Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi All,

My traveller is in need of a "tidy up" (to put it incredibly lightly!) The underside will need some welding, it could do with a repsray, and the wings and wood need replacing. My question is, is it possible to do it a bit at a time? and if so, where is the best place to begin? I don't have the funds to do it all in one go, but I realise that I won't know the extent of jobs such as welding, until the wood job, for example, is complete.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!

You need to survey the whole car very very carefully before you start. Removing wings is a good star to see what lies below. No point doing one part and then finding something that's just not economical to continue at a later date. Then decide on any major welding repairs (ie main crossmember/chassis legs/floor pans and cost it all out before starting. Unfortunately there are many 'failed restorations' around where hard work and cash is poured in - and then it all becomes too much to continue.

As well as the wings, remove the cover plates / kick plates over the sills / under the doors. This will let you see quite a lot. Removing as much of the interior trim as possible is essential. Some welding you probably won't evaluate until the timber is off - when doing the timber, expect some extra work.

You can do bits at a time, for example one side of timber, but often it is easier to strip the car and then do as much as possible. Without seeing the car it's difficult to be precise, but engine & gearbox out, do chassis legs plus cross member and sills; and inner front wings. Then have a break and move to the rear might work.

Thank you both very much for your swift and helpful replies, I'll add some photos later tomorrow to make it a little easier I thought welding would be the most logical option to begin with, but I thought I had better ask the experts!

Mine only needed a little welding! It's turned into a massive rebuild. Feels like im getting somewhere now tho. The woods back on. Just a little painting left and then it can all go back together with bits fixed along the way. Check out my rebuild thread http://mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=61186&start=100

I really can't wait to have mine done. Everybody wants to see it.

I strongly reccomend you remove the wood and buy/make repair panels for the metalwork and do abit at a time. The inner wings and pillars will probably need repairs hiding under the wings. Same for sill covers. The rest should hopefully look obvious on your car. Tho mine had sill cover panel things welded on underneath to hide loads of rust. Spring mounts had fibreglass repairs and underseal hiding holes in the chassis legs. Check out rebuild threads to help guide you.

Steven