I took two weeks to ride the Triumph down to Utah to see Bryce Canyon and environs, including Hell’s Canyon on the way back home, so progress on the Morgan, such as it is at the best of times, has been slow. But as you can see, I’m moving towards the front.

2016-09-19-22-02-03

Have I mentioned recently how much I despise brass screws? If I was brighter, I would have continued my machine-screws-into-tapped-holes methodology for the small screws holding the cup and latch to the door post, but…alas. I, of course, despite (apparently insufficient) care, broke a screw off when putting the small metal cup on. So now I get to deal with that.

You can see I made a mistake in positioning the door post, hence the glued in block in the sill board in front of it. And better yet, I then mistook the glue line for a pencil line and, with no-brain-engagement, ran the front of the repair through the table saw. So there is actually another, kerf-thick, repair in front of the block. They shouldn’t allow me to do this stuff.

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Some notes on the opening photo…and, yea, verily, those are all-new sill boards.

  1. I did not have any ash thick enough for the rockers, so I laminated some up.
  2. Right side door post in-the-raw, along with original left post as a model
  3. There is always one board in a set which has you asking “is this actually the same species?” I would say this light-colored board is 2/3rds as dense as the others, but appears to be ash. I obviously have not shaped the front parts of these boards yet…
  4. I’m not convinced a factory worker in 1955 had ever seen any of these. (Not that they’re doing me much good, either!)
  5. Why did I not stick with taps and machine screws, even for the small stuff? Lesson learned.
  6. On the floor over here is the Pile of Shame, bits from the original frame which have been replicated and “extras” made by yrs.trly…that is, those which haven’t been made into something else. The door posts came from the first set of sill boards I made.
  7. You can just see the rear sheet metal peeking up over here. It’s not rusty but it’s going to require a fair amount of panel beating.
  8. The remaining pieces to be replicated
  9. Sharp chisels are one of the more satisfying hand tools to use!

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This is an experiment, because why not? The rear of the car is fairly fragile, and especially with spare tires potentially banging against the lower edge of the bodywork as they’re returned to the machine, I’d like as much strength back here as possible. That said, I don’t think this tall of a return on the rear cross-member is likely to make it onto the car.

But, as I keep having to remind myself, it’s easy to cut stuff away, not so easy to add it back, so it’s worth looking at the idea before turning the bad parts of the idea into sawdust.