Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Bonnet fit

Very nice coments but what a lot of tosh. I have owned 3 Rolls-Royce and 1 Bentley covering 19 years of ownership as a member of the RREC. I find it is right to compair the two as this is suppose to be British craftsmanship at its best. I have also built a Kit Car many years ago before i could afford a Morgan and that bonnet fitted with 1/8 inch gap all around on my first attempt. In Morgans own video Handmade 2 they make a bonnet for an Aero and it is said they wanted a closer bonnet fit. Do you realy think because that car is more expesive it should be made to a higher standard. It is more expensive because it is biger with more expensive components in it with a more complex bought in chassis.
A Bentley is just a mass produced car in reality a big one at that. A mclaren is realy a hand built supercar with state of the art technology second only to the aircraft industry.
MMC will cary on building to these standards as long as people keep their eyes shut to the issues that come up with these cars.
Parts of the Kit Car industry has moved with the times a accepts that people demand a better build quality, othwise there would still be lots of Novas and Duttons for sale.
Morgans are very nice cars but it does frustrate me that people can not accept things are not as they should be. No matter how we look at it 30-40k for a toy is a lot of money. If a person only wants driving pleasure then MX5 is the answer. A Morgan is about the looks but the looks are not right.
When i had my 4/4 and went to my local car club meet, it was laughed at how bad the fit was. What could i say, they were right.
Perhaps, and i dont like to go there, it is yet again a North, South thing. Us northerners want good value for money and as we come from engineering backgrounds realy understand manufacturing and quality.

Notice the bonnet fit of a cheap car with a complex rear hinged bonnet:

Harald

I reckon a new 4/4 is almost a bargain. I am not an apologist for shoddy build and have bought two new 4/4's and a 10 month old Roadster - and in each case any defects were dealt with by Morgan with good grace - including a new hood on one I considered a bit baggy and a respray to the front wing of another with a very small blemish. £30 -40k is a lot of money but it is not a lot for a handbuilt car, a new classic Alvis from Red Triangle is £170k. Being a former RR Aero apprentice and also running a family business (est 1903) I know a little about engineering and also appreciate the difficulties that beset firms in the present climate and Morgan walk the tightrope better than most. You mentioned the N/S divide, well where are the niche car manufacturers in the engineering heartland up North? Besides Bentley I am struggling to think of one, come south of Malvern you will find Aston, Lotus, Caterham, Alvis, RR, Mclaren, not to mention all the Formula 1 constructors.

It is evident that some people part with their money easier than others. Before i did the job i do now i worked as a profesional vintage car restorer, most of the work was on pre war Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars. If we made a bonnet like that it would have gone in the bin. When i was in comunication with MMC they said it could not be done better, i said to them if they pay for it i will get it done. They did not.
It is not rocket science, its a flat sheet of ally run through some bending rolls. Cut to size with a wired edge and a hinge mounting. If it does not fit then do not cut the louvers. In the video Handmade 2 MMC make a big thing about bonnet fitting and how they use old style tools to do it

Wow, what a chip? North South divide brought into it?

Somewhat dismissive and a tad rude and have missed my point entirely. You may have owned a gazillion RR's and Bentleys but that doesn't negate the fact (note that word) that you cannot buy a new Bentley for anywhere near £100k which is three times the cost of a 4/4. So your comment was bunkum.

I repeat the size of a car has no significant bearing on cost. Drive train, engine, chassis, trim, gadgets. They make a big difference. Slightly more metal and paint doesn't. You're comparison was bunkum.

I repeat fit and finish on most kit cars I have seen is generally much worse than that produced by Morgan. A silly throw away comment IMHO.

Now I made no comment on whether the bonnet gaps on your car were acceptable or not. I made no comment on any other aspect of your car. I did not say Morgans don't have issues, that would not be true.

What I did do was make a comment on how bonnets were made to shed some light and try help qualify the discussion.

I'm trying to watch a film and respond at the same time but frankly I've got nothing more to say as your pathetic North South divide comment tells me that I won't get a nice sensible reasonable discussion. I'll revert to giving the film my full attention.

Mass produced? Genuine question.

Ye ye ye i can not understand why people accept it all as being ok. It needs people to stand up and be counted. I sold my last Rolls-Royce to buy my first Morgan and then sold it because it was not right and was told that is as good as it gets

You equate one off vintage car restorers to a car production line? Extremely uninformed at the least.

Another friend of mine recently had an old Ferrari restored, cost him over £300k. How does that compare to building a new car with all the legislative issues involves? You have no idea do you.

Now now chaps, a good discussion is fine but let's leave out any personal insults or comments on north and south divide. We all have opinions, let each have his say and leave it at that.

Neil

Mass produced, naturally. You need to have machinery to get repeatability at low cost. To get truly fine finishes by hand needs hours and hours of skilled craftsmen's time - and that, quite rightly, costs a packet.

If you want hand-built perfection, then expect to pay Bob Peterson prices. Morgans are built down to a price that keeps them sensibly affordable. As I said before, there's no excuse for crappy quality control, but there's a limit to how long MMC can afford to have their guys fettling a bonnet.