Morris Minor Owners Club

I have created this new thread from a posting that Moggy1098 made to another thread.

moggy1098 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2019 6:12 pm Reference Alloy Kick Plates 2dr. we manufacture these alloy panels which we sell for £40 a pair inc vat & postage all in.

CHS144-5ALLY1.jpg

Wow!
As I have 2 early Series MM cars (one with corroding aluminium alloy kick panels - aluminium "rots" after a long time), I would need 2 sets.

Just to make sure - we are talkng about the sloped kick plates that go over the sills on the outer edges of the floor, that the doors close onto?

I suppose that my two Series II cars should also have these, but one of them is a 4-door.

How do I go about ordering some?

Regards, George.

YES I HAVE POSTED THEM ON EBAY Item: 163766981927

Thanks Moggy & Phil, order placed.

G.

Are these intended to be painted, or just left bare alloy?

They are to be left as bare alloy.
I have original ones (March 1951) on the black car in the signature picture and they are "bare".
Later ones were made from steel and were painted "silver", but most cars have them painted in "body colour" as the reason for "silver" had been forgotten.
My Traveller has them painted in body colour, but my grey 4-dr has them painted a non-glossy version of silver.
ESM also sell them in Stainless Steel.

Unfortunately, the original aluminium ones tend to oxidize and "rot" around the holes, due to the steel bolts in contact with them, as do the aluminium panels in contact with the wooden parts in a Traveller, being held in with steel wood screws - maybe I should change these for brass screws and bolts?

G.

Does anybody know when the change over occurred.
My '52 has steel painted silver original to car
Regards
Brianr

gtt1951 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2019 11:43 am They are to be left as bare alloy.
I have original ones (March 1951) on the black car in the signature picture and they are "bare".
Later ones were made from steel and were painted "silver", but most cars have them painted in "body colour" as the reason for "silver" had been forgotten.
My Traveller has them painted in body colour, but my grey 4-dr has them painted a non-glossy version of silver.
ESM also sell them in Stainless Steel.

Unfortunately, the original aluminium ones tend to oxidize and "rot" around the holes, due to the steel bolts in contact with them, as do the aluminium panels in contact with the wooden parts in a Traveller, being held in with steel wood screws - maybe I should change these for brass screws and bolts?

G.

My 1970 Traveller has always had the sill panels painted Trafalgar blue for as long as I can remember we've had the car (since 1984). What is the reason for silver on these?

Do they not make any aluminium or stainless steel screws that could be used to attach them, to prevent corrosion?

I suppose it is easier for people when carrying out paintwork repairs to paint everything the same paint colour. However, all the cars left the factory with silver coloured kick panels. The silver paint was used to most closely resemble the aluminium of the earliest cars - and it was easier to paint all the kick panels in the same colour rather than paint them in different colours for each car. The silver paint is rather like silver hammerite, having a slightly mottled finish.

Sorry, but just to ensure there is no confusion here , are we saying that these plates were standard fit over the door sill on all Minors?
Bolted on?

Why do I get a feeling that Basil has them welded in place by the utterly inept moron who restored him years ago...... It's like the Torsion Bar adjustment fiasco I posted a few months ago.... viewtopic.php?f=4&t=70626&hilit=torsion+bar#p642079
They must've made their own plates to go over the sills.....

The sill rail and the kick panel should both be bolted on (and just a few self tapping screws along the top of each kick panel) so that they can be removed easily. They are only decorative really.
Looking at your photos it appears that your car has had some extra panels welded on beneath the original undersill/floor edge panels as well and that these have also been welded to the jacking points. It would be a big job to rectify so probably best left alone for now if it is sound enough. Makes it difficult to carry out any rust prevention if you cannot access the inner sill/boxing panel area though. The sort of repairs carried out to your car were very common years ago when Minors were just inexpensive "bangers" to be got through the MOT test as cheaply as possible. Also, we mustn't forget that for many years it simply wasn't possible to purchase the range of proper repair panels available now! We Morris Minor owners are extremely fortunate in this respect You could buy very few repair panels for them when I first owned one and most were of terrible quality and fit

Hi, this should be made up of 2 pieces of metal and not the one you have.
The parts are
(1) sloped kick plate
(2) sill/cill finisher. The shiny part is the original aluminium kick plate, the black part is the finisher, which would be body coloured.
Now for what my passenger side kick plate looked like when I last removed it
Outer view - Inner view - You can see the erosion around the holes.

I have received my new alloy ones from Andy Eggleton and they are very good. The bolt holes have been made elliptical to accommodate any fitting variation. The fold-over part has been pre-drill, but some kick plates don't have any holes and just sit down on the carpeted edge.
I've compared the new aluminium alloy ones with some spare steel ones I bought a while ago and the shape, size and curve marry up very well (except the new ones are so much lighter).

Thanks ManyMinors
Perhaps I'm being a little unfair to the restorer... as far as I can tell, it was late 90s when Basil was 'restored', and I of course have no idea what the panels situation was some 20 odd years ago.
For all I know, that particular aspect might have been done even further back because I only have a few random documents relating to being off the road for a couple of years, the engine records change and the doors being replaced.
But at least I am now aware of yet another unique aspect of Basil.
I think I might haver to drill an inspection hole in the sill, that I can feed a camera into and on the assumption that all is OK, give it a good waxoyl coating and then fit a bung.

"...on the assumption that all is OK, give it a good waxoyl coating and then fit a bung."
Before fitting a bung, make sure the drain holes underneath are present and unclogged.........

Still got the original alloy plates on HFH200. They appear to be an ALCLAD material, possibly 2024 grade alloy. This is a structural alloy sheet that can be formed and has a pure aluminium coating applied to act as a sacrificial surface. If it gets scratched (or over-polished) then the surface coating gaps allow the material underneath to corrode faster. Not aware what material they are using on the new ones. Any ideas?

myoldjalopy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:46 pm "...on the assumption that all is OK, give it a good waxoyl coating and then fit a bung."
Before fitting a bung, make sure the drain holes underneath are present and unclogged.........

I need to see if there are any drain holes.
I'm not convinced that Basil hasn't been rebuilt with entirely boxed in sills.
I have a lot of work ahead in the winter.

Andrew Eggleton also make's the kick plates & sills in Stainless Steel which are all pre-drilled as on ebay item Item: 163927597013

£96 a set inc vat & free uk postage , he sells loads and great quality

Hello Moggy1098,
For neater picture attachments, type your text then, at the bottom of the frame, select "Attachments", then click on the "Add Files" box.
Upload the image file (one at a time with a max of 5 per post), then place your cursor within the text you typed, where you want the image to go, then go back to the bottom of the frame, look at the line with the file attachment and select "place in line".
This will add the image without the white-bordered "attachment" box/frame.

Hope this helps,

George.