Morris Minor Owners Club

During the process of restoring my Morris I find myself in a moral dilemma. Knowing that this will never be a concourse vehicle, to what point in modification will I allow? Would a different shade of grey be allowed, whereas a metallic would not? Adding a component to the engine for higher horsepower, but a V6 would be out of the question?
Guess this will be something that each Moggie owner must decide for themselves. I’m just wondering at what point does our car become something different that it was originally meant to be.

Everyone has their own take on this and the answer is to do what you are comfortable with.

While opinions differ greatly on this, my own opinion is very much that if you want a Morris Minor then it comes as a package, good and bad. They are great cars but for example they will never be quiet and never be high speed cruisers.

I am extremely fortunate to have a very original car and I enjoy the nostalgia of driving it virtually as it was built in 1956. No seatbelts, no flashing indicators or side mirrors. These are related to vehicle safety and so I have to drive more defensively, but where I live there's not much traffic so not too difficult. I also have cross ply tyres and really enjoy how those feel too. Regarding colour, engine etc. I would not even think of changing anything away from the original specification. But as I said that's my choice, I would not recommend any of this to anyone else.

The only advice I would give would be regarding if you are unsure whether to change something or not then; if that change does not deliver genuine value improvement, then don't waste time and money on it.

Great answer, and I agree its simply down to what you want from the car. I look at it the other way, I want a car with all the bits you will miss about a modern car, for example a good reliable powerful engine, thats quiet with nice relaxed cruising speed. Comfy interior and stereo, and good grip and suspension performance. However I still love the look of the moggy, and the charm that comes with it, and the brilliant surprise factor a modified minor car give.

It is your car. Do what you want to do, not what other people might like

As other have said, Your car, you do what you want. if you like the look of metallic, then go for metallic. after all, if you morris is individual from the others, I suppose that they will be more fun!

My own take is to imagine what the Minor would have been had it stayed in production a little longer: leccy ignition, alternator, el. fan, discs brakes, 1275 engine, radial tires...assuming they would have spent any money on any development! I have all of these "BMC parts-bin upgrades" and feel it is still very much a Morris Minor.

depending on your age you might wish to talk to your insurance company before doing too many things..

and it depends how long you want to keep it..

wild modifications might be your taste but will probably cut down on the number of people wanting to buy it, obviously if you are keeping the car for a long term this is not an issue...if you are looking to do the work and sell it on then my advice would be to keep it as standard as possible as it gives you a better chance of selling the car.

Sure we've all wrestled with this old conundrum at one time or another! I used to own a very early '54 Series 2 Traveller with the cheesgrater grille and was adamant that i was going to restore it to its original condition and spec. However money ran out, the car roof was damaged and I ended up selling it on. Eventually the car resurfaced painted white, with an 1098 engine and various other mods and changes. Whilst it was not what I would have done I was so pleased to see that it was back on the road. As my signature line shows, it takes me ages to do one car so god knows what it would have been like if I'd still got it now.

The car is whatever you want it to be and whatever you are happiest with. Personlise, customise, modernise or revert to purely original - it's entirely up to you and whatever you decide to do, don't feel bad when others say "I wouldn't have done that". Opinions, as they say are like A%$£e h**es - everyone's got one!

Good luck - your Morris is a blank canvas - go paint!!!

My criteria when tuning my Traveller was to use BMC parts available at the time with the exception of the front seats which are a later BL product.

That's about where I am with my '59 convertible. It's a fairly ordinary car and, owing to some helpful but very unoriginal welding in its distant past, it will not be taking home any concours or grand masters prizes. I mentioned the modified chassis in this post if anyone else is interested

brucek wrote:Looking at the possibility of lots of welding on your floor and sills and, as chickenjohn says, the need to brace the doors to maintain the proper dimensions, I was reminded of my own experience when I came to sort out my own car

Back in 1988, when I managed to talk a good friend of mine into sorting out the floor and sills on my 59 convertible, I noticed that some helpful person in the past had extended the front chassis legs behind the cross member and under the floor of the rear seat and load area. It looks a bit like an LCV chassis. The effect was amazing - There was absolutely nothing left of the sills and we had to cut a lot of floor and cross member ends out to weld new stuff too. However, despite that the car couldn't sag or twist and this had saved it from the inevitable fate when the sills gave up.

It's a bit unconventional and not for the concours chaps but it is certainly effective and perhaps makes it a useful alternative mod to add strength into the car.

Attached pic shows the additional 'leg extending behind the cross member.[frame][/frame]

So have decided it will have 1275 Midget engine/box with mild road cam, HIF 44 carb, LCB exhaust, 3.9 final drive and will have the blue duotone interior but with newtons leather suffolk seats in blue/grey duotone too. it will have a mohair hood and will run on LCV wheels when completed. Externally it will look very standard and next winter, after it goes on the road in the spring of 2012, i will put the 5 speed gearbox conversion in it too.

Point is that its MY car and that's what I want to do. Yes there are lots of alternatives and options and maybe I'll change my mind between now and then but that's all part of the fun of what we do isn't it?

As others have said, this is a personal choice and it's up to you to decide how far you should go. Anything is possible, but the more radical the modifications, the more skill (and money) is needed to make the finished product any good. One only needs to look at ebay for evidence of poorly thought-out and executed modifications (not just to Minors), and part-finished projects where the owner has run out of money or know-how. I suspect many of these cars end up being stripped for the juicy bits rather than put on the road, which is a shame, particularly if the car was in good order beforehand.

Personally, I think it's nice to keep the feel of the car and the level of mechanical complexity fairly original. Therefore I'd advocate sticking with the A-Series engine (in whatever capacity), but tele dampers, 5-speed boxes, high ratio axles, disc brakes (or larger drums ) are all within what I'd regard as acceptable for my own car. I wouldn't personally go down the route of a modern OHC engine with an ECU, as that increases the complexity and damages part of the reason (to my mind) for owning an old car. Likewise, large 6- or 8-cylinder engines are so far removed from what was originally there, that I see little point in buying a Minor in the first place, if you really want that sort of engine.