My 1964 4-door Restoration

Let us all know what you are up to with your current restoration project. Get that Minor on the road!
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michaelbrown1995
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My 1964 4-door Restoration

Post by michaelbrown1995 »

Hi! One of my first post here I think, so I thought I'd post something about my ongoing restoration.

When I bought my car in 2015 I knew nothing about maintaining a classic car - I'm still very much in the early days of the learning process, but I've fettled the poorly-fitting doors, replaced the wiring loom, swapped the head for an unleaded conversion done some painting here and there, among a few other small jobs. Unfortunately my car has been off the road since june 2019 when the gearbox decided it had had enough. I got the car recovered home and when I went to drain the oil from the box it came out all sparkly with metal flakes in it... probably not a great sign!

As I went about preparing to take the engine and box out (spending more and more time at ground level around the car) I started noticing more issues including a crack in the left side tie plate right near one of the engine mount pillars, and the sill under the driver's door had warped. I decided there wasn't much point taking anything out, because I had no spare gearbox and can't weld. There were also cracks in other places and questionable panel joins.
I soon realised that the work was going to be a rather big job and something I don't have the space to undertake, or anywhere near the understanding and know-how to even begin on as of yet, so I spent some time saving up and shipped it off to ESM. Hoping to have the car back in a few months in a much better state! In fact, when it arrived with them, they removed the wings and found rather a lot worse corrosion that I would likely never have noticed as can be seen in my small selection of photos below.

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Work has now begun and there is still a lot of welding and repair work to be done. The engine bay has been stripped, fitted with new panels and welded-up, and is due to be blasted some time this week, but as far as I'm concerned it looks like it's in great hands! It'll almost be like a new car I reckon.

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The list of remaining work is still pretty extensive. The car requires most of the interior features (Except the seats, which I restored myself not long ago), and I will probably look into a few subtle mod-cons like Hazard Lights. We'll see.
I'm sure restoring a car yourself is a million times more satisfying, but I simply don't have the space, tools, and working nights doesn't help (I've tried working on the car at night, and I don't think my neighbours appreciated it). All I know is that I just can't wait to get out for a long-awaited drive in the morris some time this year.
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ManyMinors
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Re: My 1964 4-door Restoration

Post by ManyMinors »

That looks quite a major undertaking. Whether you do the restoration yourself or pay somebody to do it, it still means that another Minor is saved and back on the road. Once completed and protected, you will have a good car to use and enjoy for many years :) .
myoldjalopy
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Re: My 1964 4-door Restoration

Post by myoldjalopy »

Yes, always nice to see another oldie saved from the scrapper! :D
irmscher
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Re: My 1964 4-door Restoration

Post by irmscher »

Nice car and worth the effort :)
michaelbrown1995
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Re: My 1964 4-door Restoration

Post by michaelbrown1995 »

Thanks for the kind words!

I thought I'd update the post with progress.
I wrote a blog post about the restoration's progression that includes fancy sliding before/after images etc, which unfortunately won't work here. You can find the full thing here;
http://bpu91b.com/2021/05/24/restoratio ... -complete/

The car is now at a stage where all of the welding and painting is complete, so it all just needs to be put together again. As per my original post, the engine has been repainted, I changed several components prior to sending the car away including a new water pump, distributor, alternator, new unleaded head, etc. The gearbox is going to be replaced (It wasn't the original), and new brake lines, etc will be installed.

Engine bay prep and paint:
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New boot floor panel:
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irmscher
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Re: My 1964 4-door Restoration

Post by irmscher »

Looking really good
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