Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Vinyl Front Wing Numberplate

Thanks, I think the Sports Valance adapted to allow me to retain my overriders is the way to go.





It looks like Cain from Wolf Performance has done this mod before as discussed here:

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/561036/all/Fitting_a_valance_to_my_+4

I'll try and contact him, but I was a bit disappointed he didn’t answer my follow up email after we spoke on the phone about improving my rear suspension, I did send a second chase email and even left a voicemail message when I tried call again.

But the silence was defining, so I went to Techniques Morgan in the end who booked me in on the 20th August.

Let’s hope Cain responds this time?

Dave.

Techniques are superb. They recently fitted my new bonnet strap. Brian Gateson will look after you very well. And he won't sell you a performance upgrade he thinks you don't need without first running through any potential disadvantages with you.

Thanks David,

TBH I only hear good things about Techniques, I come from 11 years of Chimaera ownership and although I never used Brian myself in that time some of my TVR friends swore by Techniques.

I've already paid Brian a visit, he seemed very 'no nonsense' and super busy too which is a good thing. Monty's rear springs have definitely gone soft and my rear AVO dampers are shot too, so we're starting with a pair of BCC anti-tramp springs and a set of Bilstein dampers from Dan White, I suspect we'll add a Panhard rod too.

Unsurprisingly the new tyres have made a huge improvement already, but I now need to let Techniques create the right rear suspension setup that will work in harmony with Monty's rather rare Mulfab wishbone front end, Brian was quite surprised to see it as apparently there are only 8 cars out there with this setup.

Monty is already a surprising little back road scratcher, but I honestly feel with a bit of work there's a proper little go-cart waiting to come out

Until the 20th

Being a ship builder the front wing has double curvature …. So when you put letters on a bow of a ship the S & C are smaller than other letters & when fitted look right.

Traditionally the O in P&O was always larger on the flat side of the ship so it looks right against the P from a distance … this has changed in the last 10 years and it does not look right to me.

For front number plate - keep letters / numbers to minimum to get right look

And here it is.....



The rear is sorted too....

+1 for Techniques. Did wonders with my Plus 4. They will definitely get the best out of your Morgan. They also won't give you the hard sell on performance upgrades and will listen to how you use the car and what you want with it. Highly recommended.

Looks good!

Hi,


I would be quite interested to hear your thoughts on the Mulfab wishbone front end and how it performs compared with the original setup. I'm considering having Mulfab (I've been in discussion with Neal at Mulfab about this option) put the front wishbone or coil overs on my front end. I currently have the SSL front setup and find it absolutely inadequate with the extra weight and low slung front end of a Roadster, and believe I experience the king pins digging in which may be a weakness of the SSL system. Despite the system having only covered 4k miles since fitting, I've had the setup all checked out and it still can't handle sleeping policemen at anything other than snails pace. It appears Mulfab are getting more enquiries about the wishbone front end quite recently, having satisfied the original demand some time ago. Maybe more people are thinking of keeping their trads and seeking ways to improve them.

I'd be interested to hear what Techniques recommend for the rear suspension setup and as the back end on Roadster 4 seaters have few real options and I'm considering coil overs or air suspension for that.

Any input would be appreciated.

My appraisal of the Mulfab front wishbone conversion is limited as I do not have experience of the standard Morgan sliding pilar arrangement, however what I can say is Monty has no issues with sleeping policemen/speed humps from the front end. Handling wise the front end seems very well set up and easily the equal of my TVR Chimaera, from a maintenance perspective the Mulfab arrangement seems almost fit and forget compared with all the fun and games I read about maintaining the Morgan sliding pillar arrangement, the Mulfab front wishbone conversion has what look like grease nipple equipped Jag XJ6 ball joints which are both long lasting and cheap to buy in my experience.

If I had one criticism of the Mulfab wishbone conversion it's the lack of steering self cantering, to me it needs to run more caster which may or may not be adjustable? I will be asking Techniques to investigate this, I suspect currently there's no caster on the set up at all as Monty is very controllable when reversing at speed when you would typically feel the caster as snatchy steering. Obviously, the negative result of running more caster is heavier steering which I want to avoid so I'll let Brian and his team grease up the ball joints and see if he can dial in some more caster without weighting up the steering too much.

I would say if we can get Monty's rear end working as well as his front end he'll be a proper little go-kart, but currently the rear suspension is really letting the car down, the rear springs have clearly gone very soft which is a surprise for such a low milage car and dampers are shot too. Monty has a near side N/S rear damper bush failure in his MoT history at just 9,892 miles and there was a spare in the glove box when I collecting him from the auction house which lead me to suspect it was never fitted despite the MoT pass a week or so after the failure was recorded and just 15 miles later. However, when I investigated it seems either the MoT tester didn’t know his N/S from his O/S, or the N/S bush had indeed already been replaced???

I say this and add the question marks because when I lifted Monty's floor the N/S bush looked new but the O/S rear damper bush was completely missing!!, it seems likely that Monty has destroyed both his N/S and O/S upper damper bushes in short order. I believe what’s happening here is the soft springs are working the dampers way harder than normal and the stroke of the AVO dampers are also too short, the casualties being both the internal damper seals and the top bushes as the setup literally pounds itself to destruction.

To solve the soft springs I've gone for a set of two seater anti-tramp springs from BCC that are struck from proper Sheffield steel and then correctly tempered up in Rotherham by Owen Springs, to solve the blown short stroke dampers I've got a set of Bilsteins with my name on them. I've had a lot of success with the Bilstein product in the past which in my experience work brilliantly and last way longer than Gaz, Spax, Koni ect; saying that just giving Monty new tougher rear leaf springs and any damper with a sufficient range of stroke should make a massive improvement.

To finish off his rear end refresh Monty will also get a Panhard rod which seems like a no-brainer addition to me, I'll also be talking to Techniques about relocating the axle so the rear wheels sit central in the wheel arches, finally if we can lower Monty another 20mm without losing too much valuable suspension travel we'll be doing this too. In summary, with the exception of needing some more caster the Mulfab setup works really well but it certainly wasn’t cheap, Monty's previous custodian had paid £6,500 for the front wishbone conversion which I was pleased to take benefit from as this wasn’t reflected in the final hammer price I paid for the car.

Ultimately I could have matched my Mulfab front wishbone conversion with the SSL rear coil sprung arrangement, but again it’s a costly option and my thoughts are that Monty would still be left with a beam axle set up anyway which is far more the weak element in the design rather than the type of srings used. I'm sure coil springs will give a better ride but I have my doubts the £4,500 investment is going to completely transform the car's dynamics over a set of new well tempered BCC anti-tramp springs controlled by Bilsteins and the axle's lateral movement taken care of for just £200 with a simple Panhard rod? I remain quietly confident a set of rear BCC anti-tramp springs, a pair of Bilstein dampers and a Panhard rod will be the best value way to release Monty's hidden go-cart.

The remaining ingredient to success being the knowledge and expertise of Techniques Morgan to get the whole arrangement front and rear set up to work together in harmony and to the best of its potential!

Many thanks for that appraisal, the issue of caster adjustment is something Mulfab are aware of, and the development of the wishbone front end will take this into account, the trade off is the steering weight as you point out but that could be dealt with a different rack or power steering fitted, just adds further to the conversion cost,

Let us know how the work on the back end suspension changes the ride and performance of the car.

All the best
kind regards

John