Talk Morgan Forums Thread Like Summary - Lifting one side of the frame off of the chassis

Hi all,

I've got a 1975 4/4. It's still on its original chassis. I'm planning a re-chassis effort next year but until then I don't have the workshop space to do it right now, so my goal is to keep it safely on the road for another roughly 18 months.

The chassis is, in most places, in reasonably sound condition (albeit with a few patches from the previous owner). However, having recently removed a lever arm shock off of the drivers side, I found a sizeable piece of corrosion behind the mounting plate. Further, at the front, the top part of the Z rail has corroded where the bulkhead ends and the inner wing begins.

I would like to weld in some new plate into these areas to repair the chassis and keep her going for a while until I can do a rebuild. I have welding experience and all of the kit, however, with the ash frame being on top of the steel rail I am aware that I cannot weld with it in situ. I am loathed to go through the process of removing the whole body to make these repairs. I am rather hoping I might be able to just separate the body from the chassis on that side by 10-15mm just to give myself enough space to get welding blankets and cooling gel in so I can weld without worrying about heating the wood or sparks setting it off.

Thus, I am wondering:

1) If I can remove the inner wing without removing the outer wing (I'm guessing not)
2) If I can undo the bolts holding the ash frame to the chassis on that side and gently lift it off 10mm

Does anybody know if this is possible?

Many thanks and very best!

Following the above commets, I put myself and 1975 4/4 through a complete rebuild in the '90's. If you are finding rot in the chassis, there is more than a chance that the wooden rocker boards are suffering if you have trim covering them. I don't know if your car had been rebuilt previously? Mine hadn;t, but when these cars wee built in 1975, there was no cuprinol trearment for the frame and the inner wings were in basic primer, before they sprayed the topcoat over the wing piping. Due to the way they were built at this time, many of these cars are quite badly corroded once you start to investigate, as in, it is unlikely to be better than you expected! Good luck.

If you're deffo going for a full new chassis in the future I would advise getting an order in for the new one soon, just in case Terry retires

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