My 1964 4-door Restoration
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 4:08 am
Hi! One of my first post here I think, so I thought I'd post something about my ongoing restoration.
When I bought my car in 2015 I knew nothing about maintaining a classic car - I'm still very much in the early days of the learning process, but I've fettled the poorly-fitting doors, replaced the wiring loom, swapped the head for an unleaded conversion done some painting here and there, among a few other small jobs. Unfortunately my car has been off the road since june 2019 when the gearbox decided it had had enough. I got the car recovered home and when I went to drain the oil from the box it came out all sparkly with metal flakes in it... probably not a great sign!
As I went about preparing to take the engine and box out (spending more and more time at ground level around the car) I started noticing more issues including a crack in the left side tie plate right near one of the engine mount pillars, and the sill under the driver's door had warped. I decided there wasn't much point taking anything out, because I had no spare gearbox and can't weld. There were also cracks in other places and questionable panel joins.
I soon realised that the work was going to be a rather big job and something I don't have the space to undertake, or anywhere near the understanding and know-how to even begin on as of yet, so I spent some time saving up and shipped it off to ESM. Hoping to have the car back in a few months in a much better state! In fact, when it arrived with them, they removed the wings and found rather a lot worse corrosion that I would likely never have noticed as can be seen in my small selection of photos below.
Work has now begun and there is still a lot of welding and repair work to be done. The engine bay has been stripped, fitted with new panels and welded-up, and is due to be blasted some time this week, but as far as I'm concerned it looks like it's in great hands! It'll almost be like a new car I reckon.
The list of remaining work is still pretty extensive. The car requires most of the interior features (Except the seats, which I restored myself not long ago), and I will probably look into a few subtle mod-cons like Hazard Lights. We'll see.
I'm sure restoring a car yourself is a million times more satisfying, but I simply don't have the space, tools, and working nights doesn't help (I've tried working on the car at night, and I don't think my neighbours appreciated it). All I know is that I just can't wait to get out for a long-awaited drive in the morris some time this year.
When I bought my car in 2015 I knew nothing about maintaining a classic car - I'm still very much in the early days of the learning process, but I've fettled the poorly-fitting doors, replaced the wiring loom, swapped the head for an unleaded conversion done some painting here and there, among a few other small jobs. Unfortunately my car has been off the road since june 2019 when the gearbox decided it had had enough. I got the car recovered home and when I went to drain the oil from the box it came out all sparkly with metal flakes in it... probably not a great sign!
As I went about preparing to take the engine and box out (spending more and more time at ground level around the car) I started noticing more issues including a crack in the left side tie plate right near one of the engine mount pillars, and the sill under the driver's door had warped. I decided there wasn't much point taking anything out, because I had no spare gearbox and can't weld. There were also cracks in other places and questionable panel joins.
I soon realised that the work was going to be a rather big job and something I don't have the space to undertake, or anywhere near the understanding and know-how to even begin on as of yet, so I spent some time saving up and shipped it off to ESM. Hoping to have the car back in a few months in a much better state! In fact, when it arrived with them, they removed the wings and found rather a lot worse corrosion that I would likely never have noticed as can be seen in my small selection of photos below.
Work has now begun and there is still a lot of welding and repair work to be done. The engine bay has been stripped, fitted with new panels and welded-up, and is due to be blasted some time this week, but as far as I'm concerned it looks like it's in great hands! It'll almost be like a new car I reckon.
The list of remaining work is still pretty extensive. The car requires most of the interior features (Except the seats, which I restored myself not long ago), and I will probably look into a few subtle mod-cons like Hazard Lights. We'll see.
I'm sure restoring a car yourself is a million times more satisfying, but I simply don't have the space, tools, and working nights doesn't help (I've tried working on the car at night, and I don't think my neighbours appreciated it). All I know is that I just can't wait to get out for a long-awaited drive in the morris some time this year.