Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) HELP! - Crack in sill 1978 4 seater PLUS 4

QLD - Tassie - QLD
Some miles you're putting in there Neil...
If you end up in Perth go say G'day to some pals of mine??

Good luck with finding the right car for you! The car will tell you

Graham,

Yes, it's a big country!

Strange you should mention Perth...........we are flying from Victoria to Perth last week in May. Not chasing a Mog though! We pick up four wheel drives and are going up to the NW of W.A. and doing a tour of the Pilbara region.

As Dame Edna would say that is "spooky" you should say "the car will tell you", as the guy in Tassie said precisely the same thing!!.............spooky.

I have a good feeling about this next one I'm going to look at.
Cheers,
Neil

Good luck Neil; let us know how you get on.

Hehe,

Well Neil, that's the way it works - 'Tis why I own my 4/4.
Enjoy the NW tour - fantastic region I understand, though I've not been to the area myself.

However, both my cousins have toured there, one used to own a Toyota/Merc dealership in Coffs Harbour, the other converted an old short coach chassis into a motor caravan (lives further north in a little place called Woodenbong not far south of the QLD border), both had a tendency to take off for a while on Outback tours of their own making.

Cheers,

For what it's worth, I have an almost identical crack in the same location on my 1965 Plus 4...and by chassis is intact with no cracks.

This is likely a flex point that over time leads to fracture of the metal skin - I plan on just repairing it cosmetically and moving on...

My 1994 +8 developed a crack between the door sill and the wing piping on both sides. There is a joint there with the lower extension of the front panel overlapping the extension of the rear panel forming a straight vertical line. The crack was a few inches behind this line. I discussed this with Techniques and they told me it was not uncommon. It is a stress fracture in the outer skin due to flexing of the chassis. This would explain the fact that the doors don't shut as freely if you jack up one end of the car! There are no problem with the chassis or fracture, it's just not rigid as it could be.

Techniques solution is to replace the small fractured portion and produce a second vertical line which does not look out of place and saves replacing the whole rear panel.

Neil,

Unbolt the seat and remove it, its straightforward, 6 UNF nuts and bolts. Then ease your carpets up and start looking at the rocker to B post union ( timber sill construction). the glue can pop and the screws loosen at a joint and you will need to find out whats going on if that's the case. Its a common area for water leaks and the wet sits behind the carpet covering that inner area and the ash frame can start to suffer. Yes the chassis' do flex but generally the ash body frame is pretty robust and can accommodate this movement. It's on the near side too and this is the side that sits in the wet found at the road edges. If you do have water penetration try and ascertain where it's coming in, It might not be obvious and could be finding it's way there from the most unlikely of places from the bulkhead/scuttle back!
A good adhesive if needed is a polyurethane glue like Gorilla glue it sets better in contact with water and expands to fill any voids caused by damaged timber. use fairly sparingly and syringe it into tight joints. masking tape any bits you don't want glue to get onto as it expands .... you won't get it off! I have drilled 3mm access holes into the joint before if its a tight joint and hard to get glue inside the joint. just drill to a couple of mm past the joint faces and squirt in the glue then screw in a self tapper, short with a flanged head. This stops the glue pushing back out and helps force the glue into the joint space as it expands.
There's always a certain level of detective work needed on a Morgan and often the cause can come from somewhere unexpected so start looking around, It might be that the chassis took a shock from something like a speed bump or pillow and you have suffered a stress crack, jack the front of the car, then the rear and see if it imparts any movement at the fault line, if it does try and ascertain what else is flexing that might cause the movement at the sill then ask yourself if it's a normal level of flex and what is allowing the timber frame to move enough to crack the alloy cladding.
Good luck and enjoy, there will be an answer it just takes more time sometimes to work it out!