Morris Minor Owners Club

I am sure this has been raised before, but I have yet to find the thread explaining it. When fitting the parcel shelf to the bulkhead at the front of the car, the shelf needs to be bent through about 90deg to fit the rivets/bolts through the corresponding holes. The question I have is should it be bent up or down? Either way it seems quite stiff to bend in either direction.

I would say UP, anything rolling down the shelf would then be retained.

The originals were bent down. The shelf also touches the bottom of the battery box so an up flange would need to be removed in that area.

I agree. The front of the parcel shelf has to be bent down.

Oh ok, stop ganging up on me !!

Don't worry Les. We're not doing that

Are we talking the metal shelf here or the 'cardboard' one?
My SII has the metal shelf welded in, but then anything strange about Basil doesn't surprise me......

It is the cardboard shelf which is attached by rivets to the bulkhead.
The metal bar should never be welded to the body. It is secured by one 1/4" screw at each end which passes into a captive nut in the scuttle panel. A Series 11 car along with the earliest Minor 1000s, has a less deep parcel shelf than the later cars and the metal bar is therefore positioned closer to the bulkhead and screwed to a different fixing.

ManyMinors wrote: ↑Fri Jul 08, 2022 11:04 am
The metal bar should never be welded to the body.

I refer you to my earlier statement M'laud... anything strange about Basil doesn't surprise me. I've long suspected it should just be bolted/screwed in.

Still, your side impact protection is possibly enhanced

I have never liked the angled steel strip that forms the leading edge of the parcel shelf on my S2. In the event of a collision it’s at shin height! So during a re-furb I re-worked mine with plastic tubing, albeit with a mid point support. Can’t do the same for the steering column though!

I think we'd have to agree that occupant safety didn't feature highly in the design of the Morris Minor - particularly regarding the 1950s models. It had improved by the mid 1960s but only slightly
Defensive driving is the order of the day.