1961 black 2 door 1000 restoration

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

So, the garage was finished mid December and is a great job. The electricity was connected a couple of weeks ago. I finally moved this 61 minor inside as its been on axle stands on the patio since November.... Plans are to concentrate efforts on this one and stop messing with the 54 that needs shed loads of work. Hopefully will get the brakes soted before the end of the week and some oil in the engine ready to fire up

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

I always seem to have time to mess with other things!! Have now fitted a small wood burner in the garage so will have a bit of heat so can work our in the cold now

Anyway, new oil and filter, but the battery is to knackered to turn it over. Think a new on is on the cards as Dad fitted it 2nd hand in 2006! I think its given pretty good service.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

New battery purchased and fitted, exhaust on and petrol pump back on but for some reason it wont lift the petrol from the tank. A second hand tank was fitted but I cant see there being anything wrong with this. I think some how the petrol pipe has got blocked, Ive tried blowing down it til Im blue in the face - maybe need to get the compressor from my brother to try blowing it out.

Anyway I got it to start and put the oil light out by filling the float chamber with petrol, good to hear it going again after about a year

I freed off the drivers side front brake and fitted a new flexi hose and filled up with fluid, nearly ready for bleeding now!

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

SORTED! The end in the tank seemed to be completely blocked up as you could blow down the pipe or the tank but not when the pipe was connected to the tank. Stevey rigged up a set up to try the pump directly on the tank but before this was put on I connected up the foot pump to the tube and it cleared the blockage. Filled up the rad and had it running for about 10 minutes

[minor65]

great progress david !!

[kjm]

soon see her out again

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

[frame][/frame]

This was taken just before it was moved into the luxury of the new garage!

Ive been working on the drivers side wings, trying to get the best fit. The back one is looking pretty good and Im in the process of cleaning the front one back to bare metal.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Still rubbing down ........ always the really boring bit that I dont like

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Work continues on smoothing and rubbing down the panels, Ive got both drivers side wings almost sorted and the drivers side quarter panel is shaping up quite well.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame][frame][/frame]

I lit the stove in the garage and it was a great help getting the panels to dry quickly

[kjm]

looking good

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

So Ive got a serious lack of motivation on this project at the moment, think I need a kick up the .... to get stated again

Anyway cleaned up some second hand back shocks and brackets that I got from a car Bert is breaking, I had fitted telescopic shocks on this one as per the MMOC technical manual about 12 years ago which involved modifying the original brackets and using Mini shocks. The tele shocks are now knackered so I decided I would go back to original set up. Shocks are now in place and the saga of sanding down bodywork continues.

[stevey]

I give out free kicks in any area if you need one.....

[minor65]

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Very little progress of late on this car, been doing some running repairs on the cars that are on the road. Any way the rest of the wings are nearly sorted though I was very surprised to find out how bad the area round the headlight had become on the ps wing[frame][/frame]this was all hidden by the headlight pot. I decided that it would take too long to repair at the moment and altered the side light on a better later wing that I had.[frame][/frame]
All these wings have been taken back to bare metal.[frame][/frame][frame][/frame] The back ones were second hand ones bought from John Mac and only needed very small repairs.

Still kore rubbing down on the 1/4 panels, I find this a very hard area to get right. On the passenger side there was quite a lot of filler which I ending up removing and it really only needed a skim to cover up the repairs.


[frame][/frame]
I have ordered some cellulose filler primer form the local motor factors and hope to get stuck in this week as I have a few days off between shifts.

[stevey]

Its looking good, your nearly there, keep her lit.

[stag36587]

Still kore rubbing down on the 1/4 panels, I find this a very hard area to get right. On the passenger side there was quite a lot of filler which I ending up removing and it really only needed a skim to cover up the repairs.

I'm finding this a difficult area too. I'm just never convinced I've got everything as good as it can be - especially the curvature between replaced rear flange panel and rear wing (and there will be piping in there too of course) as well as the bottom vertical of the quarter panel repair. I'm trying to avoid too much filler and it's definitely not something to rush. And motivation is low with this weather, etc etc, so I'm tending to focus on mechanicals just now and hope to do a blitz on final bodywork prep when I see the sun again.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Ive had the back wings on and off a few times to get this area right, Im happy with the line that it takes just not how smooth it is yet!

Its now back down on its wheels again for the first tome in ages, I must put a battery in tomorrow and start her up to make sure the clutch hasnt stuck .....

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

Well I finally got around to putting that battery in today........ In the time since my last post on this I had stolen the stainless exhaust to put on my everyday minor, but then once I took it off decided to repair the mild steel one. So this mend that I had to refit the stainless one back on this car. Confused?? Anyway I gave myself an unnecessary job but its back on and the car is running again! Took a while for it to fire, had to take the plugs out and clean them as it has only been running while sitting in the garage. Then decided to fit a seat and take make it move under its own power for the first time in ages!

So its now starting and stopping, I did the brakes ages ago as well and they hadnt been tested, pedal seems pretty good.

The repaired front wing didnt sit well at the back were it meets the passenger door. I wasnt looking forward to trying to get the door bolts out of the passenger side pillar as I dont recall ever having moved them but pleasantly the all moved quite easily. Ive now got the wing and door looking better but reckon the back of the door is very close to the quarter panel, I think that when its painted it will catch the edge. So thats my next area to look at and see if I can shift the pillar very slightly forward. I know one guy and he got a a couple of mm machined off the back of the hinge, it worked but think it might weaken it.

[DAVIDMCCULLOUGH]

So its only 4 1/2 years since ive posted anything on this............

In that time its been relagated to the back of the garage and only started on a couple of occasions, it has been an excellent bench though while working on other projects! I sold the green 4 door a few weeks ago and this has given me some space to get a look at this.

The door issue has been sorted with some gentle use of a sledge hammer........ The wing still didnt please me so Ive tried on another second hand one i had and i knew as soon as the first bolt went in it was going to look better. Ive since repaired the wing and currently its almost stripped of its remaining paint ready for priming.

Ive had a quote for painting so need to keep at it and get it ready

[mogbob]

Good to see you back !
Bob