Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Plus 4 GDI Engine cover

Like many Plus 4 GDI engined Morgan owners I'd been scouring the internet for an engine cover.

In my searches - this link from @Tim Crump popped up. I PM’d Tim to enquire about a couple of key dimensions (thanks Tim) and decided to make my own engine cover not much unlike Tim’s version.

Initially I made some blocks out of some waste plastic to set the height of the cover.



Then I got some “A3 art card” from HobbyCraft and mocked up a template for the cover.



The 2 "fences" on top of the template are two fold
1) To maintain the clearance under the bonnet
2) They act as stiffeners to prevent the template from flopping about



You can see a mocked up attachment bracket in the photo above.

Obviously these "fences" won' be part of the final engine cover.

Once I was "happy" with the cardboard template I ordered up a sheet of 500mm x 500mm x 2mm aluminium from The Metal Store

There is an option to have the sheet cut to size - I needed 500mm x 440mm. One of the benefits of ordering from The Metal Store is that you have the option to retain the offcut piece, which I did, as this offcut can be used to make the brackets that fasten the cover to the engine.

When the sheet metal arrived I bent the edge flanges over a piece of scaffolding tube held in a Black & Decker Workmate. Sorry that I have no pictures of this step - Was to involved in the process.
But basically I scribed a line down the centre line of the scaffolding tube and drew a line 40mm up from the edge of the aluminium sheet and lined these two up in the workmate. The aluminium is easy to bend by hand.
The above was repeated on the opposite side of the sheet.



Ignore the angle grinder in the above picture. Its not needed to fabricate the engine cover - I'd used to to sharpen my scribing tool

Holes were drilled in the cover where the mounting brackets were to be fixed to it and I made up the brackets from the measurements I'd taken.



These were then sprayed with a high temperature spray paint.



You can see that the 2 brackets that fasten to the engine block have stiffening flanges - I added a bit of "bling" to them using "chrome" edging strip.

My thoughts then turned to how to "finish" the engine cover itself.

I decided I'd look into having it Hydro dipped.....

On a web search I found that there was a company carrying out this process who are quite near to me (about 20 mins down the motorway in a little village called Goosnargh.

Here's a link to their website - Hydro Style UK

I popped over to see the owner (Barry) to discuss what was "do'able" and what kind of price would be incurred. We spent an hour chatting and looking at what could be done. I decided on a carbon fibre finish - Cost £140. Which seems a lot, but when you find out whats involved I thought it was justified.
Barry preps the material (removes any surface blemishes), primes it, colour coats it (mine was done in black), then lacquered and finally polished.



The 2 blemishes in the image above are not on the engine cover - They are from my phone camera

The Morgan wings decal is from Brake Caliper Decals

I added 3mm x 7mm black rubber edge trim that I got from Ebay.

Bolts / chrome dome nuts / washers etc were obtained from a mix of Screwfix / Toolstation / Ebay

Finally - here it is fitted to my car







I was so enamoured with the finish Hydro Style UK were able to provide, that I have decided to make a second engine cover. I'm awaiting a phone call to say that its ready....

I'll update this thread with the new cover photo's when its done.

Don't think the purists amongst us may like it - But "Hey - its my car"

Think it looks great! As you say “ it is your car ,!”

Wow - very smart👍

A lot of work and expense but a stunning result

Very professional indeed, well done

Nice job!

Very neat, well done.

Looks great well done

That hydro-dipping give a good gloss finish! ... looks good in the engine bay

K

Clever stuff, well done Ian