[51morris]

Hello folks!

I am from Basavanagudi in Bangalore, living in London. A software consultant by profession, I am deeply passionate about automobiles. What follows is a account of my journey into buying and restoring a 1951 Series MM Morris Minor. Hope you enjoy reading this!

Prelude

As long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by everything vintage/classic. While growing up, I would always be keen to visit my Grandfathers’ house in Basavanagudi. The house was a treasure trove of artefacts that interested me – old bicycles, switches, furniture, cars and the like! Maybe it’s the simplicity, the attention to detail or just the beautiful designs from the years bygone that have always captured my attention.

My interest in these things never came down and I started looking for some of them here in London. Here are some antique collectables I have been able to get my hands on so far:

A GPO Bakelite phone from 1929 with a pulse to tone converter fitted so that it works on modern networks:



An 8-day Westminster Chime Mantle Clock by Seth Thomas (circa 1976)



Past experience with classic motors

Naturally, I was drawn towards Vintage cars. From when I was a kid, I fell in love with these beauties whenever I saw them on our roads.
Years ago, I was able to buy and restore a 1960 Fiat Select. Here are some pictures of the lovely car.





The restoration thread can be found here:

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/post-...ct-1100-a.html (Restoration of "Vinty", a 1960 Fiat Select 1100!)

How I came about to owning a Morris Minor


While the Fiat was restored (quite poorly!) by another mechanic, then fixed to an extent by the late Mr. Kannan from LCK Garage, it still had quite a few issues on it. It was during one of the Fiat Club (of Bangalore) meetings in Cubbon Park that I saw this lovely blue colour Fiat Millicento. The car looked simply marvellous and had a stunning paint job. I walked up to the car and introduced myself to Sai Krishna, who I learnt had actually restored the car for the owner. Krishna and I walked up to my Fiat Select, which was parked at the far end of the line and he took a quick look around the car. We agreed that I would take the car over to his garage sometime.

I then found myself driving to Pioneer Garage near Commercial Street on a sunny Sunday afternoon to meet Krishna. Drove the Fiat into his garage and the VERY FIRST thing I noticed was this blue Morris Minor parked there. While Krishna and I spoke about my Fiat, I was constantly distracted by the Morris and couldn’t help stealing glances at the car ever so often! We agreed on the work to be done on the Fiat and I drove my car back.

Over the next few months, I went to Krishna’s garage many times to get the work done on my Fiat. Each time, I would lust over the Morris till, one day, I asked Krishna if I could drive her. To my surprise, he said yes! We decided to drive to a petrol station nearby, get a tank full and drive back. It was my first time driving a car this old (I later learnt it was from 1951) and I was completely smitten!! As soon as we returned from the short drive, I told Krishna to let me know whenever he decided to sell the car and that I would simply snap it up.

A few years later, when I was in London, Krishna called me to say he had decided to let go of the Morris. I was overjoyed but had only 1 problem. While we have a long drive way at home that can house about 6 cars, we have only 1 garaged space, which was occupied by the Fiat. So, the only option I had was to sell the Fiat and buy the Morris. Krishna helped me find a buyer for the Fiat, sold it for me and dropped the Morris off at my place! Since then, I have been a proud Owner of a 1951 Series MM Morris Minor. Here are some pictures of the car, the way it was when I got it in 2016.







As evident from the pictures, the car was very well looked after and had most of the original fitments still on it. These included original Lucal parking lights and tail lamps, working trafficators (only needing a bit of rewinding), all the original Smith’s dials, etc. The engine was butter smooth and mechanically the car was in reasonably good shape. I drove it around each time I visited Bangalore and it was just a joyous experience!

Restoration time!

While the car was in good shape, it was showing signs of age (all 68 years of it!). The paint had aged quite a bit, lots of rust in the usual suspect spots, quite a shoddy upholstery work (done by the person who owned the car before Krishna), chrome had lost most of its shine and most importantly there were a few mechanical bits that needed work. The engine, for starters, while still being very smooth, had lost a bit of power and would struggle uphill with 4 people in the car. The steering rack and front suspension would let out an alarming rattle each time I went on even the tiniest of undulations on the road.

Krishna and I had talked about doing a full/ground-up restoration on the car sometime, but had put it off for a few years. Eventually, with me being in the UK, we felt it was the best time to do the restoration, mainly for two reasons. 1, the car was not being used much and 2, more importantly sourcing parts from the UK would be easier. So, in early 2019, we decided to go ahead with a full restoration of the car.

Normally, credits are given at the end (of a film, for example). However, the way the car was restored and how it turned out at the end is all because of Krishna and his A-Team. I therefore feel I should write about them at the start of the story!

Krishna



Electrician (at the steering wheel)




Left to right - Tinkering, Upholstry, Painting.




Research and parts list

Before Krishna even took the car away to his garage, the first thing we did was agree on the fact that the primary objective of this restoration would be to get the car back to factory glory (to the best extent possible). This meant, we’d have to do a lot of research on the Series MM model, its specifications (both cosmetic and mechanical) and so on. That’s when we came across a fabulous book by Ray Newell called Morris Minor Restorers Guide. This is a MUST HAVE book for any Morris Minor owner/restorer as it gives detailed descriptions of each model in the Morris Minor series, along with clear colour photographs.



Armed with this, Krishna took the car away to the garage to do a thorough inspection and came up with a list of parts that we had to buy. We agreed on a Google Docs Spreadsheet to track each item “to be purchased”, “purchased”, “delivered to Krishna” and “installed on the car”.

Here’s what the tracker looked like!



With the first version of the parts list ready, I went shopping!

Majority of the parts were purchased from ESM Morris Minors (https://morrisminorspares.co.uk) . This website is a treasure trove of parts for the Morris Minor. Coupled with quick delivery and excellent customer support, this was our go-to website for most of the parts required for the car. For the rest of the parts (not found on ESM), ebay UK was the only other option.

Tinkering

While I started ordering parts, Krishna started taking the car apart, getting it ready for tinkering.

One of the big ticket items that we had to address was rust. As they say, a British classic is generally a by-word for rust! There was a lot of rust on the floorboard, running boards, wheel arches and the likes. Tinkering, therefore, turned out to be one of the key phases of restoration.

With all the chrome bits removed (except the front grill) the existing paint was fully taken off first before the body work could begin.





The engine bay, floorboard and running boards getting some TLC!!!







As expected, quite a bit of rust was removed from the car! Here's a picture of some of it.



The rust-free car was then given a coat of 2K primer on the outside and inside, acting as a sealaing agent before the base coat goes on.














More to come....

[shankar.balan]

Lovely lovely thread. Wishing you lots of happy miles and lots of smiles. I d love to see this car sometime.
Please do tell, what is that very lovely dark green canvas ragtop car lurking in the back ground of one of your photos of the restoration team in the garage?
Could it be an MG TC? Or Alvis or similar?

BTW I share your love of all things of yesteryear’s and have a few such antiques at home especially the furniture and clocks etc. I d love to get a hold of one of those Bakelite dial phones - we were using these right up to 1990’s up in the hills.

[51morris]

Contd...

While the 2K primer work was in progress, we decided it would be good to get the chrome bits done in parallel. Krishna was very particular that chrome plating must be top notch as this can elevate the cars’ looks multi fold. After a lot of research, he narrowed down on a chrome plating company in Coimbatore. It was agreed that the parts would be copper plated first and then chrome plated. This ensures that the chrome lasts longer (on my Fiat, the chrome work done at Vijayalakshmi was so poor that it started to peel off within a couple of years). A door handle was sent to Coimbatore as a proof-of-concept. This was copper and chrome plated and returned to Krishna. The quality was absolutely stunning! This gave us confidence in the quality of work and the rest of the chrome bits from the car were boxed up and shipped to Coimbatore.



When the box was boarded up, it looked suspiciously like a coffin! In fact, when this was being loaded into a small goods carrier, cops stopped by to ask what was in the box. The guys had to literally shake the box to show the Rozzers that the box only contained some car parts and not any human remains!!

Painting
Now, the BIG decision was what colour to go with on the car. I initially had Black or British Racing Green in mind. However, I came across this 1949 Series MM (Low Light) convertible here in London which was immaculately maintained (sadly, I don’t have a picture of it). This was in Old English White (a sort of ice-creamy shade of white) with red interiors. It was pure eye candy!! I instantly decided this is what my Morris Minor is going to get.

To get a feel for what the colour looked like, Krishna painted the glove box cover in Old English White. It looked tremendous and I gave him the thumbs-up to carry on with the paint work. He even painted his helmet in the same shade. This is something he uses almost daily!



With the paint scheme finalised, the car then got a base coat of Old English White







With the car now off to the paint booth, Krishna started on the engine work. Here’s what the engine looked like when it was removed from the car.

Engine work

While the car was being painted, the engine, gearbox and transmission assemblies were removed . These needed a complete overhaul.





This was completely dis-assembled and new parts fitted in. Since the engine was low on power, we got slightly larger pistons (original: std, new: 40 mm). The cylinders were re-bored to accommodate the slightly larger pistons, the valves, valve guides, gaskets all fitted in and the engine painted in a nice shade of green (to complement the white engine bay). The dynamo mount on the side of the engine was brittle and needed to be re-cast. Here’s what it looked like during and after assembly!









The fully assembled enginewas also part of the Ayudha Puja at the garage!!



At this point, the engine was bench-started. Krishna sent me a video of it and it started and ran beautifully! I will try and upload the video to YouTube and link it back to this thread.

Painting (Contd..)

At the paint booth, the car got a final coat of Old English White and lacquer.









Rolling out of the paint booth, the Old English White was already showing its strengths! The car looked fabulous!!





The car returned to Krishna’s workshop, ready for the rest of the assembly to begin.









Even this butterfly couldn’t resist taking a closer look at a beautifully painted Morris Minor!!!



More to come..

[manjunathkl]

Originally Posted by 51morris

As long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by everything vintage/classic. While growing up, I would always be keen to visit my Grandfathers’ house in Basavanagudi. The house was a treasure trove of artefacts that interested me – old bicycles, switches, furniture, cars and the like! Maybe it’s the simplicity, the attention to detail or just the beautiful designs from the years bygone that have always captured my attention.

This type of hobbies are very expensive hobbies at the same time very satisfying hobbies. Good luck on your restoration projects. It takes courage to touch a iconic piece, restore it and maintain it. I cannot think of doing it. I cannot restore an Ambassador. So full respect for that.

[51morris]

Contd..

Interiors

With the car painted in Old English White, the next step was to agree on the interiors. I knew it had to be a shade of red, but didn’t want it to be too flashy (a.k.a “American” 😊 ). Krishna therefore sent me a few sample colours.



The trouble was, it was impossible for me to decide on one by looking at pictures. No matter what lighting conditions/camera was used, the true colours never showed up in pictures. I therefore told Krishna that I fully trust his decision making capacity and took a step back while he finalised on the right colour for the interior. All I knew that it would be a shade of red!


This was the first glimpse I got of the interior – even in the pictures, it looked like a good shade, perfectly complimenting the Old English White paint.





We also decided on the same red shade for the door inner beadings, which turned out to be very classy indeed!





The rest of the interior work (including front seats, door panels, roof lining, parcel tray, carpets) progressed while the remaining mechanical bits were addressed.

Engine (Contd..), Gearbox, Transmission

With the interior work going on in full swing, Krishna and his team then started assembling the engine, gearbox and transmission. These were also painted in the same shade of green (as the engine) – here’s what this looked like fully assembled!





This was then dropped into the car – this is when the paint scheme really started to shine. The green contrasted the white extremely well.



With the engine assembled, it was time to run it in a bit. We kept the car idling almost through the day and it ran flawlessly! Naturally, we needed to make sure the engine was getting enough air through the radiator. We therefore plonked Krishna’s grandfathers’ table fan in front of the car and kept it on through the day.

Here’s a picture of the epic stand-off between the car and the fan – neither of them gave up!!






Wheels and tyres

We had decided that the wheels would be painted in the same Old English White colour. With this done, Krishna also told me that the original wheels had a thin pin stripe on it. We decided it would be the same colour of the interior. Here’s what it looked like.




Remaining mechanical bits

The brakes were fully refurbished, with an Ambassador master cylinder (for extra bite).





Suspensions (front and rear) and differential were all assembled (with new PU bushes from ESM) and put back on the car.









We were able to source (locally) a full system copper exhaust for the car. This not only looks good but also produces a nice exhaust note.

Cosmetic bits and final assembly

With the mechanical bits almost complete, it was now time to focus on the final cosmetic bits of the car.

When I first saw the Morris Minor at Krishna’s, it had a lovely Union Jack monogram and two fog lamps. I simply loved the look of the car with these. However, by the time Krishna sold me the car, these items were separately sold off. When the car got delivered to my home in Bangalore, the first thing I asked him was about these bits!!

I decided that I would source these in the UK. Fog lamps were easy to find on ebay – original Lucas fog lamps (Left spread and right spot). The monogram became a big issue as I found it impossible to find one similar to what was originally on the car. So, I struck a deal with Krishna 😊 I bought 2 union jack monograms on ebay and asked Krishna to exchange these two for the original monogram! Luckily, this plan worked and we got back the original monogram that was on the car – I was chuffed!



The dashboard colour chosen was a shade of gold. The Smiths meters were all overhauled, cleaned and re-painted.







All bolts and nuts on the car were zinc coated.



The pin stripe on the sides of the car were also matched with the interior (and the same colour shade as the pin stripe on the wheels)






The car got a set of new glasses all-round. Most of the chrome bits were fitted back on the car. was finally starting to take shape and buy did it look good!!



We then fitted the fog lamps on the car. I was also able to buy original Lucas sealed beam headlights for the car. These two completely transformed the front end of the car!



I was not able to get the original thin white walls for the car. We therefore decided to slap on a set of White Wall inserts on brand new MRF tyres.



At this final stage of the restoration, as luck would have it, I had to travel to Bangalore for 2 weeks on work. I was delighted and immediately asked Krishna if he could deliver the car whilst I was in Bangalore. He gladly agreed and pushed his team to complete all the remaining bits.

Finally the day arrived! Krishna refused to send me a picture of the fully finished car – he wanted to save the wow factor for when I see the car. And boy was I in for a surprise!!

More to come..

[51morris]

After 8 months of extensive research and painstaking work by Krishna and his star team, "Vinty" was delivered to my home!

Hope you enjoyed reading this thread. What follows are some (actually a LOT!) of pictures of the car when it was delivered.

[51morris]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Lovely lovely thread. Wishing you lots of happy miles and lots of smiles. I d love to see this car sometime.
Please do tell, what is that very lovely dark green canvas ragtop car lurking in the back ground of one of your photos of the restoration team in the garage?
Could it be an MG TC? Or Alvis or similar?

Thanks, Shankar! Sure, will PM you next time I am in Bangalore.

The green car is Sunbeam Talbot.

Originally Posted by manjunathkl

This type of hobbies are very expensive hobbies at the same time very satisfying hobbies. Good luck on your restoration projects. It takes courage to touch a iconic piece, restore it and maintain it. I cannot think of doing it. I cannot restore an Ambassador. So full respect for that.

Thanks, Manjunath! The Ambassador is the younger brother of the Morris, so getting parts for it should not be too difficult. You should give it a shot at restoring it.

[V.Narayan]

Eagerly awaiting the promise of more to come. Congratulations on a first class restoration job.

[51morris]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Eagerly awaiting the promise of more to come. Congratulations on a first class restoration job.

Thank you, sir! Looks like your message and my post (with pictures of the restored car) crossed paths

[arun1100]

Hey Praveen! Nice to see you back here with the Morris. Krishna's restoration is undoubtedly the best one in Bangalore. I am also happy that you have ensured the FC and Insurance is updated. Congratulations.

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by 51morris

Thanks, Shankar! Sure, will PM you next time I am in Bangalore.

The green car is Sunbeam Talbot.
.

OFF TOPIC: BUT RELATED.

So a long time ago, in the 1990’s in Madras there was a very senior VP at ITC Group of Hotels. Mr Madhok. His son was a friend’s friend and I bought a KB100 RTZ motorbike from him. And when I went to pick it up, we saw his Dad’s old Black Sunbeam Talbot sitting there in the porch of the house. Well kept. Taken out only for Sunday runs. Lovely Glossy black car.

The Sunbeam Talbot was a sort of “Less loaded Person’s” cool Brit Sports car in its time. People who couldn’t buy an Alvis or an MG, bought a Talbot. And I think that in the first James Bond film Dr No, he was driving the Sunbeam Talbot in Jamaica being chased by those bad men in a Black Hearse...

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by 51morris

Thank you, sir! Looks like your message and my post (with pictures of the restored car) crossed paths

Wow, WOW, WOW Your choice of colours is very tasteful - that combination of ivory white with that shade of red and that gold colour dashboard not to mention the red lines. hearty congratulations to you, Krishna and all others who toiled to restore this beauty. May you enjoy it and savour it for many years.

PS: If ever you decide to sell Vinty there is a home for her in Delhi NCR

[benu9714]

Admiration !!

One question :
When I was a kid we had a Morris Oxford (Indian Hindustan 14) which had lever type shock absorbers, same as those of your Morris Minor. I remember problems with repairing them.

How did you overhaul the shock absorbers on Vinty?

[Jeroen]

Excellent thread, outstanding restoration! Really enjoyed reading about the level of detail you had to go through to get to this result. Love the colour scheme!

I always like originality on vintage cars. But I think you made some correct calls on upgrading some stuff. It all very well having original brakes, but you need brake that actually work! If that means a different mastercilinder or callipers. so be it. A bit of extra power from the engine to keep up in modern traffic etc.

Really good jobs on the the instrument too.

One question: it seems the car sits a little high? Did you change anything in the suspension/wheel/tire size or so?

Jeroen

[51morris]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Wow, WOW, WOW Your choice of colours is very tasteful - that combination of ivory white with that shade of red and that gold colour dashboard not to mention the red lines. hearty congratulations to you, Krishna and all others who toiled to restore this beauty. May you enjoy it and savour it for many years.

PS: If ever you decide to sell Vinty there is a home for her in Delhi NCR

Thank you, Narayan!

Originally Posted by benu9714

Admiration !!

One question :
When I was a kid we had a Morris Oxford (Indian Hindustan 14) which had lever type shock absorbers, same as those of your Morris Minor. I remember problems with repairing them.

How did you overhaul the shock absorbers on Vinty?

Thanks! Well, in the case of my MM, it had a set of "shot" absorbers Replacement was the only option.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Excellent thread, outstanding restoration! Really enjoyed reading about the level of detail you had to go through to get to this result. Love the colour scheme!

I always like originality on vintage cars. But I think you made some correct calls on upgrading some stuff. It all very well having original brakes, but you need brake that actually work! If that means a different mastercilinder or callipers. so be it. A bit of extra power from the engine to keep up in modern traffic etc.

Really good jobs on the the instrument too.

One question: it seems the car sits a little high? Did you change anything in the suspension/wheel/tire size or so?

Jeroen

Thanks! I agree, I personally feel its always sensible to balance originality and practicality. After all, the car has been restored so that it can be driven around and enjoyed for years to come!

Since the car has new shock absorbers and other connected bits, it will take a while (and some load) before these components settle down.