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Boris the '59 Minor.


Joey spud

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The new switch/cut out thingy turned up today for my old compressor and it stopped the air loss but it still wouldn't get above 20psi so I pulled it apart and found this...

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The outlet valve/flap had snapped,I looked on eBay etc but couldn't find a replacement then I had a eureka moment...

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One feeler gauge blade cut to size and secured with a pop rivet.

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So no excuses I'll have to clean the underside ready for stone chipping now.

Boris came with the wrong late type indicator/side light lamps.

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Which I don't much care for so I have acquired a pair of early side lamps to use as indicators (amber led bulbs) and moved the side lamp up into the head light.

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You would not believe how happy I am finally fitting these original glass lamps.

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9 minutes ago, Tickman said:

All the bonnets I have seen are always too flat at that join, it is as if they couldn't be bothered putting the curve in at all.

Yeah I have done some research (looked at the internet) as i thought maybe van and car bonnets or early late ones differed but you're quite right some just seem to fit better than others.

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Well i got my mojo back long enough to degrease and clean where I wanted to splash the stone chip and picked a dry wind free day to do the dirty deed.

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The interior is now one colour and hopefully the coating might keep some road noise at bay too. I have this idea to leave the sill assembly inside the door shut on show rather than fit their covers as I quite like the agricultural look they have and I can keep an eye on any water/muck that might start collecting there too.

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The underside side took longer than I had planned for but I had to rub down and paint any bare or flaky areas before I could apply the top coating.

All told I hit Boris with four litres of the Gravitex and I still need to do the front panel cross member and o/s front chassis leg.

And the feeler gauge bodge on the compressor was sound too.

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The brake and fuel pipes were  unmasked and refitted with insulated P clips where required and the prop got popped on too. It looks a bit like a patchwork quilt under here but it's my patchwork quilt.

The fuel tank is also fitted in to its orifice in the boot floor.

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I bought a roll of this cauking stuff to sit it on and it seems to have done a far nicer job than using messy silicone out of a tube.

Last year I loosely fitted the exhaust and so started fitting it for real only to need a little bit of welding on a bracket and have run out of gas again.

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 It looks like it's low but when it's hanging on its rear mount it's about right.

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Something like that.

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So to recover from crawling about under the Morris and as the weather was good I used the rattle can that I painted the front panel with to blow in around the head light.

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I left it a day to harden then gently cut it back using a worn out bit of 1500 grit production paper and soapy water then polished it up to a shine with some 3M green cap compound and an old pair of pants 

The colour is a bit out but where it is it doesn't really show and anyway the o/s rear corner has been painted dove grey instead of clarendon grey at some point in the past.

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1 hour ago, Joey spud said:

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The interior is now one colour and hopefully the coating might keep some road noise at bay too. I have this idea to leave the sill assembly inside the door shut on show rather than fit their covers as I quite like the agricultural look they have and I can keep an eye on any water/muck that might start collecting there too.

I think that is a really good idea. 

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My thoughts are now turning to this awkward gap that's usually covered by the bumper valance/bumper blade.

To me the blade and valance arrangement is a bit ugly and gifferish so I am going bumperless or loosing the valance and pulling just the bumper tight to the body but either way the gap needs filling.

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Something simple like this bit of folded steel would do so I've been collecting shreddies boxes to experiment with.

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1 hour ago, Joey spud said:

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My thoughts are now turning to this awkward gap that's usually covered by the bumper valance/bumper blade.

Yes that's always bugged me about Minors - most 60s and 70s cars can be run bumperless and look good. I think the lower wing edge needs to flow down to the bottom of the valance

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I went up the garden to the shed earlier this week and noticed there was a wet patch under the front of Boris which was strange as he has no coolant in him,I dabbed a finger in the puddle and sussed it was Dot 4 flavoured.

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This old pipe from the brake reservoir had split and emptied its entire contents onto the chassis leg taking my nice fresh paint off in the process.

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Thinking about it it didn't seem like a smart idea having a metre length of rubber hose full of brake fluid next to a hot engine slowly degrading so I had a dig around the shed and found some plastic pipe to do the long run from the reservoir to the floor mounted master cylinder and connected it either end with two small lengths of fresh 7mm hose.

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And the exhaust has now been fully fitted without any problems.

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There's loads of room around the axle.

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And it pokes out the back just right but it may well turn out to be a bit noisy with just two straight thru silencers fitted and I may have to revisit it at a later date and fit a conventional silencer after the front pipe.

Body filler can get in the Sea. I hate the stuff. I can eventually get a half tidy result but it takes me an age.

When I fitted the new lower rear panel to the car I should have took more time with the accuracy of the joint but I never do.

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This side has blended in quickly and quite well.

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But the o/s is being a right slag but I won't be beaten i want to get it about right and get a top coat on it.

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Apparently a 1275 engine and Ford Gearbox combo often results in a heavy clutch and jerky operation which can be overcome by converting to hydraulic operation which is outside of my budget.

My pedal is too heavy and has a short action between being engaged/disengaged and the brake pedal is binding up on the clutch pedal shaft which won't help so I pulled the mechanism off the car to have a look.

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All of the clevis pins are well worn and their locating holes on the pedal and relay shaft are badly elongated.

So I have ordered a complete kit of new parts for £32.

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So this and a couple of cheap pedal shaft bushes should improve the feel but not the heavy pedal.

Having a good dig around on a Morris Minor forum and I think I have found a simple (cheap) solution.

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If you cut and extend this lever on the relay shaft that connects to the pedal by 20mm it lightens the clutch and improves the feel no end.

So that's my next step.

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10 hours ago, SiC said:

The remote master fluid reservoir kit I put on from Charles Ware (now defunct) had a copper line all the way iirc. I think ESM used a fuel hose but I wasn't convinced of what its longevity would be.

A metal line does make more sense but I reasoned to myself that modern stuff uses plastic pipe work for everything so my repair would suffice. 

Andrew Eggleton the Morris Minor botherer in Bath recently bought up all of Charles Wares stock so I guess that's something good.

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Yeah I saw that Eggleton bought all the bits. At least Charles Ware can't phoenix again. 

 Dolomites used plastic (nylon?) flexible tubing for their clutch master to slave. It's factory look always looks a bit doohickey with pipes and cables haphazardly unclipped flapping around in the engine bay. 

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An assortment of clutch bits turned up yesterday so I promptly cut the new relay shaft about and added a 20mm bit of the old one to it. I also replaced the bronze bushes in the chassis leg that the pedal pivot on although to be honest when measured they weren't really worn at all.

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It all went together ok but where the relay shaft locates/pivots against the gearbox is a right bodge.

On a minor box there is a nice machined housing that the nylon ball sits in but on this Ford conversion there is just a thin piece of steel bolted to the side of the gearbox with a hole in for the relay shaft to protrude through and this metal plate is very flexible and needed levering back into shape.

I think i will weld some angle or small box section metal along the entire length of this plate to stop it flexing and loosing its shape again.

Anyway the clutch pedal can now be operated easily with one hand whereas before it was a struggle.

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This overly long brake pipe has been annoying me too and despite my reluctance to keep disturbing the brakes I removed it and took 10 cms off it.

There are loads of horror stories on the Minor sites of owners not being able to get the air out of their brakes after working on them but Boris has an excellent full pedal and whenever I have disturbed the hydraulics I have just left a union or bleed nipple slightly open and let any air make its own way out. Maybe having the remote reservoir up high gives you an advantage.

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I also made a quick bracket to run the reservoir pipe well away from the clutch linkage.

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The filler work on the arse end is finally good enough but the making good of the quarter panel repair may test my limited patience.

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Despite the perfect weather I've not got much done but I did finally stop procrastinating long enough to prime and paint the repairs on the rear panel and much to my surprise they have turned out really rather good.

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Again it's gone on a bit darker than the surrounding paint and I have made no effort to blend it in or hide the miss match at a panel edge.

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I fitted the bit that goes under under the door and realised that the quarter repair panel was set too far in so I had to add an layer of metal to make it align better.

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I've been trying to blend in this repair panel but have been making a pigs ear of it.

I think I managed to misalign and distort the quarter repair panel and there is a lot of ancient filler in the car here hiding a previous repair so in the end I ground it all back off and hammered the joint in slightly and tried again.

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It's nearly there now honest...

I never have much joy selling stuff on Facebook as I seem to attract scammers and retards so I didn't hold out much hope when I posted these seats up yesterday.

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But blow me down a Father and Son combo came over from South London earlier and scooped them up for their 63' Anglia with zero hassle.

I really liked the look of these but they are 100% no good for my back. After years of complaining about feeling fatigued and a bit broken i have finally been diagnosed with the weirdly sounding desease Ankylosing Spondylitis and an x-ray shows I now have a partially fused lower spine and joint inflammation more or less everywhere else so I need to look for something more supportive like a pair of leather Ka seats or maybe MGF jobbies.

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19 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

Despite the perfect weather I've not got much done but I did finally stop procrastinating long enough to prime and paint the repairs on the rear panel and much to my surprise they have turned out really rather good.

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Again it's gone on a bit darker than the surrounding paint and I have made no effort to blend it in or hide the miss match at a panel edge.

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I fitted the bit that goes under under the door and realised that the quarter repair panel was set too far in so I had to add an layer of metal to make it align better.

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I've been trying to blend in this repair panel but have been making a pigs ear of it.

I think I managed to misalign and distort the quarter repair panel and there is a lot of ancient filler in the car here hiding a previous repair so in the end I ground it all back off and hammered the joint in slightly and tried again.

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It's nearly there now honest...

I never have much joy selling stuff on Facebook as I seem to attract scammers and retards so I didn't hold out much hope when I posted these seats up yesterday.

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But blow me down a Father and Son combo came over from South London earlier and scooped them up for their 63' Anglia with zero hassle.

I really liked the look of these but they are no good for my back. (After years of complaining about feeling broken i have finally been diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis and a x-ray shows a fused lower back and general inflammation more or less everywhere else) so I need to look for a pair of leather Ka seats or maybe MGF jobbies.

I keep looking at MGF seats. They are quite narrow so ideal for a mog and to my eye they are much more retro in style than MX5 ones. Come in some nice colours too 

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Just now, Matty said:

I keep looking at MGF seats. They are quite narrow so ideal for a mog and to my eye they are much more retro in style than MX5 ones. Come in some nice colours too 

Yeah it looks like the cheap supply of black leather Ka seats is drying up fast 

I've seen leather BMW Mini seats in a Minor and they looked good but maybe slightly oversize.

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  • 3 months later...

So it's September and nearly three years since World of Ceri dropped this wee scabby Minor off at mine the master plan was turn him around within two years as a rot free/solid but scruffy Summer toy.

Well as ever life and other shizzle has got in the way BUT I am getting close to getting Boris out of my back garden and charming the general public again.

So what's been happening  ? Well the other week I tried fitting the drivers side wing that I repaired before Covid only to find it was actually miles out where it met the door and so took a bit of butchery and remodeling to get it to sit half right against the door.

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Bugger...

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Chop,cut,bend and reweld as req...

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And it now fits ok ish.

I wasn't happy with how the clutch mechanism's mounting plate flexed so I added more metal to stiffen it up 

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Much better.

The headlights and front indicator lamps are now fitted but for some strange reason neither now work.

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Stopping water getting into the doors seemed like a good idea so I have acquired a length of a more up to date (Marina ? ) weather strip for the drop glass. I have cut it to size but am waiting for a nice hot day to bond it to the door with tiger seal.

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The drivers side rear wing has been tweaked (bent as req) and fits well enough although I bought light grey beading instead of dark grey.

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I am definitely going bumperless on the rear and ages ago picked up a tow bar to give the car a bit of protection but with no bumper it sticks out way too far so will need a bit of cut 'n' shut surgery otherwise I will be constantly tripping over the bugger.

Rear lights are yet to be decided on I want to go with red tail and indicators lens.

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A fresh can of fuel and a quick wipe of the points was all that was needed to get Boris running again and now the exhaust is properly fitted and leak free he doesn't sound anywhere as loud as I feared.

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I have started bunging the seats back in too.

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I am not worried about putting the door trims or carpet back yet as they need cleaning and the cardboard backing of the trims are distorted and flaky so can be played with over the winter.

Now he's back on the floor I have realised I have set the n/s front suspension one spline too high.

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So the plan is still to get him mobile enough to drive a mile down the road to my new house in the next couple of weeks (if I ever bloody exchange) so realistically I now just need rear lamps and front number plate sorting.

And this must be a sign I saw Boris's brother the other day (running on rare Princess Ann scimitar alloys).

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  • 2 months later...

As posted elsewhere Boris did finally leave the back garden of my previous house and down the hill to his new home.

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But it was a tighter than expected squeeze to get him between my neighbours washing line pole and his garage wall. And I had to abandon the car in the neighbours front garden after Boris's condenser failed.

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I fitted two lamps just so he looked legal.

The short run to my new abode was all down hill and it is hard to judge how he ran to be honest he was a bit jerky and needed plenty of choke to proceed which surprised me as I had let the engine warn up before I ventured out.

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Down at my new place he met up again with the Subaru which 100% will be back on the road next year.

In-between new house stuff I have had little time to do anything much with him although I have been trying to improve his running.

I can tweak the timing and set the carburettor mixture up so that he starts readily on choke and idles well once warm but when I go for a run out and go through the gears he starts to hold back after a minute or so and will only stay running on very light throttle like he isn't getting enough fuel.

If I stop and idle for a minute he takes off again then repeats the holding back,fuel starvation antics. On one outting I kept driving until the engine cut,switched the ignition off a jumped out and removed the lid from the float bowl expecting it to be dry but it was full.

The tank has plenty of fuel in it,the fuel caps venting ok and the SU fuel pump is fairly new and ticks nicely.

The carb on him though is a eBay sourced bitsa,the tag says it was from a 1275cc A series and the code on the needle matches that too but I can wind the jet assy right down until it nearly runs out of threads and the engine still doesn't overfuel or choke up.

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Also I've noticed the four contacts in the distributor cap are wonky and so not parallel to the rotor arm when it passes them I don't think it's causing my loss of power problem mind.

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I have my suspicions that the carburettor is the culprit so I have acquired another later complete HS4 that was fitted to a mid seventies Marina to try when I get a moment.

Also while out trying to get him running right I have noticed that there is a bit of a whine from the rear diff but only when you lift off and the supposedly rebuilt ford gear box sounds a bit agricultural too but I have no sound deadening,carpets,door cards or door weather seals fitted yet.

And the front disc brakes work well but you do need to give a good shove on the pedal to slow down quickly so maybe I will fit a remote servo after all.

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Boris's is also going to have to live outside a little longer as his new home is still full of furniture and tat that we haven't sold,gifted or took to the tip yet.

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