BMC/BMH/BL Readers wives #End of year round up#

[Matty]

Any interest in a communal thread for forum members with cars from the great conglomerate(s)? A bit like the communal mondeo and bini threads. I appreciate that most of us have our own threads but I love the pics so call it a minor news thread. Have you washed it, mended it, gone shopping in it, thrashed it to within an inch of its life with a branch?

I'll kick it off. Don't let me die on my arse here lads.

Small car only just fits in space

[High Jetter]

I washed and went shopping in the MG today. Might do the Jap tomorrow, IICBA.

[Matty]

21 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

I washed and went shopping in the MG today. Might do the Jap tomorrow, IICBA.

Pics or you didn't wash it 😄

[High Jetter]

Tbh I meant to do a 4-and-aft. Dark now, tho.

[Matty]

Well that was the general idea anyway. A picture heavy thread of our bmc bmh and bl cars out and about doing car stuff. Never mind

[SiC]

Doing standard BL stuff yesterday - welding

Moggie is ready for paint now

Its interior is in desperate need of a clean

[Matty]

Now we're cooking

[Matty]

58 minutes ago, SiC said:

Doing standard BL stuff yesterday - welding

Moggie is ready for paint now

Its interior is in desperate need of a clean

At least it has its own interior.

Hate those seats more than life itself

[captain_70s]

My genuine BL car is still in bits. Starting prep for paint next week, should be on the road by mid April after 2 years of it being buggered.

[Shite Ron]

Yesterday I was mostly working on the 216, not sure if it is right here as it was after they turned Japanese:

Hopefully these two members of the fleet qualify:

[Matty]

Brilliant @Shite Ron more please 👍

Edit, actually the tomcat fits perfect. The Rover Group cars were after all the end of the line of what started as BMC (Cortinas fit but doesn't count as it was made by a firm who knew how to make good stuff that people wanted to buy so has no place in this thread 🤣)

[Matty]

4 hours ago, captain_70s said:

My genuine BL car is still in bits. Starting prep for paint next week, should be on the road by mid April after 2 years of it being buggered.

Acclaim more than counts as well. Looking forward to seeing the Dolomite get sorted

[Joey spud]

This is a great idea for a thread I much prefer reading about a bland underdog than anything pure pedigree.

As the weather was decent yesterday I pulled the cover off Boris the Morris and refreshed my mind with where I had got to when I packed up last year.

I was a bit miffed to find that my unfinished welding has started to corrode already.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I have BL Minis.  I'm surprised they have managed to exist this long, too!

Err, and a 1972 Range Rover that is too awful to photograph.

[Fat_Pirate]

6 minutes ago, Rusty_Rocket said:

I have BL Minis.  I'm surprised they have managed to exist this long, too!

Err, and a 1972 Range Rover that is too awful to photograph.

Cracking wheels, surely not standard?

[JeeExEll]

Love the wheels on the blue one. Cooper S, possibly banded a bit?

[Shite Ron]

3 hours ago, Matty said:

Brilliant @Shite Ron more please 👍

The Tomcat is my girlfriends, we bought it last year but due to work and bad weather only yesterday finally got around to giving it a good look over. It is a very original looking car with what looks to be a genuine 90k miles. We pulled all the wheels off and found it has new discs, pads and drop links on the front, on the rear it has new shoes and wheel cylinders. The only issue we found was the L/H rear hand brake was not holding, after some WD 40 and working the adjuster it now seems good. We found two small holes at the front of each sill after attacking with the wire wheel on the angle grinder and two tyres had cracking and none match. I will weld the sills some time in the next couple of weeks and order 4 new tyres then hopefully it will return to the road in May.

The second picture was to show the Jaaaag not the Cortina’s either side 😀

The Rover SD1 will hopefully be my next project after the Tomcat as it seems quite solid.

A picture from yesterday on the 216:

A picture from a few weeks ago:

[New POD]

1 hour ago, Fat_Pirate said:

Cracking wheels, surely not standard?

Look like 10 inch cooper (s?) wheels. 

[Rusty_Rocket]

1 hour ago, JeeExEll said:

Love the wheels on the blue one. Cooper S, possibly banded a bit?

Wheels are standard BL Special Tuning 'Reverse' rims.  They are only 4" wide but the offset is very different.  They were made for drum brake cars to increase the track to that of the S disc brake cars, which are 1" wider at the front!

Genuine S wheels are a different offset again, but the other way so the tyre stays under the wings.  No plastic arches as standard until 1984 (or the 1979 Mini Special!)

[Yoss]

I've had dozens of Leyland stuff over the years but this is the only one left. 

I've had it 27 years now. It's not been out in a while as you can see from the picture I've just taken. I really do need to tidy up the garage. It has to move soon as the clutch has started to slip on the Felicia and that's an in the garage job. Then the Triumph will go into daily service for a few days. It still works as far I know. 

[Matty]

2 hours ago, Joey spud said:

This is a great idea for a thread I much prefer reading about a bland underdog than anything pure pedigree.

As the weather was decent yesterday I pulled the cover off Boris the Morris and refreshed my mind with where I had got to when I packed up last year.

I was a bit miffed to find that my unfinished welding has started to corrode already.

I was wondering when you were going to get involved 😆

[Matty]

2 hours ago, Rusty_Rocket said:

I have BL Minis.  I'm surprised they have managed to exist this long, too!

Err, and a 1972 Range Rover that is too awful to photograph.

Bloody hell, that's a fair pair. Retirement fund sorted right there

[Matty]

28 minutes ago, Yoss said:

I've had dozens of Leyland stuff over the years but this is the only one left. 

I've had it 27 years now. It's not been out in a while as you can see from the picture I've just taken. I really do need to tidy up the garage. It has to move soon as the clutch has started to slip on the Felicia and that's an in the garage job. Then the Triumph will go into daily service for a few days. It still works as far I know. 

Toledo or 1300/1500? Lovely looking things. When my mum was younger (I'm 41 and my mum was a young mum) her families first car was a 1300 with no floor pans left. In the rain they used to tuck their knees up. Apart from my grandad Jack who still had to drive it 😁

[Yoss]

38 minutes ago, Matty said:

Toledo or 1300/1500? Lovely looking things. When my mum was younger (I'm 41 and my mum was a young mum) her families first car was a 1300 with no floor pans left. In the rain they used to tuck their knees up. Apart from my grandad Jack who still had to drive it 😁

It's a 1300TC so has the Spitfire spec engine. Has a few other tweeks too to make it more to my liking.

I had a Dolomite 1500SE with a very leaky windscreen when I first met the now Mrs Yoss. My cure for this was to remove the front carpets and the rubber bung they have in the front footwells so the water that came in had a way of leaving again. But only on the passenger side as that's the side the screen was leaking. 

I particularly remember a trip to North Wales when we'd had lots of rain in the days before hand. There were lots massive puddles and minor flooding. The first big puddle we hit the water shot up through hole like a fountain. For every subsequent one I was shouting 'foot!' and Lorraine would wack her foot over the hole. The water still came in but not like a fountain. 

[Matty]

20 minutes ago, Yoss said:

It's a 1300TC so has the Spitfire spec engine. Has a few other tweeks too to make it more to my liking.

I had a Dolomite 1500SE with a very leaky windscreen when I first met the now Mrs Yoss. My cure for this was to remove the front carpets and the rubber bung they have in the front footwells so the water that came in had a way of leaving again. But only on the passenger side as that's the side the screen was leaking. 

I particularly remember a trip to North Wales when we'd had lots of rain in the days before hand. There were lots massive puddles and minor flooding. The first big puddle we hit the water shot up through hole like a fountain. For every subsequent one I was shouting 'foot!' and Lorraine would wack her foot over the hole. The water still came in but not like a fountain. 

And we wonder where our car manufacturing industry went 😁

[Matty]

@Joey spud can't remember if I've asked this before now, but what size are those wheels and what size tires are on em? 

[SiC]

3 hours ago, Rusty_Rocket said:

I have BL Minis.  I'm surprised they have managed to exist this long, too!

Err, and a 1972 Range Rover that is too awful to photograph.

I still would love a classic Mini. Bought the 1100 as a cheaper substitute, then the Moggie but neither are Minis. Everyone I've looked at will, no matter what it was on for sale for, need welding at some point soon. From pre-rotten, to badly repaired, to old restorations having rust break through, to shiny over-sills and to freshly restored but questionable amounts of filler! So I know I'll need to clear my deck of project cars before I get one as I'll end up starting poking and it'll end up all bad pretty quickly!

[New POD]

5 minutes ago, SiC said:

I still would love a classic Mini. Bought the 1100 as a cheaper substitute, then the Moggie but neither are Minis. Everyone I've looked at will, no matter what it was on for sale for, need welding at some point soon. From pre-rotten, to badly repaired, to old restorations having rust break through, to shiny over-sills and to freshly restored but questionable amounts of filler! So I know I'll need to clear my deck of project cars before I get one as I'll end up starting poking and it'll end up all bad pretty quickly!

Summary (from.a man that's owned 4 previously) 

Minis are overrated 1950s tat.

Summary from my Dad, who bought a brand new 1959 mini, and had 3 gearboxes under warranty. 

Issigonid was a maverick and the mini was crap..

When they work, and pass the mot, they can be fun, but quite frankly they were mechanically. And bodily, a bit shit. 

[New POD]

37 minutes ago, Matty said:

And we wonder where our car manufacturing industry went 😁

Well Canley in probably a retail park.

Longbridge, a housing estate, 

But Cowley is home to mini Oxford. 

 

[Fabergé Greggs]

The sunshine of the last week or so has meant I’ve been dailying the Morris. A little list of niggles do nothing to stop it being a daily delight