Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all

Just a query about welding. I know many of you have done the welding on your minor yourselves yet sadly i am not blessed with such skills or such a welder. My question to you is this. How much would welding for me cost?

Here's what needs doing:

O/S floor pan behind chassis crossmember needs patching up. Sizeable hole
O/S sills need replacing
O/S rear split in wheelarch behind wheel.

I know this is very generalized but some guesstimates would be very helpful or quotes from similar work.

Thanks
Barny

No idea about cost but make sure you give clear instructions to whoever is doing it NOT to patch - have them cut out the rot and the correct gauge steel put in.

Also, I personally would instruct them to leave it bare metal so you can do your own rustproofing instead of them applying Schultz, which is the worst thing going.

I'd suggest that the work required is only the tip of the iceberg. I'd get the car looked at by a knowledgeable minor owner in order to fully assess the task.
There are 2 ways of doing it - cheap and cheerful to keep it on the road, or properly. The first will cost less initially, but it's only a stop gap to further and more costly repairs.

Pete

As above - thoroughly survey the whole car to find out what needs doing before starting any work. Sills on one side would be ~£200/300 I guess - the floor repair trivial if you just need a patch - and the 'split' ? Is it just in the wing? In which case also trivial. But hard to imagine sills on one side are rotten - and the other side is fine? Or has it already been done ?

I think the smart thing to do would to get the rot cut out and fresh metal welded into its place. I would no doubt like it to be done properly so the car is safe and secure for the future.

bmc its weird that its only one side. repairs have been attempted but werent finished although the nearside sills are the ones that havent been repaired but are still solid. The split i believe is just the inner arch but i will take some pictures to give everyone a better idea.

Thanks for the input though guys

I've noticed that on many old cars, the offside gets the battering from cars overtaking and also the ones going the other way, in the wet of course!

I know many of you have done the welding on your minor yourselves yet sadly I am not blessed with such skills

Very few of us started with theses "skills" we learned on the job or at evening classes.
When you get some quotes for the work or see what you get for your money you will understand why.

It's quite normal for one side to be much better than the other, I've always put it down to which side of the road the car was parked on for most of it's early life.

In my experience it costs you £100 for someone to pick up a welding torch, and that is before it is lit. Then it seems to work out at £250 a corner. A friend of mine, well known in the trade, looked over my Traveller soon after I bought it. He looked under each wheel arch, drew a deep breath and said "That's not too clever." The bill around £1000.
I wish that I had learned to weld.

Older cars are looked upon as economical motoring and the main they can be, the sad fact is, unless the owner is prepared and/or capable of getting to grips with repair work all the advantages go out the window and they're a money pit. The free tax becomes immaterial. Perhaps I should just say, that's my view.

The exhaust running up the nearside helps to keep that side 'drier' - perhaps reducing the rot there. A 'split' in the inner arch sounds a bit ominous.......

mike.perry wrote:In my experience it costs you £100 for someone to pick up a welding torch, and that is before it is lit. Then it seems to work out at £250 a corner. A friend of mine, well known in the trade, looked over my Traveller soon after I bought it. He looked under each wheel arch, drew a deep breath and said "That's not too clever." The bill around £1000.
I wish that I had learned to weld.

Wow, I'll have to bear that in mind. I seem to be often doing a small welding repair for MOTs (The tester reccomends me to his customers from time to time). Always seems to be a small hole, which done properly is done within the hour so its an hours rate that I charge. I've heard some folk charge so much per inch of weld say £10 which sounds a pretty bizarre way of doing it. And expensive if its a floorpan thats going in....

The £250 a corner or £300 per sill as mentioned sounds a reasonable ball park figure. Most expensive weldign job on a Minor I've encountered was a convertible which was really knackered and needed evrything in front of the bulkhead and full floors and sills which was a round the £2000 mark again just worked out on time and panel prices. But most people would have scrapped it tbh.
The key is to get someone who does it rght, and cuts out the rot and replaces it properly not just who charges the same for patching up...

Here are some pics of the rot.

All of these have been taken whilest im lieing on my side so the angles are a little weird.

The last pic are the near side sills. They look okay to me?
Im sure you can work out which way is up [frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

These are the near side sills[frame][/frame]

I'm sorry to say it, but your car needs a fair bit of work to restore some strength back into it. Judging from the pics, I'd be having a real close look elsewhere as things look pretty soft.
At the very least you'll be looking at a rear floorpan, front spring hanger, complete sills and boxing panel, then depending on the extent of the 'split' in rear wheelarch this replaced along with rear chassis section.
Unless you can do this work yourself, you are in for some big bills. That's why I recommend buying the best car you can afford, then keeping it good - and yes, we've all had rose tinted glasses

Pete

Looks like the whole £2000 job to me - that crossmember is on it's last legs too.

Hey guys thanks for the input.

I know she needs a lot of work but i am confident we will get there in the end.
It will be a case of doing it in stages I think. I have no intention of getting rid of the car because of this though. I really want to get her back up to standard

Is the rest of the car in tidy condition? By that I mean, paintwork, body panels, mechanicals, interior etc etc.
I really hate to see folk spending a fortune on an uneconomical restoration when they could pass it on to someone who can do it themselves, and then buy a good one.This way a car is saved and you don't get fed up with the rebuild process.

PO

All it needs (should need) is a new distributor, spark plugs, coil, new fuel, new oil, new brake fluid and it should be okay.

The interior is almost spotless, needs 1 new doorcard and possibly a new carpet.

The paint will need redoing but that will be a job for when its up and running.

Why not get a quote on how to do the work. then find out how much it is to learn to weld proficiently. work out the difference minus the cost of the panels. you may be surprised.

Hmm thats a good idea. Problem is i dont have a MIG welder or access to one either so I will have to buy or rent one too. Im having a professional look at it on monday so I'm going to find out how much it actually is.