Morris Minor Owners Club

Vanessa is a 1968 2 door saloon, which we bought 3 months ago, with the intention that she becomes my wife’s daily driver. She is currently white, but poorly painted, so will need a respray in the future, when we may return her to what we think is her original colour of Peat. Although she had an MOT when we bought her, it was quickly apparent that she needed new chassis legs, as the fulcrum pins were moving in their holes, so we had this work done at Charles Ware. She also had play in the N/S swivel pin, so I decided to overhaul all of the front suspension whilst I was at it. It turned out that she had seized brake cylinders at the front, one per side, and leaking oil seals at the rear axle. As I have become more familiar with her, it has become apparent that she would benefit from further welding to sort out potential issues, the most pressing one being the off side front spring hanger, as well as refurbishing the seats. So, I've decided to take the plunge, buy a MIG welder, and sort her out over the winter. So I’ll add pictures to this thread as I go along. So, now the fun begins!

First job when we got Vanessa was to sort out was a water loss, which I traced to a rotten bypass hose. As she is my wife's car she wants to do what she can, so she got stuck in and replaced it. Rather than use a concertina repair tube we took the radiator out and the water pump so we could use a piece of solid hose for a better repair.

Below are the before and after of the chassis legs. I had both replaced as one was worse than the other, but both had numerous 'MOT welds'.

I'm liking those carbs!

Looks a good project, does make you wonder how an MOT cert can be obtained sometimes though.

Least you'll know it done right and solid, remember to fill the legs up with cavity wax.

Well spotted on the carbs! She came with twin 1 1/4 SUs and a cherry bomb exhaust with a Midget manifold. I've replaced the exhaust with a standard exhaust fitted to modified minor manifold. The carbs I'll keep for the time being, but they may get replaced with a standard Minor carb in the future.

Below are photos of the front spring mount. Not only is there a hole adjacent to it, the reinforcement plate has no securing bolts, so I suspect it has all been welded up, which will make replacing the springs difficult!

The spring pin is correct, one end is a nut the other a large diameter which pulls into the hanger as an interference fit, I think it was for ease of assembly, you can easily slide the spring in with one bush then pull the other in with the pin.

You are right though it does need replacing there is probably all sorts of horrors under the patches, unfortunately it will probably extend into the rear of the sill structure as well.

Kevin

Kevin,

There should be two bolts holding the reinforcing plate ( item 34) which goes around the bolt in place, neither of these are fitted, so in theory there is nothing holding it on, so i can only assume either the welded patch is also welded to the reinforcing plate, or it is welded to the pin.

I completely missed those ones weren't there!

here is how ours looks, (a bit blurry)
Yes looks like it has been welded on, shouldn't be too much of a problem though if you are replacing the hanger it can always all be chopped off with an angle grinder.

kevin

Just to prove I'm still working on Vanessa when I can, more horrors I've exposed.

Next is to remove the glass as she is going to get a full respray in due course. The window seals are all virtually new, the question is it practical to remove the side windows without damaging the glass or seals, or should I just cut the seals and accept I'll have to fit new seals?

Gosh. That car had a lot of hidden rust didn't it .
The rear side windows should come out complete with the rubbers if they are fairly new simply by giving them a good hard push from outside the car towards the inside of the car. When the cars were built, there were two metal clips fitted within the rubbers which helped hold the windows in position but these are seldom re-fitted. If they ARE present, they should be visible when you start to remove them.

Just as well you spotted those shonky chassis legs!

My 1970 Traveller's both looked superficially sound, but one wet winter's day as I was rounding a sharp bend towards a T-junction onto a main road in the dark, the left-hand leg on mine collapsed inwards due to hidden internal rust, ripping out the front brake hose, so I was left with no brakes as I approached the junction! I only jutted out of it a short distance, but typically, someone happened to be going along the main road in a Rover 45, and fortunately, swerved to avoid me, but still the front of my car brushed lightly against the side of theirs, causing a fair bit of damage to the front end.

Alas, their Rover was a write-off (somehow, they managed to spin it further up the road and crash it into a barrier - they were shaken, as was I, but thankfully no injuries), but once recovered, I was able to get a new nearside chassis leg fitted to the Minor. I'll check them regularly from now on...

Thanks Manyminors, I takled the windows today, and once I started they popped out frighteningly easily. The window and seal were in fact quite 'loose' in the frame, so probably not very weathertight, so they'll get some suitable sealant when I replace them.

So took the other rear wing off today - rust, aluminium mesh and filler and fibreglass bodges, I've found it all!

Since my last post I have been steadily stripping Vanessa, so she is now a rolling she'll, just speedo etc to remove. I've been cleaning and refurbishing bits as I go - she was originally peat but the previous owner painted her badly white, and didn't strip her properly, so everywhere there was over spray ( brake pipes and unions, wiper motor, coil etc.) he slapped black paint to cover the White overspray Also the rusty bits ( gearbox cradle, engine mounts etc. )have been cleaned, de rusted and given a coat of black Smoothrite.

Next up will be getting the paint removed, question is what do people recommend- soda blasting or an alternative method?

Depending on the paint applied, try thinners or paint stripper, perhaps working it in with a Scotch pad or wire wool/fine wire brush.

Hopefully, the overspray will come off fairly easily, as the parts affected won't have been 'prepped' so the paint probably wouldn't stick particularly well...

Having been through all the available paint strippers(which dont) I can recommend Synstrip from the Ebay.
Still not as good as the old stuff, which is no longer available due to eu scaremongering, but best there is.

I used modern wickes paint stripper but the trick is to apply it, cover it in cling film and leave overnight, some areas took 2 coats and it is messy but worked well enough. You will need to paint it with something else very quickly though as surface rust starts almost straight away. Personally I usually leave striping the larger areas until right at the end of the restoration to avoid having to apply temporary paint and strip it off again.

kevin

Hot air gun and good scraper works well.

Rod