Frame-Off Restoration on a 1961 Morris Traveller

[richy]

This project is being undertaken by the same gentleman for whom I compounded, polished and coated his wooden speedboat. He has done a frame off restoration on this 1961 Morris (Austin) Mini Traveller. For those of you who are not familiar with the Austin Mini, it is the car after which the current Mini (now owned by BMW) is fashioned. The Morris Mini was an upscale Austin Mini...who claims badge engineering to be anything new?? The original ones were a heck of a lot smaller however. Furthermore, the Traveller model has wood on the side. He varnished the wood and I showed him how to compound and polish it and he will be coating the wood himself using CQuartz.

The shell of the car had been painted and we waited about 5 weeks just to be safe before I started to play with it. It was a simple enough job: compound, polish and coat. There was ample CQuartz remaining from the wooden boat for me to coat the car. It was already scratched a bit from being wiped down dry with just a towel. There was also a few chips on the RF fender where a wrench had slipped. The defects are pictured below:


Here it is before:




























Before starting to do any correction work, the shell was first cleaned using ONR. First up was the hood, that is the above picture. The testing of it revealed my combo of TB black wool + Amerirocks + 3401 did wonders as an initial stage and was followed by CP Essence + Americoat black foam pad + 3401 for the finishing polish. Here is what those results looked like:














Here is the LF fender after the a/m 2 steps:




The front clip was done mostly by hand using a mf and the a/m 2 products:





Here is the hood after a double coat of CQuartz (original):











Here is the rest of the car all double coated. I will photograph it later when it's all together to show how the finished product turned out, but for now, here's how it was left:





























Previously scratched surface:





Roof:





I also coated the wheel wells:

[LEDetailing]

Love this car! Seems like it's missing something

Can't wait to see it all put together. I went to the UK 20 years ago and saw a lot of Mini's. I love the original. The remake is a classy update on this British classic.

[Priyaka]

Subscribed. Looking forward to seeing the finished car. Thanks for sharing such an interesting project.

[richy]

Love this car! Seems like it's missing something

Can't wait to see it all put together. I went to the UK 20 years ago and saw a lot of Mini's. I love the original. The remake is a classy update on this British classic.

Yes, it's kinda hard to get excited about just a shell. With the colour of the wood, etc, I think it's going to look amazing when it's done.

Subscribed. Looking forward to seeing the finished car. Thanks for sharing such an interesting project.

Thanks! I'm not sure how long it's going to take him, but I have asked him to let me know so I can shoot it when he's got it ready.

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Very nice work Richy! Will be on the lookout for the completed project.

A bit surprised that you didn't do any sanding to completely knock out the texture in the paint.

Thanks for sharing.

[richy]

Very nice work Richy! Will be on the lookout for the completed project.

A bit surprised that you didn't do any sanding to completely knock out the texture in the paint.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Mike! The only sanding I did was for a small repair that I did on 2 small chips on a fender. I didn't even bother to photograph it. To sand the whole car would have added too much time to the project.

[Papa]

Just passing through and thought you might like to see the other traveler on Autogeek...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/...have-wood.html

Carry on...

[haris300]

Very cool car and outstanding work you're doing. I'm sure the owner is loving that beautiful paint finish.

[richy]

Very cool car and outstanding work you're doing. I'm sure the owner is loving that beautiful paint finish.

Thanks kindly! Between the boat and the Mini, he's given out a bunch of my cards.

[Sizzle Chest]

Great color! Looks great! Nice work Richy!