Morris Minor Owners Club

Colleagues, I took delivery of a 1950 Low Light last Sunday. I never got to view it in the flesh, but had to rely on the seller's pictures.
It does happen to need a bit more work than I anticipated, but it will be a worthwhile project.
The engine runs, the brakes work, but the plumbing leaks like a sieve (it is hybrid - originally no water pump and exported with no heater, now has a heater and a water pump has been fitted, but most of the original plumbing is still in use with some pipes "capped off".
Has a new wiring loom, but not all the wires are connected up!
Previous real owner was an MMOC member, but I bought the car from a "dealer" in North Yorkshire.
I will be asking some questions about Bolt/Set Screw sizes soon.
I will have to take a new "signature" picture, won't I.
Regards, George.

When I last saw (March 2011) it there were some rather scary looking bits of metal where the sills used to be.

Good luck!

Excellent George!! Welcome to the more aerodynamic minor!!

RobThomas wrote: ↑Wed Feb 27, 2019 7:32 pm When I last saw (March 2011) it there were some rather scary looking bits of metal where the sills used to be.

Good luck!DSCF1409.JPG

Hello Rob,
I've yet to brace myself to remove the kick plates to take a look, but it looks like the back end of the car looked better in 2011, since then the rear bumper has taken a bashing and is quite distorted.

When you knew the car, did you know if the owner had any keys for the door and boot locks?
The Heritage record shows the ignition key number (which is correct), but all the door locks (NS also has lock as was exported as LHD) are a different profile. The N.Yorkshire re-seller handed over all the keys he had with the car, but lock keys not present.

Those are Morris 1000 doors, hence the door lock on the nearside. Lowlight doors are different and never had lock holes on the other door. I can't remember if it had a lowlight bootlid or not. Got any photos of the handle and the latch plate?

I seem to recall Hugh wanted £2000 for the car, with the Alta engine in the shed and loads of spares included.

RobThomas wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 5:39 pm Those are Morris 1000 doors, hence the door lock on the nearside. Lowlight doors are different and never had lock holes on the other door.

Just to echo this, having looked at a load of LHD Minors over the last 40 years ... one of the major drawbacks to LHD Minors until the early 1960s was the lock being on "the wrong side."

I spent a portion of my childhood getting into the passenger (right-hand) seat of our (LHD Export) Traveller after my mum had unlocked the door, then reaching over and opening her unkeyed door (left-hand) by the time she'd walked around the end of the car.

Totally mystifies everyone why BMC never fitted a key lock on the left door to the Minor when it did its biggest North American volume (1957-61). When DID the 2nd door get its lock, anyhow?

I guess they assumed the rest of the world would 'wise up' and start driving on the correct side of the road, John.

RobThomas wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 5:39 pm Those are Morris 1000 doors, hence the door lock on the nearside. Lowlight doors are different and never had lock holes on the other door. I can't remember if it had a lowlight bootlid or not. Got any photos of the handle and the latch plate?

I seem to recall Hugh wanted £2000 for the car, with the Alta engine in the shed and loads of spares included.

The bootlid seems to be the early type - similar to my high-light, but is in a poor state If you need pictures of the door handles, etc, I'll take these tomorrow.
My '51, '55 saloons and '56 Traveller only have door locks in the driver's side. My, long-gone, '63 Traveller only had 1 lock, but my (also long-gone) '64 S IV saloon had locks on both sides.

The low-light's passenger, driver's and boot locks all have the same profile, which doesn't match the ignition key (nor any of my other 7, or so, Morris series keys). When it stops raining tomorrow, I'll take the boot lock off and the key number should be stamped into the main shaft (like on my '55 saloon).
Oops, got to get to my local Branch AGM now ...

gtt1951 wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 7:45 pm

RobThomas wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2019 5:39 pm Those are Morris 1000 doors, hence the door lock on the nearside. Lowlight doors are different and never had lock holes on the other door.

If you need pictures of the door handles, etc, I'll take these tomorrow.
My '51, '55 saloons and '56 Traveller only have door locks in the driver's side. My, long-gone, '63 Traveller only had 1 lock, but my (also long-gone) '64 S IV saloon had locks on both sides.

Also worth noting early Minor doors did not have escutcheons around the base of the handle, so that's a dead giveaway right there.

Door handles and escutcheons - my March 1951 sidevalve (high-light) has these and its doors are original to the car Having checked the doors on UFN456, they may well be later replacements but they look the part (apart from the locks) The '51 doors (black) seem to have more weight to them and the leading edge does look a bit different to the leading edge on the green car.
I also took apart the boot lock and, unfortunately, there is no key number stamped on the shaft compared with the lock from the '51 car (can't add the picture on this post, will be in the next one.

Lock shaft from the '51 boot and this is, indeed, the last 3 digits of the key number.
Having taken things apart, I'm learning the previous owner was more of a botcher than I thought.
Wherever a small set screw had been removed, instead of retaining them, he fitted the parts back with self-tappers!
This is true of the instrument panel outer, the panel itself and the screw that holds the boot-lock shaft in place (this has been rectified as I found a correct screw lying about in the box of "rubbish" in the boot).

2 Different versions of Lowlight latch. I think yours is later than this one so has the holes 90 degrees round.

Found a link to the original advert from January of this year (on the other forum)
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1074475

Car has 4 locks (includes the passenger replacement door) and all the lock barrels are different!

There is another green low-light, just come up on eBay, and the door handles don't have escutcheon plates,
https://ebay.us/d6Gi5P

George.

George. Do you know what happened to the ALTA head that was on the car back in 2011?

I love the look of the Low light and Ive always fancied one.

RobThomas wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:02 pm George. Do you know what happened to the ALTA head that was on the car back in 2011?

Rob, sorry, I don't seem to be getting notifications anymore!
I don't know what happened to the Alta head, from the notes I inherited with the car purchase, it may not have been fitted. The original advert, placed by the son-in-law, referred to "spares". I'll contact the guy I bought it off (he has some more cars for sale) and ask him.

Regards,

George.

RobThomas wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2019 6:02 pm George. Do you know what happened to the ALTA head that was on the car back in 2011?

Hello Rob, I called the seller, who is currently trying to sell an early Tourer, and he tells me the spares and the Alta head engine went a few years before. He thinks the Alta engine went to Australia.

What a great project. Have fun.

cococola wrote: ↑Sat Apr 13, 2019 8:13 pm I love the look of the Low light and Ive always fancied one.

So did I and now I have one, with lots of faults/problems to fix!