Vintage Minor Register

Delighted to see the car back on the road. Here is a reminder of what I saw when I first met Karthik in Jaipur in May 2011 ! A picture, then, is indeed worth a thousand words ! What a wonderful job you have done in just 6 months !

Parth

Ian Grace wrote:
- are the brake cams sticking? Or are the brakes just adjusted up too tight? I guess the brake shoe return springs are sound and doing their job? The brake pedal return spring should have no effect on brake pull-off. The only other thing I can think of is the brake cross-shaft might be seizing in its three bushes - these should be quite loose - to allow for flexing in the chassis.

Ian ,

your guess was right, the brakes were adjusted up too tight and the cross shaft was seizing .
we have re-adjusted the same and the magically the problem is gone , however we still are not using the front brakes,
so there can be more Braking issues when all brakes are used.

meanwhile , have started reworking on the body and I need to add some strenght to the ash frame,
doors need to be alinged , hood brackets have to be fabricated and ditto for the rear bumper.

regards

Kartik

I recieved the certificate from the British Motor Industry heritage trust and it records the following :

Morris Minor Overhead camshaft Tourer
chassis no M/22335
Engine no 23017
Body no. Not recorded
Specification : RHD , Home Market
Colour : Exterior : Trim : Hood : Not recorded

Date of Build : 24 march - 2 April 1930

Erecting - 24 March
Testing - 25 March
Body shop - 2 April 1930
Date of despatch : 3 April 1930
Destination : Not recorded

Kartik,

Something nice to frame and put on the wall. Don't read too much into the 'home market' remark. UK or export data was not recorded in the Minor Progress Books. It could have been exported from new or perhaps taken out to India by its first owner - perhaps a military man driving it from England? If only our cars could talk!

Have you had any success tracing the history of the car back from modern times?

Ian,

I am in the process of contacting the gentleman who owned the car for last 40 years to
shed some light on its history.

Hope he responds back.

meanwhile, All of a sudden today the minor refused to start up and we ended up removing and dismantling the starter,
this was one part which we had not checked before .

Hope to do a quick check up and get it working soon.

Update:

Over the last few days the progress has been slow but then I dont want to rush at the risk of problems later on.
Not satisfied with the body ,, we have been working on it, The door pillars need strenght as when I move them with hand,
there is too much of play.

Apart from this I am sorting out the bits for Chrome plating, and am awaiting the back bumper, which is not so easy
to replicate.

Engine wise we have been taking it for short drives and its getting better each time, the brakes are now perfect and not getting stuck.

while all this gets sorted out , I am now starting to think of the next Big decision and that is the colour of the car.
The first few thoughts were Red/black and Green/black , even thought of giving it the Niagra blue( kind of) with black.

but then Red and green are too common and blue might not look that great, so I am confused.
Then thought of this :

1. All Black with red wheels and red seats ( upholstery black) and a Tan hood, and with all the chrome ....Let me know what do you think, or any other suggestions

regards
Kartik

Confusing indeed ! Well, my car came with the green black combination with silver wheels and I am very happy with it. I have black seats and a white hood, both in need of restoration, and I plan to change to dark green seats (which I just love) and black hood. The trick perhaps is to get the green right, not too dark and not too light.

I would suggest that you go with a two tone affair, black fenders with a dark green or blue or maroon affair. None of the very bright stuff. Two tone cars are not seen on the streets at all and dark green, dark maroon or dark blue are not available in any of the modern cars, so I don't think you need to worry about these colors being too common.

I am not sure how good black will look on a small car. A Rolls Royce with a shiny black paint job might look wonderful, but the Minor might be too small to carry it off. That said, I saw this lovely picture of a small black MG M Type which looked amazing, black car-red wheels-tan hood, but I just cannot manage to find it now and post it here. Also, black is a color which does not age too well, so be very careful with the quality of the paint job.

Parth

Coming on to the steering, which parts of the steering are Chrome plated?

gone through lot of pictures, have generally seen the steering wheel painted black
and the steering rod in some cases chrome plated?

your observation's Please !!

Kartik

Hi Kartik,

As far as I can tell from the car I have owned, the 1930 OHC steeriing column tube and fittings at the top should be chromed, and also the ignition advance/retard rod. Also the two caps and screws on the clamps that hold the advance/retard rod. I also thinik the bracket that attaches the column to the firewall - the part that goes around the column, should also be chromed. But I could be wrong - anyone else have any thoughts?

Every year the state vintage and classic car club in jaipur organises a Rally , the dates for this years rally are 4th and 5th of Feb 2012.

Here is a picture of USJ 1795 Denting is complete , we have attached the wings etc to re-check the shape and all seems to be in order,
engine wise the car is perfect and runs well, all major spares are with me and only a couple remain.

The remaing work majorly is Paint, Chrome , upholsetery, wiring , Hood.

Now the big question is Can we do it on time ?
I have been giving myself deadlines and they did not work uptil now, but now I am all geared, My team
has promised to work very very hard. so the countdown has begun some 20 working days remain.

I will keep updating here.
Cheers

Kartik

Wow! Looking great! Go or it! Just because I need a report for the Magazine.

Ian Grace wrote:Wow! Looking great! Go or it! Just because I need a report for the Magazine.

Good Idea Ian, More motivation for me ..............thinking about making the cover page

It might be worth checking the parts lists re chrome as it was my understanding that the column and various rods were nickel plated.

Chrome replaced nickel at chassis M14556 (Kartik's chassis is M22335), but it would be churlish to assume that the switch was instantaneous for all fittings, many of which came from outside manufacturers, and Morris would have used up their stock of nickel-plated paets - at least the smaller items - before switching.

I didn't mention it yesterday, because I didn't want to make things too complicated, but from experience, I get the feeling that the advance/retard rods remained nickel plated long after the introduction of chrome.

One thing we can be certain about - you won't notice the difference at 50 mph - specially in that Jaipur traffic.

I noticed today that the Dash board in USJ might not be original or
has been modified , as I have not been able to find a picture with a similiar dash.

here is the picture note the glove box circled red, is this original ?

Kartik