Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello!

I've been refurbishing my parcel-shelf-crash-pad area (not sure I'd wanna crash into it, but there we go). When I removed my crash pad bar I noticed two metal pieces seemingly loose at either end of it. Does anyone know what they're for? They seem like they could just be spacers... But then why not just lengthen the bar

hello
they are spacers probably, they provide additional for crash pad without increasing their length, they also at some extent reduce vibration..
ugghh those sound vibrations are always irritating.

Those little metal plates at either end of the crash bar are indeed spacers. Their purpose is not obvious but there is a reason for them and they were supplied with the optional heater kit. The sides of the Minor 1000 are not quite upright and taper slightly so that the car is a little wider towards the bottom. At one stage when a number of Minor 1000s were ordered without the optional heater, the parcel shelf was fitted slightly higher in the car. If you remove the trim panel you will see the additional holes. On cars of a certain age, captive nuts are present in both positions but this was deleted later when the heater fitment became more common. On cars fitted with a heater, the parcel shelf had to be dropped a little and fixed to the lower position in order to accommodate it. As the crash rail was then slightly too short, those two spacers were included in the heater kit to fill the gaps!
Like everything else in life - it's simple when you know.

Well, I'd never have guessed that in a million years! All is revealed then