Morris Minor Owners Club

Help
Car is 1954
Chassis F.B.A. 240905
Which I am told should be a black, however has been painted green at some point.
However Since registration date is Feb, I have a centre speedo? which is not right, what else changes during 1954 which will help me to get parts etc........also understand what I have here..

Peter[frame][/frame]

Your chassis number is pre -October '54 but the slatted grille and a centre speedo would date it as post - Oct '54. Can you post up some pics of the dash?

Hi Louise
Will take some tomorrow as car is not at home yet.

Thanks again.

Stevey would be the man to ask ref 54's.

Hi there your chassis plate number as said should be pre- facelift, unless someone has changed it. The Facelift came in in about October 54. My 54 chassis plate ends 264418 and the heritage certifcate dates it to June 54 so yours should be earlier if the number is correct. Also your missing a letter from the start of the chassis number F- morris B - 2 door saloon. A - black the other number will tell, export and paint options.

have a look at
http://potteries.mmoc.org.uk/Identification.htm
for more detail changes.

Front grill/ front wings, dash board, rear lights, bumper valance all changed during this period.

Hi
Louise this is dash area[frame][/frame]

Is there any evidence that the car was ever black ?

POMMreg may be able to identify the date by the body number stamped on the tags on the bulkhead by the passenger window.

Hi, yes taken a look and car is black under dash under head lining and in boot.
Rear wings are fiberglass.
Engine bay has been blown over and is black underneath.

Is there any way of telling history of anything ?

I guess I just need to put back to as back to basic original specification as I can.

I have ordered a built specification from Heritage and I guess I will just have to wait and see what comes?

Black was never my favourite colour to spray but hey ho.... I guess paint specification will be available from some one on here and I will have to just get on with it.

If it is not as perfect a MK11 as it should be then I guess there will be many about that are the same, having read the comments on the MM that is up for sale then I guess I have come off lightly.

Many thanks to all for the insite.

Peter

You could have an early pre production model. There would have been a few hundred of these cars around before it's official release.

Does the numbers stamped into the bulkhead match
those on the chassis plate?

Dean wrote:You could have an early pre production model. There would have been a few hundred of these cars around before it's official release.

The chassis number is from early '54 and according to the DVLA it was first registered on 16th Feb '54. Would the pre-production models have been on the road prior to the official release in Oct '54?

Yes, it is possible as they would have sold off the pre-production cars after main stream production was in full swing. The only snag with that is that they usually gave experimental/pre-production models a vastly different chassis/ID number - or at the very least, there may be some evidence on the car of the number having been changed into a more recognisable chassis number.

As POMMReg says - confirm whether the chassis plate number agrees with the number stamped into the bulkhead near to the wiring loom. If the two numbers are different, it would suggest that you have a chassis plate from an earlier car on your clearly later vehicle. If/when you find this, and if it is different to the plate, use the bulkhead number with Heritage folks to get the true identity of the car.

If the two are the same, then there is clearly something a bit different about this car. Aside from the location of the speedo, it is perfectly possible to make a later car look externally like an older car, and vice versa but the speedo location is the giveaway in both cases. Yours says post October 54 but if the info you have is correct, then you may well have some sort of pre-production vehicle. Good luck with the investigations and do keep us posted

What body nos (B) is quoted for the change to central
speedo?
Body nos apply to Minors built at Cowley, and can preceed
chassis change points - although I doubt by this much!

POMMReg

LouiseM wrote: The chassis number is from early '54 and according to the DVLA it was first registered on 16th Feb '54. Would the pre-production models have been on the road prior to the official release in Oct '54?

Possibly yes. Pre production cars are expensive to make therefore it makes sense to sell them. There is nothing structurally different to prevent them from being road legal. These cars may have been registered and being driven around with some form of cover on to disguise the change in appearance.

Glad POMMreg has joined in, hopefully will get sorted soon.

POMMReg wrote:What body nos (B) is quoted for the change to central
speedo?

According to Paul Skilleter's book the first experimental 'face-lift model' with new style grille & fascia appears to have been built on 21/9/54. It was a black 2 door with red trim and had body number 117540. It had an initial chassis number of EX/FBA 11/251 and was subsequently re-numbered FBA/11/482 and dispatched on 7/1/57.

Some experimental cars started off as normal productions cars and their chassis numbers were changed to an EX number but they were always renumbered with a chassis number lower than 500 if sold as a second hand vehicle. So this doesn't appear to be a pre-production model but the body number will help to establish when it was built.

Don't have any 1954 2drs listed in the records, will
need full details - chassis/body nos. - of an early
Minor with central speedo AND a late one without!

Always in need of ANY chassis/body numbers AND a
Parts Book!

On BM 14xxxx by 1955

Chris

Hi just had a look and there is an H after the FBA. Where are the stamped numbers I should be looking for
Peter
what is CKD finish?

CKD - Completely Knocked Down I think or something like that.
Basically an export model, they got it in bits that were put together.

Nutts wrote: Where are the stamped numbers I should be looking for

Open the bonnet.
Look at the bulkhead where it meets the windscreen scuttle, near to the passenger winscreen wiper blade.

There should be some painted tags, 1/4" wide by about 3" long ish, rivetted to the body. The letters will be hard to read, but it is these that POMMreg would like.