1956 Morris minor pick up

[eskimobear]

Hi all

After a break of about seven years when I sold my 1956 oval beetle I have finally got another toy.
My fiancé surprised me with this for our upcoming wedding and my 30th birthday.
It's a 1956 split screen Morris minor pick up. It runs and drives great and I have big plans for it!
My fiancé is bluefox - retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=readersrides&thread=147877&page=1 and that's his car. Our modified Audi A2 is in the background of the below pic.

[gazjon]

Looks pretty good already. Any hints on your big plans?

[oxb1l]

Nice

[rebel2cv]

i pictured a 'british racing green' standard, slightly rotten old work horse.. i was NOT expecting that!

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Nice. What have you done to the A2? Link me to another thread elsewhere if you have one and don't want to explain again here.

[eskimobear]

Thanks for all your comments

Gazjon - plans include a new gearbox so it's no longer non synchro. A new bed with a twist and a full respray. Going to smarten up the interior and hopefully source a bench seat. Replace and add more chrome and prob lower it.

Freshandminty - the A2 is our daily workhorse. It's been lowered, new wheels and has a full glass tinted roof. Future plans are a remap and smarted the interior.

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Thanks for info. Our A2 is the workhorse too. (Sport model with a decent sound install and gloss black baby comp TT wheels)

[bluefox]

May 5, 2013 20:52:57 GMT fr€$h&m1nt¥ said:

Thanks for info. Our A2 is the workhorse too. (Sport model with a decent sound install and gloss black baby comp TT wheels)

Yeaaaaah! A2 represent, haha There was a build thread over on the A2OC until I upset everyone by refusing to believe that taking the plastic under tray off the bottom would make a massive difference in fuel economy...

[bluefox]

Anyway, staying on topic, the Mrs has been doing some digging on the little Minor, seems she started life as a black saloon - and as far as I can tell the conversion seems to have been done properly.

More will follow as soon as I get the chance to have a proper look!

[dan]

and did it removing it make any difference?

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Yeah I have found certain members of the a2oc to be rather aloof (putting it nicely)

Any way looking forward to seeing what happens with the pickup.

[bluefox]

May 7, 2013 22:00:15 GMT dan said:

and did it removing it make any difference?

Yeah, like you wouldn't believe. I can change the oil in less than ten minutes now instead of the however long it was previously when I was battling with the undertray. MPG wise we're returning a real-terms 48.41 MPG according to Road Trip (iOS app) on hilly Cornish roads... and my lead-loaded right foot

[bluefox]

Updates!

Firstly, a couple of pics to give you a better impression of how she looked when we picked her up:




...and being pressed into use pretty quickly with a trip to the local tip. Who I then argued with about the car's status as a commercial vehicle... I mean, of course photographers regularly tip old greenhouses as part of their business...



A little semi-daily use - more to blow the cobwebs out and find out her prob... I mean, little nuancés as I'm sure well all call them - followed, which necassitated an oil change as I wasn't sure which oil she was running at the time:




After that, and with mine and Eskimobear's pending nuptials, we decided that we wanted to use the pickup for our honey moon. Which was, at this point, about 14 weeks away. Haahaha. Haaah. Ha. So, er, panic set in... and it soon transpired that my other half wanted a new pickup bed. Like, totally new. Not a problem, we thought, as a close cousin happened to be a kick ass carpenter... and also happens to own not only the other half of my Metro but also that Citroen you saw in the pic above, so he's no stranger to this whole retro car thing.

Anyway over he came, pen, paper and blue electrical tape in hand, for some planning:




Then, I picked up the crow bar...

[bluefox]

Well, nearly. Pickup bed removal was the order of the day. Mercifully, that wasn't as difficult as I envisaged, with only a couple of brackets and a few bolts holding it to the chassis. Not sure at this stage if that was a good thing...



Either way, that left this:



...the picture was, of course, promptly dispatched to the better half to advise of progress. However, it also uncovered this sort of wiring. To be honest, up until this point I was still feeling positive about lack of bodges...




...but, sadly mistaken, I found not one but two different kinds of domestic household flex, all jointed with what looked like 32A chocolate block. Just for tailamp wiring. Le sigh. The fuel arrangements were fairly interesting to boot:




Added to the to-do list. Anyway, the teardown of the bed then ensued, with my cousin leading the way:






There is a video somewhere of my, er, methods. I'll update this with that link when I can get hold of it. In any case, the frame was stripped and the bits and bobs were removed from the chassis. More on the bed frame later, but for now I had this to deal with:



...so I busted out the angle grinder, drill, and enough wire brushes to.... I don't know, re-wire a house or something. There were lots of them anyway. Work was pretty slow. This is the part about car restoration/preventative maintenance that everyone forgets, right? Absolutely curse word hate this **** with a massive ******* ******* **** ******** passion. There, that's close enough. Anyway, before/after! Surely that's a 30G Achievement Unlocked???!?!11!1111111




Oh yeah, holes. Found a few of them. What's the legality on this? I'll weld them up when I get a minute, but for now, they're not structural. No, the structrual rust seems to have been taken of by some dubious welding. Didn't I mention the dubious welding?




Look, I'm not a welding genius by any stretch but seriously, how much weld is there in that last pic? There's probably more MIG wire than actual steel!

More to follow soon...

[Copey]

awesome, love it...want it!!

[jonw]

Great car and another A2 owner.

I have a 1.6FSI as my daily car/van/boat hauler. Great cars!!!!

[is,sit]

Very Nice will be watching this i do love a Pickup

[morrislewis]

Very nice indeed, will be watching this thread. I had a van once, big mistake selling.