Morris Minor Owners Club

Seems a common place for front doors to split here, a job I have been putting off sorting out for the last few years, the split has got no worse in that time.

However on a rainy dull Sunday I have stripped the door down, removed the top frame etc etc so I can get to it properly.

After cleaning the paint off the split is about 3/4" long, and has not totally gone from the opening at the top of the door.

It looks like a just a case of dremel a groove in, weld it up and refinish as required, but is there anything reccomended to sort this out, was wondering about a plate behind, making it to the curve of the door. Welding that in with the door on the car will be fun though.

Any tips gratefully received.

Hi from downunder

Yes, it is a very common place for them to split. I think it is more common on the two-door units. I have a few here with splits.

I saw a how-to-do-it repair article somewhere years ago. It recommended welding in a steel backing plate as well as welding the split itself.

This makes sense to me because the steel adjacent to a weld is weak due to exposure to extreme heat. If the split is welded without a reinforcing plate, this area is therefore likely to fail as the stresses that resulted in the splitting in the first place will still exist. A backing plate will provide additional resistance to the stresses and spread them over a larger area.

Don

I've done mine by welding a curved plate underneath, as shown on page 108 of the Lindsey Porter Haynes Restoration Manual. I don't think a simple weld will hold at this stressed point. Although I did mine off the car, shouldn't be too bad to do with the door still on, providing you've protected everything from the welding and grinding.

Thanks both.

I though it would need a plate behind, I am certain it has already just had a bead of weld down it, always been able to see it in the 5 years I have had the car, and it was a beating stick item when I bought it.

Even with the door off it looks pretty tight in there to get the torch in, especially towards the inner face of the door.

I am assuming its a small piece of curved sheet spanning the crack and welded inside, may have to invest in a copy of that book.

I cut a couple of holes, made my piece of curved steel, clamped with a long armed welding clamp and plug welded from above. Attached photos in wrong order but should give you the idea.

i don't think I'd bother with the Haynes book unless you come across it for a few pence. Much better information on here!

That's brilliant Mark, I was wondering about plug welding a plate on from above, that's a whole lot easier.

I can actually plug weld really well too, my seat mount plates are held on with a series of them through the floor pan.

Guess what I am doing the next few days, first to fix my welding helmet which does not auto dark anymore, as I discovered yesterday.

Thanks for taking the trouble with the pics.

Well I have taken the bull by the horns, if a jobs worth doing then its worth doing right.

I have always had a couple of bubbles coming through the bottom of the door, so while the door is apart lets do the whole thing.

Door is now off the car, there are some minor repairs to do along the bottom edge and get all the crappy seam sealer out. Looks like the muppet who painted the car painted over bare metal and suface rust, as I have found elsewhere.

I have one small 3mm hole through the outer skin, which I think is small enough to fill with weld. Its all going to need a good clean, treat, paint and refinish.

Should there be seam sealer where the skin folds over the frame ?.

Regarding your helmet, I took my solar power helmet apart a few years ago as it had stopped working and was surprised to find two lithium batteries inside and one of them was flat. I double checked via the battery manufacturer’s website because they are not rechargeable.
As these batteries are soldered in I fitted battery holders that take the popular CR2032 size to outside of the units casing with short leads solder to where the original batteries were fitted.
Also I find the panel which is an LCD responds faster if warmed up in this colder weather.

I had to carefully break it open and never took photos of the inside. Or you could buy a new helmet
Regards John

What a stupid wasteful idea, you are quite right, just sprung it apart and there are two lithium cells in there.

Its a Sealey helmet as well. Not tested them yet but I think that's a safe assumption as the helmet is a few years old now, and was working well a few weeks back.

Being the careful non wasteful type that hates throwing good things away when they can be repaired - yes OK - tight I will do the same. You can get small twin CR2032 cell holders on flying leads as those cells will be in series I reckon to give 6v or so.

I assumed it was a rechargeable device, with all that light energy around and a solar cell on the front of it.

Fix helmet and then crack on with sorting my door out.

Get two single battery holders, they are not exactly in series, mine has a circuit fed off the centre tap of the two batteries.
It works fine with the smaller 2032 batteries I did mine three years ago and I changed them again last week but they weren't flat.
Regards John

Annoyingly they are rechargeable cells in mine, and they are both fine. Putting a meter on them and supplying the solar cell with light increases the voltage.

The solar cell by the looks of things is to charge the batteries, there are two photo diodes at each side underneath that sense the arc.

I have found and ordered a whole new electronic screen assembly, looks like they all roll out the same factory in China - £7 is not too bad.