Morris Minor Owners Club

Thanks for all the positive posts. I’ve now completed the repairs to the chassis leg, complete with a fixed nut for the seat belt. I’ve also completed welding on the spring hanger, the welds to the floor edge are joddled, with good penetration, so from underneath look almost like butt welds.

On the driver's side i have had to replace the front end of the inner sill, which had rotted away with the floor edge and inner wing ( which has been badly repaired in the past. The challenge has been to work out the position for the inner sill, relative to the floor both vertically and horizontally, before welding to the repaired kidney panel and boxing panel. Having spent a lot of time thinking about it, i have used the nearside sill to work out these two dimensions. i have measured from the u/s of the dashboard to the top lip of the sill vertically, and horizontally from the sill to the outer edge of the front chassis leg, making wooden templates. i then transferred the templates across to the other side to hold the front end of the inner sill in the correct relationship to the floor, inner wing, and kidney panel rear edge. So far this looks about right, but i will do a few more checks before wielding the welder.

Taken a while but I’ve now finished welding the drivers side A pillar in place after lots of screwing in place, hanging the door, adjusting, hanging the door, etc. Made more awkward as the car is close to a wall so hanging the door is knuckle shredding. Result is that the door fits with a uniform gap with 1.5mm shim on the bottom hinge - I’d rather need shims than have the door foul the rear pillar. Next step will to temporarily fix the outer sill in place and use it to set out the floor edge repair panels.

So I’ve welded the drivers side floor repair panel in, and have the opportunity to compare the welding with the nearside which is where I started. Can you guess which is which? I now see why many people say that they go back and grind out their first attempts and reweld. It just goes to show that you get better with practice.

So I’ve removed the old cross member, leaving the tongues on the chassis legs as discussed on another thread. I’ve bolted the new crossmember in place and clamped the cross member to the torsion bar mounting using the stepped washers and a bolt. So the central part of the crossmember is tight to the floor, but the ends are about 8mm away from the floor. The inner sill hasn’t been changed and was in good condition so is unlikely to have distorted. So I thought I’d see what happened if I close the gap by using a clamp and bringing the End of the crossmember up to the floor. The result is that the sill only moves 0.005”.

Have others had this problem and how did you address it?

So, after posting the above I thought a bit more about it and if the sill box wasn't moving something else must be, so I attached a DTI to the tube which forms the spindle of the roll over jig I've got Vanessa on and clamped both crossmember end tight to the underside of the sill boxes. When I did this the top of the tunnel rose 5mm, so the crossmember is possible flexing slightly, but I suspect the old crossmember had 'drooped'.

So the plan is to clamp the ends of the crossmember to the sill box and then weld it all up.

So I’ve completed welding the cross member as described in the last post and it all appears to have worked ok. I’ve also added patches to the floor where it passes over the cross member.

Next up was a repair to the off side wheel arch. This had been badly repaired on the past so I cut back to clean metal and made a repair section using a home made tucking fork. I joddled the panel which i prefer as it makes fitting easier and welding easier. So I have a nice continuous weld in the wheel arch and tack welds in the footwell which secure the joddled edge

There's a lot of really , really good work being done.
As your experience has grown , the quality of the work rises. You are the Chief Quality Controller and you have some very clear specifications as to what is acceptable and what isn't.
Well done that man ! As I said in the early stages , crack on , one problem at a time. You're getting there.
Bob

Bit more progress made. The bottom of both vertical panels below the rear seat had rotted, so I made repair panels and welded in. Not my best welding, but adequate, the issue was access, with the car on a spit I could rotate it be 90° so that the panel was vertical, but the cross brace welded between the door pillars got in the way So that completes the majority of the work on the front part of the car, now for the rear arches and rear spring hangers

Made progress this morning whilst listening to the cricket. Drilled out the spot welds so that I can remove the inner wing started by spotting them so as to leave flange intact, but changed my mind half way through to drill through and I will plug weld from the rear.

inner nearside rear wing removed - although the central part was OK it had completely disintegrated round the wheel arch and front and rear corners so I decided that it was easier to replace the whole inner wing than multiple repairs. I've cut out the lower rear suspension mount so that I can replace the complete section from the bump stop back. The front half of this section was OK but I decided to replace the whole section as it will be easier i think. The repair panel is clamped in place with the rear suspension mount located be the angle from front mount and spaced from the other rear mount by a threaded rod

Incredible progress in both machine and abilities. Can see the improvement in workmanship.

Thought it was about time to update this thread - hadn't realised it had been so long. So I haven't abandoned this project, it's just that I decided I needed a running fixed head car for longer journeys, my other cars being a 1275 Midget and 2004 MG TF. So I bought a '78 MG BGT which had spent the last 20 years in a dry barn. Needless to say it's needed more welding than anticipated, so it's been stripped, welded and currently being prepared for painting. Once it's on the road I can revert to the Minor.

On a positive note my welding is improving

So the BGT has been completed - at least it is running and drivable, even if the engine smokes like its laying down a smokescreen so rebuilding the engine can wait until the winter.

So I've reverted to working on Vanessa. I'd got as far as the offside rear wheel arch, where the rear suspension leg had many patches which I've replaced with a new section, and the inner wheel arch was no longer attached to the bodywork. I've also noted the suspension bump stop was badly rotted, so I've cut it away and I'll make a replacement. I've clamped the inner wing in place to help when making the patch. There are a couple of other patches needed to complete the wheel arch area.

Glad to hear that you hadn't abandoned the project. It is a common fate with these cars!
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