This is how my 1100 obsession became my
hobby...
It all started back in March 1998 at RPM workshops. Roy had
taken into his workshop a customer’s MK1 Morris 1100. The
car had belonged to a Mr Else, who had passed away, and his
son had asked Roy to give him an estimate of the cost of
repairing the vehicle, but the cost proved too much. SRB was
too good to scrap, so it was decided that my Dad would do
all of the work at our house.
Work began in April 1998. The restoration was going to take
about 4 months. The car needed a wing, a subframe, two full
sills left and right, two sill to floor closing panels, two
wheel arches, a heel board and part of a front panel.
The first job was to remove the rear subframe, which is a
struggle on a sloping drive. The old heel board was cut out
and a replacement heel board was welded in. A good second
hand subframe was fitted. Once the subframe was back in, the
suspension was re-inflated and the car stood proudly on four
wheels again.
Next on the list of jobs was to remove the dreaded cover
sills that the previous owner had put on. The floor had to
be repaired and new inner stress panels were fitted between
outer sills and closing panels. Whilst the sills were off it
was decided to replace both rear wheel arches because it
would be easier to fit both at the same time. The previous
owner had replaced the drivers side arch at some point, and
the problem was the panel fitted wasn't genuine and whoever
had done the repairs had cut the wheel arch right back to
the line on the bodywork. This made it very hard to fit
another one.
Tackling the driver’s side front wing wasn't as difficult as
we first thought it would be. Luckily we managed to find a
very good second hand, genuine, wing. The front panel at the
drivers side had also suffered numerous "dodgy" repairs, and
therefore needed replacing. At the time we couldn't get hold
of a full front panel, so we managed to get hold of half a
Mk1 front panel. This was welded in place along with the
wing. Once the replacement panels had been fitted they were
rubbed down and sprayed. SRB was got up to MOT testing
standards and passed first time. SRB was then taken to her
first ever 1100 Club event the National Rally at Rufford
Country Park, she won third place in the Mk1 class. The
following year at The 1100 Club National Rally at Rufford
Country Park SRB managed to scoop third place in her class
again.
SRB had only done about 42,000 miles form new and to say the
car had been stood in Bakewell for 5 Years under a carport
the car was not that rusty and the whole exercise has been
worthwhile.
|
Back
to the top