Restoration Project 1952 4 d Saloon in Finland

[jvickholm]

Hello!

I don't know how many Finnish members or project are listed here, but here's one..

So, our goal is to get our "Morry" back to it's original glory before it's 60th birthday.. I am not exactly sure what the exact "birthdate" is, but nonethless our goal is to get the job done in 2012. When the car arrived us the shape of the car were pretty awfull, rusted piece of junk as my friend described it. It took some heavy duty welding and grinding before it started to look like a car again. This was the situation in last winter.

Now the project is in good speed, bottom of the car is corrosion treated and painted, both front and rear suspensions have been fixed and so are the brakes. Soon we are able to get our Morry back in it's wheels and start working with engine and interior.

And if someone is interested, car number is:
FAB31 / 140 992

Edit:

Some photos, unfortunately photos from the starting point are in another camera, but I will post them here as soon as possible:[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

And, no the first picture isn't upside down, we turned the whole car upside down. It's easier to repair and paint the bottom of the car that way.

[davidmiles]

great to hear there are some Morris Minor Fans in Finland that are into these cars, can we see some images of your project, we all love pictures, can't get enough of them.

[jvickholm]

I have to say, that the Mowog gearbox is a very beautifull piece of art. It took about two days to get all the mud and dirt off the gearbox. I found some engine paint in garage and thanks to our local hardware store, we were able to tone the pain into British Racing Green (or at least very similar tone). Few layers of paint and maybe we are able to install it back with the driveshaft by the end of the week.

I tried to find out more about that Mowog, if I have understood right that Mowog means Morris Wolseley Group (or Garage), but can someone help me with this number code, which is engraved in gearbox:

Mowog
2A 3368
P3

Is it somekind of identifier or production number?

[jvickholm]

So here is a couple of photos from the beginning our project:

[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Quite a handfull, but quite elegant.. The potential is there..

The main frame (main pillar?) was broken, so that was the first thing to fix. We had to use a lot of new steel plates, just to fix the big holes in the bottom. Engine was in a pretty good shape, although we don't yet know will it start.

Today we installed the driveshaft and brakepipes in front of the car. I also finished painting the gearbox so tommorow it's time to install it. Yeah!

[jvickholm]

Good day today, brakes are ok and working. We had to order brake sylinders and shoes from U.K., those are pretty hard to find from Finland. Luckily not in the U.K. Electric cable set and some other parts are also on their way from U.K., hopefully they arrive on friday or monday. Once to are in place, we can start working with engine and interiors.

[jvickholm]

After a few days pause, here's a little update of our project:

Bottom is now painted and anti-corrosion treated:
[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Boot needed some grinding, but I was able to get the rust off pretty nicely and after that I painted it with anti-corrosion paint:
[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

Back seat, or what's left of it, will be our next "target".. [frame][/frame]

[MarkyB]

Nice work!

I bet all the back seat drivers said was Ouch!

[jvickholm]

After a couple days work, the back seat driver should feel a bit more comfortable: [frame][/frame]
and we also finished the front part of cabin floor:[frame][/frame]

After these the most of rusted parts and holes are fixed, finally.. It took about couple of months, the welding machine is nearly finished and grinder is in pieces.. Let alone my hands..

[davidmiles]

Nice steady progress, great to see.

[jvickholm]

Cabin floor is done, and currently we are working with steering wheel and pedals etc. We had to remowe car original steering wheel, because it was nearly broken in the bottom. That can cause some problems when driving.. Luckily we had a few spare steering wheels, one from Mini (-67) and one from another Minor. Mini's steering wheel is a bit too small, but we can use old Minor steering wheel. It just needs a little touch of sand paper and a new paint.

Allthough we are not in hurry, but we should cover as much ground as possible until the winter comes. It not fun to grind medal when temperature is below -20 C..

[jvickholm]

We named our car as a "Flying Finn", a bit corny I must admit..
I've been working with the front, I stripped down all the engine parts, and did some welding.
[frame][/frame][frame]
Front end should be quite solid now.. I also tried to figure out which parts still are usable, but those were few.. Only regulator and perhaps pullstart solenoid are usable..

Luckily the roof is in quite good condition, it needs only a touch of sand paper and priming paint.[/frame][frame][/frame]
I also stripped the dashboard so it can be cleaned and painted. Wiring inside the dashboard looks like a mess, it's going to be some job to get old wires out and new ones in.. Preferably right wires in right places..
[frame][/frame]

[jvickholm]

Some pics again, after a few days work.. We fitted the gearbox, it fitted quite nicely but we might have to move the exhaust pipe a little. Engine mounting rubbers are also in place, we roughly measured that when engine and clutch are in place, they should fit with the gearbox.. Which is nice..
[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[Fingolfin]

Interesting 948, don't think I've seen that block style before. The '950' casting is in the 'wrong' place!

Something I noticed -- and before I throw a wet blanket on this I want to compliment you on the quality of your work -- the new floors you've put in are flat. Originally they came with depressions in them, to give some extra anti-torsional rigidity. Did you use thicker steel than original (that is, thicker than 18 gauge)? I hope you did...otherwise the floorpan will be quite weak.
If that is in fact the case, though, it's easily rectified by welding (and thoroughly rustproofing) some angle iron in strategic locations on the underside of the floor.
The engine bay floor should be okay, even though it's not got the cut-outs which serve the same purpose, because of the chassis legs.

[jvickholm]

Yes, the "new" floor is flat, we had to replace the old floor allmost entirely. Steel plates we used are a bit thicker than the original steel was, allthough I can't remember how thick these new plates are.. I have to measure it, just to be on the safe side.. I'll get back to you with that.. The good thing is of course is that the new plates are galvanised and we painted them with quite thick anti corrosion paint and A C treatment, so the floor should be quite rustproof. Same thing with the engine bay floor.

That 948 was a spare one. The original engine was in a so poor shape, that we decided to use another spare engine. We are planning to repair the original one, but that's a whole different story.. Maybe when this project is ready, but if someone is looking for a spare engine to repair, it's here to take.

[MarkyB]

I did wonder about the air flow through the engine bay without those holes, the other thing that the shapes pressed into the floor do it to stop it from drumming.

[jvickholm]

Good point there about that air flow, MarkyB. We have to think that again.. Now is a good time to make those holes. When the engine is in place, those holes are a lot harder to make. We did weld some diagonal steel "strips" under the floor to prevent that drumming. Those aren't visible in the pics , but that worked quite nicely with the another Minor which floor were also rebuild. And those steel strips add some rigidity too.

[Dean]

Fantastic work..... and.. more importantly another Minor is saved!

[jvickholm]

We moved the exhaust pipe a little, now it goes around the gearbox, not through it, as it did previously.. We started to work with the wiring. Once we have the wires attached in the bottom (wires which goes to rear lights and petrol tank) we can put tyres on and our Morry get's back to it's "feet".

[jvickholm]

Roof panels are on, it took some time to get the new panels fit. Our panels were bit too thick, but with some brutality and swearing we were able to get them in place.. We were able to use the original plywood pieces and just clued the fabric on them.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Our Morry will be black, so the light panels look quite nice. Car's original colour was light grey, but someone has painted it with quite ugly maroon or red.

[jvickholm]

After a busy day our Morry has landed. Fuel pipe, petrol tank and tires are on, so we rolled our Morry out of it's shed.
[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Now our Morry gets in to the proper garage and we don't have to work outside anymore. After a busy couple of months, It feels pretty good to see our Morry on it's tires..