Morris Minor
Matt’s Minor’s body gets some colour at long last…
Last month I concluded with the shell of the Minor saloon finally in primer, front suspension stripped and dash and engine bay painted. At the very next opportunity, I headed back to CBR Classic Restorations, pushed the car back into the paint booth and got masking. Out came the panel wipe, then the tack rag. I mixed up a couple of litres of HMG two-pack direct gloss and, as before, started by applying a thin ‘gripper’ coat over the whole car. Ten minutes later, it was on with the first thicker coat, then another ten minutes passed before the second. Another pot of paint mixed up, this time with a drop of lacquer, saw the final two coats applied and a stunning finish out of the gun resulted. Once hardened and the rest of the panels painted, the whole car will get a wet flat and mop to produce a perfect shine.
On my last visit, as I’d prepared to prime the shell,
I’d also got both rear wings, boot lid and bonnet ready for primer. Things took a turn for the worse, however – I dropped a rear wing while hanging it up to paint, resulting in a nasty dent. Bother! The bonnet, boot and one rear wing, though, were in primer by this visit, so while the shell baked dry, I set about flatting the primer with 320-grit on a block before they could swap positions with the car and receive a top-coat.
In the workshop
Back at PC HQ, I completely stripped the front suspension to its component parts and sent the lot – king pins, caliper conversion brackets, backplates and lower arms to be shot blasted and powder coated before placing a rather enormous order with ESM Morris Minors for trunnions top and bottom, new conversion Marina hubs that use the Minor’s original four inch PCD, discs, steering
‘I dropped a rear wing while hanging it up to paint!’
rack gaiters and more. I also set about converting the thicker Morris Marina torsion bars I’d sourced to fit the Minor (see right). The thicker bars will allow me to run the car an inch or so lower than standard without bottoming out. These, combined with Traveller seven-leaf rear springs, give taught yet composed handling characteristics already proven on my Minor Convertible.
Take a brake
For the brakes, I’ve opted for MGB brake calipers – I’ve already checked clearance on my Traveller and they will fit beneath the reproduction Minor van wheels destined for the saloon and, rather conveniently, are the same offset and PCD as the Marina calipers intended for the conversion bracket. I had a seized set on the shelf, which were sent away to Bigg Red for reconditioning and returned looking as good as new.
Once the powder coating was back, I spent a happy couple of evenings in the shed building up both front sub-assemblies ready to be fitted on my next visit to CBR and fitted ‘performance’ Polybushes to the top trunnions and lower eye bolts. I’ve previously used ‘comfort’ bushes, but this is to be a more performance-oriented build and I’m keen to try the stiffer bushes this time.
Next on the to-do list is resolving an issue that I’ve discovered with the engine’s timing cover breather, which sites directly in the path of the supercharger belt. Once this is resolved, I can fit the ‘charger to my Traveller – currently in the workshop for wood re-proofing – and work out the best route for the inlet manifold. I’ve also still got plenty of bodywork to do up at CBR – and should be fitting the shiny new front suspension on my next visit to make the car a moveable feast once again. The only delay now on that is the manky, yet perfectly functional lever arm dampers that I’ve just sent away for vapour blasting.