Our two door 1957

[Iain Hall]

Hi from sunny Queensland, Australia just thought I should introduce myself and share with the board about the Morris that I am restoring with my twelve year old daughter eventually this will be her first car.

Acquired the car a couple of weeks ago and it is now sitting in the workshop essentially gutted and I am in the process of preparing the shell for some welding of the rust and then I will be working on the running gear. This is what we are starting from and once you get past the dirt and the grot she is not too bad with only small areas of the inevitable rust that I will be welding up with my trusty Mig.
Having previously built a Locost seven I am entirely undaunted by the prospect of doing up a Morris


Unlike many cars that I see being dutifully restored here the floors are actaully very sound and so too is the main structure of the car.


Now I don't know precisely what year it is but the build plate has these numbers:

Type FB51
Car Number 6/565185/03919
Engine No 9M/U/H/147181
Colour Black /1

So If any one can tell me the precise build date I would appreciate it very much. The plan is to fit a 1.3 Suzuki swift engine coupled to a Suzuki Sierra (Samurai over your way ) gearbox I already have a Toyota Corolla diff which will be converted to Disc brakes and and matching discs will be fitted to the front as well. The body will be mildly customised and the car will be running 14' alloy wheels. The aim is to build a practical everyday driver with some retro style and as my own first car was a Morris minor van I jumped at the chance to build one up with my daughter because I like the simple robust design. The Suzuki engine has been chosen because it is both compact and light weight which will make it a modernisation that is entirely consistent with the original design philosophy behind the car. And having a light weight engine will certainly help with the front/rear balance of the car.

[TvdWerf]

There are lists with numbers and other detailed information.
One of them is in Germany, but an English one should also be there..
http://www.morris-minor.de/history.shtml

With that list, I should say somewhere between dec 1957 and feb 1958, but maybe Mike Perry knows more.

[Iain Hall]

Thanks for that I thought that it was around about 1957 am I right that the chassis number is actaully 565185 and that the other digits have been added to meet the Australian requirements for a longer VIN number?

[Iain Hall]

Made some progress on the car having had it delivered on Sunday it has now been stripped down to an almost bare rolling shell this has revealed some rather minor instances of rust around the windshield aperture, a couple of small holes here and there that will be no biggie to fix.
I have also managed to find a donor car for an engine its a 1985 Barina (Suzuki swift clone) that has a 1300cc OHC engine, from this car I expect to be able to use many parts including the engine ,entire electrical system, heater, rear hubs (to adapt to the front of our car), shock absorbers (for the rear of our two door ) The multi speed wiper motor, in fact I don't expect there to be much of the Barina left once we have removed all of the useful parts. All of this for the princely sum of just $50AUD ! plus a bottle of Jack for delivery to my place.

The diff that is presently under the car is basically just an empty housing and I expect to have that out sometime today and then I will be cutting off the saddles that sit on the springs so that I can weld them onto the corolla diff I want to lower the car a little so when I make up the mounts they will be spaced out from the axle by about an inch which will remove the need to use commercial lowering blocks. According to our Local transport authority we can lower a car by a maximum of one third of its suspension travel so one inch should be no problem on the back of a Minor. The Corolla dif has slightly larger tubes than the original Morris one so the original bump stops won't fit so I plan to fit front bump rubbers to the body when I have it upside down and It will probably be a good idea to weld on a piece of steel to go between the u bolts at the top of each side for this to act against.

One of the things that the Barina has on the back is a Panhard rod and as I have one of these on my Locost clubman I can't help thinking that more positive axle location would help the handling of a Morris as well should not be too hard to set this up along with front and rear roll bars. I plan to lower the front by adjusting the torsion bars but I will wait until I have the engine in before I look at doing that , especially as the alloy Suzuki lump will be so much lighter than the original A serries engine and I expect to have to adjust the front suspension to compensate for that anyway. Its all part of my personal commitment to the "add lightness" philosophy when it comes to car design.

[Iain Hall]

I have now pulled off the sill covers and discovered a bit of rot on the passenger side that will have to be welded up along with a bit at the bottom of the A pillar but nothing that looks too challenging, the driver's side is a lot better but still needs some attention form my trusty mig. both sills have been added to the list of body repairs to be done when the shell is upside down.
One thing that is vexing me though is just how to remove the the pedals, They were seized solid and I have managed to free them up with the judicious use of wd40 and a bit of the old Irish screwdriver I also used some vice grips to loosen the spacing bush but the clutch pedal just won't come out even though I have removed the retaining nut and the spacer on the side of the chassis and used a tubular drift To avoid damaging the thread it stubbornly refuses to budge no matter how hard I hit it with a hammer. I'm at the stage of considering cutting the shaft through the spacer and getting another clutch pedal to replace the one that will be destroyed by such brutality. Any ideas on how to avoid such destructiveness would be appreciated.
Anyway I now feel confident that we have got to the point at which we know precisely what has to be welded up and although its more than I thought when we started its a lot less than you guys in Blighty have to contend with, probably because we don't salt our roads in the winter over here.

[Iain Hall]

I had sort of thought that fitting the diff would be dead easy, given the fact that it had been previously fitted to a Morris van but as I turned out that was far from the case because it had been done by what can only be described as the "quick and dirty" method that paid absolutely no attention to issues such as ensuing proper axle location at the spring mountings. In any case I wanted the car to sit a bit lower so rather than just replicating the standard Morris spring perches I made some that are 25mm deeper and onto the bottom of those I welded the part of the original Morris perches that have the locating hole for the springs which achieves a 30mm lowering of the back of the car. After some searching I found some new U bolts (@ $15 each) which fit the corolla base plates. It was not entirely simple here either because the bottom locating hole in these plates was too big as well I searched high and low in the goodies collection until I came across an injector rail from a Subaru that was snug fit for the little plate that covers the spring mounting rubber, some careful positioning with the aid of a piece of 1" tube and some quick welding followed by some grinding had the hole in the plate a snug fit for the Morris part. the diff was soon bolted into the car after that.


this is a stock image of the type of wheels that we have for the Morris

I was a bit worried that the Scorpion Mags that I have would not fit but by adding some temporary 5mm wheel spacers they do fit, just. However I think that if I run slightly smaller tyres (190-70-14 at present so going to 185-65-14 should make a small but adequate difference ) and once I have completed the disc brake conversion which will add about 5mm per side to the face to face width of the diff there will be enough clearance.

My daughter and I then rolled the car out of the workshop and for the first time we could get an idea of how well the wheels would look on the car. Personally I like the retro charm of the Mags that hail from the early eighties. More functional than bling which suits the design philosophy we are working towards here, something between Colin Chapman's "ad lightness" and the Bauhus form follows function ideas, besides which the wheels cost just thirty bucks and that fits well with our tiny (almost non existent) budget!

Secondly I have cut down the original Morris engine mounting towers and added a new top piece that bridges their bases about 40mm above the floor of the engine bay. These are drilled to each accept a Subaru engine mount in preparation for fitting the new engine. Experience building my locost clubman showed that sorting out appropriate engine mounts is not rocket science. once you have your engine in the desired position and the engine mounts bolted to the chassis all you have to do is fabricate some steel to connect the two. The Suzuki has its engine mounts attached to the centre of the block but there are suitable tapped bosses towards the front of the block on both sides.

I think that these bosses originally carried the Aircon compressor but they are perfect for new engine mounts. All that I have to do is make a plate out of some 3mm steel that connects them to gether and then just run some RHS over to the body mount.

Hopefully I won't need to move the alternator to the other side but It will be no problem if I do need to move it. however some 3mm plate between these bosses and a simple RHS connection to the rubber mounts and then its job done.

[MarkyB]

That looks like a very light engine, have you weighed it?

[mike.perry]

Thanks for that I thought that it was around about 1957 am I right that the chassis number is actaully 565185 and that the other digits have been added to meet the Australian requirements for a longer VIN number?

According to Skilleter, later 1957. However if it was a CKD then the chassis numbers were issued in batches, out of sequence. The other numbers would be local assembly factory numbers.

[Iain Hall]

Marky B
I have not weighed the engine but I will do so because I am interested to see how it compares to an A serries. (do you know what it and the standard gearbox weighs?) But when it comes to a car's weight less is more (performance) isn't it?
Mike Perry
Thanks for finding that out I am happy enough having a year for the build date that is certainly close enough for me especially as the car is only one year younger than I am

[andrewwita]

Found this on the internet a short while ago- Cant remember where.
From this your car is a 1958 model

Hope it helps

Vehicle Identification

Morris Minor Australian Production

Australian Paint Codes -(External Site)
English Paint Codes - (External Site)
Convertible
YEAR TYPE CAR NUMBER ENGINE NUMBER NOTES
Jan-55 Conv. 3018446 / 24415 F3 / 167847
Jan-56 Conv. 366330 / 53613 F3 / 218580 Heater fitted.
2 Door Saloon
YEAR TYPE CAR NUMBER ENGINE NUMBER NOTES
Jan-55 2D Saloon 274216 / 33102 F3 / 113985
Jan-56 2D Saloon 362129 / 46943 F3 / 220724 Heater fitted.
Jan-57 2D Saloon 437400 / 70549 F5 / 300029
Apr-57 2D Saloon 446701 / 00001 F5 / 8374 Minor 1000 introduced.
Jan-58 2D Saloon 6 / 530841 / 03073 9M / U / H104240
Jan-59 2D Saloon 7 / 610447 / 05307 9M / U / H205060 Courtesy light switches in front doors. Horn button moved to centre of steering wheel.
Jan-60 2D Saloon 8 / 734533 / 7106 9M / U / H327446 One piece inlet / exhaust manifold.
Jan-61 2D Saloon 9 / 850824 / 8938 9M / U / H446928
Jan-62 2D Saloon 891502 / 9531 9M / U / H503956 Discontinued May 1962
4 Door Saloon
YEAR TYPE CAR NUMBER ENGINE NUMBER NOTES
Jan-55 4D Saloon 275020 / 36576 F2 / 115796
Jan-56 4D Saloon 362967 / 55283 F3 / 222262 Heater fitted.
Jan-57 4D Saloon 423113 / 68576 F5 / 299755
Apr-57 4D Saloon 46887 / 00001 F5 / 9105 Minor 1000 introduced.
Jan-58 4D Saloon 6 / 539621 / 06150 9M / U / H106395
Jan-59 4D Saloon 7 / 620551 / 09667 9M / U / H185087 Courtesy light switches in front doors. Horn button moved to centre of steering wheel.
Jan-60 4D Saloon 8 / 715918 / 11380 9M / U / H304788 One piece inlet / exhaust manifold.
Jan-61 4D Saloon 9 / 856645 / 13174 9M / U / H470394
Jan-62 4D Saloon 871366 / 13537 9M / U / H481800 Discontinued May 1962


How to interpret your car number.
________________________________________
Jan 1955 - Mar 1957 (Morris Minor Series II 2 Door example)
362129 / 46943
(sequential body number ex UK) (sequential Australian build number for type)
________________________________________
Apr 1957 - Dec 1957 (Morris Minor 1000 4 Door example)
446887 / 00001
(sequential body number ex UK) (sequential Australian build number for type)
________________________________________
Jan 1958 - Dec 1961 (Morris Minor 1000 4 Door cont. example)
7 / 620551 / 09667
(build year) (sequential body number ex UK) (sequential Australian build number for type)
(6 = 1958) (7 = 1959) (8 = 1960) (9 = 1961)
________________________________________
Jan 1962 - May 1962 (Morris Minor 1000 4 Door cont. example)
362129 / 46943
(sequential body number ex UK) (sequential Australian build number for type)

[Iain Hall]

Wow all I can say is a big thank you Andrew for making the effort!
Its really nice to know for sure!

[andrewwita]

Not a problem - What part of Qld you in, I see in the picture that the car has an earlier steering wheel - from a series 2 or mm -

[Iain Hall]

I'm just north of Brisbane Andrew I live on 5 acres of lovely bushland surrounded by gum trees

I realised that the steering wheel is form an earlier car but I think that may have been fitted when the car was crashed at some point in its earlier life the front passenger side wing is largely bog on the top and the inner panel on that side has been beaten back into shape as well. I like the steering wheel and even though it is rather badly cracked I want o use it I plan to fix it and then have my mate who makes saddle trees help me make a leather cover for the rim. which should both improve its appearance and its feel when driving. This seems like the best plan because having the wheel restored by someone like "Pearl Craft" costs way more than I can afford!

[andrewwita]

Sounds a good plan - i kept an article from Practical classics magazine on how to repair the steering wheel - as i had noticed before leaving the UK to move to Brisbane ( been here 3 weeks now - just noticed i had not changed location on here) that most of the steering wheels were cracked and the steering wheels on ebay are nearly $600 ( OUCH)

[Iain Hall]

Oh I see your changed Location now Andrew !
I used to live around there at one time!
Did you bring your Morris over with you?
Or are you looking for another one?
Cheers
Iain

[andrewwita]

Will be looking for one eventually - hopefully a low lite as there a little bit more common over here than back home, so might have to get one here as a project car - but will have to buy a house first with garage space - as staying with the in-law and just bought a modern car - so no more space for a project car lol

[Iain Hall]

Well good luck with your search Andrew the thing is you you may have to travel a long way to find your car because the thing about OZ is that its big and we thing nothing of travelling distances that would daunt a Pommy!

Let me know what you are looking for precisely and I'll pass it on to may brother who seems to have a knack for finding them

[rayofleamington]

we thing nothing of travelling distances that would daunt a Pommy!

It takes a lot more than you think to daunt some of us!

[Iain Hall]

Ray
I am a Pommy myself, although I've been down under for most of my life so I do have some idea what I'm talking about here but from your signature I guess that you are no ordinary Pommy though

[Iain Hall]

http://morris1960tudor.wordpress.com/ from my blog
Find below some pictures of the Morris and progress reporting of the build.

"This is a shot of the car taken after I have fitted the Toyota diff, of course this is just the first dry run assembly to check that things fit and to work out what finishing/fixing needs to be done."

I am quite pleased with the look of the scorpion wheels on this car and now that the back has been lowered it looks a lot better. I am a bit concerned about the hight of the front though and I suspect that with the lower weight of the Suzuki engine that I will have to lower the torsion bars by a couple of splines to get the ride hight correct."

"The engine bay is quite roomy but I question the wisdom of having so much weight ahead of the front axle line."

"A modern battery is so much smaller than the great lumps the battery box was designed for, this battery will be used to save weight and it has allowed me to trim the battery box so that there will be adequate clearance for the Suzuki distributor that mounts to the back of the head. I have removed the front lip of the battery try and trimmed the sides of it as well including removing the bracket for the SU fuel pump as the G13 engine has a mechanical fuel pump."]

The Nissan Master cylinder mocked up against the engine bay"
Engine mounts are from a Subaru and both are designed to limit torque reaction movement

I cut down the original Morris mounts as low as I dared while still allowing room to bolt on the mounts

Green arrow shows the cut down battery box, I'm hoping that this will be enough clearance for the Suzuki distributor the orange arrow shows the pivot point for the rocker arm within the chassis rail Blue arrow indicates the Nissan master cylinder mounted"

The master cylinder in position, I have since made the rocker arm but I have yet to make the link to connect it to the original brake pedal. this the original controls can be used even though the brakes will be completely modern. I think that running a vacuum booster should be unnecessary in such a light car."

The Toyota lower spring mounting plates as can be seen they are not a snug fit for the Morris plate that locates the one on the left of the picture has part of Subaru injector rail tacked in place after it was accurately located by the piece of tubing..

which means that the Morris part fits perfectly now and when bolted in the Diff is properly located and retained on the leaf springs"
The new spring perches/ lowering blocks that I have made which lower the rear by about 30mm these are made of 3mm wall thickness RHS that is 75 x 50 mm and at present they are not fully welded to the diff housing, that will come when I take the car fully apart for painting and total refurbishment.

the inside is pretty good although there is a few spots that need welding up. the main floor was covered with some dried up tar that I have scraped off with an old wood chisel. Its amazing the weight of dirt and crap that I have removed it must be at least 10kg lighter now!"

"As I won't be running bumpers the irons to mount them have been removed and the holes in the back of the body will be welded up"

Some rust on this side but not as bad as the other sil"

"the rust is not as bad as some UK cars I read about being restored but there is still enough of it to fix"

"the arrow indicates a rust hole in the lip of the boot opening"


"rust in the sill panel will be fixed when the car is turned over in an improvised rotisserie

Yep the usual rot in this corner


Well that is all I have for now, until next time