1967 Morris Oxford Traveller - off to a new home

Had a big push over the Christmas Holidays to get the nearside finished.

But repair panels for the front wings are on back order, and the drivers side was tight against the wall, so making a template was going to be tricky, so I left it and did other stuff



The passenger side floor, I primed, seam sealed, stone-chipped, and then blew over with some Cellulose top-coat I had.



Then I started to finish off the underside.
I didn't want a wax/underseal finish, as I'm doing the work in stages, and it will be a lot nicer to work underneath a painted surface.
Not going for any show finish, just don't want clumps of underseal in my hair 

Same deal, primer, seal sealer, Upol Gravitex, and then Cellulose top-coat.



Then the Australian flu got a hold of me, and progress stopped for a week or two.

I'm slowly on the mend, so the gearbox cross-member was cleaned and painted and refitted with new rubber mounts.
Silver paint may well turn out to be temporary, but will do for now.



Boot floor is looking rather good, especially with the new fuel line in place.
I've got an MGB back axle to get swapped in at some point, so I didn't bother masking the running gear.



I took this opportunity to re-work the exhaust.
I wasn't interested in a noisy performance exhaust, but it banged around a lot. So a side exit out of all the original components was the order of the day.
A couple of cuts, and £10 worth of brackets and clamps got me this 



I'll be treating this as a prototype, but at least keeps the car running whist I do the rest of the structural work.
The original chrome tailpipe has been re-purposed temporarily.



Connecting up the fuel pipe to a temporary fuel tank is next on the agenda, so I can drive the car out of the garage, and start on the other side.

Thanks for looking.

Thanks - no reactions thankfully.

I checked and Upol Gravitex stonechip is cellulose based anyway.

I like messing with suspension, so I'm eventually going to do a 4-link setup on the back, and bin the knackered rear leaves.

The MGB axle has steel tubes, and a diff casing, rather than the A60 axle which is one giant casting.
The MGB axle I can weld brackets to, whereas I'd struggle with the casting.

The MGB axle also has a Salisbury diff - which is pretty much unbreakable and has a wide choice of ratios.

Also A60 axles are getting a little rare and sought after, whereas the MGB axle cost me £30 delivered    
So if it doesn't work out like I hope, I can just refit the original axle.

Still not quite ready for another marathon stint with the welder and grinders.

But I did get the old bus out of the garage and turned around - good to see it with one good sill and rear wing at last.



Quite liking the in-progress / rat look. Which is just as well as it is going to be a while before I get around to paint.


The MGB axle seems pretty complete, I'll need to store it outside for a while.
I'm thinking just some grease on the wheel studs, as a bit of rain isn't going to make it any worse 





Yesterday was a day out in Bristol, visited the SS Great Britain, which was very interesting. It was also interesting to note that there are rustier things than my Morris in this world 

But the real reason was some parts chasing.

I picked up a lower tailgate in much better condition than mine.



Those with keen eye sight will notice that the rear number plate has already been frenched-in. 
Which I think is really cool in an old school style.

The frenching will also allow me to fit some tiny rear number plate lights, and loose the massive ugly factory light.



Be really nice to get the drivers side welded up, so I can have some fun with these mild customs touches.

Anything that is specific to the Traveller/Countryman is pretty rare, so I tend to grab bits when I can.

Ironically there was a NOS tailgate up for sale before Christmas, but I missed out on that one.

I spent a lot of time repairing my top-tailgate, as I've never seen a decent one for sale.

luck! genuinely hope it works otherwise i'm going to be stuck for ideas doing my track car rear arches

Thanks

The massive piece of chequerplate was the previous owners attempt at making a strong tow-bar bracket.
I'll be cutting that out and the iffy chassis rail repair next to it, and try and make that whole area a little more presentable.

Vulgalor mentioned the chequerplate - it is gone 

I chopped open the rear section of chassis rail, to see what I was dealing with.
Lots of rust flakes and just four thicknesses of steel on the bottom of the rails. 
I think the the rails are made in two sections originally, so just two repairs on the original rusty chassis !!



The inner section got some repair and zinc primer



Making a L-shaped section for the outer section of the chassis was easy enough, but I lost my welding fu 
I struggled with power and wire feed settings, and even added more gas.
But there just wasn't penetration, lots of sparks coming off of porous welds.




I could hear gas coming from the torch, and the regulator said there was plenty of flow.
But it was the absolute bottom of the bottle, and the last dregs weren't doing their job.
Spent my money and got a fresh bottle.
Ground and cut out the original welds, and re-did them.



Hindsight and the pictures shows lots of brown "smoke" stains on the dodgy welds, which should have given me the clues.

A tickle with the flap wheel and that is a big section of chassis tidied up - happy with that.



Section of the boot floor and trial fitting of the rear wing are on the list for the weekend 

Fitting repair panels, as complicated as wing sections is no fun.
Endless fit, mark, remove, trim, fit means I'm knackered.

Still pretty happy with the progress so far

Got the boot floor section tacked into place





Spent ages getting the lower wing aligned properly and a joddled joint.
But the fit seems pretty good




Wasn't quite as lucky round the back, that area had previously had a bit of a whack, so some of my measurements were a bit off.
Still no biggie, that whole area is covered by a chrome trim, so it doesn't have to  show.
Easy enough to fix anyway



Just a bit of a slog now to get that area ready for primer, seam sealer and paint.

Thanks for looking