Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Wing Replacement - The Saga Begins

I didn't spot why you needed to replace the wings in the first place

How did they mould the wings?

When I built My +8 Bitsa I needed rear wings. Lorne Goldman sent Me His old front wings. I was able to get one rear wing from a Local Friend (new) for $50, but that left Me with one to get. I had a +4 rear wing that I added metal to but that was a bodge. Cuthbert Twillie lent Me Molds for +4 rear wings. It looked like I would be able to modify these molds for a +8. It never got done as I felt the cost/time/uncertainty was too much. So I bought a rear wing from Uncle Mel. Rutter's price was not too prohibitive but the cost of air freight to Seattle was huge. It made Me wish I had spent more time on Glas Rear Wings.

They have a set of moulds, originally made by Dave Rutherford. Basically it's a wooden box containing an inverse wing (ie with the smooth shiny bit on the inside). There's one mould for each wing on a car (ie 4 moulds) and there are 2 sets of moulds, one for the narrow-bodies cars, and one for the wider Plus 8s and later Plus 4s

To make the wings, firstly you clean up the surface of the mould and then coat it with a release compound that ensures the new wing won't stick to the mould.

Then you apply two layers of neat resin (a two-part epoxy), which provides the smooth outer layer - the so-called 'gel coat'. When you mix up the resin, you can add the appropriate dyes to get the final colour you want.

Pieces of woven glass fibre matting are next applied, with the pieces criss-crossing each other to provide a matrix of fibres for strength. The matting is bedded in with more resin, and you keep going until the required thickness is obtained - thin for the race cars to save as much weight as possible, thick (about 6mm) for road cars.
Once you're done, the mould is left for a few days for the new wing to cure properly and reach full strength before removing it.

Then it's simply a question of trimming the edges of the new wings to match the car onto which they are to be installed, bolting them into position and you're done!
I'm sure an experienced Morgan body expert could do it relatively quickly, I reckon I must have spent about 10 hours on each front wing and about 5 hours on each rear.

Sid Watson makes the wings - he uses moulds he purchased from David Rutherford when he packed up.

http://www.fibreglass-mouldings-cambs.co.uk/

He actually has the mouldings for a little known 4/4 competition model the 4/4 Rutherford lightweight. It uses a complete fibreglass moulding for the entire car body and replaces all the body and wooden frame - sitting directly on the chassis. There are a few knocking about and tip the scales at about 550kg.