project Morris Minor Ratrod - First drive since 1989!

[SiC]

Big thanks to Panhard65 for transporting this for me.

 

Now unloaded and waiting for me to start work on it. First time I've seen it outside. I think Panhard65 thinks it's a bit of a turd but doesn't want to be nasty.

 

Entertaining Mrs SiC friends today, so I need to put these away from kids hurting themselves. Going to live in the garden for a month undercover. If I can get the 1275 in there running, these will be sold on. If I can't, I'll see if I can get any of these in.

 

For now, I have to earn some more goodwill credits with Mrs SiC.

[SiC]

Plate stayed with the car in the end

[Isopon]

I've been really looking forward for this, glad that you've finally got it!

[timolloyd]

22 minutes ago, SiC said:

Plate stayed with the car in the end

Hopefully Charles William Lewis will now show up offering ££££.

This looks like a great project.

[junkyarddog]

Looking forward to this project, 

I'm getting a bit of a horn for a Morrris minor myself 😂

[Sunny Jim]

How Ratrod do you want to go? This was at the Mavericks meet last week. It had an MX5 engine and we suspected possibly running gear too as it had discs all round.

 

[schonker]

Great,you've got it at last and with the plate.Looking forward to this thread and knowing how quickly you work it will be on the road and running soon

[LightBulbFun]

53 minutes ago, SiC said:

Big thanks to Panhard65 for transporting this for me.

 

Now unloaded and waiting for me to start work on it. First time I've seen it outside. I think Panhard65 thinks it's a bit of a turd but doesn't want to be nasty.

 

Entertaining Mrs SiC friends today, so I need to put these away from kids hurting themselves. Going to live in the garden for a month undercover. If I can get the 1275 in there running, these will be sold on. If I can't, I'll see if I can get any of these in.

 

For now, I have to earn some more goodwill credits with Mrs SiC.

 

45 minutes ago, SiC said:

Plate stayed with the car in the end

ohh awesome! pleased to see that you managed to get this one in the end despite all the faff in the middle!

and that its been able to keep its original plate  

where you able to get the 1984 V5 in the end? (I see its not had anything newer issued since) I would endeavour to see if you can get that, because as explained not only can you use its 11 digit number to do an easy keeper change online, but will obviously be nice to have for the history file 

regardless of that, am very much looking forward to seeing how you get on with it!  

I do like a Morris Minor and I do know your very good at fettling and writing up about old British chod! 

[SiC]

10 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

nice to have for the history file

It is the only bit of paper history I have

[LightBulbFun]

45 minutes ago, SiC said:

It is the only bit of paper history I have

Gotta start somewhere?  

and at least it will contain some history like who the keeper was and potentially who the previous keeper was if there was one before them

(although Early V5's did not include who the previous keeper was on them, but I know by 1985 they introduced that bit, so it might be on your V5)

but it will also tell you when this moggie was computerised  the keeper count will say "Number of keepers XX since XXXX date" which will be when it was moved from its buff logbook to the V5 scheme

(they put that there as keeper counts did not carry over from the buff logbook, so it was an arse covering thing of saying "it may have had 100 previous keepers before this date be-aware")

sadly modern V5's have not include this info for a few years now (even before GDPR I think) for some reason which I think is a bit sad

I do wonder if the DVLA still hold the data and just dont include it anymore or if the data itself was dropped at some point?

 

 

if you are interested in learning even more about its history, the Oxford Registration archives are thankfully mostly complete, so you could go and see who it was first registered too  

https://kitheadtrust.org.uk/england-wales

 

[Asimo]

Cool!

Needs Ford V4/auto ( from a Corsair), Riley 1.5 drumbrakes / rear axle.  That is all.*

 

**’Cos that is what I wanted for mine in 1977!

 

 

[SiC]

@LightBulbFun I thought you said you couldn't SORN an old untaxed car.

[LightBulbFun]

Just now, SiC said:

@LightBulbFun I thought you said you couldn't SORN an old untaxed car.

you cant

the web interface will let you 

but it wont ever take as the back end computer says No

On 30/09/2020 at 21:38, LightBulbFun said:

anything untaxed since before January 1998 cant be SORNed (the application will go through but nothing will happen), and if your not going to use it on the road, then it can safely be left untaxed, SORN was introduced on the 31st of January 1998 and only applies if your vehicle has been taxed after that date

if its been untaxed since before that date the old rules apply and you dont have to worry about SORNing it   (and if the DVLA do send you any nasty letters if you give em a call someone on the DVLA end will put a stop to them) 

am pleased to see the online Keeper change worked as I thought it would however  

[cort16]

I'm glad you've finally got it. You need to get some old fridges to keep those engines in, that will really set the garden off lovely. 🙂

It was fiat twin cams that got dropped in these back in the day. I'm sure I've seen a couple with mk1 mx5 engines in them, which I think would be quite a  nice upgrade. The mx5 engine even look like an old school engine it's got more than a passing resemblance to the Lotus Cortina engine.

[Noel Tidybeard]

if only there was a twin carb B-series sitting round.... 🤔

[Angrydicky]

You’ll probably get several increasingly threatening letters from the DVLA demanding you tax or SORN it. I phoned up and spoke to a very apologetic chap. I had a bit of a moan about it but he said it was out of his hands as a computer glitch was sending the letters out despite owners not able to SORN cars untaxed that long. (My Hampshire was last taxed 1988). He told me to ignore the letters.

Mind you, I haven’t received any since I had a moan so perhaps that worked.

[tooSavvy]

This guy is knocking out 'fitting kit', for Micra twix cam.

..... Box sorted, too!

https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/208938/1963-midget-twincam-road-trip?page=1

[SiC]

41 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

You’ll probably get several increasingly threatening letters from the DVLA demanding you tax or SORN it. I phoned up and spoke to a very apologetic chap. I had a bit of a moan about it but he said it was out of his hands as a computer glitch was sending the letters out despite owners not able to SORN cars untaxed that long. (My Hampshire was last taxed 1988). He told me to ignore the letters.

Mind you, I haven’t received any since I had a moan so perhaps that worked.

Once I get the new V5, I'll convert it to historic tax at the post office. Hopefully the V5 won't take too long as it was done electronically.  I know the correspondence side went on strike too, but I believe they outsourced it during the strike. 

[SiC]

More pictures

[anonymous user]

I hope the Wellers are going on, at least on the back, oh and longer spring shackles for lethal handling.

[bunglebus]

I'll just leave this here

[LightBulbFun]

On 17/07/2021 at 18:15, SiC said:

Once I get the new V5, I'll convert it to historic tax at the post office. Hopefully the V5 won't take too long as it was done electronically.  I know the correspondence side went on strike too, but I believe they outsourced it during the strike. 

Yeah the V5 has already been issued, they just need to stuff it into a brown envelope and post it off

(I do wonder given how quickly the date of last V5 issued updates when you do a keeper change now, if thats just electronic and someone still has to manually print it out, or is there some automatic printer in the DVLA that just spits out V5's into someones outbox tray LOL)

should only take a few days for it to get to you then, and then when you change it to historic vehicle taxation class as you probably know that will tax the vehicle

and then you can SORN it or if its insured just leave it taxed!  

 

On 17/07/2021 at 18:17, SiC said:

never noticed the numbers on the rear number plate where offset until now, thats going to bug the crap out of me now LOL

I have to wonder if they started making it and only realised half way through its not a 6 digit number LOL

[Noel Tidybeard]

1 hour ago, anonymous user said:

I hope the Wellers are going on, at least on the back, oh and longer spring shackles for lethal handling.

yeah like a hardtop version of Miriam!

*except she wasn't on wellers

[SiC]

25 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

should only take a few days for it to get to you then, and then when you change it to historic vehicle taxation class as you probably know that will tax the vehicle

and then you can SORN it or if its insured just leave it taxed!  

I think both myself and everyone else on here have bought and sold enough cars over the years to know all this already!

[GMcD]

So glad to see you've finally got it 🥳!

[SiC]

Going to try doing a "Will It Start" video as these always seem popular on YouTube.

Anyway Mrs SiC destroyed the barn find look as she'd already attacked it with the hose pipe briefly before I got a chance to go out there. Apparently the hose pipe pressure is enough to cause the paint to come off! 🤣


Set to work on the boot and seeing if there was any gold bullion inside.


Found a rusty hole to poke through.


Also realised why the bumper was off. The bottom panel is pop riveted together in the bottom left.


Stuck my lock picking set in and a rake.


No effort at all got it open. Not sure if there are more than one wafer lock in it.

No gold bullion unfortunately. Just the spare tyre, Jack and crank handle.



Set to work in the engine bay. Broke the catch off the bonnet. Good start.




What's this box? Not googled it, but I guess possibly a alternator regulator? Seems to have too many terminals for that though.



Carb number


Engine number


Has a K&N filter. Going to need to find a replacement element. Or just replace it entirely.


Removed the plugs to put some oil down the bores. Unfortunately I broke the back plug. Stiff to get off and I must have put too much side load on it. Thankfully just the ceramic portion at the top broke off.


Brakes.

All the lines appear there. Flex hoses look in good condition, but I still will replace them before going for a proper drive.

Front brake switch and distribution


Front wheel wells



Rear brake lines




Master cylinder screws were rounded out. Pair of decent vice grips got them out though.




Master cylinder is empty, which explains the lack of pedal pressure. Looks clean in here at least. Might just get a rebuild kit for this rather than completely replacing it. I believe there is a special kit for those that have disc conversion like this car.


Elsewhere in the interior there is a full set of worry gauges


Presumably this was the last show this car went to


Still has the MMOC badges on the front.


Also has a set of four of these wheels. 13 inches but no idea if the correct PCD for the car. Branded as Smiths.


Right now I'm drawing up a shopping list to go down to Moss/Charles Ware tomorrow as I have a day off. Will also give it a proper clean off too.

Also tomorrow hopefully I'll get a chance to hand turn over the engine, fresh oil+filter, check compression and go for a attempted start. I intend to video it too. Hopefully it'll be an easy start!

[junkyarddog]

Those k&N filters are designed to be cleaned and reused,they can be washed out then re-oiled.

[SiC]

Looked up some of these codes. 

12CC = MG Midget MK3 1275cc

AUD480 = HS4 carb from an Austin 1300 72-74. 

[SiC]

16 minutes ago, junkyarddog said:

Those k&N filters are designed to be cleaned and reused,they can be washed out then re-oiled.

Yeah but I hate them. Ideally I'll change to a stock paper air filter. 

[bunglebus]

7 hours ago, SiC said:

What's this box?

Isn't that a dynamo regulator? Can't see what's fitted from your pics