Vintage Minor Register

I found this photo of my running board rubber mould mentioned on the Willats fabric saloon thread.



As you can see, it is ambidextrous, so that left or right mats can be produced. I am thinking about running off a batch later this year when I collect the mould from Michigan. All the Minors had this pattern of mat except the 1929 season models and all of the vans which has plain diamond rubber matting.

Here's the result on the Bed-Pan:



So I'd like to start taking declarations of interest!

I'll have two pints please! Highlander.

Is this where the saying "one for the road" comes from? Leave it there long and it will be.Looks good,rubbers do not look bad either. Mike

Pencil me in for a pair please Ian,

Regards, Mike.

Will do, Mike.

Back in the seventies I took my '32 2-seater to a pub meet of the Bristol Austin 7 Club (of which I was a member) at the Kicking Donkey in Somerset. When the pub closed, I drove back through the back lanes to a friend's house where I was staying for the night and parked up in the lane outside his house, which was about 10 miles from the pub. When we came out in the morning, we found a half-full pint sitting on the left side running board, just as the picture above, which must have sat there all the way back from the pub.

Hi ian put me down for pair also
regards steve

Hi Ian,

I'm also interrested in a pair. I'm only a little worried if your mould is wide enough for our '34 SV 2 Seater. Our running boards are approximately 31cm (12 1/4") wide where they meet the front wing, and 95cm (37 ½") long. What's the measurements of your mould?

The finish of the mats on the bed-pan looks very impressive - better than the mats we got for our Austin Seven Ruby running boards, where the surface is a little grainy.

Regards Flemming.

Flemming,

I'm pretty sure the mat is the same width at the front for the '34's, (and in any case, the body would be no narrower at this point than the earlier bodies) but I will check. I seem to recall that the original aluminium channel was more rounded on the '34 running boards? can anyone confirm this?

Many years ago at my Golf Club we re-furbished the changing rooms and scrapped miles of brass right angled beading which went round our bench seats. This is identical to our ali beading but is not ribbed. I could not bear to see this scrapped so took miles of it home. I used some of it on a vintage Humber and it look very good. If any of you want brass beading please come and take it off my hand - FREE!!!. 10 foot lengths. Highlander, Epsom, Surrey, U*K.

Yes Ian....1934 model Morris cars had rounded ali moulding along the length with quite thin specially shaped end pieces to match the shape of the main moulding. The standard square edging often seen fitted all round for these cars is quite wrong. The Morris logo did not appear on the rubber either....which was always quite a broad rib.....not the thin ribbed stuff you often see today.
Not sure when the Morris logo stopped........Autumn 1933 ????.....when the 1934 season cars would have been coming on line ??

Paul.

As before, I'd be up for 2 or maybe 3 pairs... Am I the only minor owner who thinks about what he may need rather than waiting till its broken? I would still like to see distributor drive gear for SVs, every single one I have has the spiral gear worn to a knife edge in the middle giving poor timing and suggesting that they are probably all worn by now?

The good news is that my son, who is currently in Michigan has just got a position with the Air National Guard in Portland, Oregon - about four hours south of VMR HQ. So he's going to be renting a U-Haul in about 4 to 6 weeks and bringing all my stuff over with his - so I should have the mould back in my hands in a few weeks. So before then, I'll sort out Devcon and work up a cost estimate. Watch this space.

Not good news. It looks like the mould has gone - along with several other boxes of spares - from our garage in Michigan. Our son William is there today moving all the rest of our stuff, as he is relocating to nearby Portland, Oregon. Someone has 'removed' ALL my Minor spares, including quite a lot of spares I had earmarked for the McEvoy.

Anyone got any mechanical brake spares - backlates, ali shoes, etc.? Needed for the Mac.

Can do you shoes, drums and possibly bushes for back plate!
Ian, just athought, PJ had the fluted rubber fitted and then an oval diamond rubber let in in place of the original design. would it not lower costs to just produce the oval for minorists to let into some off the shelf fluted matting? This is obviously of more potential if the mould doesn't turn up and assumes a new mould is possible? What sort of cost is involved in producing a mould? just producing the oval would keep mould costs lower and the mould cost could be absorbed into the batch cost? It would use a fraction of the rubber solution and a price of £15-£20 per oval may be affordable and might even result in extra orders?
If i had a pattern & knew where or how to make a mould I'd have a go, if you could point me in the right direction!

Toby,

I'll take you up on the shoes if I may!

Someone (in the BNMC world?) in the past moulded the ovals (saome of the larger four door Morrises had two ovals in each mat) - they are a bit of a fiddle to cut into sheet ribbed rubber matting seamlessly, and they must also be the same thickness at the ribbed mat, obviously. Making a mould is not difficult. Mine was fibreglass and taken from an original mat. So the trick becomes finding an original mat that is good enough to mould from.

Alternatively buy an OHC Minor or a Minor van of any variety, because they all had plain diamond pattern mats!