On a positive note, the arch looks fairly decent and might even be usable, not a given when I’m making stuff. On a down note, I put a lot of work into the sill boards and I suspect they’re so much scrap (or will be cut into smaller pieces).
Above are new sill boards (lots left to machine on them, but not until more pieces show up). Looking good, for Roger Morgan values of good. The arch is just leaning against the tire, centered above the axle, where it should be…
You can barely see it in the first photo, but there is a pencil line on the sill, which is where the front of the arch should be. Uh oh.
Just to be sure I wasn’t absolutely bonkers, I put the old sill boards on the chassis, measure from the back forwards, using the original chassis as a guide.
Ah. Lovely. This should be hard against the back of the firewall.
(The bloody firewall will do me in one day–by which point I’ll be grateful. By far the biggest mistake I’ve made on this car [so far!] was buying and then accepting this new firewall, it has and continues to be a huge pain in the ass. Should have had the original repaired. Wouldn’t have taken any longer, that’s for certain. At this point, I’ve kind of given up ever seeing a tool tray, it was ordered months and months ago…it’s wherever my instruments are, send off for rebuilding more than six months ago. Anyway…)
So now to figure out what to do. None of the possibilities are very good, but I do have to laugh at myself. I’m trying to be careful and fairly exact, not something normally associated with Morgans. I would guess the most common posture of a 1955 factory worker was one eye closed and a thumb held up “measuring” where the next bit went…
On a happier note, the arch seems to be fairly decent. I have it a bit “over bent” here to remind the ash of its new role. I hand-planed one side to flatten it, for, again, Roger-values of flat. I’ll hold off attaching it to the arch until I know what I’m doing on the frame.
Of course, I flattened the side I meant to trim when doing the taper, so I’ll be planing the other side soon…