Vulcan's 1969 Morris 1100 S

[vulcanbb18]

Hi All,

Many years ago after I pranged my first mini, my intention was to buy a Morris 1100 (at that time I was more of a general British car nut than just a mini nut). It never happened as a cheap Morris 850 came along.... (that's it in the 1st photo, hiding in the carport, waiting it's "turn")

Cue 2010 where I have the lucky opportunity to have the $$ and time to buy a very original 1969 shale green 1100 S. It has the matching 1275 still in the engine bay, complete with matching dated starter, wiper motor, coil, dissy, washer bottle, generator....

It's an unrestored car and as such in amazing condition, the drivers floor pan is a little thin but ok, but that is the worst rust on the car!! The paint is original, worn through to the undercoat in some places.

The downside to the car was the HUGE gash in the drivers door from a sideswipe about a year ago. Through the support of fellow Oz 1100 enthusiasts I got 2 replacement doors, sprayed them up and the car looked complete again.

Anyhow the pictures tell the story, it took me about a month and a half from purchase to rego, been driving it for a couple of weeks, and can't wipe the grin off my face 8)

cheers

Jacob

When it arrived :





Ouch!



Otherwise all nice :





Door repair :





Finished product :

[UHR850]

Hi Jacob.

Now some pictures from the MINI on the background please ?

Kees

[Tim]

Nice to see one being repaired rather than becoming a premature organ donor. Its been a while since I saw one on the road.

Tim

[wil_h]

That gash is awsome, looks like you'd find sardines behind it!

[LDR209H]

Hey Jacob,

You say you're in Brizzy but that looks like the edges of the bush. Are you out in Samford or Mt Glorious ?

[InimiaD]

Not many of those left now, which is sad.
Used to drive a 1300 estate version back in the mid 70s and thought it was a brilliant car.
I remember seeing a modified saloon with raised stiffened suspension and wide alloys and it looked the dogs whatsits.
Great work by the way, glad to see another BMC classic saved.

[vulcanbb18]

Thanks for comments everyone. I'm really pleased to be able to get my hands on one before they all disappear!

The gash down the side was sardine-can amazing, the metal folded perfectly back on itself. Strangely I found about $1.70 in change inside the door too

LDR209H, nah not in any of those fancy areas, I'm half way between Brissy and Ipswich, we just have a nicely secluded block

UHR850 - Ok you asked for it!

That mini is my 2nd mini, which I bought about '94/'95 looking like this :



It's a 1963 Morris 850 fitted with later Oz wind-up doors, and at that stage had a very tired Morris 1100 engine & drum brakes. Bought for the huge sum of $1200!

I then built a worked 998 for it, got some discs and alloys, about '98 this is how it (& I) looked :



By the end of '99 it was off the road, the engine was pretty stuffed (bad build by me and thrashed) and the paintwork very sad. My job was having a change of location so it was decided to give the car a refresh, paint it up and build a new engine. The painting started '99 and ended in 2000, with the car back on the road mid 2000.











Another picture of me looking like a gimboid, dropping in the donk.



The car ran well for the next 8 or so years, a pic of it here about 2003 with a friends car :



Until...



.... July 2008 an uninsured driver pulled out in front of me at an intersection, smacking the already bent-in-numerous-different-ways front end. Being skint & sick of minis at the time, meant I didn't touch a mini until about April 2010, and now I have a van, the 850 & Morris 1100!

The 850 has to wait until the van is finished (not far away)

cheers

Jacob

[austinisuseless]

Nice cars vulcan, very nice, especially the ado16 can opened.

Whatever you do, don't take of either of them up state at the moment, but you may know that at the moment - the distributor at the front will not be able to cope with the dampness. Incredible land soaked land

[Austin Costin]

Great pics and cars, seen some of your posts on Ausmini.

[UHR850]

Thanks for the pictures, great !!

[MadMatt]

just needs the old lady bowling hat in the rear parcel shelf hey Jacob? I might buy you one for your birthday

[mk1]

Jacob,

Your 1100S reminds me of my own 1300 MK2

[Tim]

There's an important detail regarding the 1100S, it was really a 1300 too. I'm sure the marketing department at BMC Australia had a brilliant reason to keep that a secret, but it escapes me. The vast majority of them have been sacrificed as engine donors for Minis, which retained their value so much better. My Moke has an 1100S engine.

Tim

[mk1]

That sounds like a marketing strategy devised in Longbridge to me

[Tim]

Especially since Australians always regarded the Morris 1100 as having too small an engine and being underpowered.

Maybe they couldn't justify the costs of tooling up to make badges that said 1300, but had a supply of S's left over from some other model.

Tim

[JC T ONE]

That sounds like a marketing strategy devised in Longbridge to me

Maybe our "friend" mr Stokes, was involved

[vulcanbb18]

I don't know if the 1275 was much of a secret...

The advertising brochures at the time make a big noise of the "new 63hp engine" with listed specs including the 1275. I think it may have been done to "ride on the bacK" of the 'S' moniker as it was used on the mini - you know, the same way Camry's are "sported up" to make the driver think they have something sportier than it really is

With the bog-stocko 1275 on a 4.1 diff, well, it's pretty flexible. I don't usually bother getting out of top for roundabouts

Changed the oil just after rego (about 600 miles ago) - this is what came out!



edit: Ok, the clevis pin was not in the sump (yikes), but was swapped out as well for obvious reasons...

Changed the oil again on Friday, much better, just normal fuzz on the sump plug magnet now - phew!

Also had to replace both rubber unis after the passenger one lost a U-bolt! They had been severely over-tightened, no wonder one died...



(squashed one on top)

cheers

Jacob

[guru_1071]

i can understand bits of gearbox comming out with the oil, but how on earth does a clevis pin end up in there?


actually, on reading the post properly, i can see......................


doh!

[mk1]

Whoever tightened that rubber cross up was seriously strong!

[bpirie1000]

hope you updated the couplings. those rubber ones tend to swell up and take chunks out of the gearbox housing.