Morris Minor Owners Club

I am new to the forum and historically an mg man. My thoughts having retired now turn to an old classic van for fishing. Because my Dad took me fishing in a morris minor van, I have decided to find and renovate a suitable morris minor.

Now to the heart of my plans. I need to have about six feet length in the back, as fishing nowadays means "taking everything but the kitchen sink". With the availability of new traveller timbers etc, it occurs to me that I can lengthen the Chassis and create a Californian type pickup, by chopping the top off the traveller back.

Has anyone experience in creating a longer wheelbase minor? Looking at the van/traveller chassis, it appears achievable either side of the rear axle, but would perhaps look better before?

When I am further down the road, I would like to share knowledge on engine swap, because I already have either a lancia 2L twin cam or 1380 midget A series waiting to choose from.

Thanks everyone

Tony

Hi Tony, and welcome. The first thing to note is that the van and pickup have a separate chassis, but the traveller is a derivitive of the car and has a monocoque floorpan construction. There are some examples of lengthened travellers, and the book "Morris Minor Traveller, the complete companion" (available form the Club Shop) shows some ideas in chapter 12. Sometimes what appears to be a long traveller started life as an LCV cab. There is (or at least was) a well known six-wheel traveller, so it can be done.

As said above the traveller uses a saloon floorpan, the van / pick up a seperate chassis. While either coild be extended the seperate chassis would be a lot easier. If you extend the wheelbase both would need a SVA inspection as you will be modifying the structure, you could lengthen just the rear overhang and avoid this though.

On the engine front the 1380 is going to be a lot easier to fit and easier to keep on the road with better parts availability etc. The 2.0 will probably be nicer to drive though.

Not wishing to upset anyone but the SVA test has been superseded now for some years.

It is now the IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) test. https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-approval/ind ... tion-forms

I built a kit car recently and passed my IVA test 1st April 2019.

Ian