1946 Morris 8 Series E - off to storage

[jonomisfit]

I got chance to do a little bit of work on the morris this weekend. But not much.

Started filling in more of the gaps between tubes.... this is a nightmare.... why did i put so many in...

Lower plate modded from the one in my last post and tacked in.



Looks twisted in the pic, but is in straight to the square.


I then put a capping plate on the flat(ish) section. The reason for the lowest panel being so offset back is to give good access to the engine mounts for installation. Hopefully make life a bit easier with them.


The onto the vertical panel ext to the engine, its a tight squeeze so kicked the panel in a bit to give a bit more space.



Then onto the top closer panel. This has a slight dish to it to give greater clearance to the exhaust etc.



It also ties up so a vertical panel can drop from the shell to close out the bulkhead corner.



Then onto the other side... rinse and repeat.


The vertical panel needed a step in it to clear the starter motor housing.



The flat panel needed an even greater dish to clear the inlet manifold than the other side.









I then stripped out the engine and box to give some space to tack things in a bit better.





So much more paneling to go, but getting close to the point where I can take the body off again (hopefully for the last time) to get in and fit the remaining fill plates.


My camera then died, but welded on the damper brackets properly to the wishbones, including a little lateral stiffness strip.


I then fitted the wishbones again, so that when my wheels turn up I can check everything for clearance.

Not sure how much work i'll be doing on this for a while as have a load of other things on.

[Paul Barrett]

Going to be fun painting it!

[jonomisfit]

I'm depressed enough with the paneling. Not going to think about paint for a long while....

[jonomisfit]

Its got to the point where I need wheels to check clearances before doing some of the bodywork.

I procrastinated for a bit, then bit the bullet and bought some.

I suspect these may well be a bit marmite, but they work for me which is what matters.






I like a good juxtaposition of old and new, and they match my intended paint scheme.


The front and rear arches are going to need a bit of stretching..... by about 6"

[Xenocide]

...I like 'em! I like the old and new wheel combination on most cars to be honest! Looking good!

[ettorebugatti]

Well, you weren't going to run with 4.5" wheels, anyway.

[sonus]

Thumbs up on the wheels!

[niterida]

Awesome work - love the wheels

Did u ever consider cutting the car down the middle and adding 6" or so to the width - thats what I would have done

[v8ian]

Thought this might be of interest, I have had this picture scanned from an old Custom Car, Built by an old mate of mine Jeff Collins. V4 powered?, Triumph front suspension, Corsair rear axle, Later rebuilt by Steve Speer with a Rover fitted.

[wheelspinner]

Sorry was there a car in the picture?

[wheelspinner]

Looks a bit like a legend.

[Paul Barrett]

Read my mind steve haha

[v8ian]

Easy Children, that picture in the mag was probably late 70s, so if that's the case, 35 years ago, plus the young lady concerned was probably about 25, if not older, so at a guess she could be well into her 60s now, Eeeeeeeek.

[jonomisfit]

Thanks for the posts.

I'd thought about cutting down the middle and widening that way. It'd have solved a load of space issues for me, but I always think the cars look out of proportion when done that way so decided against it.

Ian, that morris looks pretty cool. Its also touching on the same colour scheme i'm considering. Any more pics? I've tried searing but my google fu is weak.

So..... seeing as I had the wheels on i thought i'd have a bit of a fiddle with the arches.... just to see how bad a mod they will need.... the answer... a lot.



Thats 3.5" on the front and.... 6" on the rear!



The front wings still need to come slightly further out, and raised up by another 50mm





I was pleased with how well the wheels lined up with the centre of the arches. Turns out i must have measured it all fairly ok :-)





After contemplating the car for a while i thought i'd better get back to it.

Rack needs shortened to fit. As its a power steering rack I thought it wouldnt be possible to mod. But then i found a website showing how to remove the power steering setup. It turn out the central seal i thought was machined onto the rack is in fact pressed on.





Cut through most of the way, carefully, with the grider then a tap with the hammer.



Rack ready to go off and machine. M16 x 1.0 threads so will need to turn it. Unfortunately it wont fit up the centre of my lathe so will need to find someone else to mod it. I'll speak nicely to the machine shop at work and see if someone can turn it for me in their lunch.

Body will need to be shortened by about 150mm as with the rack



Que interlude to go to FatboyDW's for a BBQ and beer.... and wine..... and fizzy stuff......

Todays progress was not epic and mainly involved standing looking at car.

More bulkhead paneling



Was a pain in the bum to do.





And then did the last bit of the trans tunnel front section.



There's not likely to be progress for a while as have a load of other things on.

[niterida]

hehehehe if u had widened the car you wouldn't have to widen the arches

There was a street rod here in Oz a few years ago - 34 Ford from memory - that was done with a modern theme. It had simialr wheels (but 20" or something ridiculous) in black as well and the boy was painted like a satin chocolate brown and it looked awesome. I have tried to find a photo but failed - which is strange because you couldn't open a car magazine here for a while without seeing a photo of it somewhere. If I find it I will post it up - I think that colour would suit this car

[niterida]

OK found the car I was thinking of - its a dark silver but looks brown in certain lights :



Its called RAWR and is a 33 Ford. More photos here : RAWR

[Paul Barrett]

Looking awesome Jono , mx5 rack?

[jonomisfit]

Thanks.

Yep MX5 power assisted rack. The manual ones are alloy bodied (i think) so its harder for me to shorten one. PLus i think the power assisted is a faster ratio.

[Paul Barrett]

The manual rack I have is steel bodied

[v8ian]

Since I have been following this I keep going back to an old circuit racer I can just about remember,The Austin certainly reminds me of it, Called Berpop, Laterly painted silver and turned into a street rod, then out of the blue, a mate sent me a link to Berpops Facebook Page, www.facebook.com/pages/Berpop-Memories/549385938492614