1964 Austin Westminster MkI - On the move again 04.06.24

[omnipod]

Great forum, been lurking and reading for a while thought i'd share my projects.
Moved to Oslo, Norway from the UK 11 years ago, bought my Westie about 4 years ago. Original export model so LHD, solid car - i'm in the middle of scraping off all the underseal - never been welded as far as I can tell, all the suspension bushes look to be original so they need replacing ASAP.

[dollywobbler]

That is beautiful. I love the Big Farinas and it's ace to see a left hooker!

[Rob M]

Yay! I love these cars.
Ive always had a hankering for a Wolesley 6/110 in black ( my uncle had one, Ex Police, back in the mid 70s)
A Westy was the " Jag to the Daimler" or the "Rolls to the Bentley", I believe.
Lovely, lovely car , super comfortable, quick and stylish, I'm jealous!
Nice one Sir!

[briandamaged]

Gorgeous, effortless cool.

Welcome to Retro-Rides.

[sav]

Ooh, nice Westie!

Looks very nice indeed.

Welcome to RR.

[Pid363!]

That looks great are you a member of the cambridge and oxford owners club?

[omnipod]

Thanks guys, i love this car, bought it in Kristiansund and drove it 600km home to Oslo but if i'd known that all the rubbery bits in the clutch and braking system looked like this i might not have risked it.

Spot the difference anyone?



I was a member of COOC for a year when i first bought it but didn't renew my membership after the first year.

Goes great in a straight line but bends in the road slow me down a bit

[Pid363!]

Thats a shame its a great club and helps to keep the cars on the road. You may be interested in the following web site the forum is growing and very interesting with a few overseas members.

www.morrisoxford.com/

[omnipod]

I had been thinking about rejoining, just never seem to get round to it. Thanks for the link to the Morris Oxford website

[grizz]

Nice one mate.

Welcome to the site.

[les509]

I take it you are Matt? Saw your pic on Eddie Fosters site, I've got a VP 3 ltr 'in the wings' shall we say - had it for a year and not touched it - welcome to the site

[DutyFreeSaviour]

Welcome aboard fella - quality ride right there. Looks mean as hell standin there like that....... definite cool points all round

[Ether]

Brilliant stuff. Great to see a big Austin not being banger raced. Fine choice, sir

[ironmighty07]

These big Farinas are the nuts, one to watch with interest!!

[omnipod]

Ohhh, doesn't time fly when life gets in the way, so what have I been doing in the 2 years!! since I last updated my readers ride thread? The birth of our second child and the following medical complications took my mojo and any free time away for quite a while, but all good now and I have mega mojo to get things done since the turn of the year.
So after an underseal removal battle (much mojo needed to get through this) I found the rusty bits and I was very pleased to find very little. Thank you whoever you are who had the foresight to splurge the underseal everywhere even though it was a ball ache to get off.

the forerunner to plastic wheel arch liners, why steel ones of course.



cutting that out got me here



a bit more snippety snip.



I must give thanks to TonyBMW for inspiring me to give this a go myself too, I bought myself a welder, and set about making the panels to patch it up. I find making cardboard templates, although time consuming, to be the way to go here.

like this



out with the hammer and I ended up with a panel I was happy with






I did try shrinking the metal to form the curve but gave up after I used up the worlds supply of swear words, it takes skill I just don't have....yet.



welded in. Very pleased with the result too considering I was a welding virgin.



from the back, a virgin with OK penetration. ;D



with that turning out OK and my confidence growing I turned to the rear of the wheel arch, again pretty damn good for a 46 year old car.



angle grinders, don't you just love them?





more shaping of a piece of steel after making a cardboard template



Ta daaaa!



due to the way the panels overlap the lower corner was next up



more cardboard, lucky I like weetabix,



the old and the new, I am incredibly proud of this piece



haven't had chance to weld this in yet though.



same story for the front outrigger







again not yet welded in




the bumper mouning hole on the rear wing had obviously got a bit of a thump at some time and the metal was a bit dented and torn, a shame to cut it out as it wasn't rusty, but it had to go.



the same story on the panel underneath.



the same routine, cut, cardboard template, make a repair piece and weld in







So that's about it for catch up right now, I hope I can keep this thread more up to date in the future, as and when things get done.
I'd be lying if I said this hadn't been hard work, but I enjoyed every single minute of it and learned lots, my mojo is brimming over right now.

[welder]

Some smart work there. So much nicer to work on older cars with good thick metal . Looking good.

[wilko]

Good work fella - awesome car!

[triumph2000uk]

Superb work since buying my welder it has remained in its box but i will be getting it out soon i have saved a no of cardboard boxes to make templates i have the rear wheel arch drivers side stripped took about 4 hours with my cheap £6.99 angle grinder and a wire brush attachment and so far i only found a small hole in bottom of the arch and a couple of holes at the bottom that lead into the sill overall really pleased .i look forward to seeing more of what you have done as this is inspiration to help me with the work on my triumph 2000 .Keep up the superb work on this fine car .

[Knugcab]

Nice with a westminister. I scrapped a cambridge some years ago, any parts you're looking for? Send a PM in that case (not an ad, just trying to help)...

[omnipod]

Carrying on with the rust repairs, making these repair panels is fun but it is really time consuming to get them to fit, I think I have OCD.







Now this next piece has been playing on my mind from the first day I discovered it probably about 2 years ago, pre, I can actually weld era. A small rusty bit surrounded by spot welds high up in the wheel arch, the spot welds being....



the bracket for the hinge for the bootlid, found as you would expect, in the boot.
Now I have no idea why debris and moisture would collect here ( a dodgy boot seal?) but it had and rusted through from the inside out. My fears were that I would have to drill the spot welds and take the boot hinge bracket off. I'd been saving this particular job until I had worked up enough faith in my abilities to tackle it. In the end it turned out to be the easiset bit of fabrication so far.



I found that it was very localised at that I could get a clean edge to weld to without touching a single one of the spot welds. Joy. And I found a nice lump of oddly compacted 40 year old debris.



make a patch. I'll chuck a load of rust proofing down behind the bracket and it should be OK.





There really isn't much rust on this car at all compared to others that are 40 or even 20 years old, but the more you dig the more you find. I knew the trailing edge of the front wing was dodgy as it was covered in filler but as is always the case it wasn't just that bit that had been eaten away by the tin worm.

I heat gunned the filler off and started investigating.



ummmm guess what is under here



the end of the sill wasn't actually that bad, all cut out and ready for more welding



Been wanting one of these for ages, finally found a used one on the good old tinternet. I went to see it on tuesday evening and had it delivered to the workshop yesterday, can't really call it a super portable device weighing in at 250kg but my spaghetti arms can just about shove it around the floor. By no means new, it was made in 1998 according to the ID plate, but it looks like it's lead an easy life.



Took me a lot of faffing about until I was happy with the placement of the lift under the car but I got there eventually and up she goes.



Now I can maybe get myself a chair to sit on while I weld instead of a rug :-)

well chuffed.