Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Dave's How To: Workshop Notes - Early Days.

35 is equally impressive for a Roadster I would have thought. Glad I was coming out of Lyndhurst and not in... did you see the queue of traffic?

Nice run back though, avoided the motorways too.

Steve, I avoided Lundhurst & went via Chicester to Salsbury etc

One of the jobs which really needs doing is to do a bit of fettling around the cowl and the grille. The grille is a clumsy fit. It sits in a groove at the top of the cowl, but it can slide from side to side, and this means that the vertical strips may not be centralised, or stay centralised. When the grille moves in the cowl it's a metal to metal movement, so it will rub the paint off the inside of the cowl, leaving bare aluminium. At least the constant rubbing will rub away the aluminium oxide.
At the bottom, the grille is held by two M6 allen headed setscrews in from the front - first through the number plate box (on cars with over-riders) - then through the bottom band on the grille, then through the lower cross brace between the inner wing valances into penny washers and nuts. This is drilled 'freehand' and each of my cars have has the holes opened out. In one case considerably opened out!!! Full bumper cars I believe are the same but you'll see the bolt heads visible in the strip across the bottom of the grille.

On all my three cars I've reversed the setscrews, so in from the back with a penny washer (held in place with DST), then through the grille lower band. This can be secured in place with washers & nuts, leaving enough thread to take the number plate box, which can then be taken off if necessary without disturbing the grille.
There's one more thing. The number plate box will rub against the lower part of the cowl and take the paint off. This can be sorted with spacer washers to move it away from the cowl, but I also add taper washers because I don't like the front number plate pointing at the sky. Finally the lower part of the grille may touch the edges of the cowl and rub the paint off. Here I've added some small leather buffers. At the top of the grille I've added a leather band inside the cowl, and when reasembled found that I could also insert a neoprene strip to hold the grille away from the cowl paint.

So................this is how it looks with setscrews reversed and grille secured.



But before that I had some carbon fibre kicking about and finally found a use............



And on Bumble I added some neoprene neoprene to edge the cowl and direct more air through the radiator. So I did this again - This needed two holes drilling each side in the inner wing valances. You can see the slotted grille securing hole here.





I had a look at my badge bar and removed the centre badge - more is less etc. I've added grommets to the bolt heads to provide a buffer between the nuts and the cowl paint.
As a reminder, the stainless plate is an MGB front number plate backing plate which is a perfect fit.



Here are the two horns..............the wiring is all there and just needs releasing.


And here it is re-assembled.

And so to the final phase of "Early Stages".

The heater box seal.............
When we were stuck at the Dartford crossing, it was a hot day and all I could get from the heater vents was hot air. I modified the heater seal on Bumble, and have now done to same here.
This is how it comes, quite a soft sponge but lacking a seal centre around the bonnet hinges and at the bulkhead.



After adding neoprene edges and a leather top, plus some thick neoprene at the centre point it's much better.





On my Roadster I added a pair of S shaped pieces of neoprene to the top of the A posts. The factory have now modified the easy up with a thick sponge seal.



We had a small leak over the header rail in torrential rain on the way home. So I've added a circular strip of solid neoprene under the front seal lip to see if the extra pressure will keep the water out. It sits there without being glued.



Next is one of my indulgences - changing the rear lamps for Aero 8 red lenses, and front indicator lenses. I prefer the look, and the lenses are a bit deeper.





When I first got Bumble, the door hinge allen headed set screws were a bit on the rusty side, so I capped them with plastic covers. This time I've used plastic covers on the A post and aluminium covers on the doors.



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

Today I looked at the windstop. My existing brackets don't fit the sports seats which have much fatter head restraints. So I needed some spacers. Luckily there were enough bits & pieces on the shelf to sort it out.
First I refurbed the old brackets:



Then to get the distance I used two long nuts locked together:



But this isn't pretty, so first I wrapped the nuts in mohair to make them into cylinders, then covered them in leather. They came out well.



Here the first tube is mohair, the one behind is leather:



Put together with contact adhesive, the edges stuck with superglue.














I'm quite happy with that although when I get round to replacing the perspex, I'll go slightly higher. It does make a difference and keeps MrsW smiling.

Final job today was to look at a second heat shield between the cat and the brake master cylinder. When we got home from Shelsley on Saturday, the master cylinder was too hot to touch.
First came a cardboard template:



There's a convenient threaded hole on the cat..........





The aluminium plate is covered with heat resistant weave & Reflect-a-Cool, so we'll see how this works out.

Finally - I have some chafing in an unusual place. I saw this when we arrived home after picking the car up, and I thought it was a paint defect, but no. The Shelsley trip has chafed the paint down to the metal. So another fix to sort out!

Wow, Dave you should have a job as MMC development director!

BUT ...am in shock!

No TM BADGE ,I can hardly believe it!!

Great thread this one

Is the wind stop a product I can buy and that will fit a 2011 4/4, or did you make that too?

If is available where would I buy one, my wife would love one too.

Hi John. The wind stop is my own design, refined over the last eight years. I use perspex cut to size from an internet provider. I can supply you with measurements if you want to have a go. The head restraint brackets are 2 mm aluminium cut and shaped. That's the most time consuming part. Working with leather is a pleasure!

Neil - I fully intended to get a TM grille badge but I've de-cluttered to four badges and so there's no space. So it looks like I'll stick with the vinyl on the screen for now.

Hi Dave amazing tuto , concerning the wind stopper for John , i think will have one dark point as he said he own a 4 seater , so how to go when someone want to jump on the back

Great to read as ever Dave.