Restoration Project 1952 4 d Saloon in Finland

[Fingolfin]

Not bad at all, my friend, not bad at all! Are those mudflaps I see?

[MarkyB]

Or are you just pleased to see me?

[jvickholm]

Haha, just mudflaps.. Yep, old mudlfaps are still in place, but those will be replaced them with new ones. We found a pair of old mudflaps with a Morris-logo, I quess those are from another Minor so they will fit quite nicely..

[jvickholm]

Back in business.. Now that our Morry is in the garage, it time to start working with wings, bonnet and tailgate. The angle grinder will be in heavy use with these:[frame][/frame]
Luckily wings aren't that bad, after about 10 mins with the angle grinder the rust is pretty much gone:[frame][/frame] After some rust converter and anti corrosion paint, the inside should be quite good.

Removing that old paint will be some job, there's at least 4 layers of paint..

[stag36587]

Fantastic job, I love the Fiat coupe too!

[jvickholm]

That Fiat coupe actually had to give it's place to this Morry, hopefully it's not too offended..

I have been working with the front wings last couple of days. Angle grinder has been in heavy use.. There were also some old anti corrosion "stuff" which were pretty da.. hard to get off.. About 20 years old treatment, which contains tar and some other sticky stuffs, almost drove me crazy.. [frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
I think I have to buy a new metal brush..

[Matt Tomkins]

I think I have to buy a new metal brush..

or just cut the top off :p - that's what i did!

[jvickholm]

I think I have to buy a new metal brush..

or just cut the top off :p - that's what i did!

Haha, that I might do.. There's still a lot left of it..

[jvickholm]

Some pics and update again.. I've been working with the front doors and rear wings. Me and my good old angle grinder.. I removed the old paint from the doors and painted them with black anti corrosion paint. It also serves as a primer. We have not decided yet which colour door panels will be.. Meaby white, or red..[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
I wonder how difficult it would be to chance the window glass.. It has a few scratches.. Has anyone changed the glasses?
If it is too difficult, we just have to live with the scratches..

[jvickholm]

Rear wings became really shiny, once I got the four layers of old paint off. I think they look great like that, but I quess they have to be painted.. There is a few dent , but I think they may be smoothed with putty..[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[Fingolfin]

Getting the door upper out of a Minor door is about the most frustrating job to be done on a Minor, I think. There are some nuts and bolts that need releasing, which are fairly obvious when you feel around inside (but the Haynes manual or the BMC Workshop manual will tell you exactly where). The trouble comes with the glass itself. There's a rubber flap along the base of the glass which does something (supposedly) to keep water out of the door, but it also has a nasty habit of entirely preventing the window from pulling out of the door.

But it WILL. I promise. I've done it five or six times now. Most recently, the rubber flap peeled off Mog's driver's side glass, and I , ah, neglected to put it back on, as it made refitting much easier.

[jvickholm]

Getting the door upper out of a Minor door is about the most frustrating job to be done on a Minor, I think.

After that we have think about that window-thing again..

I just bought that Haynes manual last week from a local bookstore, what a great book and easily available even here in Finland. Well, we are not that far from England and there are still a lot of old British cars in Finland.

[jvickholm]

Some pics again.. I removed the paint from the front wing. I did cut some old rusted metal off, and fixed it with a new. We have a spare wing, were it was easy to cut a piece off and weld it in place. [frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

[jvickholm]

Some pics and update again. Things are happening a bit slower since I started my studies again. I cleaned the front and rear wings once more and we were able to paint first time with the primer. That paint is also anti corrosion pant, so it helps to protect our precisious Moggy. [frame][/frame]
I really like that colour, even though it is just a primer.. [frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
There is still some dents and stuff, but we can smooth them with some putty.

[jvickholm]

I found a pair of old mudflaps from our attic, don't know where they are from, but with some white marker that Morris-text is bright again. [frame][/frame]
It's useful to clean up the attic sometimes, you never know what you will find from there..

[jvickholm]

From Russia with love.. My in-laws visited Russia and Estonia last week and my father-in-law bought a canister of paint stripper from there. Like Nitromors etc.. I'm not quite sure what that stuff contains, but it's really powerfull.. We tested it on the hood and the paint literally boiled off.. Wish we had that stuff earlier, it would have spared us a lot of grinding..

Here's some pics again:
[frame][/frame]
[frame][/frame] Hood after that paint stripper:[frame][/frame]And after some polishing: [frame][/frame]
We painted the hood with anti-corrosion primer. Now all four wings are painted with primer and so is the hood.. I hope that we can do all four doors in next weekend so that we can get these parts to painter.

[davidmiles]

that Russian paint stripper looks like it doesn't mess about, don't get it on you skin! But it did the trick on the bonnet

[jvickholm]

Ok, winter in Finland is starting to fade away and it's time to continue our job. Finally.. I will post some pictures about painted doors and bonnet soon. It feels good to get back in the business..

[mike.perry]

Just picked up on this. The car is actually a 1952 Series MM, originally fitted with 918cc side valve engine and transmission

[jvickholm]

Hello!

Here is some photos about our project. Our Minor is starting to look like a car again. And yes, our car is Series MM 1952, but the engine and all the others (dynamo, starter etc) are much newer. And so are the electric wires. Transmission is original.
[frame][/frame]

We got all the painted parts back (hood, wings, doors, tailgate) and I have to say that the painter did pretty good job.

Here is our Minor after the paintjob:
[frame][/frame]
It's difficult to take a decent photo of the car in daylight, paint reflects so much. But it's black, very black..

At the moment I'm working with the wires, I'm trying to figure out wich wires goes to headlamps and which sidelights.. Headlamps have their on wires (black, white, red) coming from the headlight bowl, but where do I connect them.. The wiring diagram shows only blue and blue/white wires with snap connectors.. well, it's tomorrow's problem.

We ordered some shiny parts from U.K. and they look great.. I installed today that top crome moulding and another "hockey stick" side bar. It seems that the left front wing is not in the right position, it's at least half an inch too high.. I have to take it off or try to drill some new holes for that another hockey stick..
[frame][/frame]