Exterior
Fibreglass
Panels Australian
company, The Morris Minor Centre,
Sydney, Australia, supplies a wide range of fibreglass panels,
for both repair and modification. Standard shape guards and
bumper valances are available, as are 'widened' rear guards,
flared front guards, and complete tilt fronts. These same
panels are also available through Minor
Mods, Auckland, New Zealand, although unless you live
in Wellington you might as well have The MMC in Australia
freight them to you direct. The panels are of very good quality,
are not flimsy at all and have a good finish to them.
You'll
notice that I said 'widened' rear guards above. This is because
I recently bought, sight-unseen, a pair of 'widened' fibreglass
guards from The MMC in Sydney. The advertisements say that
the guards are 2 inches wider than standard. This was confirmed
by the manager over the phone before I bought them. On arrival
in NZ when the guards were layed flat on the floor side-by-side
with the standard items, the 'widened' guards did not sit
any higher than the standard ones. When fitted to the car
it was obvious that although somewhat 'fuller' in the middle,
the new guards were no wider at all! A tape measure run across
the middle of the guard from the top of the bolting flange
to the top of the wheel arch did show a difference of about
1 1/2 inches but with no difference in the overall width.
I was forced to go with these guards, swapping the 205/60x14's
with 185/60x14's, since the 1996 National Minor Convention
was only 2 days away.
The
moral of the story? If you are going to fit fibreglass panels
to your car, be very aware that the quality of the panels
can vary wildly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Panels
from one factory can even be quite different from day to day,
so if at all possible, try to fit the panel to YOUR car before
you buy or give the manufacturer the final payment. If that's
not possible then get a written guarantee that if the panels
don't fit you don't pay for them or you get some that do fit.
Taillights
Minor
saloon taillights come in 3 flavours - red-only brake-only
(pre-56), red-only brake/tail/indicator (pre-1098cc's) and
red/amber brake/tail/indicator (1098cc's only). The red-only
taillights are very hard to see during the day, especially
if the lens is not what it once was.
The
late-model red/amber taillights are great. They look good
and are nice and bright. The only trouble is, here in New
Zealand, there's not a whole heap of them around. Finding
a set in a wreckers yard is like finding a British car that
doesn't leak oil! So what do you do if you want others to
see that you're slowing down or turning ... ? Pinch a set
from a Volkswagen Beetle!
Yes,
the Minor's German cousin has a set of taillights that fit
very nicely on the tail of a Minor. The early sixties VW's
in particular had tear-drop shaped lights that suit the Minors
lines very well. The later VW taillights are not quite the
right style for a Minor, and the ones from the seventies Beetles
are just downright ridiculous! The teardrop taillights are
very similar in size to the late-model Minor lights.
Fitting
them to a Minor 1000 is much easier than to earlier models
because the 1000 already has the indicator circuit running
to the rear of the car. Earlier models with the indicators
in the door pillars require some rewiring from under the dashboard
right through to the rear of the car. Only a couple of holes
need to be drilled in the rear guards to mount the VW lights.
Just make sure you get the lights lined up both vertically
and equal distances from the edges of the guard, otherwise
it will look very lopsided!
Other
options are to fit separate indicators. There are a multitude
of aftermarket light fittings available, but the best option
I have seen is to fit a set of rear indicators from a late-model
Minor Traveller. These lights are just like the front park/indicator
lights from the Series II/1000 Minors but are amber instead
of clear. If Traveller lights are hard to come by, then scout
around a few classic car shows or club outings and see if
you can spot a common one that uses the same sort of lenses
- Austin A35's for instance, or Rovers, Jaguars, etc etc.
Headlights
Get
rid of your standard old lights and fit some sealed-beams.
The
standard Minor headlights are nearly useless when it comes
to driving around the countryside on a stormy black night
in the middle of nowhere and not a street light to be seen.
Both 5" and 7" sealed beam units are available new, so even
those of you with LowLights have no excuse!
Sealed
beams are simply 400% better than the standard items, with
the benefit that they still look like the standard headlights.
General Motors vehicles produced over the sixties, seventies
and even into the eighties commonly used 7" sealed-beam headlights
so you should be able to find a set of these fairly cheaply.
Better
still are a set of high-powered halogen lights. Hella, Lucas
and Cibie all produce a set called the (imaginatively named)
'H4'. Hella produce a flat-face unit whereas Lucas and Cibie
can supply either flat-face units or the more familiar
domed units. You have the choice of what wattage bulb you
put in them too. A fairly normal bulb is the 80/55 but I would
opt for the far better and brighter 100/80. Anything more
than this and you will need to start using relays. A set of
halogen headlights will improve your night vision immensely.
Highly recommended!
Also,
check out this
page, by the Scions
of Lucas, for tips on improving your Minor's night vision.