Morris Minor Owners Club

I am looking to replace all four wings on my 1969 2 door saloon & am now happy on doing the fronts having identified all the appropriate bolts, etc.

I cannot find so much info. on the rear wings and would appreciate your advice please.

Are the rear wings held on in a similar way to the front so if I start rubbing underneath I should find some bolt heads ?

Assuming rears are not too difficult to replace, where please is the best place to buy some replacements from ? (I am not looking for concours but want the car to be reasonably tidy).

Many thanks.

i have 2 front wings on ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... %3AIT&rd=1

RDLH....yes the rear wings are bolted on too, the bolt heads
being found inside the rear wheel arch. the captive nut ends are in
the boot and are covered with a sort of black tar when originally
assembled. You do not need to disturb this unless the captive nuts
start turning in their cages in which case you need to get at them
to clamp them firmly with Mole Grips. The most forward of the
rear wing bolts can be awkward to undo as they are not in the
boot.

In addition to the possible problems with the captive nuts, be prepared to find that rust holes may have developed where the piping is squashed against the inner wing. Often visible bubbling on the top of the rear wings signifies corrosion in this area.

If you are lucky then the bolts will come out. On my 54 nearly all rear wing bolts came out (after 51 years!) and all remaining front wing bolts came out. I gave them a fraction of a turn to tighten them before unscrewing but am not sure if that helped or was just superstition
It is worthwhile to clean the area thorouhly to give the tools a clean grip on the head, and maybe a few sprays of release fluid every day for a couple of days.
As mentioned already, some of the captive nuts are not accessible (the front edge of the rear wing) so be especially careful with those ones! For the others, mole grips on the nut cage is a good backup.

He has the front wings, I sold him the ones off my trav!

Not sure if this helps or not But I found that when removing the wings on yellowmog that 1/2" A/f spanner just would not fit over 35years of rust and underseal even after scrubbing with a wire brush.

But a 13mm ring spanner was a very good tight fit.
See metric stuff is good for something
Obviously try imperial first but the rear wings on mine were in a much worse state than the front.

Also I used the mole grips on the captive nuts right from the word go just to save any spinning.

Many thanks for help & advice.

Front wing bolts were not too bad, I wire brushed around them, sprayed wd40, left for a few days & was able to loosen all.

Thanks to my luck on the front - & advice from here - am now feeling little more confident re tackling the rears.

All I now need to do is to find some replacement rear wings .... guess I'd best post an ad in the wanted section ! Have seen them on various web sites, if I go for non genuine is this likely to cause big problems with alignment etc ?

Matt, have yet to actually fit your wings ... or get them sprayed ! The more I look at the car the more I think "ought really do that" and hence I am now looking at rear wings ! Plan on doing all in one go.

Realise 3 days to go on ebay auction, but this makes your pair look expensive !!!

With thanks

Richard

Yes, 13mm will fit but better still, use Whitworth spanners, or sockets as that is the type of bolts for the wing fixings, front wings bolts are, I think, 5/16" Whitworth (he says from memory).

Laser tools do a set of Whitworth sockets.

beware that removing the wings is almost certain to reveal rust that needs attention in the inner wing areas. These will need to be welded in properly, either fabricated sections, or welding in of repair panels.

This is usually the case, if the outer wings are rusty, the inner ones are likely to be as well.

front wings bolts are, I think, 5/16" Whitworth (he says from memory

1/4" Whitworth (same as 5/16" BSF I think) , although maybe the later ones had non-whitworth heads or maybe not?

the traveller had 13mm

Well, 1/4" Whitworth is slightly larger than 13mm which in turn is slightly larger than 1/2" AF. So if you have all 3 sets you are away!

Ray, that's odd isn't it, but my '52 came apart quite easily too whereas I've had trouble on the later cars. Hmmm... don't build them like they used to do they?

I had to weld in new metal prior to the fitting of new rear wings . The arch which held th wings in place was completely rusted away . The notion of using the captive nuts was lost in the rust . So I made new 'arches' out of sheet steel, but I had access to a Swage machine to make in the necessry grove . You can buy them ready made.

A very good book , which outlines most of the help you will need in restoring a complete car is :

Morris Minor ( Restoration/ Preparation / Maintenance . by Jim Tyler.

ISBN 1-85532-471-7

I think it cost me about £15+ , but it is really first class and outlines rear wing repairs etc , in straight forward detail

I bought my steel wings from a guy in Wiltshire @ £25 each -- classed as seconds and used by reputable M.M restorers in the West of England -- so he told me ??!! Anyway I found them to be good ,with a little of the usual ' adjusting ' !! ( The ad . was in Minor Matters , about 18 months ago )

Happy welding Arfron

If you want to be able to undo the wing bolts etc in the future
then dip or paint all bolts and nuts with Waxoyl prior to re-
assembly.