Hi there!
I stumbled upon this forum while researching welding and associated shenanigans and thanks to a few threads on here (thanks tonybmw!), I decided that I WOULD go ahead and have a go at restoring a car that has been in the back of my mind since I first got my license. I figured that since the encouragement came from this forum (unbeknownst to you!), it was only fair that I repaid you with my own project.
I originally wanted a Minor as my first car but the only ones I could afford back then obviously weren't in the best of shape so that got put on hold until I had some more worldly experience (see relaxing in the back seats of classic cars drinking a good single malt and listening to the different rumbles that American muscle made). So fast forward 7 years or so and I have just last week purchased a Minor I thought was in acceptable condition, at a price that I was pretty happy with. Minors in Australia seem to generally be expected to sell anywhere from $3000 for something in running condition, up to immaculate restos or customs for $25k+.
So I present my Minor, tentatively named Maurice:
I made quite the effort to clamber as far under as I could get to examine all the bits that were known to have issues in Minors, aside from the usual sills and wheel arches, the front of the chassis legs and a couple of other places were also checked out and prodded violently with a screwdriver.
If the crossmember through the middle is rusted apparently it's best just to walk away, but fortunately mine is well clean and tidy. (unlike one I viewed later that afternoon in which the crossmember literally disintegrated when I poked it.
Anyway, purchased, signed for, and dragged on to the back of a truck, we arrived at the yard and I took a few opening shots:
Bit of a prang in the rear wing and a crease in the door, but nothing too worrying..
The dodgy paint under the rear window promises to be... interesting. The boot is also sticking up all wrong and the cracked bog on the corner of the door seam leads me to believe that some mishap has occurred.
Bit of a scrape and a crease just beyond the front arch but otherwise this side is relatively tidy.
Interior leaves a bit to be desired, but what's a project without making the inside feel exactly how you want it to feel, eh?
The style of dash, split screen and the grill slots the car into 1952-3 I think, but will be doing my best to work out exactly so I can get it registered properly and accurately (last rego paper has 'Morris Minor Saloon' plus an engine number :\ ).
803cc of glorious lawnmower power with a radiator almost as big as the lump. D: When dragged on to the truck the carby was the main thing stopping this from driving home under it's own power (ignoring the lack of brakes), as it was currently dismantled and apparently in need of a repair kit. With a bit of tweaking, we had it running again in about 30min and runs well enough to travel the massive distance of 20m to the shed and back when being worked on.
If anyone is interested I can upload video of the motor running and the timing being tweaked, but I'll leave that out for now. It's not particularly impressive, but it does run quite well now.
Sadly this car won't be able to be stored inside for most of it's restoration as I am too cheap to pay rent until it needs it, for painting and such. In the mean time liberal amounts of primer and a heavy tarp will have to suffice.
Anyway, getting it running, we proceeded to roll it on to a convenient set of walkunder ramps to take a look at the underside, relying on the trusty handbrake to stop us from toppling over the edge.
It's pretty straight and clean, and I am most pleased with the minimal grot visible.
Obviously there will be hidden treasure but the lack of any substantial rust on the outside is promising. Can see a bit in the sills behind both front wheels which was expected, and can also see that the front has been a little mangled as well...
I stupidly didn't really take any shots of the rear properly so you'll have to make do with this nice profile shot of my mate Jono, whose expertise is Jack-of-all-Trades, and will be assisting me in this venture.
Anyway, that's all the photos worth posting at the moment. Hopefully I've managed to do the correct thing and it will all show up, otherwise I shall have to try again I guess.
edit: Nope! But realised it wasn't picking up flickr urls properly before I actually posted this.
Now, on to the plans for this particular guinea pig.
Aside from a general but thorough clean up of the bodywork and a repaint (god the green is horrible D: ).
I'm thinking a nice dark maroon at the moment. I would like something that's almost black until it catches the light, but budget, ability to convey the right idea to the appropriate people, and talent (going to paint this myself unless I discover I am absolutely atrocious at spraying) shall see to that.
I was planning on keeping everything as original appearing as possible, except for the running gear, but discussions have led me to decide on a slightly custom job to make this my own.
I love the split windows, but I prefer the centre speedo dash, so that will hopefully make an appearance. I also prefer the blade grill to the cheesegrater, but it looks to be a fair bit of hassle to redo the front, as the driving lights and the whole grill section are different on a 1000 series:
So there is talking of modifying a blade grill or making one to fit where the cheesegrater is.
As for the motor... well that is currently up in the air until I find a suitable donor car with appropriate bits and appropriate pricing!
Currently looking at plundering an AE86 Corolla Sprinter, or if I feel adventurous, a Nissan Pintara. With Queensland modification laws the largest turbo/supercharged engine I can slot into something this size is 2.0L so we shall see.
Well, that's the status so far. Will try to keep this whole project pretty well documented and will post the progress here unless I read lots of derisive comments!
Cheers,
Matt
P.S if larger images are wanted, just say so. I have many, many spare pixels.
I stumbled upon this forum while researching welding and associated shenanigans and thanks to a few threads on here (thanks tonybmw!), I decided that I WOULD go ahead and have a go at restoring a car that has been in the back of my mind since I first got my license. I figured that since the encouragement came from this forum (unbeknownst to you!), it was only fair that I repaid you with my own project.
I originally wanted a Minor as my first car but the only ones I could afford back then obviously weren't in the best of shape so that got put on hold until I had some more worldly experience (see relaxing in the back seats of classic cars drinking a good single malt and listening to the different rumbles that American muscle made). So fast forward 7 years or so and I have just last week purchased a Minor I thought was in acceptable condition, at a price that I was pretty happy with. Minors in Australia seem to generally be expected to sell anywhere from $3000 for something in running condition, up to immaculate restos or customs for $25k+.
So I present my Minor, tentatively named Maurice:
I made quite the effort to clamber as far under as I could get to examine all the bits that were known to have issues in Minors, aside from the usual sills and wheel arches, the front of the chassis legs and a couple of other places were also checked out and prodded violently with a screwdriver.
If the crossmember through the middle is rusted apparently it's best just to walk away, but fortunately mine is well clean and tidy. (unlike one I viewed later that afternoon in which the crossmember literally disintegrated when I poked it.
Anyway, purchased, signed for, and dragged on to the back of a truck, we arrived at the yard and I took a few opening shots:
Bit of a prang in the rear wing and a crease in the door, but nothing too worrying..
The dodgy paint under the rear window promises to be... interesting. The boot is also sticking up all wrong and the cracked bog on the corner of the door seam leads me to believe that some mishap has occurred.
Bit of a scrape and a crease just beyond the front arch but otherwise this side is relatively tidy.
Interior leaves a bit to be desired, but what's a project without making the inside feel exactly how you want it to feel, eh?
The style of dash, split screen and the grill slots the car into 1952-3 I think, but will be doing my best to work out exactly so I can get it registered properly and accurately (last rego paper has 'Morris Minor Saloon' plus an engine number :\ ).
803cc of glorious lawnmower power with a radiator almost as big as the lump. D: When dragged on to the truck the carby was the main thing stopping this from driving home under it's own power (ignoring the lack of brakes), as it was currently dismantled and apparently in need of a repair kit. With a bit of tweaking, we had it running again in about 30min and runs well enough to travel the massive distance of 20m to the shed and back when being worked on.
If anyone is interested I can upload video of the motor running and the timing being tweaked, but I'll leave that out for now. It's not particularly impressive, but it does run quite well now.
Sadly this car won't be able to be stored inside for most of it's restoration as I am too cheap to pay rent until it needs it, for painting and such. In the mean time liberal amounts of primer and a heavy tarp will have to suffice.
Anyway, getting it running, we proceeded to roll it on to a convenient set of walkunder ramps to take a look at the underside, relying on the trusty handbrake to stop us from toppling over the edge.
It's pretty straight and clean, and I am most pleased with the minimal grot visible.
Obviously there will be hidden treasure but the lack of any substantial rust on the outside is promising. Can see a bit in the sills behind both front wheels which was expected, and can also see that the front has been a little mangled as well...
I stupidly didn't really take any shots of the rear properly so you'll have to make do with this nice profile shot of my mate Jono, whose expertise is Jack-of-all-Trades, and will be assisting me in this venture.
Anyway, that's all the photos worth posting at the moment. Hopefully I've managed to do the correct thing and it will all show up, otherwise I shall have to try again I guess.
edit: Nope! But realised it wasn't picking up flickr urls properly before I actually posted this.
Now, on to the plans for this particular guinea pig.
Aside from a general but thorough clean up of the bodywork and a repaint (god the green is horrible D: ).
I'm thinking a nice dark maroon at the moment. I would like something that's almost black until it catches the light, but budget, ability to convey the right idea to the appropriate people, and talent (going to paint this myself unless I discover I am absolutely atrocious at spraying) shall see to that.
I was planning on keeping everything as original appearing as possible, except for the running gear, but discussions have led me to decide on a slightly custom job to make this my own.
I love the split windows, but I prefer the centre speedo dash, so that will hopefully make an appearance. I also prefer the blade grill to the cheesegrater, but it looks to be a fair bit of hassle to redo the front, as the driving lights and the whole grill section are different on a 1000 series:
So there is talking of modifying a blade grill or making one to fit where the cheesegrater is.
As for the motor... well that is currently up in the air until I find a suitable donor car with appropriate bits and appropriate pricing!
Currently looking at plundering an AE86 Corolla Sprinter, or if I feel adventurous, a Nissan Pintara. With Queensland modification laws the largest turbo/supercharged engine I can slot into something this size is 2.0L so we shall see.
Well, that's the status so far. Will try to keep this whole project pretty well documented and will post the progress here unless I read lots of derisive comments!
Cheers,
Matt
P.S if larger images are wanted, just say so. I have many, many spare pixels.