Technical Tips Page
The Morris
Minor is a sturdy
beast, however, neglect it, and it will fail. Look after it and
it will look after you! This is a collection of things I've learnt over
my 10 years of Minor ownership and (more recently) restoration. It
represents my personal knowledge and opinion and is not necessarily
representative of views of the East Kent club as a whole.
1. Rust
Other than and accident write off, this is was will ultimately kill your Morris Minor- unless you do something to stop it! This description of my personal way of dealing with rust came from a response to a PM on the national club message board (Thanks Nick for asking the question!)
As for rust, thats a whole other can
of worms, but fortunately I can
talk on this subject with some knowledge as I'm a chemist by trade and
know a little about the chemistry involved.
The rust converters are basically rubbish- they just convert the
very top layer leaving the rust to fester underneath- only lasts a year
or two before the rust is back.
Hammerite also does not perform very well- I've tried it.
The very best idea is to remove all the rust and paint with a rust
inhibiting primer. If you can afford it,
after repairing the spring hangers and chassis legs, remove all the
panels and get the car and panels seperately media blasted. This will
remove all rust on the exterior of the structure and panels of the car.
I'm going to put wings etc in the sand blaster at college.
Other than that remove the rust off the surface of the car by using
a wire brush on grinder to remove the loose surface rust. Then finish
off with an abrasive disk on grinder- (like we used a college) these
can be bought from Screwfix or Toolstation. DIY stores are too
expensive!
http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/cat ... lnTrack=11
http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Abrasiv ... 130/sd1920
Any holes that appear at this point
mean the metal in that area was eaten away too much by the rust and
that another welded repair is needed- butt welding is far preferable to
lap welding for repairs- the overlap in lap welding is an area where
moisture can be trapped and rust may fester!
Once the metal is shiny with a few pits, I apply Jenolite or
another rust remover to the pitted areas to remove the final rust pits,
work in with hand wire brush and wipe off. You could also use a spot
blaster if you have a compressor. A spot blaster is a localised
sandblaster and is very good for removing rust and paint from small
areas. Then I paint the whole panel
once clean and de-greased to nice shiny metal with a zinc rich primer
(you can buy 1L cans
from automotive paint factors.) Once the zinc rich primer is dry, I
like to use seam sealer on any welded seams or joins in the metal work
of the car- this is to keep moisture out and prevent rust from
re-forming. Brush the sealer into weld seams and joints. Then paint
under the car with a couple
of coats of chassis black paint (available from Partco). Then when the
car is MOT's, waxoyl it thouroghly. Dont use underseal, its rubbish!
Dinitrol seems to be even better than waxoyl, its easier to apply- I
use a schutzs gun with a compressor- and it stays soft and waxy for
longer. Apply the thinner Dinitrol to the inside of box sections such
as the sill structure and chassis members.
Other Treatments
Red oxide primer is supposed to be good as well. Etch primer is
used as the first layer on bare metal and/ or filler when painting the
visible upper bodywork of the car. It etches its way into the bare
metal and filler and provides a good base coat for further layers of
primer. I've never used the POR15 stuff.
Be careful with the grinder- they can be dangerous- as can the
acids in rust removers and the solvents in the other paints. Work in a
well ventialted area and wear gloves and eye protection.
For
welding repairs guide- see dibble.htm
chop top rescue resto!
Prevention
is better than the cure!
2.Engine
3. Grease
4.Wood
under construction!
