Alice - 2 door Saloon to Roadster

[cadetchris]

Well, I have decided to make a restoration thread for the conversion of my 1963 2 door saloon to a 2 door roadster, so ill start from the very beginning.

I have had classic cars all my life and it started out with a 1959 Wolseley 1500 for my 17th birthday. My father and I finished off the restoration that had been done by a chap in Swindon and it was a lovely car to drive and learn in. I was then dazzled by a lovely 1954 Wolseley 4/44 that I intended to restore and then sell on. The 1500 went first and then the 4/44 went when I found a barn-find frog eye sprite. That stayed in barn-find condition until I sold that and after a short period of no car, I bought a huge series 3 safari landrover with 12 seats. Again this went the way of the dodo and I used my brothers Morris (Primrose, there are plenty of queries and questions about her on here) and the family's old Vauxhall Corsa. Then during my time at lincoln university doing a post-graduate diploma, I had an MGF that leaked like a sieve and then use of the morris.

So it's safe to say, I have had a few classic cars.

Back to Alice. When I moved down to Bristol in 2013, I saw a lovely pastel blue minor sitting on a driveway of a house on Gloucester road and after a few years of having classic motorcycles, I decided it was time to get another moggy.
So I penned a letter saying that I had seen the lovely moggy and I said that if the owner comes to sell it, then let me know and I would buy it.
After 12 to 18 months, I got a call out of the blue from the owner saying that she was going to sell the car and had kept my note and wondered if I was still interested. A week or so later, I went over and had a look at the car and a poke around underneath and a listen to the engine. After talking to the owner who had had the car for the past 35 years and had used it as her everyday car up till January 2019, when she did her hip and it had just sat idle since.
Another week passed and after another visit to have a good poke around, I bought the car and brought her home.

When I collected her, the owner said that she was called Alice as the chap she bought it off called her T 4 Alice, which was a play on the number plate (948 TYA) and she kept the Alice name since so she has kept her name.

So after taking her for a drive into work and back as well as a potter about, it became apparent she needed a little work.
At this point, I thought about doing something a little different from simply restoring the car and I settled upon the idea of a roadster. Now to do that wouldn't be easy as the sills would need reinforcing and the other things like the B pillars, the A-pillar to dashboard and ensuring the floor was strong as it can be. Mine was as strong as it could be and needs major work.
So I stripped out the interior to see what was what and the results where not great. The car had been restored in the past, but then no work of any variety had been done since, so the floor hadn't been painted and the rust bug had a field day.
After a careful poke with the screwdriver, I discovered that the driver's side rear floor panel needs replacing, the passenger front footwell needs replacing, the boot floor next to the spare wheel needed replacing and all of the doors, wings, boot lid, the front panel, A-pillars, roof guttering, drivers side B pillar has rusted straight through at the corner of the window where also shot too.
But the sills are in remarkably good condition and just need a tidy up and a lick of paint.

Looking back on it, I should have checked more thoroughly before buying it and walked away, but life is a learning curve.

After much head-scratching and soul searching, I have decided to press on and do the conversion.
After a small cash injection from my father, I have bought the replacement panels, strengthening panels, 2 very good doors, new (to me) seats and door panels (though they need some work) and a faultless boot lid, as well as a full set of fiberglass wings that need a little bit of work, but significantly easier and cheaper than buying new ones or trying to fix what is left of mine.

To make life easier and cheaper, I am also learning to weld via evening classes down at Bridgwater college. I can MIG weld to a degree but I can weld significantly better with the old oxy-acetylene kit, so I will be using that for the majority of the work on the car. I have also bought a rollover jig that will aid greatly in doing the underside. Once I have done with it, it will appear in the for sale section and hopefully, someone else will be able to use it to restore their moggy.

Below I have attached a collection of photos showing the car and the state of the holes I have to repair too. It's going to be quite fun to do this project as I can get to grips with all aspects of it and not farm things like welding or painting out to others. (n.b. for some reason it wont let me add photos so I may try another method)

[jagnut66]

Below I have attached a collection of photos showing the car

Hi Chris,
Your photos don't seem to be attached?....
Best wishes,
Mike.

[cadetchris]

fudge, its not letting me add them for some reason

[cadetchris]

fudge, it is not letting me add them for some reason.

Anyway, ill continue with the update.

So today I decided to tackle the passenger's door and replace the very rusty panel on its underside. Whilst I have done most things on minor's, door repairs are not one of them. So i did the google search and found a good video of a chap repairing his door. Regrettably, it didn't show how i was to peel back the door skin or break the spot welds, but it was at least a guide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWt8CUKG1cQ

so i broke out the angle grinder and after a few cuts here and there and the liberal use of a cold chisel, i had the bottom of the door in bits and i then roughly lined up the two new panels. Whilst a good fit at one end, the other wasn't great as i had turned back the actual door skin too much, which would be sorted when i came to turn it back to where it was previously. A liberal application of por-15 and ill attach the new panels tomorrow.

As for the rest of the car, i have whipped off the old front doors, the boot lid, sill cover panels, front wings and the bonnet. Underneath all of this, it's not too bad really. i do need to replace part of the A-pillars on both sides and tidy up at the front of the driver's side wheel arch and the rear of the passengers' side wheel arch in the footwell. I also took out the headlining, rear windows too.

I have decided for definite that it's going to lose the roof, but i am not going to even contemplate that until i have done the floor, reinforced the sills and put the other brackets in.

Next job is to repair the fibreglass panels and to do the panel between the passenger's door and the rear wing, as well as take the wings off too. Once that's done, i intend to sort out the bottom of the boot's hole, as its a bit scabby to say the least. Naturally, that will entail turning the car around and putting it back in the garage, but that's a job for another day.

[championdungspreader]

If you are in Bristol, please do come along to an Avon Branch MMOC meeting...
There are quite a few of us who have pulled Minors apart over the years so we may be able to answer any of your questions as well as using this forum!