Morris 10M

[TWOTENS]

Thanks for the comments. Had a good chat with Paul at Power Track and will be sending my cylinders off for refurbishment tomorrow.

[Paul240480]

A fab blog Congrats & well saved!

[karlsgazelle]

Yes, what he said ^
Really enjoying reading about your car. More please

[TWOTENS]

Reassembled the boot lid latch and handle and after several near misses around the house, decided that the boot lid would be safer back in its rightful place on the car. The finish is still 'from the gun' and I'll give it another week to harden before I compund it to match the rest of the car.

Boot lid in place.

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Sent off the front wheel cylinders for refurb the other day, so progress in that direction is on hold until they come back later this month. I have rescued a pair of better brake drums from the box of bits that came with the car, and after de-rusting and painting they are also on one side to await eventual reassembly.

Other work done includes dismantling and cleaning the headlights. Oddly enough they still have the dip and switch mechanism in place, which I understood to be illegal for many years. Since the car was fully MOT'd up until 2004, I wonder how it passed? I shall have to review an alternative setup, but for the moment I have put everything back together again.

[JPB]

I wouldn't be so quick to change the headlamp arrangements since the MOT testers' manual has the following to say about "Dip & Switch" which, in case anyone hasn't come across this, means that one dips and the other switches off when they're not on high beam:

where two are fitted, either both must dip or one must dip and the other switches off.

So, if it's dipping and switching as it was intended to do, that's acceptable for the current MOT.

[TWOTENS]

I think that you'll find that is for pre 1930 cars. My information says that Legislation was enacted in the 60's to make subsequent installations illegal. However, I have come across a few that seem to slip through the net and assume that this is possibly due to MOT testers unfamiliarity with cars of this age.

[TWOTENS]

Stripped off both offside doors. Both needed a little tidying up along their bottom edge, only superficially in the case of the rear door, but the MIG came out again for the drivers door.
The photos show the thin and perforated areas which were then cut out and new metal welded into place. Again the whole lot was ground back to bare metal and treated with the weld thru primer before welding up. After grinding the welds, the whole thing has a filler skim and primer.
I am just weighing up whether to paint the whole panel up to the waist line, or have a go at blending.

I also bought some window channel from Woollies and replaced the old stuff that had degraded completely, as well as painting the insides of the doors with waxoyl and generally oiling and fettling locks and winder mechanisms.

Just waiting for paint now which was to be tomorrow's job, but alas my oldest daughter has just turned up with a mangled rear bumper!!!!

After initial work with the flap wheel

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Initial welds

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Initial filling of welds

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[mistertoad]

Just found your thread, how I remember my father bought a 10M in about 1951 when I was eight years old and crazy about cars even then.
It was one of the few prewar/postwar popular cars to have an overhead valve engine and hydraulic brakes when the Austins and Fords were way behind.
A pity that Morris then went back to side valve for some years.
The next car we had was a side valve low headlamp Morris Minor convertible, I think Dad had a lot of trouble with the 10M big ends seem to come to mind.
I can't ask him as he died many years ago and Mother wouldn't know except I remember her passing her driving test in it, she's still driving at 86yrs old.

Must research the history of then, above comments were made totally from memory which is fading fast!

I don't recognise the radiator grille, were the prewar 10's a different design.?

[TWOTENS]

Yes, 1939 model had a flatter grille and a different trim on the side panel but was otherwise the same car (see picture).

1939 Morris 10

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[TWOTENS]

Easter was quite productive, as I worked around the car corner by corner, replacing and overhauling the brakes, wheel by wheel. Everything went relatively smoothly, apart from the rear nearside where I suddenly developed an oil leak! This was baffling because it did not seem to be coming from the vicinity of the hub seal and there was no sign of a previous leak.
The solution seems to be that the flange joint at the end of the half shaft is pinched up by the screws that hold in the brakedrum and then ultimately is clamped up by the wheel nuts, since the studs also pass through it. The odd leak is therefore through the flange joint. Of course, there should not be oil here, since the outer bearings are packed with grease and the oil is confined to the diff area, albeit there is ghenerally some that finds its way into the outer casing.
For the moment I have clamped up the whole lot again and will review whether this is a fix over this weekend. I may have to split the joint and use some kind of jointing compound. I will also have to review how to get the correct lubricant in place. Aparrently it is not uncommon to find that owners have incorrectly used oil rather than grease in a gun on the nipple on the hub and the manual makes no reference to the need to grease the outer hubs at all. The information is on the Shell datasheet for the car!
Pictures show work in progress. In each wheelarch, I also performed a clean up with the wire brush, treated any visible rust and then coated the whole area with black Waxoyl.

new shoes

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Rustproofing

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starting to look a little smarter

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