1967 Morris Oxford Traveller - Holy thread revival batman

That looks really nice.

Electrical system

So back in 1967 BMC thought 2 glass fuses with a high amperage was a good enough.
Mounted under the bonnet along with a voltage regulator and starter solenoid.
A fabric loom doesn't survive 53 years and numerous bodges and add-ons.
Time hadn't been kind to my wiring - so rip it all out - it stinks literally, and do it better.

My car started life positive earth, but had previously been converted to negative earth.
I'd swapped out the dynamo for a Dynalite alternator which made the voltage regulator redundant.
Distributor went in the bin too to be replaced by a coil-pack and NoDiz.
I also had waiting in the wings a fancy WOSP starter motor with an integrated solenoid, so the separate solenoid could go in the bin too.
Reversing light, fog lights, an air compressor and some tunes all meant a new stock harness would be a waste of time.

So lets start with the battery.

The wiper motor had previously been relocated to the passenger footwell.
I used the bolts from the LHD pedal box, so plenty strong.
I added some metal to that to hold the battery



The battery I decided upon is a hi-tech but ickle Odyssey battery often used in race cars.
I figured with a relatively basic electrical system, I'd give it a shot.
I also didn't want the battery under the bonnet, as I'm trying to make the underbonnet a lot simpler.




Here it is mounted in place.
Lets hope it lasts a few years, because it isn't going to be easy to change.

I've got the fuse boxes mounted too.
I spent a long time designing the wiring diagram on my laptop. Then worked back from that to see how many circuit I needed.
Those fuse boxes are really nice, they have got a positive buss bar to feed the fuses.
They've also got a second buss bar typically used for earths.

The fuse box on the left is for all the permanently live circuits
Rather than buss'ing the earths together, I used that buss bar to join all the sections of the side-light circuit together.

The fuse box on the right is for ignition fed circuits. I've got a 100A relay to feed that.
I used the buss bar on that one for the earths.




I'd previously fitted a Bluetooth amp under the drivers seat - that was all good.
Wiring from the rear of the car was run along the tunnel in conduit up to the  dashboard.
Stock the harness runs above the drivers door in the roof section, but that isn't easy to access with the headlining in place.



Heater pipes dictated some of the runs for the wiring, as it gets a bit tight in places.
I 3D printed a simple bracket to hold the relays - Indicators, flashers, foglights and cooling fan.
Got a bunch of wires into roughly the right places, and get each circuit tested and working.
Hazard flashers got me scratching my head.
But the only one to put up serious resistance was the wipers, as the self park contactor was missing from the wiper motor.


A happy hour or two with a roll of loom tape, and some cable ties, and it is looking a bit better.



Plenty of slack for the switches and gauges when the dash goes back in.
All the fat earths on the left hand side will be routed through a battery cut off switch - when the parcel shelf goes back in.

Thanks for looking.

Parcel shelf and battery cut out

In a previous incarnation of this car, I had built a parcel shelf out of OSB, and mounted a couple of Wharfdale Diamond HiFi speakers.
The speakers may seem like a strange choice, but the impedance and power handling suit my amplifier.
They are pretty cheap and sound great, and will be almost invisible when the dashboard is back in.
Morris doors and kickpanels were never designed to take speakers, so a more conventional install would have been tricky.



I had to cut the parcel shelf around for the fuseboxes, and the battery cut out switch.
I also changed my mind on interior colours - so a re-trim was in order.
Strip off the junk, and add thin closed cell foam to any visible surfaces.



I'm no upholsterer, but this is the rear, that can't be seen.
Oxblood vinyl.
Hi temp spray glue, staple gun, a sharp blade with some common sense, and it comes out like this.



I messed up fitting the battery cutout switch. I punched a hole in the vinyl in the wrong place.
I don't like starting again, so time for some lateral thinking......
I 3D printed a cover plate, with raised lettering, then manually painted the letters and the arrow.
Very happy how that came out.

The hole in the vinyl below that was intended, for an eventual fuse box cover.




Parcel shelf, along with a couple of simple trim panels are now fully bolted into place.



I'm hoping that never needs to come out again.

Thanks for looking

Very nice job on taming the sparks and smoke. I dont mind mucking about with single circuits (unless its mind bending canbus voodoo) but a full rewire from scratch would give me the wobbles!!

I'm not sure it'll be of any use specifically.
But here is the wiring diagram I did.
Most of it was done before starting work, and I updated it as things changed.

I drew it in Microsoft Visio as I've got a license from work.
Not sure I'd recommend it for this job though, as two colour wires are a right faff.

Sunvisors

He hasn't got the engine running, and now he is posting about sunvisors......

Well there is a logic, the windscreen is currently out, which meant I could peel back the headlining to sort out some mounting holes.
I wanted to get the windscreen back in sooner, rather than later, so here we are.

A quick lesson on Morris sunvisors. They are horrible, foam and wire and covered in headliner fabric that has been hot formed into one piece.
Rebuilding them and adding a zip on cover would test my limited upholstery skills.
As a favourite hobby of mine is lateral thinking, scour eBay for alternatives.
Rover P4 come on in, your time is up.



I bought a pair quite cheaply a while ago.
The passenger one had a mirror stuck to it, with 1960's glue. There is nothing legal that will get that off.
So bodywork techniques were applied to the perspex.
Residue scrapped off with a blade, then sanded it various grits of wet'n'dry all the way up to 2500.
I'm lucky enough to have a little air powered DA which was perfect for getting the shine back.




Mounting them in the car wasn't 100% straightforward. The hole and one of the screws from the original visor could be re-utilized.
That left one mounting screw in mid-air.
It wasn't necessary to over think this one, and I just pop riveted in a little plate to pick up on the 3rd screw.



With both in place and the headlining glued back into place.....
I had a problem.
The original mirror was horrible, and too large to fit between the visors.
I could have trimmed the Perspex, but the mirror still would have been horrible.
I also had holes in the headlining I had to do something about.
So I made this little plate.



Onto that metal plate I could stick on an early Morris badge I had tarted up.



I need to get rid of a few wrinkles on the drivers side, but I'm reasonably happy with the badge.
I can always screw something else into the mounting holes, if I have a better idea.
But forget the badge.
Purple Perspex for the win.



Both of you who have been paying attention will realise I no longer have a rear-view mirror.
I had bought a reproduction MGA mirror as it was smaller and smarter. But it still didn't work well between the visors.



The mirror is a lovely little thing, a wonderful trinket.
I want to mount it on the dashtop.
I've always loved dashtop mirrors, wonderfully retro.
But I only get one shout at drilling those holes, so I'll wait until the windscreen is back in, and I've got a seat to sit on, to get the position right.

The next installment may take a little longer, as I've pretty much caught up with my efforts.

But the windscreen is out of my lock-up and back home waiting for a clean up and refit at the weekend.
Various exhaust bits are finding their way to my doorstep along with a carb rebuild kit, I'm hoping to get close to firing the engine with the supercharger over the holidays.

Thanks for looking.

That looks very neat, thanks for the link.

Hmmm - A certain trim supplier from the South East garden county of the UK is considered a swear word at the Grumpy Towers workshop - come to think of it there's another so called bespoke trim supplier over the top of Birmingham (the one favoured by Car SOS) that is equally useless - I wonder if COH Baines list the proper windscreen rubber for your car (Nope already checked) - don't know if you are aware but I spent several years of employment with a certain windscreen manufacture / supplier / fitter - so if you really struggle let me know and I'll come & sort it but I know you like a challenge so I'll let you contemplate for now - BTW I would have thought that windscreen was toughened and not laminated - you would have to go some to break a toughened windscreen fitting or removing it   

Windscreen fitment - part 2


With a bit of help from the owners club, a couple of things came to light.
I had the old style windscreen rubber fitted previously, but with the later stainless trim.

The Kent trim is a copy of the later rubber, and is pretty well respected in the owners club.
But with the later rubber, the stainless trim has to go on first.

So, nothing for it but to pop out the windscreen and start again.
I  bought a tube of Arbormast windscreen sealant, and squeezed some in the window channel.
The stainless trims are pretty springy, but these clamps really helped to stop them springing all over the place.
The corners didn't want to sit properly first time around.



A piece of 2x4 got the corners tapped into place.
I wasn't rushing, but it took 2 hours to get to this stage.



The factory manual says to put butyl rubber tape around the aperture - I didn't have any of that.
So squirted some more sealer around the bottom 3/4's
I didn't want sealer on the headliner, so left the top bare for now.



With a stout cord around the rubber.
I placed the screen in place.
Getting it centered was a little awkward first time around, so I put some marks on the screen before taking it out.
I got the bottom lip in place, just by wiggling and prodding.
That left a gap at the top which I could fill with sealant, without getting it on the headlining.



Pulling the cord out, and getting the rubber into place was pretty straightforward, I even managed it single handed.
The stainless trim had the effect of holding the rubber in place, and this stage was much easier than before.

Didn't take very long - 30 mins or so to get the screen in.

But I spent an hour or so forcing the sealant into place, and smoothing it off, then cleaning the screen.



I did manage to put a little dent, in the stainless trim at the bottom. But hopefully that will hopefully get hidden by the wipers.

But that is a huge step, towards getting it to look like a car again.
I set myself the target of either getting the engine started or the windscreen in before Christmas, so I'm pretty happy now.
But it was pretty hard work, so I think I'll sleep well tonight.