I am about to start restoration of my traveller and im missing the front badge. The marks visible point to an Austin badge but the motor has Morris on it. (Original engine)

My question is did Austin minis have Austin on the rocker cover? I have only ever seen Morris plaques/stickers.

Maybe once the paint has been stripped more will be revealed. Are there any other ways of knowing if it was Morris or Austin?

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

Its easy enough to swap a rocker cover over, but what does the car number start with? M-AW indicates a Morris, A-AW an Austin.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Problem 2..no numbers anywhere on the car. Even rego papers had nothing for chassis number. Registered as a 1964 but I believe it may be earlier than that.

The ex husband of the woman I bought it off told me he was sure they found numbers when they semi restored it 10+ years ago, he couldnt recall where on the body but hopefully we will find them when its stripped back

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

It's going to be difficult to ID the car without numbers. I'm surprised they registered it without them in WA, it's impossible to do that in Victoria.

My Traveller is a 65 and it has:
- A body number on the slam panel.
- A chassis plate screwed on to the radiator shroud.
- FE number on the inner guard near the radiator shroud.

The chassis number is the only one that is conclusive. I have seen a few Travellers that use the FE number as the chassis number for registration.

Another possible feature to held id the brand is the badges on the rear door. The badge hole spacing differed there for Austin and Morris cars. The "Austin" script was on a 30 or so degree angle with "Mini" or "Seven" below it on the same angle in the same script. On a Morris the badge was "MINI-MINOR" in block letters in a straight line. (Assuming the car is a Mk1)

Cheers,

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

Thanks for that

No badges on the back of it either, hopefully some holes will show up when it is stripped. I was going through the spares that came with it and found some MG plates, maybe there is an MG getting around with traveller numbers somewhere!

Had the reflectors on it so it is a south african import, trim is different to any other traveller I have seen. Newton commercial had never seen the trim either but have made me a custom set up.

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

I was going to suggest the rear badges too, but Brett beat me. He did miss one important point though. On the Morris they are on the Left hand door and on the Austin they are on the right hand door. When you strip them you should find some holes - although if the rear doors have been replaced with Australian ones it won't mean much.

I'm not sure of the exact timing but some of the South African Travellers were painted two-tone with the lower half (up to the bottom of the windows) painted a different colour to the top half, any sign of that on yours?

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

If it's a South African car it was probably made there or possibly Rhodesia. In which case the placement of numbers and badges may differ from the UK models.

I think I read somewhere that the African made Mk1 Minis were all badged as one brand - all Morris or all Austin. Like in Australia, the local arm of BMC decided to use one brand for each model.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

Good point.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

This is how the numbers are on a Rhodesian Moke to give an idea of how things were done...

"Engine Number : See Engine"

Why can't they all be like that

cheers,

Jacob

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'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project

Being an English car (except if its Rhodesian -???) if you look very carefully at the front slam panel about 15cm to the left of the bonnet catch (as you look at it) you should find a small plaque about 2x8cm. It has the body number stamped on it.... 2 letters and about 6+ numbers... The stampings (on both my cars) are quite shallow and you will have to pretty much scrape all the paint off to see them.

This number is recorded in the Heritage records. If you get a Heritage Cert it will show this number - but I don't know if they can search the data base using it. If they can, a trace will tell you exactly what you have - model, make, age, colour... sometimes even its initial rego and the dealer who sold it.

Cheers, Ian

Thanks for the help guys, still no numbers anywhere to be found. Lets hope the paint stripping brings some joy.

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S

I'll try and remember to take some pics of the rear door badge holes on our Countryman when I get back to Perth.

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Too many cars, and too little time.

Chuck Heleker in the US has a South African Countryman, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help out with details. He's a member on here, but doesn't seem to have posted anything, you could try pm'ing him. His username is cheleker. Chuck has a wealth of knowledge and is happy to share it.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Great I'll shoot him a pm. Its getting very exciting, will start the deconstruction next week

It goes in for paint end of this month. I have the original engine to go back in (it will be completely rebuilt 1st). New wiring loom, new wood kit, new custom interior - everything to rebuild the seats, carpets, door cards, fillets, sun visors everything and all new chrome inside and out including door handles etc. New switches, switch panel, floor starter, indicator stalk, steering cowl

Im sure there are plenty of things left to get but I think i have the bulk of what I need to make a start now.

Wife has just agreed to let me install a 2 post 3 ton hoist in the garage so that should make life easier!

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1965 Riley Elf
1974 Ex Army Moke
1997 Rover Cooper
2002 JCW Cooper
2003 JCW Cooper S