Lowlight trip to Wales is summer highlight

After several months with relatively little travel, I looked forward to a week-long sojourn in North Wales at the end of August. Regular readers will be aware that this is a trip I like to make annually, as it provides the perfect confluence of interests – brilliant roads for classic car driving, plenty of steam railways, and the opportunity for walking in the beautiful Snowdonia mountains.

For the first time, I had two Morris Minors suitably modified for long- distance driving. I would have liked to take Lily, my 1967 saloon newly fitted with a 1275 A+ engine and upgraded running gear during the lockdown. However, I opted to take my modified 1950 Lowlight on account of it being a well fettled and known car to which I felt comfortable entrusting the long journey. Lily’s time will come, but there are a few fettling jobs, such as fitting electronic ignition, that I want to do before undertaking long- distance runs. Points and capacitors cause a lot of breakdowns!

Before embarking on the journey, I took this opportunity to give the Lowlight a full service. That included checking the tyres for wear, greasing the suspension and running gear, adjusting the brakes and checking for wear as well as the oil levels. In addition, there were a few rectification jobs to attend to, such as making good a ‘get me home’ repair I had done on the thermostatically controlled fan after a connector had snapped off during the heatwave.

Naturally, this resulted in more work being discovered. Uneven tyre wear on the front pointed to the tracking being incorrectly set, and so I set about measuring and adjusting this. The tyres were replaced by a pair made redundant from the running gear upgrade on Lily. During the tracking adjustment, it became apparent that one of the track rod ends was seized almost solid, despite the rubber being in good condition. Again this was replaced and the rest of the suspension greased before the adjustment was completed. I then changed the oil and oil filter, before turning to the rear of the car.

The Morris Minor rear axle

is a pretty simple set up and the hand brake requires regular adjustment. With age, one of the known weak spots is the rear hub oil seals. As a result, whenever I adjust the rear brakes, as a matter of course I make sure to take the drums off to check for any leaking oil. Unfortunately, I discovered evidence of oil contamination in the passenger side rear drum. I removed the half shaft and hub, and then knocked out the offending oil seal, before fitting a new one, cleaning everything up and re-assembling with new brake shoes; we keep a set in stock. I’ll keep a close watch on this, as if it continues to leak I’ll have to fit one of the East Sussex Minor bearing sleeve repair kits.

With this completed, I took the car for a test spin, only to find that for some reason the overdrive no longer engaged in 3rd and 4th. I knew the problem couldn’t be too serious as I hadn’t touched anything related to this, bar topping up the gearbox oil. At first I thought it was a blown fuse, but replacing this didn’t cure the problem. Using a multimeter, I eventually traced the problem to the piece of wire going from the switch on top of the gear lever. I was a bit surprised that this had a break in it, as I had used special grade extra flexible wire designed specifically for this sort of thing. This breaking when it did was a rare bit of good fortune, as it would have been hard to trace and fix at the side of the road.

With all of this done, I just had time to fit the white stripe along the side. I had originally intended to get this coach painted on, but I’d never been able to find the time. As I was impressed with how good a self-adhesive one looked on Lily, I decided to use the same method on the Lowlight. The stripe is meant to be thicker on the early Morris Minors, and so I used a 5mm white pinstripe. This was pretty simple to apply and makes the car look complete.

I’m pleased to say that the Lowlight performed faultlessly over the week in Wales, completing the 300-mile journey up and back with no problem. The modifications make it a splendid car to drive on long distances – it has no problem slicking along effortlessly at a steady 65mph on the motorway or A-roads.

I had many positive comments from people in car parks and petrol stations, affirming to me that the best way to keep our hobby relevant is to get out and use the cars. After a fantastic week driving around the roads of Snowdonia and then home, the Lowlight was safely tucked away. But I’ve got a few further improvements I’d like to make in due course, and she’s well overdue for a deep clean and polish.

“I’m sure that the best way to keep our hobby relevant is to get out and use the cars”

A pre-holiday service was in order for the Lowlight, in preparation for Will’s annual trip to Wales.

This small kink was the only evidence of a break in the wire to the overdrive switch.

The rubber boot was in fine shape, but this track rod end had seized and was replaced.

The rear drum has evidence of oil contamination and so the seal and shoes were replaced.

Will finally ticked off a bucket list visit to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, the station with the longest name.

On a rather melancholy day, Will’s 1950 Lowlight pauses up the B4391 near Bala.

Will behind the wheel of the Lowlight on a mountain road.