Morris Minor Owners Club

I had a bright idea one day to restore a Morris Traveller, having found and bought one I quickly began to strip the interior, engine and gearbox out etc...
I am now at a decision point, do I strip the remaining parts and body panels, get the shell blasted and begin to replace panels or do I patch up all the rusty sections with repair panels?
My concern is alignment and measurement of the chassis / shell if I start this process, are there any key measurements I need to know / check before or during this work?

Hello iv done a traveller aswell. Please search the threads for the traveller rebuilds. We have some very skilled people on this forum and they're very happy to help advise you along the way.
Have a look at neils.
Best of luck Steve

Not much point in doing all the work of stripping down if you aren't going to do a decent job of replacing the rusted bits with proper repair panels - no patching! Steve has pointed you to the best Traveller rebuild thread, once you've read that you won't be happy with anything but perfect (if your pockets are deep enough...)

I'm now into my sixth year of restoring mine, can see the light at the end of the tunnel now but didn't expect anything like the amount of work it has turned out to be. All good fun, though!

Mark

The restoration threads are amazing and give a great insight into what lies ahead, a big thing for me is knowing what to do and when as I have not done this before.
I guess the first job is alot of wire brushing on an angle grider to find good metal and also remove the horrible black underseal somehow ;)

Under seal sometimes comes off quite well using a scraper and your wife's hairdryer. Depending on what sort it was and what's underneath I guess?
You might have to get her a new hairdryer though. B&M had a good deal on when I was in that situation

Can you post some pictures up please? Would really like to see it. Mines nearly at the end of the restoration.

Cheers Steve

B&m have a cut price sale now on

Thanks for all the comments, I will get some pictures onto my laptop and uploaded

What are people's thoughts on the best supplier of body panels? Cost, fit, quality etc..

The areas we are currently stripping, the inner rear wheel arches need some work / replacing. Is it best practice to leave the wood on as long as possible or strip it for better access to all the cutting and welding?

Looks a good project. Seems fairly solid then. Esm are really good for parts. Free next day delivery aswell over a certain amount. Just done an order this morning with them.

I think the current plan is to start at the front stripping the rest of the engine bay, suspension etc.. then try to clean up the metal with a soda blaster to see what needs replacing working backwards.

Just doing a quick bit of research on panels and can find the follow sources:
Jagspares
Moss-europe
ESM
Bull Motif
Charles Ware

I guess alot of them will stock the same parts from LMC Hadrian but I guess some could be from Sri Lanka? Is there much of a difference

ESM make there own panels. They are excellent quality. Some panels fit better then others. My door pillar covers needed fettling to fit. My rear arch repair panels that came with the car were very poor. But I got them on in the end. Think id replace the complete arch next time. Tho every car is different. Was the 1st panel I replaced aswell.

Personally, I would avoid the panels from Sri Lanka having purchased and fitted one or two. I bought most of my panels from Bull Motif and was very happy in the main with the quality and fit considering the price etc. Their panels may well come from the same source as ESM I would guess so it probably comes down to price/delivery or who is closest if you're thinking of collecting so that you can actually SEE what you're buying. No bad thing in my experience.

Over the life of these cars they have had some repairs done.
The skill of the repairer and the quality of the parts they used will show . Its almost enevitable that a bad repair 40 years later will just look like a rusty car.

Its best to buy the best repair panels that you can Its not just that panels need correct fitting [as they did even back in the day] but a certain amount of skill is always needed to fit them .

Most of the u/k repro parts are fairly close to whats needed but your never going to get exact fits ..They wernt that exact even when new from the factory .

We are very luckey with this model to have a few suppliers to pick from .

I really appreciate all the help, the whole project seems daunting when starting but I guess its a case of taking it step by step.

Is it better to media blast areas of the car to assess the rust situation and what needs replacing or try to clean areas with a wire brush first on an angle grider, replace and then media blast at the end once you think all areas are repaired?

I am just finding it difficult to know what needs replacing where there is so much paint and underseal everywhere.

MagicMorris wrote:I really appreciate all the help, the whole project seems daunting when starting but I guess its a case of taking it step by step.

Is it better to media blast areas of the car to assess the rust situation and what needs replacing or try to clean areas with a wire brush first on an angle grider, replace and then media blast at the end once you think all areas are repaired?

I am just finding it difficult to know what needs replacing where there is so much paint and underseal everywhere.

Dipping is best as it reaches into inaccessible voids, but it's very expensive.

Ideally during the rebuild I would like to replace the bolts, nuts, screws and washers as alot of them are the wrong size, rusty or missing. Is there anywhere that sells a the right sizes and whats need in a pack or bulk rather than buying each one from ESM or similar as I guess that will get expensive

You can buy an itemised full bolt kit on Ebay look under Morris minor spares they are quite cheap