Boot Lid carpet

 November 2021

The inside of my boot lid was pretty unattractive with thick cracked underseal  and various fasteners from the badges, number plate and number plate light showing.

Had previously added some form of sound insulation to cover it up but never totally happy with it. Was a bit floppy and light bits constantly came off it onto the dark green boot mat.

So time for a change.

Decided to add a carpet cover.  Ended up adding a piece of green carvel carpet, from Newton Commercial to the boot lid. Not cheap at £40! Carpet was approx. 5 to 7mm thick. Much thicker and it woudn't have tucked behind the internal lip to hold it in place. 

Disconnected the wiring at the number plate light and then took the boot lid off the car to make it easier.

First, filed down the pins holding the badges to remove excess height and shortened the threads holding the number plate light in place so there was less chance of bulges or snagging caused by them.

Then made a cardboard template of the hole to be filled by the carpet. Added extra 10mm on each edge of template to allow carpet to tuck behind lip. Cut out carpet and fitted in place, just tucked behind the lip, not fastened in any other way.

Refitted lid to car.

Poked hole through the carpet for the number plate wiring and reconnected.

Had enough to make two extra pieces to fit in bottom of boot. See photos. Just put these in place. No glue etc.

Door Handles

 October 2021

Decided to get new chrome exterior door handles as these were the only chrome parts that were not up to par with the rest.

Front handles

For these I purchased a new pair of front door handle assemblies, from Abingdon MG, at a cost of £216..wow! Did manage to sell the old pair for a net £30 on ebay.

Process of removal and replacement was not too bad, just had to undo all the frame fastenings and raise the frame almost out of the door to allow for the handle assembly to be extracted. The two nuts under the quarter light were a bit of a challenge but were not seized and undone easily using a 7/16 box spanner and ratchet ring spanner fitted on the other end of the box spanner. Just  need lots of patience!

Did find a spacer bracket missing from one door. Made a new one and fitted it.

Rear handles

As I could'nt find any new rear handles for a 4 door I removed the old ones. Removal was much easier than the front, just had to remove the locking mechanism screws (2 off), the escutcheon plate (1 screw) and the 3 screws holding the door handle assemblies. Then moved the lock out of the way to allow the handle assemblies to be removed.

Disassembled each handle from the assembly and had them re chromed at Chromefix, Birmingham, at a cost of £70 the pair.

Replaced the return springs in each before fitting back to the door. 

Overall probably added little value to the car...but one more job done.

Feckenham Car Show

August 2021 Attended Feckenham Car Show .

A good turn out of over 100 vehicles.

Including this extra special Army Morris Minor Traveller

'M' for Morris, 'M' for Mike?

 1 March 2021

Coloured hubcaps 'M' in red paint.....just for fun?

Rear Seats Recovered

 22 Feb 2021

Bought rear seat covers from Newton International in suede green with dove grey piping.

Took of old covers and fitted new. 

Seat back has off side top corner a bit wavy on the piping despite trying to pack and straighten out. 

Otherwise they look pretty good.

Instructions for fastening the rear edge of the seat cushion were not mentioned so hog ringed to back rail after inserting cord onto edging. used 2 pieces of cord cut from excess of main cord that ran in top edge.

Seats before, not hole in seat back.

Seat -old above, new below

Back - Old above, new below

  

Windscreen Washer Bottle

 Changed windscreen washer bottle

Removed colostomy washer bag from bulkhead, filled all unwanted holes and repainted all bulkhead and engine bay sage green areas.

Added new windscreen washer bottle mounted on offside  inner wing in engine bay.

Before

After

Extending bonnet stay

 Jan 29th 2021

Fitted an extending bonnet stay from ESM.

It really does make working in the engine bay easier, lighter and less prone to whacking my head on those sharp corners of the bonnet.

Easy to fit. Took about 1/2 hour in total.

I found the spring easier to remove and refit when the bonnet was at its normal non extended position.

Extended position above

Normal position below

New Gauges added.

15 Jan 2021 

Spent the last few weeks planning, getting parts and finally fitting

water temperature and oil pressure gauges to the dash. 

Decide, after seeing other dash layouts, that the better looking option was to fitt the gauges into the main dash rather than a separate bracket.

Bought genuine Smiths magnolia gauges and the correct senders. Bought a second hand thermostat housing that already had a 1/8 BSP port and modified an oil banjo bolt by drilling and tapping 1/8 BSP for the oil pressure sender.

Ran cable for water temp sender through a piece of aluminium tube clamped to the engine studs that already existed. ( these were fitted for a different type of air filter, I suspect)

Ran temp gauge off 10 volt stabiliser and oil gauge direct of 12 volts. added in line fuse from fuse box. 

Results as below.

Original dash with windscreen washer button on right and Morris badge covering another small hole, on the left.

Finished job

(screen wash button moved to separate bracket below dash.)

With lights

Oil pressure sender

Temperature sender

Wiring

Engine bay