What have I bought???

[oddjob]

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and to Morris Minors.
Last year I bought a Morris Minor "pick-up". Like other doofuses, I bought with my heart not my head. I saw the For Sale sign and thought "Hello!", So, Margaret is now mine. We will do well together, but we have issues.
What I knew when I bought her was: she was a converted Traveller rather than a real pick-up. She looked amazing. I felt great when driving her.
What I didn't know was: Very poor non-pro conversion. Paid way over the odds. No idea of the history or who she really is.
So, having been together now for a year, and her "new" paint-job peeling off, I have decided not to cut my losses and run, as my wife would prefer. No I say! I am going to make Margaret good. I'm quite a useful handyman but have never restored a car before. Not that Margaret needs much restoring, she has just gone through an MoT and runs well. And her underneath bits are good. I just want to give her the back end she longs for. (That's Margaret talking, not my wife)
So, what have I bought? Bearing in mind the pick-up bed and paint job are of the poorest quality. When I had stripped away all the wonky plywood and oodles of Mastik I found a cab roof and rear bulkhead that looks like a pro has installed.
Does anyone have any clues as to what is going on here?
I was planning to cut out the rear bulkhead behind the seats to give more leg room, but now I can see it's a decent installation I'm wondering about chassis strength, I know the woodwork in Travellers is structural so this strength needs to be replaced, so did the previous owner get this roof and rear bulkhead put in properly to give strength, then bodge the pick-up bed himself? Should I leave this roof/rear panel in place and just deal with the lack of leg room?
Please see attached photos. Any thoughts gratefully received!!

[oddjob]

Anyone know why I can't se the three photos?

[panky]

I think there's a size limit to the picture files, yours might be too large. Try again after re-sizing them.

[bmcecosse]

A real Pick-up has a very solid separate chassis for a very GOOD reason! A Traveller with all the wood chopped off must be as floppy as a floppy thing! I imagine in an accident it will just fold up... To do anything serious with the vehicle I suggest you rebuild it on a NEW LCV chassis - and then worry about Pick-up bed etc... Or indeed - cut your losses.....and start again with something more sensible....

[LUR759H]

Id still like to see the pics, I take mine on my phone, email them from my phone to myself this gives me the option of re sizing the image so i choose the small, this is then the perfect size for posting them on here. So I then open up my laptop and upload the saved file from my email on to this site. And most of the guys know i post lots and ask many questions... I also get a lot of help from them.
BMCECOSSE, POM, LES and Mark and many more are my "Tech support", my car would be scrap without there helpfulness...

I recommend you take full advantage for you 30£ subscription fee and get on here each day until your trav is back to life again, this is my intention.

Kind regards

Alan
This site also help me with my study of English ... Thank you!!!!

[oddjob]

See attached photos (hopefully this will work now, thanks for tip of emailing to myself to reduce size!!)[frame][/frame]

[oddjob]

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[oddjob]

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[ASL642]

Looks like an "ex Traveller" to me with a pick-up cab back panel welded to the back of the front section. The indent in the floor is where the rear seat in the Traveller would have been.

[bpr81a]

Rear 'floor' around the fuel tank doesn't look like a normal traveller. Its obviously not just had the wood chopped off. Pictures of the underside would be useful

[oddjob]

Thanks for your replies. Yes, my hunch is that it's a bit more than a Traveller with the wood chopped off, hence my question - What have I bought?

The cab and back panel seem to be one unit, and pretty well installed (unlike the terrible ply-wood pick-up bed which is now in the skip.)

I will get some photos of the underside this evening and post them in the hope that someone can tell me what's going on here!

[tysonn]

Looks as though it could be made into a nice vehicle!

[POMMReg]

Do you have a chassis/body number for us - figure out what it started
life as!

Is the bulkhead from a Bedford Rascal or similar?

[davidpidge]

Just looks like a normal traveller to me! I don't know how people get away with chopping the top off. There's one of these for sale occasionally. Surely there's no structural strength. I drove my Traveller without the wood and it flexed and rolled around all over the place!

[LUR759H]

Please let me know if anyone has any spare woodwork for Minor Traveller's. Please PM price, if parts are free, I will happily pay for postage.

if you remove this woodwork its ok for me to have?


Thank you ok

Alan

[POMMReg]

Just looks like a normal traveller to me! I don't know how people get away with chopping the top off. There's one of these for sale occasionally. Surely there's no structural strength. I drove my Traveller without the wood and it flexed and rolled around all over the place!

I have my doubts about those roll-over jig things restorer's use!

[oddjob]

So here are some photos of the underside. Apologies for the poor quality. The chassis number starts MAW which I believe denotes Traveller.

Still the question of the roof/cab which seems to be all one thing.[frame][/frame]

[oddjob]

No idea why that came out up side down. Lets see what this one does...[frame][/frame]

[oddjob]

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[oddjob]

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