Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi everyone, this is my story. I met my wife 32 years ago and 1 of the things she's always wanted was a multi coloured morris minor, yes I said multi coloured. Over the years she's told everyone we know that this is her dream car knowing, as she says, it will never happen. So 4 months ago I started looking on ebay for a 1966 (the year she was born) minor for restoration but there wasn't one so I bought a 1969 model. A week later a 1966 one appeared which I won for £600, so off I went to Margate (a 12 hour round trip) to collect the car which had been rusting away in an overgrown garden since 2005. I also bought a used car trailer for £730 (6 hour trip) for the car.

I've hired a shipping container to work on the car but I'm finding it too confined to work in so I plan to build a workshop out of scaffolding ( my trade). I've already stripped out the interior,both doors, bonnet & boot lids,front grill, both front wings & engine/gearbox. The underneath of the car looks very rotted so I've bought a 360 degree roll over jig for better access (lots of cutting & welding expected) I'm doing all this without my wife's knowledge so it's been a bit tricky at times. I am a complete novice at vehicle restoration so any,and I mean any advice would be gladly accepted. By the way I live in Bristol, thanks, Steve

Good luck with your restoration, it sounds like you have you work cut out for a while! Post up some pictures as you go along and there are lots of restoration threads going to get some inspiration or advice from

First bit of advice, if you have not all ready is a weding course. Even if you have, spend some time practising Plug welds and Butt welds from different angles. Following that spend some time working out how the body is assembled. You will need to know this in order to properly re build the shell. Remove any and all previous patch repairs, these are bodges to get a ticket and not repairs. Always butt weld joints that do not terminate in a factory spot/plug welded seam. Always use the same gauge steel.

All the best
Rod

Thanks guys, I've got a mate who is willing to help me out and teach me as we go. I've finished the workshop now so I'll post some photos next week.

Here are a few photos of my restoration so far







Engine/gearbox lifted out with my forklift.