Morris 1300

[ETCHY]

Lovely car, well bought.

I always liked the quilted type door trims fitted to the later ones (& yours).

Main reason they rot so badly is that Issigonis wouldn't listen to Pressed Steel Fisher, they told him he was designing in rust traps, he new best of course... but didn't !

Got to say though in other respects Issigonis got it spot on with these cars, they really are excellent little motors.

 

[SiC]

18 minutes ago, ETCHY said:

Main reason they rot so badly is that Issigonis wouldn't listen to Pressed Steel Fisher, they told him he was designing in rust traps, he new best of course... but didn't !

Maybe he did know best? They sold loads of these and many had a short life before being scrapped. Of course the engines and mechanicals were tough, it's the rust traps that let them down. Less second hand cars on the market means a lot more potential customers to buy new.  

Planned or accidental early obsolescence? Of course if it was planned, no one in BMC ever would admit their car had short lifespans. Especially when others of a similar vintage did. 

[BeEP]

51 minutes ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

Unless the block was cast without the fuel pump hole and mounting studs. Lots were, and Minis/1100's didn't start using mechanical pumps until late 1969. Even if there is a hole, chances are there's no fuel pump lobe on the cam.

 

Pics, one with hole, another without.

I should have said I'm pretty sure all transverse 1275 engines had the fuel pump holes (the one you've pictured is a longitudinal version from Midget etc); I've not seen one which didn't.  And maybe I've just been lucky, but in my experience if it has a hole it has the cam lobe.

[HMC]

35 minutes ago, SiC said:

Maybe he did know best? They sold loads of these and many had a short life before being scrapped. Of course the engines and mechanicals were tough, it's the rust traps that let them down. Less second hand cars on the market means a lot more potential customers to buy new.  

Planned or accidental early obsolescence? Of course if it was planned, no one in BMC ever would admit their car had short lifespans. Especially when others of a similar vintage did. 

Sainsbury’s, east grinstead. 1970s. Isopon? Aisle 12 love.

[HMC]

Duo tone and the whiskers above the front bumper. Wolseley? Wobsley @D Spares & Tyres

[chaseracer]

Riley Kestrel...? ?

 

EDIT: yep...

[jonny69]

Nice one Rob! Not as much rubbish old BL toot on Autoshite as there used to be but there seems to be quite a fair bit coming back!

[HMC]

5 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Looks like you've bought very well there Rob, good luck with it!

Gives me an excuse to post one of my favourite images, I'm guessing this one has trumpet issues......

1982 Scrapyard - Practical Classics 9/82 by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr

Got to be a Renault 16 far right bottom.

[SiC]

 

3 hours ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

All cars rotted back then, but 1100's were an absolute twat to repair. Ford chassis legs and strut top plates were easy, 1100 trumpets and rear sub mounts were not.

What do you mean the rear sub mounts were not easy? It was a lot of fun* being under there for a couple of weekends while trying to avoid grinding sparks in your hair and white hot welding balls rolling down your clothes.

All the while wearing this.

 

Quite pleased at how it turned out. Apart from my usual crap job when I'm armed with the paint pot.

 

That was using welding and cutting kit from 2019. Imagine doing that job back in the 70s/80s with an oxyacetylene torch. No wonder so many were cubed rather than repaired. 

Funnily enough that was the last major job I did on the car before I sold it. Actually finally solid at that point but still had an awful lot of mechanical stuff to be done by that point.

Btw the above is exactly why I said don't look under the back seat. ?

(I'd still do it again though if I could find another reasonably priced ADO16. I'll try avoiding one that was quite as rotten though...)

[Broadsword]

By the way Rob, did you get rid of one of the fleet to accommodate the Morris, or is it fleet expansion ahoy?

[warninglight]

I love that! I still have my first car squirreled away, a 1964 Austin 1100. The trumpets and rear arches are pretty sketchy, but I went through all the heartache with sills and subframe mounts a few years ago. They're tremendous fun!

[lisbon_road]

@warninglight, how long have you had it?  I still have my first car, which is a 1967 Vauxhall Viva, I bought in 1984, I think.

The Viva is a very different proposition.  Much less rust prone (whatever their reputation) but the ignition systems were utterly dire and the 1100/1300 was probably more refined, with definitely better ride.  All these cars could have been so much better without too much trouble.

[2flags]

I remember these well. I worked on these as an apprentice. My dad had one, 1300GT. Great little car. I used to 'borrow' it. before I got my own car.  Many great memories here.

[warninglight]

1 hour ago, lisbon_road said:

@warninglight, how long have you had it?  I still have my first car, which is a 1967 Vauxhall Viva, I bought in 1984, I think.

I bought it for £60 in 2007, when I was 16, and used it as my daily from 18 til I was 21. It keeps getting bumped back in the queue for time and money sorting it, as I've had a steady procession of bigger and more expensive chod since then. It's in a friend's garage and I really ought to recover it.

https://www.irishvintagescene.ie/introducing-the-fleet/

 

[lisbon_road]

You got a bargain for £60.  That's what I paid for the Viva in 1984.  Bet Rob paid a bit more for his - well worth it though.

[BeEP]

1 hour ago, warninglight said:

I bought it for £60 in 2007,

My limeflower 1100 2 door cost £65 in 2006.  I was clearly robbed!

[RobT]

Talking of trumpets, and inner wings in general, this has homebrew metal wheel arch liners fitted.  I assume they are anyway.  Pop riveted on FTW, with the odd screw when he ran out.

I had another cavity wax jizzing session today, and got loads up behind those liners (which I'm too scared to remove) and plenty in the sills that are already full of old wax.

It also started fine with a very brief drive, so that's something.  Still don't trust it though so will probably do the pez can rigging up tomorrow.

[RobT]

42 minutes ago, lisbon_road said:

You got a bargain for £60.  That's what I paid for the Viva in 1984.  Bet Rob paid a bit more for his - well worth it though.

Yeah a bit more than that!  Most I've paid for a car since the S2 Daimler.

3 hours ago, Broadsword said:

By the way Rob, did you get rid of one of the fleet to accommodate the Morris, or is it fleet expansion ahoy?

It's the latter.  Slippery slope innit...

[Vantman]

Very well bought Rob,i passed my driving test in one of those,i am unable to remember if it was an Austin or a Morris though,it was in 1964 !

[stuboy]

my grandad had white one with full pushback roof

[LightBulbFun]

On 5/1/2020 at 8:52 PM, RobT said:

As mentioned in News 24, last week I did a buy.  It's effectively a two owner from new car, as the bloke I bought it from had only owned it for three months.  He's got 13 other ADO16s, so decided he'd better have a clearout...

As blind impulse purchases go I think I've done alright.  The same giffer owned it from 1979, there's 69,900 on the clock, and it's only done 860 odd miles in 16 years.  Oddly he kept getting it MoTd until 2017 despite it being exempt.  The history is clean too, with only advisories for ball joint dust covers, CV gaitors, tyres perishing and a few other bits.

Pics from the C&C advert.

The idea was to buy something properly old for a change, and to tinker with it during lockdown to try and maintain some sanity.  Let's see how long I last before I get bored or run out of skills!  But my initial thoughts are this will be sticking around for a while.

what a lovely car  

I look forward to seeing more of this car in this thread  

I imagine it would be interesting to see how it compares to the metro, given both are A series powered with slightly funky suspension setups 

[martc]

23 hours ago, SiC said:

Maybe he did know best? They sold loads of these and many had a short life before being scrapped. Of course the engines and mechanicals were tough, it's the rust traps that let them down. Less second hand cars on the market means a lot more potential customers to buy new.  

Planned or accidental early obsolescence? Of course if it was planned, no one in BMC ever would admit their car had short lifespans. Especially when others of a similar vintage did. 

Alternatively the built in rust thoroughly pis*ed off owners who, once given a choice, bought something else (often foreign*) thus beginning the long decline of the company...

*which often proved to be just as rusty but introduced the idea of looking beyond the usual.

[AnthonyG]

3 hours ago, martc said:

Alternatively the built in rust thoroughly pis*ed off owners who, once given a choice, bought something else (often foreign*) thus beginning the long decline of the company...

*which often proved to be just as rusty but introduced the idea of looking beyond the usual.

Yes, it may* have been a good idea when only Weirdos bought foreign cars, but a very, very bad one once people had tried something else, that didn’t have its back end falling apart within 5 years.  As mentioned above, Fords/Vauxhalls/Rootes cars were also easier to patch up once they had succumbed to tin worm due to their simple design.

I think Leyland management certainly thought so as the Allegro was a pretty well rust-proofed car.

Issigonis was a poisoned chalice for BMC, after the success of the Mini and 1100 he was given more or less free reign, which proved to be a bad decision with the 1800 and a bloody disastrous one with the 1500 project (which took about 5 years to launch as the Maxi, and wasn’t properly developed when it was).

[hairnet]

22 hours ago, warninglight said:

I bought it for £60 in 2007, when I was 16, and used it as my daily from 18 til I was 21. It keeps getting bumped back in the queue for time and money sorting it, as I've had a steady procession of bigger and more expensive chod since then. It's in a friend's garage and I really ought to recover it.

https://www.irishvintagescene.ie/introducing-the-fleet/

 

ahh jaysis!

[RobT]

17 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

what a lovely car  

I look forward to seeing more of this car in this thread  

I imagine it would be interesting to see how it compares to the metro, given both are A series powered with slightly funky suspension setups 

Thanks LBF.

As comparisons go, the Metro feels more spacious despite there being minimal differences in height and width.  That's probably due to the more cubic nature of the Metro, but the ADO16 is 320mm longer.  This certainly feels more sprightly low down having the 1275 engine, you really have to rag the Metro to get moving (which is no bad thing!).  However, I will say once wound up the 998 feels the slightly smoother unit, and is still fun to bomb around in.  That observation is also based on driving two other 1275cc motors, but that could just be me.

As for suspension, the 1300 does that comedy bouncing thing at slow speeds, but the Metro has the edge in terms of going over road humps.  I think this may be too high at the rear as it can top out and thud if you go too fast over humps and bumps.  But trouble is if I let fluid out the front will be too low, as they're interconnected front to rear (A series Metros are side to side).  New tyres on this to replace the ancient cross plies should help no end.

[RobT]

More tinkering today.  I think I'm done with rust proofing for now, having used eight cans of cavity wax and four cans of stone chip. There's still a few areas to do, but that can wait until I'm arsed.  Gets a bit mucky and tiring, although is very satisfying overall.

Not sure it's had an oil change in a while...so I've lobbed some cheap 20w50 in to act as a flush, and will put the decent Millers in after a few miles.

Check out this NOS cartridge filter.  Almost a shame to use it.  I'll be keeping the box obvs.

It also seemed to be running fine today, with the inline filter showing a healthier level.  I know people said not to be too fussed but it was bothering me slightly.

So buoyed up I took it for a spin up the road, on a level, just in case I had to push it back.  Looks no different up top, but I might have a go at removing some dirty finger marks next week.  Although absolutely no polishing will occur.  The flat paint work is staying I think.

[wuvvum]

My first 1300 was on crossplies on the front.  They didn't improve the driving experience.  (It had also been hand painted red and fitted with a shotgun cartridge under the bonnet, operated by pulling a wire under the dash, to simulate backfiring as part of its role as a prop for the professional John Cleese impersonator I bought it from, but that's another story.)

When we eventually get back to having auctions at Kings Lynn you need to come up in this so I can have a go.

[RobT]

WTF at the John Cleese impersonator, and yes I'll try and bring it to ACA next time.  Should have it fit for a long run by then.  Probably.

[Three Speed]

In 1974, after my parents’ Hunter met an unexpected and sudden end, they ordered a new Cortina from the Ford dealer in Neasden. There was a 6 week wait so the dealer sold them a 1996 D reg Austin 1100 in white with red interior as a stopgap for £100. I was very impressed because it had a carpet. We had it for 6 weeks and sold it back to the dealer for £80. During that time it had a whole new exhaust fitted. The white paint was unmarked - because it was new. Close inspection showed there was a lot of filler underneath. 8 years old! My mum really liked driving the 1100, my dad not so much. As well as the carpet I liked the speedo which waited until you turned right before it would spring into action. Sadly never been in one since.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Wow! I saw this on C&C locally and thought OMG mega barg but by the time I’d stopped exclaiming it was sold.. delighted that it’s gone to a shiter!