Morris Minor Owners Club

Probably an obvious question to many on here but will a cheese grater grille fit a later car with the '56-on style of grille without any modification?
Am still a novice re these sort of details but may want to give a later car, if missing its grille, an earlier look.
All theoretical at the moment. Please humour a frustrated would-be split screen owner.

No reason why not. You'd need to modify the front wings slightly by trimming out a little round the grill. also as the sidelights are inthe grill the holes on the wings would need welding up I think they end up to close to the hockeystick to be usable as indicator holes, but mayble with smaller indicators it could work.

And to complete the front end you will need a Series II front bumper valance and the matching (correct) chrome bumper blade (not MM 1000) so the over-riders are placed correctly so as not to hide the side lights on the cheesegrater panel.

Regards Ian

Why would you want to? If panels are missing buy the ones that fit. People will pick up on it and say 'it's not right for the year' etc. Might be more hassle than it's worth...

Ian46 wrote:And to complete the front end you will need a Series II front bumper valance and the matching (correct) chrome bumper blade (not MM 1000) so the over-riders are placed correctly so as not to hide the side lights on the cheesegrater panel.

Regards Ian

Good point, yes you would need the appropriate bumper valence and if you want overiders, the blade as well.

I can see that there's a lot more to each front end than just the relative positions of the lights.
It was one of those theoretical questions that pop into your head that you have to know the answer to.
Plus it's good to understand the differences between models in case that bargain autojumble part comes along.
I would always prefer faded originality.

Contrast:

with


The old style grill had different hockeysticks and the indicator lights (which would the small,be early type, not like mine) would be fitted to the grill, not the wings. You would need to move the indicators and fill in the holes, change the hockeysticks but that should be it.

Very good pictures!
Show very clearly the contrasting shape of the two types of grille and the work that would be needed to fit.
Your efforts much appreciated.

Failing all that effort to modify wings...

How about buying fibreglass lowlight wings, a fibreglass lowlight front panel, and don't bother with overriders!

Just require some fiddling with the headlights, as one, you'll need different headlights, and two, the back of them gets in the way of the inner wings, so they'd need to be reworked to suit.

Didn't someone point out that to modify a vehicle to lowlight specs could void your insurance (if not notified) as you have changed the position of the lights to something other than the manufacturers specification and if you have an accident, they could claim that you made your vehicle unsafe?

I suppose that technically the donation made to the Insurance company could be voided for any number of reasons, so it would make sense to notify them. Just tell them that you've fitted wings and front panel from a 1948 - 1950 model - shouldn't be a problem.

Pete

Putting your headlights somewhere random could be grounds for causing an accident, but putting them in a position that was standard fitment on some vehicles shouldn't be a problem. Otherwise everyone with a lowlight could be told that their headlights are in an unsafe location!

You should notify your insurers of any change you make to your vehicle, so lowlight-ing would be a drastic visual change certainly requiring you to update them.

I even told my insurers about the 20thou overbore on my 1098. Can't be too careful! ...They did proceed to ask how much that will have increased performance by though

Yes, but they were originally fitted to that vehicle. That's like me taking the lamps off a Toyota MR2 and grafting them a truck at the same height as the MR2.. Still, always make sure the insurers are notified, its stupid not to
My jeep has a plus 20 rebore as well, that pulls like a train, significantly better than my dads at standard bore! But they are 2.2 litres to start with, so not really the same category