Wedding Present Restoration

Let us all know what you are up to with your current restoration project. Get that Minor on the road!
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ELLIOT1984
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Joined: Tue Apr 24, 2018 9:28 pm
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Wedding Present Restoration

Post by ELLIOT1984 »

HI my name is Elliot and my wife got me a 4 door Morris minor 1000 1960 with 32000 miles on it as a wedding present.

I have stripped it all down and took the engine out doors its more or less a shell
and I was doing great till I have hit a wall.

I am up to putting the sills in and I have brought all bread new parts and I don't know which order
which they go back in.

I don't want any body to do it for me I would be great full if some one could help me in saying which parts goes
in what order is all I have got of google is a drawing which I don't understand how they come together my has that many pieces of metal just welding in it is un real the rust is very bad to

I am in Oldham area if any body has build one as this is what as stop me in my tracks. any help would be so great full

many thanks
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ManyMinors
Minor Legend
Posts: 2746
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:41 am
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by ManyMinors »

Morris Minors can hide a great deal of rust unfortunately - although they are no worse than any other car of that period and they are better served than most by a great parts availability. You have probably got to remove a lot of rusty metal and previous repairs before you can see what should be present. It is hard to say without photographs but my best advice would be to search this forum and study other peoples restoration stories. Many of us have gone through a similar process and there is a lot of information on this site. Everything you need should already be here with some searching :)

Good luck by the way - with determination you will get there!
don58van
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Location: New South Wales, Australia
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by don58van »

As mentioned already, there are many threads on here showing and explaining bodywork restoration--many of them demonstrating excellent methods and skill. Two that are often mentioned as giving superb guidance are those by Neil MG and Taupe.

There is a thread on here suggesting books on Minor restoration: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12197

All the best for your marriage and, of course, for the restoration project.

Don
mogbob
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Location: Esher
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by mogbob »

Elliot ,
In any restoration you can never have enough diagrams of what goes where ! Different angles , different perspectives … they all help you to figure it out.
Can I recommend , if you've not got one anyway, a free Morris Minor catalogue from Moss
www.moss-europe.co.uk . I see that they are on Issue 11 at the moment. My copy , Issue 10 has a
good "end on " sill structure diagram on page 74. It probably hasn't changed on the latest issue but if it has it will be on a page , back or front from there.
A number of the main Morris Minor suppliers also have good diagrams on their websites to reference.
What ever you do , a couple of Golden rules. Only do one side at a time ( so you always have a point of reference ).
Secondly before going mad with the angle grinder / unpicking spot welds , etc. do take loads ( and I mean loads ) of measurements from fixed datum points , that won't have moved when you take things to bits.
The strength of the car relies on the panels being joined together correctly , in relation to one another. A monocoque construction.
Brace the door openings ( assuming you're happy with the gaps around the perimeter of the door ) with a
strong metal bar, say 1" / 25 mm thick , by 1/4" / 6 or 7 mm thick , by the length of the gap , ish !! It has to be sturdy. With door seal rubber removed clean up a small section of metal flange to enable you to weld the bar in.
DON'T weld it too close to the area you want to weld new repair panels to !! Allow enough "wriggle" room for your welding torch to get in there. You may also want to brace across to the central transmission tunnel , if things are so bad that you're having to replace complete floor pans , rather than just little sections. You can remove the bracing bars , ready for the other side of the car , once all the new panels are in situ. You'll do the
other side in half the time … now you know what you're doing.

If you've not removed " everything " remember that molten metal from either the grinder of the welder will quickly ruin - big time - paintwork /carpets / interior trim / rubber / steering wheels / instruments / interior roof lining /seats and not least glass. So if you can't remove , protect with sturdy , very thick cardboard or plywood ,etc.
Study as many diagrams as you can , make replica joining assemblies out of cardboard if it helps you think it through. On another Classic car I had a complicated B post joint where 7 pieces of metal came together.I made a little cardboard model and spent 3 days trying to figure out what I needed to weld to what and in what order. Remember you can't weld to rusty metal and you can't weld to "thin air " when you've already cut out a bit !! You can only start from a solid base of clean metal. Remove j u s t enough metal to get the first repair section and build from there. Same process. Try to avoid hacking out loads of panels , making big holes all in one hit. You will only make things more difficult for yourself. Check those measures you took against your work as you go. On to the next bit , check the measurements again and so on.
There are lots of restoration threads on the website , as have been mentioned. So worth reading.If you still get stuck don't be afraid to post again. A photo speaks better than a page of words every time.
Good luck with it Bob
Mark Wilson
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by Mark Wilson »

Regrettably, the excellent resto threads referred to, particularly Neil MG's, have been rendered useless by the removal of the photographs. These historic threads were possibly the most valuable asset of the club and, unless by some miracle they can be restored, this has been a failure akin to burning down the British Library.

My photographs (and my workmanship) are not in the same league, but I'm happy to look for pictures of any particular part of my comprehensive Traveller resto for anyone who PMs me.

Mark
panky
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Location: Cheshire
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by panky »

That's Photobucket for you, not happy with the revenue they were getting they decided to block accounts unless you paid a ridiculous amount to link pictures to forums. I doubt they will survive for very long and all that storage will be gone. I copied everything I had on there over to Imgur which seems safe enough - for now.
Image
ManyMinors
Minor Legend
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by ManyMinors »

It is nothing to do with photobucket. I have never used any such 3rd party hosting of photographs but all photos from my old threads have disappeared too.
don58van
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Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 6:24 am
Location: New South Wales, Australia
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Re: Wedding Present Restoration

Post by don58van »

Apart from the issue with Photobucket, many photos were lost by the Club's previous web host.

D
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