project Boris the '59 Minor.

[Asimo]

9 hours ago, Joey spud said:

The rear indicators need some thought too it looked like this which is what they did back in the day but its like an orange tit.

Late ‘60s VW Beetle rear lights work. Fitted a little bit higher than the Minor rear lamps for visibility, proper amber indicators! I really liked the look on my Minor but I have no pictures of it’s rear.

It takes a bit of reshaping of the VW plinth to get the lamp unit to sit correctly but as it is sheet steel it is easy enough. 

[bunglebus]

[bunglebus]

Or you can go custom and use modern reproduction 39 Ford lamps with red and orange LEDs

 

[Joey spud]

That DB10 relay is £70 bloody quid...

I was going to go bumperless on the rear as the original set up with the big valance between it and the body looks awkward but then saw this idea which is much better.

The guy has also trimmed some metal off the lamps mounting plinth to tidy it up further 

I like these kind of mods,at first glance everything thing is factory then when you look closer the subtle changes become obvious.

[Tickman]

That does look a good idea, hope he has tackled the front too.

 

[Isaac Hunt]

23 hours ago, Joey spud said:

Quality street wrapper ?? 😁

Some coloured glass paint from a craft shop.  At one stage, I seemed to have quite a collection of good amber bulbs with peeling colour and MOT advise (amber bulb behind clear Lense) so I got a small pot of amber glass paint and dipped them all.  Worked a treat.  

Our MGZR came with  a green glowing clock.  Annoyed me when all other instruments were orange.  When I took it out to change the bulb there was a blue bulb in there

[Joey spud]

I am off till the 4th of January and so i really need to sort my shit out and get busy before Mrs Spud finds things for me to do around the house.

So up the garden i ventured earlier and pulled the cheap car cover off the o/s of Boris only to find its a bit pants at keeping him dry and mould had started growing on the front seats leather trim.

So it seemed like a good a time as any to remove his scant interior.

I don't possess a 9/16 socket (that i can find anyway) so a 14mm 6 sided one got the seats out instead.

I don't think these circa 1975 toilet door locks are original fitment either.

The top of the back seat needs work (or the tartan blanket and union jack cushions refitting).

I think the faded carpet looks cool as and will definitely go back in with some decent thick sound deadening material under it.

So there you go not too bad.

Then Boggy the Wonder Dog pointed out that any Clown can pull something apart...

[PhilA]

Failing that, retrofit a late 40's Ford US truck switch? They blink green on the end and do the functions internally.

They normally go for about $20-25 on t'eBay. They're also really easy to rewire to do independent blinking amber lights and/or at the same time a high level third brake light plus trailer socket if necessary.

[Joey spud]

My door doesn't fit too well...

I took the door off and found the bottom hinge was seized which really wasn't helping things one bit.

With the hinge freed up the door could be made to fit but it was still tight up against the quarter panel,i think the corroded inner wing and sill has allowed the hinge panel to twist.

I have taken measurements from the hinge fixing holes to the edge of the quarter panel (930mm) and have also got a new hinge panel to go on if needed.

The measurement on the passenger side is 936mm so i now have something to work to.

Before i start cutting the sill/floor out i thought it would make sense to brace it up a bit.

With the bracing welded inside the car i can still fit and remove the door to get the hinge panel where it needs to be rather than just winging it.

I think that'll do if i just do one side at a time i also think i will need to support the floor from underneath and release the tension from the torsion bar thats acting on the centre cross member to stop it all twisting.

 

[Joey spud]

I won a pair of red glass lens for £3 to use as rear indicators but then quickly realised a 21w bulb is too big to fit behind them and a 5w bulb was a bit dim so back on to ebay for a solution...

Cheap led bulbs in white and amber flavours.

White was too bright..

But the amber led was much better so seeing as i can have a red rear indicator on a '59 car i think that'll do.

I did experiment with using the green quality street wrapper as a filter but it made no real difference.

Obviously i will have to swap the old bi metalic flasher unit for a modern one now.

[Noel Tidybeard]

try red led gives better colour than white

[Joey spud]

While it's too wet outside to do any Minor work i have decided to look at making good the drivers door.

For a sixty year old bit of tin its not in bad shape the rot in the base is most likely been caused by rain water passing down inside the door due to worn out window seals and blocked drain holes.

I cut out the worst of the grottiness and tacked in a new piece on the doors base.

Then fannyed about letting in bits of fresh metal which took an utter age and looked a bit pants too but once a bit of filler is added i thought it would turn out ok.

While i was troweling on the filler i thought it might be a good idea to make sure the base of the door is still straight.

Er not a chance.

 It wasn't any where near how it should be,my slap dash/fuck it that'll do approach to body repair has bitten me hard on my backside as the door is now distorted way out of true along it lower edge and no amount of pudding is going to make it look right so i have now done what i should have done in the first place.

I have purchased a lower repair panel for a reasonable £26.

So this weekend i will mostly be up the shed trying to right my cock up.

 

[Joey spud]

I have never attempted fitting a pre formed repair panel to a door before so watched a few YouTube vids first and i think i got away with it.

The old skin relied on just being folded over the frame to secure it which was probably ok but i also drilled a few holes through the panel and plug welded it to the frame 

It's going to need a fair bit of filler to make good though.

My problem is i want to keep the car looking its age and keeping as much of the original paintwork as possible but all these repairs are going to be a bugger to blend in,but then again if the colour is out i can put it down as character.

[Minimad5]

Good work.

[RobT]

Great updates as usual.  Referring to filler as 'pudding' always raises a smile too. Proper 70s terminology.

[Joey spud]

I recently aquired some bits of rubber that allow Lucas rear lights to be mounted on to curved surfaces (moggy rear wings) without them pointing skyward.

You can buy these new for £30 a pair which is nearly as much as a bottle of welding gas so these scruffy degrading ones for £20 seemed like a better deal and i can sell on the worst two later.

I have been looking for a drivers rear wing and had little joy,in desperation and after a few beers i nearly clicked on a glass fibre one on Ebay but slept on it only to find the next day it had sold.

Then skimming through the many Minor groups on Facebook i came across a post for a solid looking metal wing that had been placed last October so i messaged the guy to see if it was by any chance still available and got an instant shout back saying yes.

Better still it's close by to me near Gatwick.

 

[Joey spud]

This drivers door repair is turning into a filler fest.

I detest trying to get bodywork good enough to paint,i get there eventually but this door is driving me nuts.

Once again it's my own fault as the repair panel and the door skin have done their own thing and left me with mega distortion where they join,in hindsight it would have made far more sense to just use what i needed of the repair panel to cover my damage to keep the welding localised and the base of the door.

Filler,filler and more filler with added primer coat reacting with the (oil based maybe ? ) clarendon grey top coat.

And now that my everything in my shed has a layer of white powder over it i think i have finally just about got about there.

[Low Horatio gearbox]

Good progress being made. Your metal working skills are something I'd be more then happy with (this year ill be starting to fix that) the door is looking good now so it's been a worthwhile lesson in the end. 

[Joey spud]

Ha Ha i lied yet more filler was needed but it is getting there.

I was reading on a moggy site that the doors sizing was a bit "hit or miss" when these were built and on the production line it was normal practice to have a selection of doors available and the best fitting ones for that car would be used.

I don't think this door is the one that Boris started life with as there is that washed out pale blue colour the later car were painted showing on its inner frame so i may well need to do some extra adjustments once the car is solid again and back on the floor.

As long as it doesn't end up fitting like this one i'll be ok.

 

And if shiney paint and straight metal isn't your thing then this Traveller is suberb.

 

[Asimo]

That is the first post-war motor I have ever seen look good on wire wheels!

[Dick Longbridge]

On paper, I shouldn't like that Traveller. However, in the metal that looks great. Apart from the wire wheels... probably just me, but wire wheels should be used on bicycles and nothing with four wheels...

Great progress with Boris too! I can still remember 'repairing' the bottoms of the doors and bootlid on my 69 Tragalfar blue 1000 with bridgeagap and filler in the early 90s. Poor old thing. At least Boris is being done properly, and deservedly so.

[mitsisigma01]

On 07/02/2021 at 11:48 AM, Joey spud said:

Better still it's close by to me near Gatwick

If you need the wing collecting, I am over in Gatwick area regularly 

[Joey spud]

49 minutes ago, mitsisigma01 said:

If you need the wing collecting, I am over in Gatwick area regularly 

Thanks for the offer,if i get stuck i may well take you up on that.

[Joey spud]

I've bought a pair of Hella H4 flat lamps to replace the old sealed beams partly to improve seeing where i'm going but mainly because they are non standard and will slightly alter the look of the car.

I have also purchased even more new bits of tin in readiness to make a start on the o/s.

[Joey spud]

I keep looking at Boris and his "problem area's" and can't quite work out where to start i need the door pillar to be rot free and in the right place before i cut the floors and sill panels away but to secure the pillar ideally the sill needs to be sorted first.

In the end i've started cutting away at the inner wing by the hinge panel which has revealed rot and holes in the toe board,floor and inner,inner wing.

I wanted to leave the hinge panel in situ so i could test hang the door off it but it wasn't realistically ever going to happen so i carefully measured where it sat and cut it off.

I have now ordered an inner wing repair panel that comes with the return back to the pillar so i can replace it all as one bit and hopefully remount the hinge panel keeping everything in the right place.

Boris came with a pair of new hinge panels but when i checked how well made they were i was left disappointed with how far out the bottom hinge mounting  point is.

New (East Sussex Minors sourced) compared to original.

So i will reuse the old one and patch its rotted base with a bit from the "iffy" pattern one.

To repair the inner,inner wing and floor/toe board the inner sill and stiffener panel needs to come out first usually the inner sill 'L' section survives but mine has already been plated along its entire lengh so it'll all have to go which makes it a bit more of a headache getting it all back together in the right place.

So again lots of measurements have been taken before i start cutting it al out.

And fit this lot.

[Joey spud]

Someone once said a picture can say a thousand words (Kojak?) then these pictures are saying "feck me are you sure ??''.

If cheap panels weren't freely available i think many a Minor would be long gone.

So i have now cut out the worst or the grot and spent a while loosely fitting the five new panels that make up the sill and floor structure to get an idea of what needs to be done,i must say a big thanks to "Evil Len" over on the blue site who has been down this path before and posted up everything to make my life much easier.

Then there is the problem of the rear spring/floor area this has been replaced before but totally gone again i have cut out some of the rear seat/crossmember to access it better.

I took a few measurements as to where the new panel should go but to be honest i'm not sure it was in the right place to start with.

In the end i used a scissor jack to lower the spring from the old mounting and pulled the remains off the car before fitting the new one,releasing the jack and letting the mount find its happy place.

It looks good it lines up well enough with the new floor/sill panels but the box section that suports it from above has lost its bottom inch or so to rust so that'll need repairing too before i can refit the floor and seat /crossmember.

 

[Joey spud]

I think it was bunglebus who suggested early Beetle lamps on a Minor and this Aussie one popped up on facebook  earlier...

Yes that looks sweet,just need to find a pair for sensible money and you can get all red lens for them too.

I finally passed near Horley and picked up a decent rear wing,no rust anywhere just the odd shallow dent.

Lamp holes deleted.

Also picked up a spare set of wheels.

I am going to have a go at re-rimming them using 6J rims from an Astra/Focus.

These moggy wheels have the the rims rivited to the their centres so should separate easily enough.

[Angrydicky]

Nice work! That door repair just reminded me how much I hate cosmetic welding. I'm too lazy to spend hours trowling on wob, sanding back, more wob, more sanding, etc.

That A post repair panel is very disappointing. I'm sure ESM will refund you for it and sort the problem, perhaps it was an iffy batch? I've used ESM loads over the years and always been pleased with the service. I heard they've bought Bull Motif's A30/35 spares service recently, so had a look at the website. All the bits I need were showing as out of stock so fingers crossed they'll invest some money into spares remanufacture.

[Joey spud]

I have finally started welding metal to Boris and decided to start on the inner wing/hinge panel/floor edge first.

This repair panel was £27 delivered and is a decent enough fit and saved a me lot of effort.

Its curved edge is supposed to be folded on to the inner arch and spot welded but i have remade the missing arch with a 90 degree return instead to make it easier to line up and secure.

[somewhatfoolish]

Preface; I have never tried to repair the frilly bottom of a door; would joddling the repair panel and spot welding it to door skin have been viable and avoided distortion, or at least reduced it?