1939 Morris Eight V8

[owen]

Brought this little Morris 8 a few weeks back, been off the road many years and wants a lot of jobs doing to get it back on the road, looks like it was built a long time ago. Looks to have jag lsd rear axle, jag front suspension, I think mk2 escort steering rack and column. Engine is a 50s or 60s rolls royce silver shadow engine and box on twin su carbs

[owen]

I started by swapping the steering column as it had been mocked up as a lhd, re-routed it all over the right rocker cover, then realised the hubs had been swapped left to right so ackerman was backwards



Here is a picture of the front end, it's had beetle wings added to the wings which needs finishing off



I also am waiting on the rear slot mags so I can remove the 21 inch landy wheels

[owen]

I have swapped the hubs back now need to re-route the column again, then pull the body off to check that the chassis is good and everything is tight and pointing the right direction

[79cord]

Beetle light recesses look like a good idea if better executed. Rear arches painful to see.

[owen]

I have the original bits that were cut off them, so I can weld them back on. Looms like a large band was added into the original arches

[stealthstylz]

I'm pretty sure my uncle had that for a while, about 25 years ago. I think he might have even cut the rear arches. I say cut, but AFAIK they had been banded with a oil drum attached in with filler and basically just broke off. I think it had a Viva front and pinto from memory, but never went on the road.

[Ralph.Wrecked.It]

This is a wild thing! Keen to see how this evolves!

[Jonny69]

That 90° bend on the steering joint looks absolutely torturous. Is it not binding up like that?

[owen]

Jul 15, 2023 8:03:30 GMT Jonny69 said:

That 90° bend on the steering joint looks absolutely torturous. Is it not binding up like that?

Didn't bind, wasn't as sharpe bend as it looks, but back to drawing board as the hubs are now switched back the correct way so the column will now route under the engine. Will get some more photos up as I make progress on it.

[owen]

Not a lot to report, swapped the hubs over made a rack mount and tacked it on, and got the steering wheels somewhere near, it should miss everything and I should be able to get in and out of the car. Was almost at the point of pulling the engine and box and swapping it to something smaller, but I think I can make it work.

The seat in the pic is not staying

[westbay]

"The seat in the pic is not staying"

[Paul H]

Unusual choice of engine - any idea if it's a 6.2 or a 6.75? Guessing it still has the GM400 box? Btw, the carbs & intake look like the factory RR items. Not exactly a mega power unit (approx 220ish bhp?), but will happily lug the several tons of Silver Shadow around with zero drama due to the torque so should go very nicely in such a lighter car! Very understressed engines - when a friend took apart the one in his '76 Shadow 1 to recondition it (seals & gaskets etc were all ageing badly), all the bearings etc were still within factory tolerances despite having done 100K miles. If of any use, all the factory parts books and manuals (which are very detailed) etc can be downloaded from the heritage section of Bentley's website (due to how RR & Bentley were split between BMW & VW, all the data etc for pre-split RRs stayed with Bentley).

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses!

[owen]

Jul 20, 2023 13:24:16 GMT Paul H said:

Unusual choice of engine - any idea if it's a 6.2 or a 6.75? Guessing it still has the GM400 box? Btw, the carbs & intake look like the factory RR items. Not exactly a mega power unit (approx 220ish bhp?), but will happily lug the several tons of Silver Shadow around with zero drama due to the torque so should go very nicely in such a lighter car! Very understressed engines - when a friend took apart the one in his '76 Shadow 1 to recondition it (seals & gaskets etc were all ageing badly), all the bearings etc were still within factory tolerances despite having done 100K miles. If of any use, all the factory parts books and manuals (which are very detailed) etc can be downloaded from the heritage section of Bentley's website (due to how RR & Bentley were split between BMW & VW, all the data etc for pre-split RRs stayed with Bentley).

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses!

I don't know engine size, struggling to find engine number as I don't know the location of it and info is hard to find. Its the gearbox that came on the engine, 60k engine from what I was told. Think I will be removing most of the pre carb stuff on top of the engine so I can get the wiper motor mounted again

[owen]

Checking info the rolls royce was a 1968 silver shadow

[owen]

Here's the mounts made up, hopefully have the column finished today

[Paul H]

Jul 20, 2023 18:15:53 GMT owen said:

I don't know engine size, struggling to find engine number as I don't know the location of it and info is hard to find.

Have a look here for all the factory documentation:

heritage.bentleymotors.com/en/technical-library/1965-1980

or

rrtechnical.info/

[owen]

Made a bracket out of some box section I had kicking about so I can mount the alternator out of the way of the body parts, need to make up an extra support bracket but getting low on metal. Ordered some sheets of steel for the floors, some box section for floor supports, some flat bar, and some angle. Be with me next week. Then need to pull the body off and check the chassis and everything bolted to it. I have seen photos of the chassis and it looks like a lot of it is original morris c section chassis so that's why I have the box section ordered to put some strength across the car

[owen]

The brackets behind the Box section are off the engine, maybe the aircon mount

[owen]

Not a massive update, got sent a free mk2 escort bias pedal box from a good friend in Wales, I think I will be using parts of it on a mini pedal box, a friend from Bristol sent me a free 40L fuel tank also. The escort pedal box doesn't fit in the gap. At this point I am debating engine swap ideas. I have made a mini pedal box up using the clutch pedal as the brake and linking the 2 pedals together so I can run 2 cylinders.

[owen]