1960 Hillman Minx has a makeover

Many of you will remember the 1960 Hillman Minx, which was recovered from a garage in Coventry in February last year.  This lovely car was displayed in the Museum’s reception area for several months, exactly as we found it - ie very dirty and dusty, having been stood in the owner’s garage for around 18 years before coming to the Museum.

Since the vehicle came off display towards the end of 2012, it has been given a huge amount of attention over a number of weeks by Andrew Thomas, one of the Museum’s Historic Vehicle Technicians, and is now positively gleaming on the outside, as well as being in much better shape mechanically.

Having initially cleaned the Minx, Andrew found that the vehicle’s bodywork was, for the most part, very sound for a car of its age – but that it was affected by a large amount of surface rust on certain areas, particularly underneath.   Dirt and corrosion was also present throughout its systems – typical of a vehicle that has been standing for many years in a damp environment.

The detailed work that Andrew therefore undertook was to strip the rust from all affected areas, using a mixture of wire brushing and chemical rust removal, followed by treating the underside of the car with a mixture of WaxOyl and Dinitrol, to help to protect this area from further rusting.    He then drained the fluids from all of the vehicle’s systems, and repaired or replaced a number of badly corroded parts – such as those shown in the cooling system below. 

Having made all the necessary repairs and ensured the integrity of all of the vehicle’s systems, Andrew then started a process known as ‘inhibiting’ the vehicle, to protect it from any further corrosion occurring whilst it is standing within the Museum and not being driven.  ‘Inhibiting’ involves fogging each of the car’s systems with an appropriate vapour phase inhibitor.  This can be either water-based or oil-based, depending on which system is being worked upon.  The chosen inhibitor is introduced to the system in liquid form, which then turns to vapour over time.  This vapour sticks to the inside of each component and travels around within each system, coating every part with an anti-corrosion substance as it goes.  

Black brake fluid being drained before inhibiting.

This process is a very new one in the world of classic cars, having previously being mainly used on aircraft and military vehicles, to provide long-term preservation whilst they are in store.  We at Coventry Transport Museum have trialled inhibiting a number of parts on other vehicles, but this is the first time that a full vehicle has been treated in this way.   We are extremely pleased with how well this has worked so far, but of course the proof will be in the pudding when the vehicle is regularly inspected over the coming years.  One thing we do know - the vapour technique ‘reaches the parts that other processes can’t’! 

We have been working with other transport museums around the world, to share ideas on how best to inhibit different types of museum-based vehicles, and we know that they will be pleased to see the results of this work on such an interesting vehicle.    We also hope to begin using this technique to protect systems on many other Museum vehicles over the coming years.

One part of the vehicle which we sadly have not yet been able to make-over is the front grill – as you can see from the photograph below this grill is very badly corroded, and would be almost impossible to repair to a good standard.  Instead we are hoping to find a replacement, rather than spending many hours on something that may not do justice to the rest of the vehicle.

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See the difference for yourself, as the Minx will be back on display in the Museum’s reception from Monday 18th March onwards.  We’re sure you will agree, Andrew has done a fantastic job.