Morris Oxford Series IV (Traveller)

[59traveller]

Last Thursday (22nd Feb) I had an operation to remove the Trapezium bone from my left hand (due to severe OsteoArthritis). Work continues, however, on the Traveller because I'm not doing the bodywork, my mate is!

I've attached a couple of pics showing how the Almond Green upper half looks after the 4th and final coat has flattened and a small area polished. The lower half is now being prepped (as you can see in one of the pics!)








While single-handedly taking a couple of pics, we talked about the steering upgrade to provide Power assistance.  He reckons its possible to fit PAS to my Traveller using a Citroen rack & pump with modified track rod ends.... cost about £400 including parts and labour.

The engine needs to come out - which is good, because I can finish painting some of the bits of the bay I missed before (plus the fan!); and while they're doing the steering I can replace the radiator and hoses.

This will happen as soon as - "Sometime over the next couple of months in-between my left hand becoming usefull again* and the surgeon taking Maxwell's Silver Hammer & chisel to my right hand........"

*I'm in plaster/lightweight cast for another 3 weeks then the physio starts. Two statements during the procedure caught my attention:- "Its no good, I'll have to break it" and "hold onto that in case it falls off" .....

Cheers!

[59traveller]

Best I can manage for a thumbs up. I must say that the surgeon was extremely neat, you can hardly see a cut at all - I wish my welding was up to that standard.

I hope to have enough movement in 2-3 weeks time to be able to manage some rubbing down (no, on the CAR) and painting of ancillaries.  I'll have to wait for the swelling to go down first (no, the HAND)

[59traveller]

This is a longshot, asking for advice..... If I should post elsewhere, could someone advise me where?

G'day everyone

The vinyl top of my dashboard is green and tatty. The rest of the upholstery is red and in reasonable condition. The red upholstery can be restored and reconditioned without painting but the dash top needs painting regardless. I had hoped that there was a paint that could be applied by brush, sponge or cloth but alas only spray is available - and whatever I do, therefore, the dash top has to come out.

It's my fervent hope that I can remove the vinyl top without having to take everything else out as well - fascial, instruments, switches...... so can anyone tell me if this is the case?

The workshop manual is silent on the matter, but the parts manual (see below) seems to show that there are 2 screws at each end holding the entire "rail - protection - fascia Upper" in place. Can anyone advise?
 

[Rob M]

That looks like it could be similar to the 6a Scimitar set up as in the pad is glued to a frame which can be unbolted to come out, leaving the instrumentation intact.
Your plan on a PAS conversion. Have you not considered the 'Electric PAS' Corsa route?
That seemed to be very popular at one time, many a car got converted and you could actually buy an off the shelf conversion kit ( IIRC) off of ebay which included the facility to adjust the level of PAS you actually wanted.
It looked quite straightforwards to do too.
Worth a look?

[59traveller]

Mar 20, 2018 14:39:08 GMT Rob M said:

That looks like it could be similar to the 6a Scimitar set up as in the pad is glued to a frame which can be unbolted to come out, leaving the instrumentation intact.
Your plan on a PAS conversion. Have you not considered the 'Electric PAS' Corsa route?
That seemed to be very popular at one time, many a car got converted and you could actually buy an off the shelf conversion kit ( IIRC) off of ebay which included the facility to adjust the level of PAS you actually wanted.
It looked quite straightforwards to do too.
Worth a look?

Hiya Zeb
I was advised by those far far more knowledgeable than me, that the kits are unsuitable unless they have variable weighting, otherwise there will be severe "bump steer" and even then minor bump steer is likely to be an issue.  The other problem is that the kits require the steering column to be cut in half, which means the wires from the horn and indicators will be severed rendering the switches useless - and requiring an aftermarket horn/flasher switch to be circlipped onto the top of the column - I want to keep as much of the original appearance as possible.  So although there is an electric kit that is also variable weight, it fails for me because the column must be cut.

We've also been recommended to "avoid like the plague" any of Vauxhall's electric PAS as being "just as reliable as a chocolate teapot, but harder to fix when it goes wrong" (!).

What we've settled on is using a Corsa rack with an hydraulic pump system - probably driven by a Transit alternator, which has a belt drive on the rear. This keeps everything else "standard" apart from the track rod ends (but does mean my brand new alternator is surplus to requirements!)

Cheers!

[59traveller]

I see I've been slipping down the leader-board. Page 11!

So, since March much has been done, my hand is 50% of normal strength and 100% pain free; the Traveller looks finished - the paint is done, the chrome is on (bar 2 badges), in fact pretty much everything body wise is finished and I drove "Hercules" last weekend for 20 miles to a show, so that makes 29 since purchase!

I knew the engine would need some serious attention but time, money and arthritis have prevented me doing anything and I've relied on friends, friends of friends and money to get as far as I have.

As I suspected when I bought the car, something's seriously amiss with the engine after a genuine 120,000 miles (spoken to the last 6 owners) ..... I won't bore you with the details but if I were to try  changing the head gasket then that would be the third one in 30 miles plus a recon head  (although so far it has all been done by the previous owner).  So I'm now ready to let someone other than me get dirty with machine tools.

We failed on the power steering - we needed someone to manufacture a collar having inside splines on one end and outside splines on the other and despite trying really hard and offering money, we couldn't find anyone who would touch it.  I'm relieved to say that because the operation on my hand removed all the pain I didn't find slow speed manouvering a problem so Unless and until arthritis rears its head again, then I'll give the PAS a miss and put the money saved towards the engine re-con.

Next week "Hercules" goes back into the workshop to finish off the electrics and a small amount of internal bodywork. Meanwhile I will actually get my hands dirty helping remove the engine so it can go into a local engineering company for a complete recondition.

Westonzoyland Steam Pumping Station Museum Steam Day and Classic Car Show.  The posters advertising the show were VERY wide!

 

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that in the earlier pictures the wing mirrors were round (give yourself a pat on the back if you spotted that!) and now they are rectangular.  It didn't occur to any of us during the resto that normally the mirror mounting holes would be towards the outer edge of the wing thus allowing a view along the side of the car, whereas on the Traveller they are inboard of the centre of the wing.  The cheap "el-crappo" round mirrors were mostly (99.9%) inboard of the edge of the wing, meaning I could see either the A pillar or traffic 2 lanes away, but not the side of the car.

I bit the bullet and spent £100 on a pair of wide-headed Tex mirrors (yes, they still manufacture these in the UK) and now I can see along the side of the car to park and also traffic in the next-door lane.  No blind spots here, thankyou very much.

[59traveller]

Part 2.

Most of the lights are now LED (yet to swap the headlights). The front sidelights are also now indicators. I had to replace the single pole backplate with a larger dual-pole one. The LED flashes amber when the indicators are used. If the sidelight is on, it switches off while the indicator operates and then back on again when the indicator is cancelled. I took these pictures on the sunniest day we've had so far and I'm well pleased with the results.

The camera does lie.  In the second set of pictures the stop/tail lights seem to have a yellow core.  I can assure you that to the human eye, this is just bright (and brighter) red. 

The after-market reversing lights are now foglights and have red lenses, although I did buy a red foglight LED and could have kept the clear glass.

The gap between grill & wing will disappear when we find the cover-plates!

At night, you'll be able to see Hercules from Mars...

[peteh1969]

Thank you for posting those images of your lighting.

Could you post links for the Led's you used please?

[59traveller]

Part 3

I've now traced the car's history back to 1961. So far the I have spoken to people associated with or who were owners of the car as far as 1974.

In the pictues below, the lady (Sue) standing in front of and sat in the back of the Traveller phoned me out of the blue and said "I think you have my dad's old car - we used to go on holiday in it to Kent in the 1970's".

I had registerd Hercules on www.drivearchive.co.uk/ along with my contact details in the hope that a previous owner might get in touch.

Sue's dad (the owner of my Traveller) died suddenly of a heart attack in the late 70's but her mum only passed away earlier this year. While clearing out the house, she came across a number of photos of the car and a "box of bits and pieces" which she took home with her to Devon. Nostalgia is a strong emotion and she later told me of happy hollidays in Kent riding in the back seat of the Traveller. She asked her husband to see if it was possible to find if the car still existed.....

Sue came to the show especially to see and sit in Hercules - the picture she's holding is from the 70s (hence the average quality) with her in the back seat, aged 12! (I've added the original as well).

Amongst the pictures Sue gave me was also a 1978 full frontal (so I've posted "Then & Now"). Yes that is the same AA badge that was on the car in 78.  All I've added was elbow grease, Brasso and yellow engine enamel.  Yes, I do have spot lights to put on .... later.

Also of note was a letter from BMC to the then owner in 1961 when the Traveller was 2 years old, but that's another story!

[59traveller]

May 25, 2018 13:56:31 GMT peteh1969 said:

Thank you for posting those images of your lighting.

Could you post links for the Led's you used please?

Pete

www.bettercarlighting.co.uk/index.php?act=viewCat&catId=48

The proprietor (Gil) is an electronics engineer and has designed all of the kit himself.  He's extremely knowledgeable and very helpful.  I had a series of discussions with him as I wanted to install his flashing festoon LED Trafficator lights as well as having the "ordinary" LED indicators as in my pics.  I proposed a dual flasher unit system, one for each side of the car and driven from the trafficator feed - and he has developed his products with this idea in mind.  So he listens to his customers.

LEDs are not at all cheap though.  Where an incandescent bulb might be £1, the equivalent LED will probably be £10.  A conventional flasher unit might be £5, a period-looking LED flasher unit is £30.

Yet to be fitted on my car is his flashing Hazard system which drives only the front & rear indicators (not the trafficators, although I'm working on wiring them up in some way!) and a time-delay set of reversing lights (switches off automatically after 30 seconds).

Cheers!

Martin

[keyring]

I don't think I've ever seen one of these in person, but I really like it, it looks great

[59traveller]

I was expecting to overhaul / rebuild the engine...... that time has arrived sooner than I'd hoped as I have oily water & plugs; overheating and rough running. A cert for a head gasket? Well, you might say so and I would normally agree with you. But the previous owner had replaced the head gasket twice and put a recon unleaded head on immediately before I had the car.

Having talked with several previous owners I've established that the odometer reading is probably correct - 120,000 miles and on that basis I've decided to hand the engine over to a professional to have it reconditioned.

Pictures will follow.....

[59traveller]

So the engine was beyond reconditioning, already 60 thou over-bored and 80 thou would have been 40 thou over the recommended maximum. A (now) fully reconditioned Wolseley engine is due to go in shortly, meanwhile I've focussed on the interior.

This is what I started with.  In profile some look pretty mountainous.  In fact I had to clamp them down on top of the foamex to cut the new ones.

Foam & Vinyl frmo Woolies Trim, but workbench not big enough to cut the vinyl off the rol - hence my dining table has been pressed into action.

Copius amounts of impact adhesice and 4mm staples for the vinyl; 6 mm staples for the piping.  Holes for window winder & door handle carefully cut and glued.  Left to set with appropriately sized deep sockets forced into ensure adhesion.

Tah-da?  Originally there were two pieces of vinyl sewn onto a strip of white piping.  My sewing skills are cr@p so I used self-adhesove chrome piping

The load bay cards were just as bad as those for the doors.

Hopefully I won't need to do this again.  Ever.  It was straightforward and time-consuming, but relatively easy unless your arthritis has worsened.

Simples!

[59traveller]

And the seats......
Front.... issues:

Solutions




Rear

[jpsmit]

amazing work! well done

[59traveller]

Welcome Home!

Still lots of jobs to do before the NEC - Headlining, bond the door seals, lower the top seat belt mountings, tune the engine, swap the back axle CROWN wheel & pinion, buy some rear (hatch) door seal, re-cover the load bay floor, spray the rear wheel arches (red), thorough clean, repair another tear in the seat, re-touch the front seat dye.......

Not much then 😉















 



 











 

[jpsmit]

Love this car - love the colour!

[59traveller]

Made it! No prizes but cruised happily at 62-64 mph up and back without missing a beat (260 miles in all). And I just loved overtaking the trailer queens.

[peteh1969]

I had a good look at your wagon over the weekend while I was visiting the Jowett stand and Chris, It's very handsome vehicle to see in the flesh, larger than it looks in pictures.

[Deleted]

Did not register at the time but I knew that I had seen your car before - you were immediately opposite us on the Jowett Car Club stand