Morris Minor Owners Club

Nice car. Good to see your still on the forum. I read your build last year. Hope its back up and running soon.

Steve

Woweeeee you dont hang around ,,, how many hours a week are you working????,,,,,,thanks for the updates
I doesn't seem that long ago you were at college!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have a knack , or even a built in perception for all things mechanical and are willing to give it a go,pushing yourself to a brighter future with a determination to achieving a high standard of professionalism in whatever task you have set out to complete
Keep those updates comming and as they say one picture can replace a thousand words
Looking forward to your new posts as I am sure we all are over here
P.s. that looks mighty cold in the snow brrrrrrrrrr,

Alex, when O'Reilly Auto Parts is fully staffed, I work about 55-60 hours a week. When it is understaffed, I've been known to work 70 hours a week or more. Very hard. But college set me back about $30,000 that I have to pay back, and I don't want to subsist on ramen noodles for the next ten years, soooo...

I managed to get the new brake light switch operating smoothly, and the brakes are bled nicely so that the pedal is quite firm. I'm awaiting word now from the machine shop, and there probably won't be too much fresh progress to report until the engine comes back. But I'll let you know!

Fingolfin wrote:Alex, when O'Reilly Auto Parts is fully staffed, I work about 55-60 hours a week. When it is understaffed, I've been known to work 70 hours a week or more. Very hard. But college set me back about $30,000 that I have to pay back, and I don't want to subsist on ramen noodles for the next ten years, soooo...

I managed to get the new brake light switch operating smoothly, and the brakes are bled nicely so that the pedal is quite firm. I'm awaiting word now from the machine shop, and there probably won't be too much fresh progress to report until the engine comes back. But I'll let you know!

Mog's circuitry will (has) deviate(d) so much from the standard harness, I decided to make my own wiring diagram. The radio and reverse lights and double-relay setup for the wiper motor aren't installed yet, but the rest is.[frame][/frame]

Here's a glamour shot of Dullahan, the 1975 Datsun B210, and Mog together. Dullahan's title is missing, so I'm unable to put it on the road. That is deeply frustrating, as it's quite fun to drive.[frame][/frame]
However, Dullahan has lent its radio to Mog. Here the head unit is mocked up under the dash.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
To mount speakers in the kidney panels, I have to make some brackets. I've decided to have Danuser, my factory job, cut brackets out with the laser cutter. Here's the design I made.[frame][/frame]

Oh, look, somebody ran into my car. [frame][/frame][frame][/frame]
Someday, I will live in a place where there are no giant pickup trucks ready to roll right over my little car.

Anyhow. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to repair the boot wall? I think I have a spare boot lid, so I'm not as concerned about that.

Aw gee whiz, thats a bad place right enough,I dont know much about panel repairs but iwas told that anything like that has to be pushed out in the sequence it happened .I.e. starting with the last section that was damaged.i reckon you would need to hire a hydraulic ram with all the accessories. Hopfully someone will be along here soon and can give you more professional guidance

Did the perpetrator leave his or her details? If so, can't you get it fixed through their insurance?

That must have been a giant truck!

I'm afraid that's not a DIY repair, but shouldn't be too difficult for a good repair shop (or a panel beater, if you can find one).

No details whatsoever - I don't know time or location or vehicle or anything. We do have some very big trucks in this part of the country.

I have a spare boot lid, so I'm not too worried about that section, but the complexity of the boot wall is beyond my capabilities. If a repair panel were available, I'd try to weld it in. But I'm going to take it to a well-regarded body shop here in town and see what they think. I believe I have comprehensive insurance coverage, so the repair should be covered.

I never did find out who rammed into Mog. Neither have I had time, money, or know-how to set it right. So Mog's still got the big dent. Here you can see it on a frosty day. I've made lots of progress on the project engine, though. It came back to me from the machine shop, and I put the +.030" pistons into the bores.

Apparently you only get three photos per post now?

The main bearing caps had already been fastened down, and now the con rod caps got torqued. Then the frontplate was installed... ...and eventually the timing chain and gears. (This is over the course of months.)

It was a pretty good feeling of accomplishment to have come that far. Next up was the sump. And finally the engine got rotated into the correct orientation...which is a super big milestone! That was only yesterday.

I've also done quite a bit of suspension work over the last...what, eight months? Yeah, August.
I finally decided to install the bottom front suspension trunnions. First, though, I removed the top trunnions and painted both sets in hard-wearing paint indicated for wheel rims. It certainly looked good when assembled! And a thousand miles later, it hasn't worn or chipped hardly at all (the bottoms have more wear than the tops, naturally). I made a parts purchase from ESM, and decided to get a frivolity with it: this handsome key fob.

One item I purchased was a new turn signal switch; Mog's old one was pretty ratty, and the horn contact was flimsy enough that my horns failed to work sometimes. The new one works admirably. Notice the radio in the background - that came out of the Datsun. I also got a fresh door light switch, which I use for the engine bay lamps. They'd been inactive for a long time.

Finally - along with the engine, I've been doing a very little work on the gearbox. I disassembled the major pieces (though no work on the interior of the gearcase - that scares me to death!). You can see the 1275's head to the left. I repainted the starter bendix cover (but reused the original screws, because I couldn't find any the right length at my hardware stores): And I epoxied a rare-earth magnet into the gearbox drain plug, which hopefully will sweep up some swarf.

Have you done anymore ??

I note in your photo sequence above at one point you have changed the front engine plate from a Minor one to a 1275cc Midget one.
Any particular reason?