Moggy Minor, daily driver... worth it?

[Lankytim]

Y0 SHITTAZ.

 

A mate of mine is flogging a Minor he's had in his barn for a while, It will have 12 months MOT and although slightly frilly in the door bottoms and bottom of the wings it's actually mega sound. Runs and drives great, mint interior. It's an H reg moggy 1000, 2 door.

 

 

The only way I can get my mitts on this 60mph boneshaker is to sell my Diesel xm and use the Minor for work and the occasional trip down the motorway, but are minors OK being used like this? Will kittens and panda bears die?

 

Plus it will have to live outside and go rusty or get pinched.

 

NEED INPUT.

[UltraWomble]

My mate Bob ( of the 8 and 10-4 fame) swears by the 1000 and says they are all the car anyone ever needs especially in woody estate form.

 

Bags of spares, basic tech. Dont expect anything remarkable from them and remember it will be weekly fiddling and greasing to keep it going. 10,000 district nurses cant have been wrong.

[Rusty Pelican]

Do it , simple mechanics , parts available everywhere , free road tax and insurance should be under 100 notes a year 

[bigstraight6]

Judging by the number of these still in daily use yes, I'd absolutely drown it in the best rust preventative products available though.....

[mercrocker]

I have driven my 1000 daily for 10 years.   The car has coped really well, mechanically, but structurally has been a bit of a worry.   Wax the bastard everywhere, up in the sill (a complex structure for a little 'un), down the panel gap behind the front wings, inside the doors, in the chassis legs (rear spring hangers are a service item).   Push polish wax into the seams in the front wings and anywhere else you can see metal joins and keep the car as waxed as you can over the winter.

 

  Six grease points - do these monthly.   Change the oil every 1000 miles under this kind of use (get a spin on conversion kit otherwise this will wear you out) and cheap 20/50 will be fine.  Use Castrol Valvemaster and forget about unleaded worries - have not head off mine yet.  If your fuel pump is working, remove it, clean it and keep it in any oily rag in the boot.  Buy a decent electronic pump and fit that.   Accuspark electronic ignition or similar is well worth the expense (£25 or so) again keep all the points and condenser gubbins (INCLUDING both screws) in an old Oxo tin or something in the car.   Fit decent rotor arm (distributor doctor's red ones are best),  dizzy cap and leads and again put all the stuff you take off in the car (I cut down a washing up bowl to sit inside the spare wheel for all this guff).   

 

The boot will leak in a heatwave - drill holes near the corners of the floor either side of the centre stiffener and near the corners.  Get a decent boot seal (East Sussex Minors) and waxoil the floor to death.   If you have 155 tyres keep a 145 on the spare otherwise it wont fit properly in the compartment and you will end up forcing it and wrecking the rear loom (don't ask me how,,etc...) 

 

Sound insulation under the back seat, under the carpets, stuck to the inner side of boot and bonnet lids will keep you sane, but take as much of the carpeting out as you can in the winter - it will help save the floor pans.    Buy (from David Manners, Birmingham) later Marina-spec window rubbers for the doors - easy to fit and keep 90pc of the water out of the doors.   If its a two door any water getting in those side windows is going to piddle down inside and kill the sills.  Not much you can do (easily) about that but if you can live with mastic I wouldn't hesitate.   Make sure the screen rubbers front and back are sound - preferably replace them.  Water WILL be getting in. 

 

Don't waste your money on disc conversion or tele shock conversions - neither add much to the fun but drain your wallet and cause parts problems later on.   Although, I have to say I am glad mine does have the discs in view of the irksome adjustment on TLS drums....

 

Motorway use should be fine (mine sits happily at 70 for 15 miles a day), see above ref. soundproofing.  Also make sure diff is topped up and exhaust is good condition and not touching the car where it shouldn't.   I pay £88 for insurance with Peter James and specifically included daily use and commuting for this price. 

 

Just do it! 

[Cavcraft]

Great fun to drive, keep up with modern traffic on most roads and really easy to maintain. Motorways I found were ok if you weren't going too far, you'll pretty much be confined to the nearside lane at about 60-65mph as they're reasonably comfortable at that, plus you'll have a little left for overtaking.

I reckon after a while though the novelty will wear off, as (imho) driving slow cars on motorways is tiring as you have to plan manoeuvres well in advance, rather than having masses of power to cruise through gaps in traffic etc.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This made me think about Dizzler Moggies, seems there's loads of em out there, Primas, Sierra 1.8 s etc. quite a few converted to fwd with 1.4/1.5 Pug engines, oh no, more Metros getting ravished for their engines.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/129734/1965-morris-minor-1500-diesel

 

Couldn't find any with a 2.1 and Hydractive suspension though.

[laser wheels]

I have driven my 1000 daily for 10 years.   The car has coped really well, mechanically, but structurally has been a bit of a worry.   Wax the bastard everywhere, up in the sill (a complex structure for a little 'un), down the panel gap behind the front wings, inside the doors, in the chassis legs (rear spring hangers are a service item).   Push polish wax into the seams in the front wings and anywhere else you can see metal joins and keep the car as waxed as you can over the winter.

 

  Six grease points - do these monthly.   Change the oil every 1000 miles under this kind of use (get a spin on conversion kit otherwise this will wear you out) and cheap 20/50 will be fine.  Use Castrol Valvemaster and forget about unleaded worries - have not head off mine yet.  If your fuel pump is working, remove it, clean it and keep it in any oily rag in the boot.  Buy a decent electronic pump and fit that.   Accuspark electronic ignition or similar is well worth the expense (£25 or so) again keep all the points and condenser gubbins (INCLUDING both screws) in an old Oxo tin or something in the car.   Fit decent rotor arm (distributor doctor's red ones are best),  dizzy cap and leads and again put all the stuff you take off in the car (I cut down a washing up bowl to sit inside the spare wheel for all this guff).   

 

The boot will leak in a heatwave - drill holes near the corners of the floor either side of the centre stiffener and near the corners.  Get a decent boot seal (East Sussex Minors) and waxoil the floor to death.   If you have 155 tyres keep a 145 on the spare otherwise it wont fit properly in the compartment and you will end up forcing it and wrecking the rear loom (don't ask me how,,etc...) 

 

Sound insulation under the back seat, under the carpets, stuck to the inner side of boot and bonnet lids will keep you sane, but take as much of the carpeting out as you can in the winter - it will help save the floor pans.    Buy (from David Manners, Birmingham) later Marina-spec window rubbers for the doors - easy to fit and keep 90pc of the water out of the doors.   If its a two door any water getting in those side windows is going to piddle down inside and kill the sills.  Not much you can do (easily) about that but if you can live with mastic I wouldn't hesitate.   Make sure the screen rubbers front and back are sound - preferably replace them.  Water WILL be getting in. 

 

Don't waste your money on disc conversion or tele shock conversions - neither add much to the fun but drain your wallet and cause parts problems later on.   Although, I have to say I am glad mine does have the discs in view of the irksome adjustment on TLS drums....

 

Motorway use should be fine (mine sits happily at 70 for 15 miles a day), see above ref. soundproofing.  Also make sure diff is topped up and exhaust is good condition and not touching the car where it shouldn't.   I pay £88 for insurance with Peter James and specifically included daily use and commuting for this price. 

 

Just do it! 

 

I don't know about Lankytim but you have me thinking about one now!

[mercrocker]

I don't know about Lankytim but you have me thinking about one now!

[purplebargeken]

Buy it, run it, enjoy it. Certain upgrades are available via tons of specialists. Rust is the fucker of these vehicles, floor being the worst offender, although plenty of repair panels are available at reasonable cost.

[purplebargeken]

This XM, manual or auto?

[Six-cylinder]

It's 20 years since we have ran a Minor Traveller and Mrs Cyl used it regularly, at the time I had a new Vauxhall Carlton company car and the Minor was a great antidote to a boring new car.

 

However even when I was much younger I apprenticed that the Carlton had moved on, it had easy overtaking, much more grip, ABS brakes and motorway cruising ability but it was winter when the Carlton was so much better. In winter such items as the inside of the windscreen did not freeze over, heated washer nozzles, the intermittent wipers and all the other little comfort aids of a more modern car. 

 

A Minor is simple and easy to work on but does need often and regular servicing. Ours used to play up regularly, such as points closing up but was always easy to fix on the road side. 

 

Crash safety is also an issue, many years ago a young girl hit a telegraph pole in Aylesbury and died, the image from Triplex advertising of a Rover 3500 hitting a tree and the doors still opening always haunted me, if she was driving a Rover or other car with better safety would she be alive today.

 

I would say Spring, Summer and Autumn but not Winter.

 

This was our Traveller.

[Lankytim]

Thanks for the info guys, it's pretty much as I thought!

 

The XM is a 2.5td manual and pulls like a freakin train in veg oil.

[garethj]

Anything can be used as a daily driver, it just depends on how tough you are.

 

Personally for using a car of this age I would fit:

Alternator

Uprated heater, better matrix and variable speed fan

Heated rear window

 

And other than that it's rust and regular maintenance you need to worry about.  When it's 2 degrees and drizzling are you sure you'll want to get in amongst the trunions?

[mercrocker]

Third or fourth time you do it, greasing becomes a ten minute operation at most.   Start doing it now and you will be Wood Brothers by winter.   Alternator nice to have but mostly made of chocolate these days so buy carefully.   Heated rear window and front screen too are available from Manners but hideously expensive.  I find even my old fart-stirrer heater is adequate - use of quarter light and Karobes car coat much recommended for wind-assisted demisting.   These early heaters have a rheostat on the fan - the BMC rally team trick of a slim Perspex strip fixed at 90 degrees across the dashtop might help but I never needed to.   See my post regarding screen rubbers - they only ice up inside if they are leaking.   And you can at least reach the screen from the driving position - I thought about a sponge on a stick to do the rear but trying it made me look like Ken Dodd, the quarter light was a better idea.   They do tend to flop about (don't they missus) and are bastards to tighten up but those little windows are something I really miss on modern shit.   Watch your knuckles on the fucker though, when its fully open.  

If the window felts are like mine you will find a clothes peg dismantled and used as wedges will save your nerves if they rattle....

 

Putting two fingers up to the 21st (indeed a large part of the 20th) century is the biggest hit I get from the little Morry.  It makes me smile (most days.....) when I would otherwise be just on the daily grind. 

[tooSavvy]

At my works, as an apprentice, we had a guy fitting an 'optional' remote lube system to the printing presses - LOTS of grease nipples on one of them!!

 

 

I trousered a selection of fittings and could 'ahem' - pump love into my trunnions from a plate on the inner wing...

 

 

TS

[PiperCub]

Not a big fan of Minors myself (prefer Heralds) but they do seem to be able to still cope with everyday use and while not a common sight, you do see them more often than most (any?) other 50'/60's cars.

 

Like all cars of the era, they were designed/built with the home DIY mechanic in mind and in the days when people didn't mind getting a bit dirty doing regular maintenance and it was all straightforward enough for most to understand & do. Consequently they do need this done as mercroker says every 1000mls or so and with lots of rustproofing precautions, they will survive for many years service if treated properly.

 

A few mods are good too, as said, electronic ignition, decent fuel pump and possibly an alternator.

I'd add (from my time as an MG Midget owner) hazard warning lights (a neat kit used to be available from Lucas), electric screenwash pump, two speed wipers and H4 halogen headlamp conversion (Wipac 7" direct swap - as can be used on MG's Mini's etc), all would make winter driving easier.

 

Also some form of immobiliser - even if homemade (switches on both fuel pump & ignition) as older cars do still get stolen as they tend to be easier to nick.

[oman5]

I did use one for a while. The little 1098 lump punches well above its weight in my opinion, but they are happiest on A and B roads. Whilst they will do 70 mph, they're not happy at that speed and motorways probably best avoided unless you sit with the trucks.

The one thing where time has definitely left the minor behind is the brakes. They need a good shove to work and are either on or off, locking up too easily in my opinion.

I suppose as long as you're prepared to do the greasing and rust chasing, it's totally suitable for everyday use.

[Squire_Dawson]

Some really good comments here, I think anybody wanting to try one should. I used a split screen 803cc model for a while but the late model 1100s are obviously the best. The early cars are more 'collectors items'. I think I'd have another again, but they're not actually good cars (small boot, dynamo and voltage regulators to act up, dodgy door catches and draughts etc). They're a bit of fun with a ready market to sell on should you tire of it.

[captain_70s]

Can't be any slower than my Dolly 1300 with it's 0-50 time of 21 seconds and I'm using that daily. There seems to be lots of people still using them as daily motors and I've been told they actually aren't as unrefined as you'd imagine compared to a base spec Dolomite, an XM is probably another matter though!

[Noel Tidybeard]

fwd minors arent a new idea bmc made one- it was said to be one of the safest handling cars ever

[Asimo]

My tuppence worth: beware seat backs breaking, rear of tip-forward seats going through the floor.

Make sure all four bolts holding the front lever-arm dampers to the shell are there. Sometimes they fall out, sometimes they all get loose and start to break off - which would be a sod to sort out. 

The drag link on the front suspension can rust badly enough to break, inside the rubber bushes, but the rust grips the rubber so it still all looks ok.

 

I was told that the trunnions should be lubricated with a heavy oil and specifically NOT greased but I cannot recall why or if that was Triumph Herald trunnions.

 

I would upgrade the brakes, they really are not up to it IMHO. A heater upgrade also.

Don't be tempted to drive on crossply tyres, Minors steer really well on good radials (they way the steer is the best thing about them for me)

 

And 100% endorsement of everything Mercrocker writes about carrying spares

[tooSavvy]

My yellow GPO van had 'steel' metalastik rubber bushes on the torsion bars(bush hacksaw shortened)... I imagine the P.O. garage knew the fixes there?

 

 

TS

[Guest bangerfan101]

the sound they make going down the gears makes me moist

[dollywobbler]

I don't really like them. Strained at motorway speeds, appalling brakes, crap heaters and a rear end that's got all the dynamic ability of Les Dennis.

 

Plus points are the various jolly noises they make at lower speeds and the 'aw' factor, and most of the crap points can be engineered away. Not always very cheaply though.

[mercrocker]

If I had a quid for every POS hailed as a "modern" Morris Minor my car would indeed be perfect by now....

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I was told that the trunnions should be lubricated with a heavy oil and specifically NOT greased but I cannot recall why or if that was Triumph Herald trunnions.

That's small chassis Triumph trunnions. They need oil, grease ruins them. The Morris trunnions use grease.

[Pillock]

Until this thread, I thought a trunnion was a made up component. Like having to replace the thrust flange, I thought it was a joke.

[purplebargeken]

What do you mean. Thrust flanges aren't real? Nooooooo. 

 

Just buy the darned Moggie and bask in classic car happiness. 

[plasticvandan]

ive ran three as dailys,soundproofing and halogen headlamps a must.Alternator and duplex timing chain a nice thing to have.

never had any issues with heaters,all worked well. brakes,provided all components are new and in good order,are fantastic for drums.

fuel economy is poor. leccy ignition means dizzy maintainance is confined to wiping the cap out every 6 months.

the last one i had i fitted a genuine cooper s cylinder head,kn filter and different carb needle,that would go off the clock! gearbox sounded like it couldnt keep up lol

soundproofing very worthwhile.new door seals and felt window channels help quietness and heat retention,water repelling.

headgasket change can be done in an hour.

parts cheap and everywhere.gearboxes can be weak.axles tramp.oh,and RUST.