An American Moggie ~ My '59 Morris Minor 1000 2-door saloon

[irmscher]

nice work

[Fingolfin]

Still disassembling, because it's going to be rolled. First actual work in months! Tonight I took off the boot lid, heater, and both doors.[frame][/frame]More photos to come.

A question. There's a bunch of corrugated cardboard-like stuff along the bulkhead, behind the heater. Anyone know what this stuff is? Is it insulation? Should I check it out for asbestos?

[Fingolfin]

Work in full swing now on Mog! Unfortunately it has to stop again in just a few days.
[frame][/frame]Ripped out the old chassis leg, leaving the holes from the spot-welds so that I can re-spot-weld. New leg in tomorrow.
[frame][/frame]The battery box is in worse condition than I'd figured, because somebody caulked some holes rather than fixing them right.
[frame][/frame]An annoying bugger of a patch...I keep blowing holes through it when I weld pinholes.
[frame][/frame]Speedo out! I just think it looks cool. Steering gear may or may not come out soon...

[mogbob]

To help with the welding and to reduce the " blowing of holes" ....get hold of a small piece of brass bar.Putting it behind the metal to be welded,will act as a heat sink.
It goes withiut saying that cleaning the metal thoroughly ...before your start is a given.Good luck with it.

Bob

[Fingolfin]

Well sport(s) fans, I've made some progress that you may find interesting.
[frame][/frame]It's a body number, but one like I've never seen. Did any Minors have body numbers starting with "Z."? I wrote this on the engine bay wall, of course, but I could read it somewhat plainly from my in-disrepair body number plaque.
[frame][/frame]I purchased some new wheels for a tiny price, and so now I have five of the later, non-MM wheels, along with the rear axle to go with them. All five wheels are going to be sandblasted and powder-coated -- pricey, to be sure, but worth it in the long run.
[frame][/frame]I ripped out most of the insulation crap from behind the dash -- I believe it was horsehair something-or-other, like they used to use in floor padding. The battery box is in bad shape and will have to be replaced, but the rest of the behind-the-dash area looks pretty good.
[frame][/frame]The steering column, removed with some difficulty from the car. The steering rack shall also come out for cleaning and servicing.
[frame][/frame]The mostly disassembled inside of the car, still with quite a bit to go. It'll be as bare a shell as possible, and every little part cleaned and fixed up, before it begins to go back together.

I have welded the new half-leg in some, but it's not in completely. It will be in the summer -- eight more weeks! Then the car goes on its side for to finish the underbody welding, then on its tires again for patching the inevitable blow-throughs in the floor, and then rolled again for underside painting...and that's before any cleaning of the components begins!
Ordering the new loom soon. Trust me, the old one was bad enough to necessitate the new.

[Fingolfin]

Got the wheels back from the powder-coater's...
[frame][/frame]
The new hubcaps fit very tightly!
[frame][/frame]
Loom arrives in the next week, and school ends in about a month. LOTS of progress to come then.

[chrisryder]

tight hubcaps. means they wont fly off under heavy cornering like the always do in america (based on the car chases in films anyway!)

[jaekl]

"tight hubcaps. means they wont fly off under heavy cornering like the always do in america (based on the car chases in films anyway!)"

But do you often noticed that someone stops to put them back on because in the next scene, they are on again. Surely, they don't film out of sequence.

[Fingolfin]

Hahaha, you guys are great. Not ALL Americans drive that way, I promise! Just the Dukes of Hazzard, mostly.

I thought I'd post some more photos. There's been no further progress (and Autosparks is taking their sweet time with my new wire harness!), since I've not been home, though I'm going home this weekend and I hope to accomplish something then.
[frame][/frame]The innards of the gearbox look strangely like elephant skin...
[frame][/frame]950! It's properly a 948.
[frame][/frame]Clutch linkage, with some lithium grease sprayed on, and with the spring at front disconnected.

[Fingolfin]

PROGRESS!!! YAY!!!
[frame][/frame]It's empty! The only equipment that remains in the engine bay are the dampers, the windshield wiper cable, and the brake line, which will be replaced anyway. The steering rack is still in, but it'll soon be out; the right-front suspension is the same way.
[frame][/frame]All the electrical equipment has been removed; only three wires remain, dropping down from above the headliner. All that's left in here, aside from those wires and the headliner, are the two brake systems and the glass; those will soon be out.

Another two work days, I think, and it'll be a bare shell...then stripping of the paint begins...

[DaisyMayFozz]

looking good

[Fingolfin]

Thanks Daisy May! I'm doing what I can...
Today was the first day of work this summer, and was also hell. I've never had as much trouble with anything on that car as I have trying to take the rear axle off. Good grief! But I did manage to get it off, except I couldn't get the bloody handbrake cables to come off (how the devil?), so no photos of that.
Instead, I took the steering rack off, and here it is:[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
New gaiters are in the offing! And a good cleaning for it.

[Fingolfin]

Now that almost all of the removable parts are removed, I'm beginning a detailed visual inspection of the body, and doing measurements. Here's what I've found so far.
[frame][/frame]The oblong hole is where the bottom of the heater fits, and allows some (pointless) access into the middle of the bulkhead crossmember. The parallelogram hole...I don't know. It had a metal cover screwed on over it. Is it supposed to be there?
[frame][/frame]Under the dash, from the left side. It looks pretty good - quite dusty, of couse, and the battery box is horrifying, but other than that it's not bad.
[frame][/frame]It fits now! Which is weird, because a year ago it was about an inch too wide.
[frame][/frame]Gonna be replaced. I'm not sure how the bumper nut stayed on in the first place...
[frame][/frame]There's that handsome floor I put in! And the welds are going to be almost completely redone, all turned into seam welds. And I'm going to redo the leg-crossmember joins, too.
[frame][/frame]A neat photo, but somewhat disconcerting. All the old underseal and the rust is coming off!
[frame][/frame]The pedals out! I never had so much trouble with something on this car (except the rear axle).
[frame][/frame]Full of crud, which had wedged itself under the master cylinder and the pedals. Now that those are out, I can clean it and make the metal sound. You can see up there the new half-leg, tacked in.
[frame][/frame]And finally, the axle, dropped. I CANNOT get the handbrake cable attaching things to move, so for now, the axle is technically still attached.

So what's next? Welding and tipping and welding, after the removal of the only things left in the car -- axle, handbrake, glass, and headlining.

[taupe]

Looking good Fin

Taupe

[jaekl]

That unknown hole is for RHD headlight dipper switch.

[ASL642]

Just spotted your car still has the NMP badge. Not many cars survive with that still in place. It has usually been lost when welding has been required. = Nuffield Metal Products - Birmingham - the factory was about 9 miles from where I live.

[Fingolfin]

Thanks Taupe, Jaekl, and ASL. I suppose I'll go on and weld that dipper-switch hole shut...it'll never be used on this car. ASL, I'm going to try and save the plate, but as you can see it's in pretty bad condition itself; I understand Taupe was making new plates, and as soon as I run into some money I'll probably order a fresh one.

Broke out the grinder and welder yesterday![frame][/frame][frame][/frame]Some more welds and a little strip to patch up top, but it's thicker metal than original and full seam welds, so the bulkhead should be rather stronger than before. Very pleased with my handiwork here!

[davidmiles]

great going there Fin, some excellent photography too. It always makes a project interesting to look at when there's a little imagination used.

[Fingolfin]

My thanks David, I've always thought the same thing about your own resto. Lots of work done in the last forty-eight hours...here's what Mog looks like now:
[frame][/frame]
[frame][/frame]The windshield and rear window out. The seals were very brittle, and it was a lot of work, but the glass came out without breaking!
[frame][/frame]Dad working on one of the side windows -- both came out with some more trouble than the front and rear glass, but again they came out without breakage.
[frame][/frame]The original color of the car is that strip in the middle. This is the windscreen surround after removing the chips of "rubber". I'm going to keep the burgundy, even if it is unoriginal, because I like it better.
[frame][/frame]The headlining came out courtesy of George Hurst's very good how-to over in Useful Tips. The only trouble I had is that the wooden former did not want to come out, even after I tried (desperately) to bend the clips. Finally the clips splintered off and remain in the car. This is the actual ceiling -- and the horse-hair (?) sound insulation. I think I'll replace it with something more modern.
[frame][/frame]The old headlining, as you can see. I split it at the front to get at the former (the headlining was very easy to split, so I assume it was dryrotted).

That's so far. Over the coming days, expect to see the battery box finished off, the passenger sill repaired, and the car tipped onto its side for underbody welding and painting.

[Fingolfin]

One more. This is the axle that came with the car, which is wrong for it (too early). I've got a contemporaneous axle to fit, and I'll reuse these springs and bumpers; this one will get sold to a good home with an MM.
[frame][/frame]No idea, though, how to get the nuts holding the U-bolts on to turn...