very pretty but it's strong enough and the seam sealer will stop the rust. Many people do everything "correct" but then they run out of money and patience and abandon their projects. You need to pick your battles.

George

George Smathers wrote:I don't see anything wrong with the way you did it. It's not very pretty but it's strong enough and the seam sealer will stop the rust. Many people do everything "correct" but then they run out of money and patience and abandon their projects. You need to pick your battles.

George

well stated George
very good point m8

Many thanks for the replies. Just gives me that little bit of confidence when someone else says its ok

Had a good day today, finished off the rear inner wing and started plating the inner wing inside the car