Morris Minor Owners Club

Me and my father recently acquired a Minor 1000 from 1966 and very happy with it in great nick!

It drives great but looking too improve the experience i am fairly new too tinkering with cars myself,
Was looking too put disc brakes on the front any recommendations for the conversion kit?
Will install an electronic ignition and attempt too look for seat belts for the rear.
Maybe attempt to get Whitewall tyres always been a obsession of mine (sorry if this is untrue too form)
Is this a good place too start? Anything too keep in mind before starting these? Anything im missing?

Appreciate any help/Advice

Hopefully looking too join the club and attend an event

Congratulations on joining the world of Morris Minors and welcome to the forum!

It seems to be a very common theme that somebody completely new to Morris Minors buys a car and within 5 minutes wants to change stuff or "upgrade" things. My personal opinion is keep it standard until you are very familiar with the car. Remember that the Workshop Manual is for cars as they came out of the factory. As soon as you go off-piste you can run into problems you didn't have to start with and the help that others can give may be limited as well.

There is nothing wrong at all with the standard points ignition (if maintained properly) and as the Minor is far from a performance car there is no real advantage to electronic ignition other than not having to clean and gap the points. As for the brakes, if braking is poor then the best thing is to check the entire system and adjust, bleed, overhaul as necessary. The braking in a standard Minor is more than adequate but if the braking system is poorly maintained can be dreadful. Driving a Minor is very different to a modern car. The brake pedal needs a lot more force applied than in a modern servo-assisted car. If the car pulls to one side under braking or you cannot lock all four wheels in an emergency stop then this is a fault that needs to be addressed. Learn to anticipate when driving, use the gears for engine braking especially on hills.

One other tip: Do not buy cheap parts. Buy the best which may be new old stock or good second hand depending on what it is. Cheap parts leads to disappointment, frustration when they don't quite fit and a loss of confidence in the reliability of the car which is unjustified.

Do join the MMOC.

Enjoy the car and happy motoring!

Stephen

I have to agree with Stephen...

Don't go changing things until you know and understand what you have already.

If you're not happy with the brakes, then service them before trying to 'improve' them with Discs.

The biggest mistake made by people who don't have any engineering experience/background is to start modifying things that aren't actually functioning correctly.
Modifying 'something' that isn't working correctly just results in a modified 'something' that still isn't working correctly.

The best thing you can do is find out where your local MMOC Branch meet and go along to talk to people and look at their cars.
You can locate your local branch here: https://branches.mmoc.org.uk/

The advantage you have with your car is that as a '66, it probably hasn't been modified too much from standard.
(the earlier the car, the greater the changes that it has been 'modified' either by necessity due to parts scarcity, or past owner's choice, like when fitting indicators to a car which had trafficators)
Though from the looks of that photo, I suspect it has a basic key operated 1970s Alarm Kit fitted (that looks like a key switch on the rear bodywork).

Sound advice to get familiar 1st.
I bought mine with mods already carried out by previous owners.
I was aware of this and it didn't bother me as I'm not a purist.
I may have carried out some of the mods antway and I'm happy with it as it is but have never driven a standard minor 1000 to compare.
Modifications include:
Marina front disc brakes with servo.
Lead free fuel cylinder head.
Spin on oil filter.
Alternator and negative earth swap.
Later type heater with air inlet.
Hazard flashers
Inertia seat belts, front and rear
Rear fog and reverse lamps.

I fitted amber front indicators (originally white )to match rears already fitted.

I am in general agreement with the above comments.
As regards converting to disc brakes:-
Get what you have working as it should - the Minor drum brakes when serviceable are more than up to the job.
When you have got it all working as it should and you are still not satisfied fit a servo - it will not make the brakes work any better but it will reduce the pedal pressure required.
If you have achieved the above and are still not happy go ahead and fit a disc brake conversion.
My preferred conversion kit is the Mr Grumpy's Marina derived disc brake kit. The kit has been revised since the original kit was on sale and which had the top hat spacer - now deleted by using a revised hub.
The kit is easy to fit and spares are readily available. The kit is reasonably cheap and can be considered loosely in period.
I have had a Mr Grumpy's disc brake kit on my Minor since the early 1990's and it has worked well for me. I have not fitted a servo as I like to feel what is happening at the wheel through the brake pedal.
What ever you do good luck doing it and you will find plenty of helpful advice on here.
Phil

To me, it seems wrong to immediately tear into something that has survived unmolested (by the looks of it) for decades without thinking about what you are doing. Get to know the car's characteristics properly and respect her heritage.
"It drives great...." Well, there you have it. Enjoy. I agree completely with the sentiments of the others, particularly Stephen's.
Anyway, I hope you have a lot of fun driving about in her