Afternoon all,

As a backstory I fell in love with Morgans when I first saw Richard Hammond blasting around Dunsfold in the Aero 8 GTN.. fast forward quite a few years and I managed to acquire an Aero 8 of my own, an S1 but not a GTN.

Earlier this year I toyed with the idea of getting a GTN, but in all honesty the cost to change could have bought me a 3 Wheeler and a nice TVR (as well as keeping my S1!) so I figured it just wasn't worth the outlay for the extras.

So I decided being quite attached to my S1 that I may as well put some money into her for the love, and add some upgrades as well.

First off it was time to sort any little niggles, so I have had the following list of work done:
- Full service
- Rehung both front doors
- Reworked door handles/latches and hinges
- Replaced door and roof seals
- Replaced stereo and wiring, and front speakers
- Fixed any faults (electronics box)

However the most fun I have had was sourcing the holy grail of S1 items it seems... a hardtop roof.
After a lot of time researching, making calls and putting my old detective skills to the test! I managed to acquire one..:



In place to check for rough fit width wise..i.e. make sure this is an S1 not an S2 roof:



I haven't had a chance to fit this properly, as the soft-top will need removing and its not a simple job - seals and clamps will need to be made up, glass found (if anyone has one...!), trimming, painting etc. I also need to come up with a solution to allow the old soft-top to be refitted if required, which will be easier said than done!

I anticipate this is likely to be a winter job, once done I am also looking into:
- Paintwork, roof will need doing so may as well have any other chips and marks taken care of at the same time.
- Wheels, with the hard top I think a gloss black will work better, as the Satin matches the current soft top.
- Brake upgrade
- Engine upgrades (I would like 330bhp)
- Interior retrim with some extras

Will keep you all updated, hopefully some of it might inspire a bit of extra Morgan tinkering!

Nick

Nick, interesting project & I love the dark blue metallic of your existing S1

Please post future updates

I suspect that fitting the hard top is going to be much more complex and tricky than it would appear.

Great project and good luck with the roof, they look very good on the Aero's.

Looking forward to your updates Nick

That's going to be a keeper then.

Nice work.

Thanks all - it is not going to be an easy job, but it'll get there.

Amazing Nick ... if you have any suggestions as to whether another roof can be obtained, please pm me.

Ian

Hi Nick,

How did progress go with the roof. Any pics.

Ian

Amazing dedication to your Morgan Nick , looking forward to seeing the finish !

Hi Ian,

Due to the birth of my first son (and me building an extension - great timing!) I haven't had as much time as I would like to focus on the Morgan, I had my local Morgan trim specialist take a look at the roof and he reckoned it would take 2 weeks of full time labour to get it fitted and work out some solutions to the issues this would raise! Such as how to maintain the ability to use the soft-top, how to fix it for easy release and so on..

I would like to get him to do this in the summer so I will see how the extension pans out, I had some significant issues with the footings over the past few months which wiped out a considerable sum of money I had put aside for the roof, but alas these things happen.

Rest assured I will update this thread when I can, and it will be done.. eventually!



Thanks, me too!

Rest assured however, Luci is tucked up safe and sound over winter..

The car is looking great Nick. Do keep us updated!

Interesting project. Wonder if I can do the same for the fezza

Hi Nick,
I may be able to help you with this. I have GTN#1 which, along with other unique features, was the only one made by the factory capable of taking the hard top with the soft top folded in situ. In late 2003, an updated soft top design was introduced for the S1. Given the unusually long build time for my car (started mid 2003/delivered Jan 2004), I suspect that it may well have been the mule for the new soft top design but haven’t been able to find any hard evidence of this. Anyway, you are more than welcome to take a look and see how they did it before getting too far down the road with your own design.
The car is in SW London. PM me if you want to arrange to see it.

Thanks for the kind words all.



Hi Colin,

That is very kind of you, I am not that far from London (Bedfordshire) so when I undertake the roof fitting in hopefully a few months that would be an offer I would find very useful and much appreciated!
Do you happen to have any pictures of the roof folded inside the hard top? I presume the soft top is the later design.

One of the challenges I am facing is being an early roof it mounts very differently on the car to the later framed style, and it seems like having both together will be impossible to achieve without changing the soft-top roof (either significantly or in its entirety to a later type soft top with a new windscreen frame), so just having the option to use one or the other in a timely fashion could prove to be quite tricky! Ultimately if it can be swapped with some quick-release fasteners that would be an ideal scenario.

Regards,
Nick

The car comes out of mothballs next week and will post pic(s).
It will also be parked up on track at next Goodwood breakfast meet (Mar 1) if you are planning on being there - I will keep the hard top on.

Regards
Colin

Thanks Colin.
I would love to go to Goodwood but with a 4 month old it has been increasingly difficult to get anywhere lately

Nick,
Took some pics today but:
- really not sure they are much help since you can't see the mountings until the soft top is raised at the rear.
- can't get them uploaded anyway given apparent 1KB size limit.

The hood is indeed the later version, so probably no direct help for your early version.
Ping me anytime when/if you still want eyes on.

Colin

Thanks Colin, I have to use imgur for uploading then linking images - right faff!
Ok will do, much appreciated.

A bit of a long overdue update!
Covid-19 slowed down progress so I have only got the car into my local dealer over the past few weeks, rectified a few little issues first then onto the roof..

The bad news is that is doesn't fit, I would imagine as it came from a race team mould the the original was chopped and fettled (unless the racing hardtops where different from the road cars), so it is a few inches short around the window area.. this can be closed up once it is more tightly fitted to the body (it is sat about an inch higher than it should as its fouling on the windscreen frame) but it will still leave a fair gap as well as some other discrepancies..!

So the options currently are either to give up and scrap it (whilst sensible its not really my thing to give up!), or to plough on and see what happens with no guarentee it will ever fit.. which is what I have decided to do for now.

If it really is a road to nowhere then I might have to go down the coachbuilding route, as getting a mould from an original roof is never going to happen as I cannot see someone with a GTN lending out their roof! Ironically I can't see a coach-builder charging more than 4-5k for an aluminium roof, and I am likely to be in almost that deep with possibly nothing to show for it. Aaaaah Morgan's..

Well another update, slightly more positive this time - after a days fettling the roof is showing signs of wanting to fit.. but it still needs a LOT of work around the windows, and a fairly substantial amount in a few other places! In the meantime I probably should find out who made the GTN hardtops - could come in useful if my one ends up being a dead end.

I took a few pictures to show the progress, firstly the roof "plonked" in position (soft-top full removed to facilitate this)


Slight gap at the top - lip from the mould needed trimming to get this to fit


Hmmm this could be a tad breezy - even for a Mog!


A large amount of work later and some progress... the front lip has been trimmed to allow it to fit neatly to the screen area, and the rear is fitting flusher to the deck


The window gap is better, but that is better as in you won't fall out of it now


In this pic if you squint and stand back a little it still doesn't fit


Lets see what tomorrow brings!

I don’t think that’s an original factory hard top period

All of the GTN cars including the original green prototype, the RTCC and Ahlers cars ran the same hard top

I don’t believe either the factoryLM car ran anything different

The Dewalt car wasn’t factory built so it could be pull from a mould of that potentially or it could be something entirely new

Certainly our (RTCC) hardtop would have swapped across on to a normal S1 car, even after it took to the scenery at our first race at Donington in 2003 (the factory delivered it “race ready” to the track.....)



t

Picking up my GTN from service and MoT tomorrow and when I get it home will be taking off the hard top and refitting the soft top. I have a complete set of the original soft top rubbers that I acquired from the factory a year or so ago so it’s time to put it all together and re-install

It will be nice to have a roof that goes up and down in seconds again rather than the minutes of the S5 :-)

Nick, looks like Shaun's workshop at AWSC ?

The easy-up S1 hood does seem like one of the better roof options on the Aero series, very fast and you can put it up and down at the traffic lights if it rains. Unlike my early roof..




You have a keen eye! It is indeed AWSC and Shaun is the man working the magic! (From what I have seen this week he is a magician in disguise..)

So I have done a bit more research on this (as you do) and I have found a couple of factory owned race cars at Malvern that have hardtops matching mine, so I do believe it is from a factory built car (assuming the cars in the factory were built by the factory!) .

In the Morgan lobby/museum area near Steve's office there are usually two GTN race cars - a red and blue one. Both these have the same roof, a few distinguishing features from the road going GTN being:
- Larger window apertures
- Lack of a guttering recess around window aperture
- No recess for the oval badge on the side
- Aerial mounted in the rear centre section of the roof
- Rivet mounted rear window

Having a look at mine today you can see the aerial mounting position is visible via tiny indentations left in the mould, as are the rear window rivets so that confirms that mine is from a racing background (plus the gentleman I bought it from confirmed it was from their race GTN of years previous).

As for the differences to the road car I can only speculate, I would imagine as the drivers sit much further back in the race cars they needed more side visibilty so made the apertures larger as they use plexi windows.

A few pictures:



Now onto another update!
Shaun has been working his magic on fabricating new window apertures, and they are looking rather splendid. Still a long way to go, but it is definately getting there and I see light at the end of the tunnel




Shaun is a bit busy over the next few days, so I am off to Krazy Horse to see how progress is coming along on my 3 Wheeler!

Interesting solution to the 'infill', will be nice to see the finished article

The blue one, in front of fellow tour guide Brian H is from 2004.
I'm not aware of the red one you mention, or when it was built. The green/gold 2009 GT3 car is out there somewhere, but I've not seen it since Chateau Impney hill climb 3? years ago.

Nick, it is indeed the same roof as the race cars one came up for sale a few years ago now but the race cars have the perspex infill. Full marks to you for taking this on it will look really nice once its sprayed up but its roof down for me every time.

Em

The blue one is the 2004/5 lemans car
Built by Chris Lawrence’s son and team of hired help and some boys from the factory

The red car is Keith Ahlers car built on 2002/3 for the GT Cup class In the British gt series
As was its sister car which I engineered for RTM , and then subsequently redesigned and rebuilt for the 2006 Britcar 24 hours race

It is still the only Aero to complete a 24 hr race

It is a lovely bit of craftsmanship, it is far from finished and in its earliest incarnation but its quite rigid already and quite interesting to see the thought and work that goes behind it.



I found a picture of the red one from 2017, I haven't seen it for a few years so perhaps it is residing elsewhere - I just presumed it was still around as I had seen it so many times on videos of the factory tours!



The green and gold car is very pretty for a race car, wonder where it is..



Thanks Em, luckily I am fortunate enough to have a 3 Wheeler for all my open air cravings!

Fantastic achievement completing a 24 hr race, if you have the time I think it would make a great story/thread around the engineering/development and subsequent racing of that car - I'd love to hear it!

Ah yes, I remember the red car now. Memory is not what it was!
I expect it is back in Keith's collection somewhere.

- well done for the effort on this so far Nick

I think I am with Em on the hardtop question as I'm not sure I would use a hardtop much, if I had one.I had an immaculate hardtop for the Lotus which lived on a purpose built shelf in the garage - for approx. 12 years!!

I am impressed with the infill panel that Shaun has fabricated for the window aperture - it looks suitably robust.

Also, I don't think I have seen the red Aero before but I love the way they have secured the headlamps in - clearly the 'Meccano' solution wasn't going to cut it on the track.....

I will follow this with interest; keep the pictures coming......

James

Thanks James, I was worried at one stage that it had ventured down the rabbit hole a bit to far but thankfully Shaun has managed to pull it back.

It is funny isn't it, some cars I would never want a hardtop for - but weirdly I just love them on the Aero.
It also has the added benefit of being a little higher inside, which means I will be able to sit upright for the first time ever! (6ft 5).

Interesting project Nick....

Please keep us updated.


Cant see the point of a hard top on a Morgan myself ..still each to his own !!!!

Not much of an update as Shaun is flat out at the moment, but a couple of pictures outside showing off the lines.





My next headache looks to be how to source (or make) a rear window...

Nick, try these

Plastics 4 Performance Ltd, tel 01204 811277, they do curved perspex & polycarbonate made to pattern (recently did a rear panel for a Sunbeam Tiger hardtop)

Oh, and that blue is lovely in the sun

Fantastic - thanks Jon!

A quick update, looking like a complete roof now!
When it goes to the bodyshop it will need a bit of sanding here and there, a small amount of final filling and fettling but should look the part when all painted - getting quite excited now.









Thats all for now folks

- looking good Nick

Watching progress with interest.......

James

Waiting to see the car when the whole car comes from the paint shop!

It’s coming on well. You must be proud of your work

Will it be a real Morgan when the job is finished Nick you might not have any leaks ......

Em

Not my work I am afraid - but that of Shaun at AW!




Oh I am pretty sure it will leak somewhere..true Morgan identity sustained.

Picked her up today, next stop is the rear window (spoke to Plastics 4 Performance earlier and need to make an aluminium template..hmmm) then off to paint.



A few pictures up the road on the way home..





I also asked Shaun to make me a custom bag for storing the soft top in - it came out really nice.

It's gonna be a tad warm in that cabin Nick how about a roof vent....

Em

That looks great Nick, the roof flows so well with the lines of the car. Look forward to seeing it all finished.

I can see that once it is painted it is going to look pretty good. What is the flange on either side for?

- have you sorted the fitting of the soft top Nick ?

Will it fit with the hardtop in place (I'm guessing probably not...?)

James

Great job..really suits the car.

Have you considered perspex /polycarbonate rear window..you could then drill holes in window covered with rain shields as per many race cars.

My experience of the S5 hardtop was that once we'd got it watertight, to prevent misting I then needed 4 or 5 vent holes in the trailing edge of the roof. What Kevfitz said :-)

I think I might need to get the Air Con regassed!



Thanks David.



I am probably lacking my morning coffee, which flange do you mean?

The soft top can be refitted, and I have had mine slightly modified as it used some additional poppers on the A-pillar which are now being removed (variant number 1.3 of Series 1 roof) to allow this to happen and still function.
It won't be a 2 minute job, but that is partly down to having the earlier Gangster style roof which mounts a little differently to the later Easy-up pram style. It shouldn't however be to difficult!

I haven't actually seen a later hooded Series 1 in a while so can't comment on how they fit, but I do know that 1 of the GTN's had their hardtop fitted with the soft top in situ, so technically it must be possible!



I spoke to Plastics4Performance yesterday and they can commission a window for me, but I need to first make a 4mm thick aluminium mold...
As for the holes, I guess I will cross that bridge when I get to it - I was hoping a bit of antifog solution on the windows and the air con would keep them largely mist free.



Interesting, do you have any pictures of these? I didn't realise they were needed on the S5.

Nick, re the rear 'screen template, If you can get the car up to P4P's works they lay over yours a test screen & then work from that, they even match the curvature too

Would you ask if he is interested in making another and possible one for the hardtop as well?

Also, what colour blue is your car?

Interesting, do you have any pictures of these? I didn't realise they were needed on the S5.
[/quote]

I can grab pics when I'm next with the car...
I needed the through flow of air that the rear holes provided only after the roof had been fettled to a point where *it doesn't leak*!
(Well, the header rail doesn't leak, and the vertical door seals don't leak... the bottom edges though aren't yet watertight, but it takes a deluge to cause seepage.) At that point of watertightness, it's also sufficiently airtight that unless a window is cracked open, then two-up on a damp day the side and rear windows mist up, even at speed.

Williams drilled 4 or 5 holes in the roof's trailing edge - which the S1 doesn't have.
On the other hand, does the S1 have heated windows?

Will

The GTN hard top has a heated glass rear window

Some series 1 s have a elecrical heated front side and rear windows mostly with the gangster style roof like mine, but must not be left on for extended periods.

Em

Had a chat with Shaun, he is happy to do both - many options of finish, colour, material, lining, stitching and so on if you so wish.
He is happy for you to give him a call if you want to discuss the options.



It is Mercedes-Benz Azurite Blue Metallic.

Interesting that it would do that, have you tried running the AC as that is a great way to remove moisture even if its cold and set to heating.
My S1 has heated glass all round, so it will just be the rear screen that isn't (unless I can source a heated rear GTN screen).

Many congratulations Nick, that is looking really stunning.

I can't wait to see it when it's been painted.

Yes. Williams did too good a job of sealing the cabin (a first, I'm sure!) so that on a wet day there wasn't enough airflow to prevent fogging, even with the aircon on full chat. The heated screen had to be On to prevent misting. If there's nowhere for the air to flow out, it can't come in, no matter how you set the blower. I may be the only Morgan owner to suffer this problem :-)

WIll

I guess you could fit vents in the infill panels Shaun made behind the side windows.

Thanks, me too!



I will make sure I don't do to good a job then!

Nick, if you can let me have Shaun's contact info that would be great.

I thought the blue of yours looked a bit darker.

The GTN paint codes are:

BMW Maritius Blue PJ52B
BMW Titan Silver LHV1B

It is very difficult to match the original because the paints have changed a bit (or perhaps the way Morgan do the painting!)

Shooter,
He doesn't have a direct line but if you call the main AW number 01234 750205 they can put you through to him.

Funnily enough the blue of mine does appear to be very similar to the GTN blue. Last time I parked next to one was at Brookland in 2016 and it was almost indistinguishable on a cloudy day. In the sun however I don't know how the metallic flakes would compare as I have yet to see a GTN in the sun!

Unfortunately paint matching is a dark art, machine matching is probably the only way to go for anything more than a few years old now.

BMW 287
BMW 354
in the real world......PPG and their coded Paint codes

I have a small delivery of parts on its way.. so fingers crossed that could give an exciting update (well for me anyway!).
Other than that it is about 5/6 weeks wait for the paintshop...

Ooooh the postie has been!

Interestingly I learnt yesterday (from the bodyshop) that the paint on my Aero is actually pearlescent, which explains why it looks a few different colours sometimes and really pops in the sun.
Quite neat for a Mercedes-Benz colour!

Small update - the postman bought me this..



A genuine brand new GTN rear window.

Wow, that's a lucky find !

Brilliant find, good fortune favours the brave it's your reward for taking this on nice one..

Time for some updates!

So I had the dent man from my local Morgan dealer pop over a week or so ago, he has removed all the dents on the car so she is perfectly straight before bodywork - I don't like filler so this was the perfect way to ensure there is little to none being used.

I also noticed the windscreen was delaminating and had a nasty few chips and scratches, so that is being replaced as I want her to be factory fresh.. whilst ordering I might have gotten carried away and ordered some more shiny bits, notwithstanding the box I already have of new lights and bits and pieces..






Onto more recently and yesterday the old screen was removed, the new one will be fitted when the car is back from the bodyshop after stage 1 of the paintwork is complete.




The hardtop was also removed, this was much easier than expected (phew) and was a doddle - it also weighs practically nothing so a good saving over the soft top when fitted, although by the time it is trimmed in fine leather it might be a little closer to the soft top in weight.




Hardtop is now at the bodyshop, and the car will follow next week - this will be to final finish the roof and paint it (as well as spray a special sound deadening liner inside the roof) and once complete the plan is to have the roof final fitted and trimmed along with a few custom goodies!

Once complete it will go back to the bodyshop for stage 2 which is to have the rest of the paintwork sorted, GTN vents fitted and then owing to the outlook of the weather I suspect it may remain dorment until next year when the plan is to finish the interior, refurbish the wheels and brakes and put some new boots on it.

I do however need to finalise the interior design as the hardtop will be trimmed, Shaun kindly made me up a rather nice sample which I have been pondering over. I must admit I have seen some other designs (some very kindly provided by a fellow TM'er) and I am tempted to do something a bit more radical so I am doing some research - but I must admit I do like the diamond design and Shaun has but a few tweaks in to make it more unique, wonder if you can spot them - albeit pics can be quite decieving!




Thats all for now folks

"spray a special sound deadening liner inside the roof" ooh, do tell - redoing the inside to my hardtop has been on the to do list for a while

Will

The front heated screen on my Roadster is automatically toggled off by the BCU after around 5-10 minutes if not de-selected first. If no such protection an adjustable timer relay would achieve similar.

So I am using something called Raptorcoat, used for truckbed liners mostly but apparently works very well as a sound deadener on roofs and in other places.



I am pretty sure there is a timer on them, turns off after about 10mins or so.

Raptorcoat aha... interesting. Let me know how that works out please :-)

Will

Will do Will!

So another small update, car goes in tomorrow for Stage 1 of the paintwork - so I finished stripping down the scuttle area (wipers/washer jets, screen trims and rubbers) ready for the paint.
I must admit these look quite intimidating but it is by far the easiest car I have ever worked on, perks of being handmade I suppose! Albeit for someone my size it is not easy to fit into the gaps required to actually remove things!

Few parts being guarded..



I am sure something is missing here?





Top frame back in place (to allow fitting of the hardtop as it will need to go on and off a few times at the bodyshop to get the fit perfect)



Must say I am excited about tomorrow, been many years since I dreamt of getting the roof sorted - so to finally see it coming together is rather exciting.

A quick update, roof has been fettled on and off the car about ten times now! All the cars are a little different as are the roofs I imagine so this has been necessary to get the fitment spot on, and also fabricate areas that needed additional work - add in aluminium to strengthen fixing areas and so on. My bodyshop man has also custom fabricated the leading front edges so that looks a lot neater now, as this roof had them crudely missing!

It is now about to head into final primer and finally some paint, not before the raptorcoat goes on mind.

Car wise the a-pillars have been painted and they are looking perfect, ready to accept the nice new screen.

Bit of an update!
Roof is done, and looks great. Raptorcoat has gone on and has definately made the roof feel more solid, when you tap it you get more of a "thumwpf" rather than a "ding" if that makes any sense..

The paint looks great, really happy with it and was well worth the effort..which was as astounding 38 hours of labour!

Picture of it after paint and just before final polishing:


Sat loosely on the car, mainly to keep it safe but also to have a sneak peak at the final look..




Next step is back to AW for the glass to be fitted, the windscreen to be fitted, and the hardtop to be trimmed in lovely leather.
Then onto the rest of the bodywork!

Nick, looks amazing, can't see any evidence of the aluminium infills Shaun had to make

Thanks Jon, even inside with the raptor coat and a little tidying its hard to tell!

That does look sensational.

Thanks Lee

Looks superb! I really admire your dedication in getting the roof fitted and finished!

Looks

Lovely job Nick, It might be the nicest detachable ever fitted to a mog.

Simply fantastic!

Top job. Really well done. The roof looks amazing.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments, yesterday night I refitted the a-pillar end cap seals (put new ones on) and polished/refitted the windscreen inner a-frame.
I also polished up the bolts that hold it, it was suprised how much muck came out of them when I used a cotton wool bud on the centres!

Before:


After:


A frame and seals in place


Just need to decide on the interior colour now (still having nightmares on this one) and then on Monday the trimming for the roof starts.
Luckily I have a bit more time to finalise the design for the seats, so it is just the colour to choose for now so the roof actually matches!!

That interior leather looks great to me, may I ask why you are changing?

Sadly looks can be deceiving!
It is quite tired in places and has been water damaged in areas as well, mainly around the doorcards and sills.

However this could have been fixed but for the mess the supplying dealer made of the drivers area, it had some wear which I asked them to rectify when I purchased it 4/5years ago...
They did this and it looked great for about a week, until it cracked and looked terrible, upon taking it to an expert he said they had used the wrong paint and in essense the whole drivers seat, sill, and most of the surrounding leather (which they covered in overspray and primer) was ruined and had to be replaced.

Unfortunately the leather cannot be matched due to changes in leather the suppliers use, so it has made more sense to start fresh.

Nick, if you get the chance, could you take some pictures of the rear parcel shelf area and the adjoining side panels of the interior where the hood has been removed.

I'm really curious to see what it looks like back there without all the hood paraphanalia in situ.....

James

Nick do you happen to know how the sill leather comes off?

James,
I will see what I can do when the roof is off, currently you can't see much with it on.




Lee,
It is a panel that is clipped in via christmas tree type fixings - it "should" pull off with pursuasion and perhaps a trim tool provided no one has been there before broken something and glued it back in situ..