Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Piping

Greetings All

Now I'm back to bolting pre-prepared parts back on the car the restoration has thrown up another job that my previous resto experience hasn't prepared me for ...... The Wing Piping. (Never had a car with piping before)

I'm sure some forum members have experience of fitting this .... so I thought I'd ask before just ploughing ahead under the guidance of intuition (my mechanical intuition is mostly good, but can be caught out by the arcane and unusual 🙂)

Is there a preferred method for fitting the piping?

Pin it in place before offering up the wing??

Fit it all together then push the piping into place as the wing is tightened up into position, to be trapped in place (and held by the various screws etc though it )??

If anyone's done the job and knows the recipe for saving me some grief ... I'd be pleased of the pointer 🙂

K

This is the approach I took when I replaced my wings. I took the view that having the piping securely in place was one less thing I had to worry about when getting the wings in the right position.

Changed loads of wings on VW Beetles. I always found loosely fitting the wing and then trapping the beading to be the best option then you know it’s all in the right place.

All opinions welcome .... see how the concencus pans out.

While the thread's running ... how have members dealt with the sharp bend where the piping changes from running along the front wing and turns up into the rear wheel arch .... seems a very sharp turn for the piping to take without buckking or creating a gap.

K

Keith, try a partial mitre with a scalpel and a heat gun (experiment with an offcut)

On the pre-fixing option, the Factory tack it into place with staples...which rust ! & sometimes a blob of contact adhesive

Keith

Glue and pin the piping in place before fitting the wings.

Use a good quality brushable contact adhesive such as Alpha Thixofix and proper trimmers tacks rather than panel pins

The radius at the end of the rear wing isn't too bad really and you can warm the piping with a hair dryer or hot air gun to get it to fit without creasing.

The fun part is at the bottom of the rear wing where it turns and runs between the number plate valance and the tail panel!

Arwyn

Keith , I am at exactly the same stage. I have taken the wings and rear valence off for repainting and am about to start at the rear. I bought the beading from Dave Kreisel so it is wrapped with Everflex. I have marked the halfway point and intend to start at the rear valence and work forward. I intend to punch oversize holes in the beading where the screws go through (using the rear valence flange as a template) and probably cut from there to the edge of the beading so that it can be slid into place after the valence is screwed halfway. That's the plan. I will probably proceed along the same lines with the rear wings. This means I start with a straightforward bit.
You will probably notice that you have to slim down the beading toward the front of the body when fitting the front wings as the lip that you screw into is narrower than the beading. At the moment I'm against fixing the beading first as it gives no room to adjust it in case it doesn't look right! I may change my mind of course.
As far as getting the beading around the corners I may phone Dave for advise as he was very helpful when I bought the beading.
Incidentally the stuff I took off the car was made with a vinyl cloth wrapped around three core lighting flex.
.

Gizmo .... I've trimmed the flat flap of the beading to compensate for the narrow sections above the 'fishtail panels' at the front .... my car doesn't have a rear valance so I'm going to end the beading at the rear of each rear mudguard .... with nothing to trap it tight it just seems a water trap to me fixed along the bottom of the rearmost wood section (that's prone to rot anyway) ... will heavily underseal the bottom of the wooden cross-piece and keep a good eye on it!.

Would be happy to hear any further tips on tight bends you might hear.

K

When I rebuilt my +8 I tacked the beading using copper tacks. I also used stainless fasteners all over,because most of the rot I found was initiated by rusted screws and bolts.

Keith
You obviously have a different model to mine which is a 1974 4/4 2 seater. At least you wont have the corners at the back to worry about.
I was thinking overnight about my previous post. Maybe I will fix the beading first possibly with double sided tape (carpet tape?). With only a few screws holding the wing the beading may move with body flexing if the wing isn't a tight fit to the arch along its length.

George
I concur about the stainless fasteners but maybe the rusting was caused by moisture ingress not the other way round.

When the beading is on what method is used to waterproof the beading to body panel interface to stop water wicking into the woodwork?