Hi there!

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youngcamper
Minor Fan
Posts: 329
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 4:34 pm
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Hi there!

Post by youngcamper »

Hi all,

I have browsed this forum for a good while so i thought it was high time I joined!

Now a little about me, first of all I must say that it was inevitable that I was going to be into Minors, my Dad owning one since he was 21 and my late Grandfather also had one when he was younger, I am happy to say these are both still in the family. My dad has a Series 2 Convertible in Grey with a red roof and a Traveller in Bomb Disposal livery with a Marina 1275 engine and overdrive. My older Brother has my late Grandfathers Morris 6cwt van which used to be a Post Office engineers van, which is painted yellow.

Now my I bring you on to my car, a Morris 1000 4 door in smoke grey currently under restoration for when I'm 17, during which I am removing all the rust form the floor and sills and re- spraying it, I also intend to put better seats in it, alas I cannot afford Newton Commercial ones so if anyone has an alternative it would be greatly appreciated.

So that's me, I hope you welcome me warmly and I can contribute in some way to the forum.

Cheers,

Will.
Will
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________1967-Lily________________________1963-Phoebe_______________________1965-Dobby_________
beero
Minor Legend
Posts: 1205
Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: Whiteley, Fareham, Hants.
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Re: Hi there!

Post by beero »

hi and welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have the bug badly already!

Sidney'61
Minor Legend
Posts: 1550
Joined: Tue Jul 24, 2007 8:35 pm
Location: Northampton
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Re: Hi there!

Post by Sidney'61 »

Hi Will,
Welcome to the messageboard I'm sure you'll enjoy it, It's nice to see yet another youngster joining :D
I have rover metro seats for my minor (what most of the newton commercial seats are based on anyway) so they are very comfortable and fairly easy to get hold of but you will need to make some frames for them to fit.

Got any pics of the cars? :)
Andy W____________1961 2-door 948cc (Sidney)_____________1963 2-door 1275cc (Emily)_______

youngcamper
Minor Fan
Posts: 329
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 4:34 pm
MMOC Member: No

Re: Hi there!

Post by youngcamper »

I have some Metro seats for my minor to but the fabric is pretty poor, I was thinking about getting some re-covered but the cost are probable prohibitive. I was also looking at getting some leather seats re-coloured but I don't kn ow much about that.

This is my car:

Image

and my and my brother with the Van in Porthmadog a 500 mile round trip which resulted in a broken clutch rod :
Image


I'll get some pictures of the other 2 later,

Cheers,

Will
Will
ImageImageImage
________1967-Lily________________________1963-Phoebe_______________________1965-Dobby_________
wibble_puppy
Minor Legend
Posts: 2031
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:09 pm
Location: Room 7609
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Re: Hi there!

Post by wibble_puppy »

Welcome to the forum, Will! :D

IIRC you can get re-colouring kits for leather, they only work well though if you are going a darker shade than the leather is now, and if it's a similar colour - ie you won't get much luck trying to change red seats to blue ones, but if you want to turn a light blue to a dark blue you might find it works. You could try asking Newton Commercial for advice?

What plans do you have for your car? A straightforward restoration, or any modifications?

Have a good time with the car, and on the forum; and keep asking questions, the dafter the better - there will always be someone else who wanted to know the answer too and didn't like to ask :wink: :D

wibble 8)

youngcamper
Minor Fan
Posts: 329
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 4:34 pm
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Re: Hi there!

Post by youngcamper »

Thanks wibble for the advice,

Restoration wise I think I will be keeping it simple to start with although I would like to put a 1275 engine and 5 speed box in I doubt money will allow that, Disk breaks and hopefully better seats are also on the cards but it should be fairly original Frankly I don't have the money for anything else. Although cheaper upgrades would be welcomed I don't really know of any, accept that my dad does have a Different head off a Midget with exhaust ports? I'm not sure about that.

Cheers

Will
Will
ImageImageImage
________1967-Lily________________________1963-Phoebe_______________________1965-Dobby_________
wibble_puppy
Minor Legend
Posts: 2031
Joined: Tue Sep 07, 2004 6:09 pm
Location: Room 7609
MMOC Member: No

Re: Hi there!

Post by wibble_puppy »

I get the impression that it's often a good idea to run your Minor more or less as per original spec for a while, to see how you find the handling and everything - I think people often find that they like the A-series engine etc and decide not to "upgrade" them after all.

A lot of people stick with the drum brakes too. My vans both had disc brakes on the front wheels when they came to me, and I've been happy to stick with them. The set-up is a bit more involved than the drum brakes; you need to modify your master cylinder slightly, and fit a remote brake fluid reservoir, and most people seem to agree that it's a very good idea to fit a servo too. If do you plan to fit discs it's worth doing some research, as I gather some systems are better than others. It seems to be a case where if you can afford a better set-up, ie vented discs, it's worth the initial investment for the better performance and reliability. But others are more experienced and better able to advise you on the detail of this than me :) JLH sell a vented disc kit which I've heard is supposed to be very good indeed.

The compromise position as regards brakes is to fit Wolsey drums, which are larger than the Minor drums. You'll need the larger shoes as well, and IIRC there are other small modifications you need to make in order to be able to fit them (again, I'm far from an expert!). The people who have fitted the W set-up do swear by it, but bear in mind that neither the drums nor the shoes are being made any more, and they are like hen's teeth to find second-hand - with a correspondingly high cost.

I guess with the vast number of potentially possible modifications it's worth spending a bit of time deciding what exactly you want to achieve. Increased safety? Better handling? Faster top speed? Better pulling power, of one sort or the other? :wink: You can then canvass people to see what mods they would recommend in order to achieve what you want to achieve.

wibble 8)

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