1967 Morris Minor 1000

This car, a May 1967 Series V 2-door in black, was bought by the current owner – a serial Minor man – in August 2014 as a second vehicle for a close family member to drive.

It went through several months of restoration in 2014 and 2015, a schedule that included a full repaint in the same black that it was wearing when the current owner bought it. It’s believed that the indicated mileage of 89,000 is genuine. No major mechanical work has been deemed necessary or desirable, although a comprehensive replacement of service items was undertaken.

The owner reports that the car starts first time and that the engine ticks over perfectly once the choke has been knocked off after just a few seconds – typical Minor behaviour. The gearbox is fine too, apparently, with just a little extra care required to make the change from first to second.

Unfortunately, illness has reduced the car’s activities to a level where both the owner and the intended driver would now like to see the car ‘rehomed’ by someone who can give it the gentle exercise it deserves.

The Moggie passed its MOT in June 2019 with just three advisories: a defective wiper blade, a lightly binding nearside front brake (which the owner cannot detect on the road), and some corrosion to the inner wheel arch which was not considered to be affecting the car’s structural integrity. You can see that in the gallery of pics below.

Black paint with a red coachline and red interior is a very popular colourway among present-day Minor fanciers, even though it’s by no means certain that black was actually on the 1967 colour options chart.

In all honesty the 2015 repaint hasn’t stood up as well as it might have in a couple of places. There are cracks on the panel below the windscreen, some degradation around the fuel filler cap, and some bubbling through on the ‘running board’ door sections and on the lower edge of the boot lid. Some of the door and window seals are showing their age. 

If the owner was keeping it he’d be looking at another repaint, partly to resolve the issues arising from the last one and partly to see if any new areas of the bodywork are needing attention. On the positive side the chrome and brightwork is generally presenting pretty well, albeit with a little rusting on the rear bumper.

The owner thinks that the well-used but still serviceable seating is leather, but we reckon it’s more likely to be vinyl as the Minor was downspecced from the 1956 Series III, and anything answering to the description of a luxury material was hard to find in Minors from that point.

There is a fairly substantial rip to the lower part of the driver’s seat back and a smaller one on the seat itself. The gearstick and handbrake lever are both oxidised, which could easily be categorised as patina. The same goes for the faded steering wheel. The wooden gear knob is crying out for some Danish oil or similar. There’s the odd spot and stain on the headlining but it doesn’t have any obvious sagging.

If you were looking for a straight line reference you probably wouldn't choose the parcel shelf: a new base is required really. You might also take the view that the original aircraft-style fixed seat belts have more than earned their living over the last fifty-odd years. Some new webbing under the seats wouldn’t go amiss either, along with some new sponge rubber, but the carpets are excellent, if not all that close-fitting in places.

Minor interior door pulls are famous for disintegrating, and the one on the driver’s side does look to be nearing its sell-by date.

The car wasn’t fully undersealed as part of the big programme of works. That’s something the next owner might want to consider taking on to ensure its long-term preservation.

A degree in metallurgy won’t be necessary if you want to go on the hunt for examples of surface corrosion on those parts of the car that are not normally on view. The pictures tell a far clearer story than we can in words. The engine bay is not especially tidy, but then again they weren’t especially tidy when they came out of the factory. The underside of the boot lid appears to have suffered some sort of reaction. In both cases a few weekends of methodical titivation with the Dremel multitool (other marques are available) and some Hammerite (ditto) will work wonders, and will require little or no skill.

Importantly, both the engine and gearbox appear to be dry. Although the exhaust pipe is more than a decade old it doesn’t look it. The HT leads are recent.

As mentioned earlier, the Minor has just passed an MOT with just three advisories. Along with that document are various invoices relating to the purchase of badges for post-repaint fitment and for the Nanking tyres. Invoices for over £1000 covers the purchase and fitment of suspension bushes, hoses, filters, bulbs, antifreeze, washer pipes, battery, brake cylinders, springs and pipes, throttle cable, clutch kit, pedal rubbers and steel plate for the welding work that was carried out at that time.

Like many others bitten by the Minor bug, the owner of this honest example is genuinely sorry to be selling it. He’s only doing so because it’s not getting the usage it was meant to be getting, and he doesn’t want it to rot away.

That’s the thing about Morris Minors. As classics go, they’re amongst the most usable. Parts supply is plentiful, and fitting those parts isn't hard either. The writer of this piece had a late-model car himself not so very long ago. He had no qualms about taking it on long trips. The speedo cable was replaced by his teenage son, who at that time had zero experience of car maintenance.

There’s probably as much online knowledge about these characterful little runabouts as there is for any other car you can think of. Help is always at hand, either online or in published form, and even the most serious problems aren't that hard to put right.

This particular car is by no means perfect, but that imperfection is part of what makes it so appealing to such a wide range of potential buyers. a hobby car for someone who remembers them (or owned one) in period, or even as a low-running cost first car for someone of the writer’s son’s age. Fixing this old girl’s foibles and caring for it for many more years to come will all be part of the fun.

We always encourage viewings. This sweet lttle Minor is located at the vendor’s premises near Shrewsbury. Just click the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing to arrange an appointment. Ahead of that, or at any time during the process, you’re more than welcome to ask any questions or jot down observations in the comments section below. You won’t be shocked to hear that our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section will answer general questions that are frequently asked about how The Market works.

Also please note that we have a network of trusted suppliers with whom we work regularly and successfully: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car, AnyVan for transporting it, and Footman James for classic car insurance.

BORING, but IMPORTANT: Please note that whilst we at The Market always aim to offer the most descriptive and transparent auction listings available, we cannot claim they are perfect analyses of any of the vehicles for sale. We offer far greater opportunity for bidders to view, or arrange inspections for each vehicle thoroughly prior to bidding than traditional auctions, and we never stop encouraging bidders to take advantage of this. We do take a good look at the vehicles delivered to our premises for sale, but this only results in our unbiased personal observations, not those of a qualified inspector or other professional, or the result of a long test drive.

Additionally, please note that most of the videos on our site have been recorded using simple cameras which often result in 'average' sound quality; in particular, engines and exhausts notes can sound a little different to how they are in reality.