Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Tool tray replacement..............

I remember that when I made the wooden tool tray for my Roadster that it was a challenge, and I nearly gave up.
And so it happened again yesterday when I was on the edge of giving up...................
This time though the raw material was aluminium. I pondered this for a while, whether to go for wood again, of a mix of wood and aluminium, or full aluminium. Clearly aluminium gives a bit more depth than wood which has to be thicker for strength.

So first I tried my wooden cap piece for size.
This method was the basis for the Roadster wooden tray, but in the end I decided to try a single aluminium panel, so I didn't use this piece of wood. The aluminium chosen is 1.2mm thick and quite a challenge to bend on a large piece.


This is how it started. I had to run the Morgan onto that piece of wood to hold the aluminium down so that I could bend it. The remainder of the bending was either in the vice or hammered over wood.


The edges were turned over to provide a flange to attach the sides to, and to give rigidity.


38" is the maximum width.


These measurements were the basis of the cut out for the diff, but the hole was extended to the right as the diff housing is offset.


Initial fit. A protruding bolt in each rear corner makes it a tight fit.


It was at this point I nearly gave up, because it had been really hard to get this far.
Then I removed the protective film............


Next came the side panels. There's really only one way to do this without a fancy cutter........


More to follow.............

After the sides had been cut, bent and fixed in place (DS tape and nuts/bolts) - Next a trial fit with the sides in place:
I kept this tray symmetrical (except that the hole for the diff is offset). The wooden version has a deeper section on the offside as there's a bit more vertical room, but with aluminium..............



The next job was to mock up a cardboard template for the diff housing.



Many minutes of tinsnip work later:



Bending in progress:



Fitted - DS tape and nuts/bolts again. I reinforced the front edge with some L section aluminium (Wickes).


Finally this afternoon - I've glued some O section neopreme along the edges, which should prevent any leakage from underneath. On the rear edge you can make out one screw head, there are two screws into the rear frame, and on the front I've added a bracket and there are two nuts and bolts, one either side of the centreline, mainly to prevent rattles.


And here's the cover in place. The yellow 'rope' came from a torch.


This is not the end, because I need to finish off the underside, and line the tray with neoprene, so there will be a final instalment next week hopefully.
A word of warning though - unless you have steely resolve, and are competent in forming metal, don't attempt this at home. It looks easy but it's one of the hardest jobs I've done.

Nice work Dave and thanks for the very clear photos. Something I might attempt at some stage. I'm also thinking about improving the actual shelf with separate covering rather than the carpet and lockable catches.

Nice job. Another take on this which I thought was quite innovative was done by a pal of mine. He cut holes in the cover board so that plastic food containers would fit into them, supported by their flanged rims.

Good work Dave, the stress will be worth it when its completed

Very nice work Dave!

How did you work out how much clearance is needed for the Differential at full spring loading?

Great work as ever Dave.

The diff deflection calculation is easy Peter. Just by placing a straight edge across the new tool tray and deducting a quarter inch. The diff doesn't touch the original too tray so that's plenty of room. It's harder to estimate the width required to be honest, so that's a best guess. Diff deflection is about two inches, and there's a centre bump stop if you haven't noticed underneath the tubular hoop, held by two oversized bolts (just visible in the 9th photo). In fact I was toying with the notion of adding thickness to that 'bump stop' - it's more of a anti-knock strip to be honest. I'll line the inside of the tool tray hump with neoprene but I doubt the diff will ever touch it. The front bracket is stainless steel from my offcuts box and has some spring to it so should the worst happen, there will be a quarter inch lift on the front edge of the tray. The wooden cover is flexible enough to take that easily.
The wooden tray on my Roadster has slightly less clearance, and very occasionally under hard acceleration with a passenger, a bump will cause it to 'tap' the underside of the tray. The only time I had a real problem was in Kent with the broken rear damper when undamped deflection caused the axle vent to punch a hole in the bottom of the tray - now fixed.

Dave,

understood! This is something I'm going to try once it is a bit warmer.

I wonder if battery access on the near sife might be useful and if the space on the off side where the battery isn't could be used for a deeper storage area, perhaps 4 wine bottle size? What do you think?

Peter

Dave as always a great read. I don,t think I have the skill for that though.