Vehicle sighting - 1958 Morris Minor

Joined
Jul 7, 2014
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Location
Winnipeg MB CA
The owner was kind enough to give me a tour of this well-preserved veteran, a 1958 Morris Minor. Check out the block heater interface near the #1 spark plug! No trafficators (mechanical arms for signalling turns) - the owner said they were not approved here, so conventional blinking lights were fitted for the Canadian market. Check out the positive earth electrical system as well. That looks like a 12 V battery, so I wonder if the car came that way, or whether it was converted over from 6 V.







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Originally Posted by 97prizm
Wow what a tine capsule. I wonder how many of those are actually left?
They're rare now, but there's also a 1960 I see here regularly. It's a Morris Minor 1.000,000, to celebrate the millionth one produced. I posted photos a year or so ago, but can't find the post now.

Originally Posted by JeffKeryk
My friend in High School had one. Almost this clean.
I asked him if he could beat VWs. He didn't answer.
That would be a real turtle derby. However, in sales the 36-HP Beetle was the runaway winner.

Originally Posted by edwardh1
may not be a factual picture--- most brit cars I see have a wrecker /tow truck nearby. Owned a Tr3 and a Hillman
With unusual restraint, I didn't tell the owner, a very pleasant fellow, any of my Lucas jokes.
 
What was known here as the Morrie Thou. Very popular and still assembled and sold here into the '70's as a van and pickup. My first car was a '54 Minor, the first with the 803 A Series engine...from the Austin A30, before the BMC merger Morris used their own sidevalve engine. Always 12 volt, practically only Fords were 6 volt in the UK...their American influence. The SU fuel pump is hidden on the left firewall. The front shocks are the top arm and inner bearing, Acme threads for top and bottom knuckle....a common failure item.

Monocoque construction, and like all early unit bodies very prone to rust...they were fully dipped in a phosphate tank in NZ, but it didn't help, they still rotted. When I was an apprentice, the panelbeaters didn't want to do the rust repairs, so we would go to the panelshop next door, fold up chassis sections, and I would lie on my back on a creeper and gas weld them in place.
 
Originally Posted by Silk
What was known here as the Morrie Thou. Very popular and still assembled and sold here into the '70's as a van and pickup. My first car was a '54 Minor, the first with the 803 A Series engine...from the Austin A30, before the BMC merger Morris used their own sidevalve engine. Always 12 volt, practically only Fords were 6 volt in the UK...their American influence. The SU fuel pump is hidden on the left firewall. The front shocks are the top arm and inner bearing, Acme threads for top and bottom knuckle....a common failure item.

Monocoque construction, and like all early unit bodies very prone to rust...they were fully dipped in a phosphate tank in NZ, but it didn't help, they still rotted. When I was an apprentice, the panelbeaters didn't want to do the rust repairs, so we would go to the panelshop next door, fold up chassis sections, and I would lie on my back on a creeper and gas weld them in place.
My wife's family lived in Dunedin before moving to Canada in the late-'60s, and had some very fine neighbours, a brother and sister who had never wed. They visited us here in '88. Lovely people, seniors by that time, doing the trip of a lifetime. Anyway, a few years later, Gus sent us a clipping from the local daily. He was standing proudly by his ancient Morris Minor, which had just passed its WOF. He was about 75 at the time. The car looked mint. We visited them in 2004 during our year in NZ, and he had given up driving by that time. I hope the car went to a worthy 2nd owner.
 
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