This is the rolling restoration story of 'Snoopy' my 1969 Morris 1000 Traveller

He arrived in 2003, with tired paintwork, horrid number plates, and really horrid plastic

door mirrors.

The woodwork was also stained dark at all the seams. This is due to a fungul spore that lives in white ash wood.

The number plates were the first thing I replaced, with pressed steel black and silver

plates. Interesting number plate. The wheel PCD (Pitch Circle Diameter) of the Morris is

four inches, which equals 101.6mm So to have the number plate PCD 101G is very unique.

Anyway, the old varnish was removed from the wood using a skarsten scraper. This is a cabinet makers tool, that removes varnish, without opening up the grain of the wood. It is also a lot quicker than using sand paper, which just clogs too quickly.

Dark areas were bleached with lemon juice, and left for 24 hours. Then the wood was treated to Burgess Wood Sealer (6 coats applied wet on wet) then five coats of Burgess Marine Varnish. This combination is microporous, and allows the wood to breath, and prevents fungul spores returing for several years.

I like my cockpit toys, so decided the basic interior could do with a few more gadgets.

So several days later, we have the Boyd Coddington look.

After that, I went daft with the paintwork. I bought an HVLP spray gun, and repainted the roof and front wings. Then wet sanded the car, burnished the paint using Farecla G3, then AG SRP and topped off with Zymol Wax.

Happy with the shine, but miffed that 145R14 tyres were getting hard to find, I slapped on the Minilite alloys, running 185R14 tyres. Very grippy in the dry, brutal in the wet.

The engine bay then got detailed.

The car keeps me busy. It ate a gearbox in 2005, and the replacement was noisy, so I had to do the whole job again a month later. That same evening, a drunk driver on, an electric golf cart came through a stop sign, and the Moggy destroyed the golf cart at the cost of a new front bumper and front panel. Wasn't laughing at the time, but the traffic cop was. One in a million or what

Car does about 5000 miles a year. £70 Insurance and free road tax. 40MPG on regular

unleaded.

Thanks for looking.

looking good mate, keep up the good work .

I love looking at restoration thread pictures:thumbup:

Lovely looking car, although I preferred the standard wheels and dash, I can understand why you have made improvements to the technical spec of the car. Used to work with a Minor nut and he used to say the brakes and road grip were borderline terrifying in the wet sometimes.

Top job that man:thumbup:

Needs lowered though:rofl:

:sofahide:

Beautiful, love it

Really love these cars. Looks like a really well kept classic

Really nice car, love these projects!!

So what are the interior additions then?

gorgeous.

Nice to see a good clean moggy....I used to have a 2 door saloon in black many moons ago......sold it for more than I paid for it ......it used as much oil as petrol and was getting a bit costly to run

I'm going to disagree with Amanda about the wheels. The Minilite (replicas) are correct period, unlike more or less anything else except Rostyles (which might as well be made from unobtainium these days).

I'm going to disagree with Amanda about the wheels. The Minilite (replicas) are correct period, unlike more or less anything else except Rostyles (which might as well be made from unobtainium these days).

Actually Ken I think you’ll find you can’t disagree with my preference, as it is mine and hence, an indisputable fact. You can however, say you prefer the minilites :P:D Be honest, did you assume that I preferred the original wheels because of the period look? I actually prefer the White Steelies as i think of Minis and Escorts when I see Minilites

I love Rostyles , I used to have then on my Hillman Hunter, it made it go 59.7mph faster too:D

Didn't you strap something quite silly under the bonnet of one of these?

Didn't you strap something quite silly under the bonnet of one of these?

There used to be that chap who had a highly tuned V8 Rover engine in one and went drag racing with it. I think it caused quite a stir in the 80s.

Actually Ken I think you’ll find you can’t disagree with my preference, as it is mine and hence, an indisputable fact. You can however, say you prefer the minilites :P:D Be honest, did you assume that I preferred the original wheels because of the period look? I actually prefer the White Steelies as i think of Minis and Escorts when I see Minilites

I love Rostyles , I used to have then on my Hillman Hunter, it made it go 59.7mph faster too:D

I meant I disagreed about the white steels looking better. And also that Minilites are one of the few viable choices for a 1960s period look on a "normal" car.

And incidentally I think Rostyles only belong on Rootes group cars and Cortina 1600Es.

I meant I disagreed about the white steels looking better. And also that Minilites are one of the few viable choices for a 1960s period look on a "normal" car.

And incidentally I think Rostyles only belong on Rootes group cars and Cortina 1600Es.

Well I still disagree with your disagreement of my preference but agree with your assertion of Rostyles on Rootes cars. We are showing our age I think.

Got to agree with Lady Elanore about restoration projects! They're just fascinating! Love them!

Cheers Moggytech, Snoopy's looking good!

Didn't you strap something quite silly under the bonnet of one of these?

A while back I looked at stuffing a John Barret 4.7 Litre V8 in there, but the money involved was getting silly when I added it all up. JLH restorations do some nicely tuned Minors, using either K-Series or V-Tech engines. You can have 330BHP with 5 link rear end, coilovers on the front, discs all round, and 0-60 in under 5 seconds. Work costs roughly 7K if the car doesn't need major structural repairs.

Locally there is Fiat Twin Cam Minor, and in Dundee a Rover SD1 V8 that races at Crail.

The things I have done to this car as follows. Disc brakes up front. Kobi Gas Dampers all round, which replace the old Armstrong oil dampers. Halogen headlights, Alternator, electronic ignition (still uses points), High profile cam with cylinder head port work. Stainless exhaust with single baffle, sounds like a mental trumpet on over-run

Interior. Sat Nav (frequently got lost going to shows) Oil pressure, Water Temp, Vacuum, Battery Volts, Rev Counter gauges. Mountney steering wheel,

As for the Minilite Alloys, I would have loved to have kept the original wheels, but they were extremely out of balance due to state of the roads, and also getting dangerous, and would throw balance weights frequently. The choice was £250 for a set of refurbed original wheels, but 145R14 tyres were getting hard to find, so would need to run 155R14 which is slightly too wide for the original wheel width. Bull Motif had the alloys on offer for £400 including tyres, and someone wanted the old wheels for £100, so it was a no brainer.

Used to use the car all year round at one point, but the new sticky salt they use these days, was turning out to be a death sentence, so dry use only these days 8 months of the year.

Only two tools required to repair, Hammer or bigger hammer