Morris Minor Owners Club

Just bought home an immaculate, light blue, 1960 four door - I'm in Adelaide, South Australia btw.

Oh okay, she IS a Morris Minor. Without finding some way of decoding the serial number, I don't know if she actually IS a 1960. Carries the Nuffield (Australia) plate so I'm guessing she was a CKD and assembled here.

And the 'immaculate' is an outrageous falsehood

I'm her 4th owner and the previous owner had her for 16 years - nice bit of history. Essentially stock apart from more modern seats (that don't go back far enough for me and are knackered anyway), a brake booster (that doesn't appear to) and very loud air horns.

The original Sky Blue paint is worn through in places, rusted through in others.

The boot lid was fitted before the PO got it and would appear to be a replacement itself. Needs replacing now so anyone in Adelaide trying to sell a boot lid, please give a yell.

Very light rust coming through in one or two of the doors - urgent preventative work needed there, maybe more so on one of them.

The front wheel arches have some nasty looking rust near the bottom rear (by the front door) and will require major work. I'm hoping that's straightforward cutting, shutting and welding - even better if it's bolt on bits but I know I'm just being hopeful there.

That's the worst of the rust though. None that I could see around the suspension mounts. Chassis rails and front cross member all looked sound (yes, I know, grease hides a lot and attacking with a screwdriver doesn't always find things). Bit of surface rust, eg around the front grill which is more rusty discolouration flowing from somewhere. Floors seemed sound although the original floor linings are wedded to the floors so it wasn't easy to see or feel. Should be right. Sills seem sound if a little dented.

She's a scruffy mess inside so lots to do there.

Mechanically.

The engine pulls smoothly but doesn't seem to offer much in the way of fast getaways - needed second gear for the bottom part of Flagstaff Hill but that's over 10% grade so I'll forgive that.

The brakes have a booster that doesn't appear to be doing anything - for that matter, the brakes don't appear to be doing much either but considering my Fiat Panda has overly aggressive brakes, I know I'm expecting too much. It stops... and yes, the handbrake is there to hang your hand bag on but not much more.

The clutch will be the first thing. The clutch itself seems fine but the pedal is very heavy, doesn't return to the top (lost a return spring maybe) and doesn't feel like it's clearing fully. Worn bushes or something equally horrible no doubt.

She has a pronounced bachelor's lean. Tyres are round and black. Steering is direct with no play - the boots appear intact.

So lots to do. Apart from the wheel arches, I don't expect anything too horrid.

The plan is to get her sorted, maybe paint her a nice, dark green, then look at engines and good stuff like that.

And some pictures, just so you know she really does exist

Would you pm chassis number - will be a number stamped into the firewall next to Nuffield plate.

Welcome to the messageboard!

Enjoy minor motoring, both the restoration and driving it

Are the air horns to let people in front know you've got rubbish brakes?

Mark Wilson wrote:Are the air horns to let people in front know you've got rubbish brakes?

Good idea, my MM brakes does not work as well as the Prius brakes, but air horns are also a solution ;)

Had a satisfying afternoon with the Moggy... well, part of an afternoon. First I had to get a Land Rover chassis out of the way and then clean up the dirt I'd laid down to sop up the Land Rover oil spills. That actually took longer than the tailpipe repair. Once done, Moggy was able to claim her garage for herself.



The workshop supervisor checked that I had chocks under the front wheels and that the work stands were set properly.

The tailpipe had rusted through and broken off just in front of the rear hanger. I was able to pick up a length of good tailpipe from a wreckers for $5. I was hoping for a snug fit but settled for a loose fit, which was probably the best I was going to get as I seem to remember that metal pipe goes up in relatively large jumps.



Despite everything being rusted, it wasn't hard to undo the hanger clamp and to remove it from the rubber part - maybe I'm just used to tearing apart Land Rovers where your 'go to' spanner tends to be the angle grinder

The clamp was a snug fit to the old pipe, so it didn't fit the new pipe, but it wasn't hard to spread the clamp to take the new pipe - you'd be amazed what you can do with a pry bar. This, of course, meant that I needed a new bolt for the clamp and also needed to put a bend in it to go around the bottom of the new pipe. Happy times digging through my tins and jars of nuts and bolts finding the right bolt

The angle grinder made short work of cutting the new pipe to length. I actually made it as long as I could, The new pipe having bends and brackets, I just cut the longest straight bit between them. Because of the loose fit, I was able to use all of this length and wound up being able to overlap the old pipe by nearly a foot.

I had some high temperature silastic in the fridge from when I'd put a tailpipe extension on an MGB. I slathered that all over the old tailpipe after scraping off some of the scaly rust (now that I think of it, I should have done a better job of cleaning off the rust), then wriggled the new pipe over it all, making sure to spread the silastic along the whole length of the overlap for best sealing.

It was a simple job to wriggle the clamp over the new pipe, position it and bolt it to the rubber hanger strip. Pity I couldn't get the clamping bolt through the holes with the pipe in place, so I had to unbolt the clamp, remove it, fit the bolt, and refit it over the pipe before rebolting it to the rubber hanger. A simple clean up of the excess silastic and the job was done. She even sounds better though I'm not sure why because the only muffler is up near the gearbox. Be a lot safer though, having suffered getting exhaust gas into a car, I'm wary of it and now it's solidly supported at the back.



I had planned to check out the clutch but decided that cowardice was the better part of valour and knocked off with a job finished successfully rather than risk getting into something horrid

It's been a whole week now. Sorta feels like I've suffered her forever. There are so many small jobs to do, so many big jobs, so many jobs hiding and sniggering behind other things.

That plan is still to keep her on the road as much as possible, slowly fixing stuff as I go.

I guess I'll get caught out once it comes to rust repair but I'm hoping I can limit that and do a bit at a time, keeping the time off the road to as little as possible.

I was hoping to change the colour to a dark green, but I can see her becoming a patchwork quilt as I do the piecemeal repairs, so maybe I'm better off keeping her Sky Blue.

Looks pretty close to 1960 to me ( radiator top tank height, rear brake lights, air intake assembly), clap hands wipers.

The add on amber indicators presumably are a OZ highways requirement, but look odd to british eyes, less deep or glass dome lucas ones (in the front wings not panel) were a more normal UK modification to give flashing indicators to ensure other drivers had some kind of clue of where one was turning.

Those add on indicators look odd to my eyes - they are typically used on trailers

They will be changed to something less obtrusive. I'd like to get the trafficators working with the indicators but aren't sure if that's legal in this state (or if I'd bother about legality if it isn't).

After fitting new tyres, new front brake linings (one side of which seem to be too big, some filing needed now they've had a chance to wear), new distributor cap, learned how to time her by ear, sealed the exhaust leak around the join between the exhaust manifold and the exhaust pipe, fitted a new piece to the end of the exhaust pipe to replace the bit that broke off, fiddled extensively with grossly worn clutch linkages trying to get the clutch to work properly... she's sort of all right to drive so, of course, she's now found something else that costs money - the fuel pump is acting up and sometimes clatters so loud it drowns out the engine and exhaust.

A mate from my Land Rover restoration days sold me some NOS hubcaps that look absolutely gorgeous... so I'm wary of fitting them to the Moggy - what does it say of a vehicle when the best looking things on it are the hubcaps?

Today I addressed some less significant things - straps. Everytime you stopped suddenly, the rear seat fell forward because the strap to hold it up was missing, so I made one out of a 1" nylon strap I had in the bin



I gave it a long tail so I can just reach in through the boot, grab the strap and pull up the seat. It's probably too long but I can always cut a bit off later.

I was just about to throw out the left over strap when I realised there might be enough there to do the door pulls. A quick experiment later showed I had enough to do all four door pulls with some left over. So, out with the knife and the bifurcated rivets and a while later, all four doors had fancy new door pulls (the existing ones had been made by the previous owner out of dress material).



A happy couple of hours in the shed where I achieved stuff, broke nothing and STILL managed to improve the car

how does your workshop supervisor communicate he's happy with the state of the workshop, does he wag his tail? Nice fix on the tailpipe by the way.

davidmiles wrote:how does your workshop supervisor communicate he's happy with the state of the workshop, does he wag his tail? Nice fix on the tailpipe by the way.

Ta mate.
Like all management, the Supervisor's useless

Got to work this morning, and found that the computer that hosts the software that drives the place, had taken the day off so we wound up having a day off too for free because we're all employed as casual labour

Being an enthusiastic Moggy defender, after lunch, I headed out to the shed, pulled on my overalls and set about trying not to break things

I did battle with the brakes a few weeks back, fitting new front brake linings (oversized). As the left front brake had proven impossible to adjust (too tight), and I've now done a few hundred miles, my first job was to revisit the brakes in the fond assumption that the linings would have worn a bit.

I knew I was in for a good day when I remembered to loosen the wheel nuts before jacking her up (stop laughing).

I revisited that thought half way through putting her up on the work stands

With the trusty trolley jack under an engine rail, I lifted one side and positioned a work stand under the suspension arm. Moving the jack to the other side, I got her up about half way when I noticed the jack head pulling forward on the engine rail. My Moggy is a grubby, oily little thing and so I've got cardboard underneath to catch the oil drips. As the jack pulled itself backward, the rear wheels came up against the rear of the cardboard... and stopped, so the head started to slide along the engine rail.

This, gentle reader, is why you ALWAYS fit blocks fore and aft of the wheels not being jacked, I could so easily have pulled the car forward on the already positioned stand.

Anyways, she was now safely installed on my workshop stands, and my nice clean overalls were now filthy from where I'd been lying under the car positioning jacks and stands and stuff A few minutes later, the first wheel was off... and I'd discovered that the wheel brace that came with the car didn't fit Moggy wheel nuts. Not a problem in the shed because I usually use my socket set. Bit useless on the side of the road though, so I went digging through my shelves of 'stuff' and guess what!

I FOUND A STARTING HANDLE!

It must be the last thing remaining from my first car because it was the only car I've owned that had one. It's now in the boot

But back to serious stuff.
One wheel off, and feeling confident, I went around to the other side of the car... where I found I'd parked too close to the shelving and while I could still work on the car, it was going to be a pain in the proverbial.
So why didn't I notice this when loosening the wheel nuts?
Because that would have made the job easy. Hey, it's my workshop, I'll make a mess of things my way thank you.

Wheels off.
Brake drums off.
Hang on, why did both drums come off easily without backing off the adjusters?

Interestingly, the brake linings showed even wear with no glazing. Good stuff seeing I'd been unable to back the left hand side off far enough when the linings were new.

Fastidious and mechanically correct mechanics may wish to skip this next bit.
I got a bit of wet and dry paper, used dry, and carefully sanded the brake linings, just to make sure there was no glazing as the new linings had all seemed a bit oversized when fitted and had hence been 'adjusted' with more drag than I liked.

All cleaned up, I refitted the drums and adjusted the brakes and was surprised to note that not only was I able to adjust them as per the manual, I was able to take up a number of clicks before they locked (previously, half a click on one side, one on the other). Also of interest were those infernal left hand brakes (the 'no adjustment possible' brakes earlier) where the rear cylinder needed noticeably more clicks than the front.

Regardless, this time, I was able to adjust the brakes evenly on both sides.

THIS was a result!

So I turned my brain cell to another conundrum.

I'd already fixed one exhaust leak, that around the flange between the manifold and the pipe itself, but I was convinced there were others and I now set about finding them.

To find exhaust leaks, one must start the engine.
The car was in gear, hand brake on, blocks fore and aft of the rear wheels, front end up on stands.
Can you see the potential for drama?
So could I. I remembered to knock her out of gear, so you doubters can back off.

Engine running, using my hand to feel for exhaust leaks, I confirmed the manifold flange still sealed, the join between the muffler and the front pipe was sound, BUT, there was a leak at the front of the muffler where the pipe enters the box, a sod of a place to fix. Once aware of it, you could even see a black stain the muffler where the exhaust had been blowing. Fortunately, it was small. Working backwards, there was another at the rear where I'd added an extension to repair the broken tailpipe.

A quick trip inside, I rescued my tube of high temp silastic from the fridge (keeps it fresh, even after opening), and walked back towards the shed... where I noticed splodges of dog poo that matched my stride length. A check of my shoes and yes, I'd stepped in something the Supervisor of Operations had deposited and not only had I walked it up the path alongside the house, presumably had walked it inside as well. There are times I'm glad I'm a bachelor.

Remembering to pull on a pair of latex gloves, I set about 'sealing' the exhaust leaks. Unfortunately, I could do little more than smear and gob silastic over the leaks. I did my best to force the stuff inside the joint but... well, it's a bit pointless. The correct fix is to buy a new exhaust pipe but the shops expect you to pay for their parts. That's not going to happen in the short term, and in a few weeks won't matter because I can't afford to re-register her. But I did my best. How I miss the muffler bandages and putties you could buy in the good old days. My first car's exhaust was more repair than metal/rust by the time we fitted a new one.

Then there's the other problem, I'm darned sure there's another leak but do you reckon I could remember where it was? And I couldn't start up the engine to find it because that would have blown out/off the silastic 'seals' I'd just applied. Grrrrrr.

Before putting the wheels back on, I decided to clean up the front suspension. There was a lot of ancient grease/dirt mix coating everything, so I got out a light hammer and screwdriver to knock all that old crap off. This is purely a vanity thing, and I certainly wasn't looking for perfectly clean components, but even with a rough clean I reckon I'd knocked off enough crud to allow the front end to sit about an inch higher once back on the wheels. I had planned to pump some grease into the top and bottom grease nipples while there but from the way it was leaking past the seams, it wasn't needed... so I didn't.

Finally I got her wheels back on and was able to drop her back to the ground. It's always a nice feeling when she's supporting her own weight. I don't know about you, but I'm never happy when a vehicle is supported on something other than her own suspension and wheels. My dirty/greasy overalls were hung up from a convenient hook, lights off, radio off (I'm sure they were discussing something interesting but I don't remember what), phone in my pocket, I even remembered to take the keys out of the ignition and put them in my pocket - important because that keyring has the only shed key and if I locked them inside, I wasn't going to be getting back in to rescue them.

Oh, and I scraped then washed the dog poo out of the treads on my shoes.

My exhaust leak repairs didn't hold. I'm not completely surprised though I was disappointed to see that the extension on the rear of the exhaust pipe is pretty much just rattling around around.

So I bought a muffler bandage, jacked one side of the car up (yes, on stands with blocks fore and aft of the wheels on the other side) and tried to clean up the silastic repair at the front of the muffler. Dreadful job, that stuff really sticks and it wasn't helped by limited access to one part of the job... the critical part of course. Eventually I got it cleaned up and moved to the back. The extension/tail pipe join was relatively easy to clean up using my power drill and a nylon brush.

The bandage instructions tell you get the exhaust hot before starting. This also gave me a chance to look for other leaks. Engine running, I was surprised to find that the muffler leak seemed to be still sealed - it still copped the muffler bandage fix though. The rear extension leaked with undue enthusiasm.

And so I opened the packet of muffler bandage. I'd been expecting something like you used to get - a couple of mm thick, soft, more putty than anything else. What I got was some metalic woven cloth that felt vaguely sticky (yes, I was wearing gloves).

I tackled the muffler repair first. There's a pipe welded into the front of the muffler, but the weld join is raised and about 5mm in front of the muffler and that's what was leaking. I wrapped it around the pipe entering the muffler, wrapping it up onto the face of the muffler and about two inches forward, then pulled a hose clamp down onto it as close to the front of the muffler as I could - the idea was to bunch up the bandage between that raised weld and the muffler and pull it down with the clamp. It seemed to work. The rest of the muffler bandage was wired in place.

At the rear, I wrapped the joint a bit over an inch either side of the join, pulled a hose clamp down on the smaller of the two pipes (the tail pipe) just in front of the join, then wired the bandage in place either side of the join.

To be honest, I was disappointed with the bandage as it didn't want to sit flat and seemed rather happy to just fall apart. Handle gently. Good brand too, not cheap stuff.

Anyway, job done, I had to run the engine for half an hour, the idea being to get the epoxy in the tape hot which makes it set... so I went for a drive... that lasted nearly and hour

Did it work?
Hard to tell. The car is a lot quieter but certainly not quiet - I suspect the muffler is shot (although it looks good) and I'm getting a lot of resonance in the car. Certainly the floor covering is pretty rubbish so it could be it needs a good look at the sound proofing.

I'm not completely convinced I'm not getting gassed either.
Summary, I'm trying to work out just how disappointed I am and how much of that's justified. Possibly I'm being too hard on her.

And now for the compulsory photos... only I didn't take any. If someone asks, I'll go out and take some.

Photos and explanations

Tail pipe, where an extension had been added to the old pipe:



As noted above, that extension was larger than the tailpipe. Basically, in this repair, I wrapped the bandage around the tailpipe and the extension, then placed a hose clamp on the tailpipe, just in front of the join, to pull the bandage down over the gap between the two pipes, then wired it in place.

Muffler:



The muffler has a raised seam about 5mm in front of the face of the muffler and that's what was leaking. I wrapped the bandage up onto the face of the muffler and over the pipe, a few wrappings there, then along the inlet pipe. I then used the hose clamp to pull the bandage down onto the raised seam and hopefully bunching it into the gap between the seam and the face of the muffler. The rest was then wired in place.

Although it's quieter, there's still a lot of boom in the car. Looking at it when I took these photos, the top of the exhaust flow out the back is directed into the over-rider which makes me wonder if I'm not getting exhaust noise reflected back into the car. Considering how much difference the above repairs made, I wouldn't be surprised... so how to fix it?