Morris Minor Owners Club

I have to get the rear spring hanger (front drivers side) cut out and replaced. Joe is a 4 door car and we were wondering how long a job this would be? Specifically what, apart from the floorpan would need cutting. This is the size panel we will need
http://shop.morrisminorspares.co.uk/pop ... hp?pID=964
Are there panels above that need separating (such as seat base) and what is the structure behind the rear doors at the bottom of the wheel arch? Will that need consideration? Because it's all hidden and we're not familiar with the 4 door bodyshell we don't want to assume its as easy as a two door only to cut it out and find there is another days work hiding away.

Hi Peetee
There is always another day's work hiding away!!

The structure around this part is identical to the 2-door. Therefore you will need to consider repairs on the under seat box section (front and rear of it), the inner step box section where it passes through the under seat section, the back edge of the rear floorpan the surrounding part of the sill and also the adjoining part of the wheelarch.

If the outer part of the sill is also gone, then you may up needing to look at the bottom of the C-post too

If the inner and outer sill are solid, then personally I would cut down the panel so it doesn't disturb the sill.




As you can see, on our 4-door we had the opposite problem as the hanger itself was still ok but the sill, floorpan and inner step were shot. I cut away the floor by the hanger to get access to the inner step, then welded a new piece of floor in, plug welded to the inner step and fitted the sill to the new piece of floor.

The best way is to repair all the other sections then plug weld to the new panel. There are 2 rivets at the front of the spring hanger (probably missing on the repair panel) but these are important! I used small nuts and bolts as replacements to ensure thaat the front of the hanger pulls in to the correct place on the back edge of the floor pan at the seam with the under seat box section. I've seen some where the hanger doesn't overlap and join this seam area correctly therefore the hanger is not strong enough and starts to crack away (my traveller when I bought it!)

The most common way is to put the repair 'somewhere' over the top of the rotted sections and ignore everything structural as the MOT man can't see it!!

Cheers Ray, very helpful (and frightening ) photo's.

As you can see, on our 4-door we had the opposite problem as the hanger itself was still ok but the sill

Ah yes that's the problem with Joe. The MOT man get busy with his screwdriver and punched three holes around the hanger. The thickness of underseal hid the corrosion very well as it was quite rotten but felt solid enough when I gave it a look over and prod.

oops - I added a bit more after you looked at it...


All the photos of that stuff are on the resto website on my signature link if you want to see the true horrors and the magical transformation