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Dan's Morris.
On a small number of
occasions during the past twelve or so years, items have appeared in the
clubs publications describing interesting or rare cars which have come to
light, such as the 1974 pre production Austin 2200, several Princesses with
unbelievably low recorded mileages, and of course the last Ambassador to be
manufactured in 1984, which was sold at auction by the Motor Heritage
Centre, Gaydon, Warwickshire in July 2003. Early Austin, Morris and Wolseley
18/22 series cars are now becoming very rare indeed - there are probably
less than eight Wolseley Six models left - five are owned by club members
and are in amazingly good condition. So far as Morris 2200 HL, 1800 HL and
Standard models are concerned, the club knows of
the existence of five - three are owned
by club members with none in use today. It may be that there are a few
others of which we have no knowledge. If you know of others, then we would
dearly like to hear from you.
Rare Wedges were one of
the topics under discussion between members at the Clubs National Rally at
Stanford Hall, Lutterworth, Leicestershire in July 1974. Among those members
was Daniel Nichols - one of our younger members who attended the Rally with
his brother. As Daniel was on the lookout for another car, he was extremely
surprised to hear that an acquaintance of his brother knew the whereabouts
of a Morris 1800 HL, which had been stored in a wooden shed in Hampshire for
the past seven years, following the death of it's owner. Later on that
Sunday evening (after a few lagers), Daniel was taken to view the rare find.
Ermine White, with flat perished tyres and very much deflated suspension.
Access in the shed was very restricted - making a detailed inspection
difficult, but it was clear that the cars bodywork was not in to bad
condition. All wheel-arches appeared to be sound, leaving just one rear door
to be either repaired or re-placed. The following weekend, Daniel and his
brother set off for Hampshire with money in wallet to buy the rare machine,
and transport it back to Manchester on a car shifting trailer towed by
brothers van.
Showing the front grille, Morris badge, and raised
bonnet.
The front after quick a clean-up!
And the rear end!
Following closer
examination in it's new home on Daniels brothers farm, the recorded mileage
was found to be 79,000. It has it's original radio with front and rear
speakers, a full length Webasto sunroof, and there is some evidence that
the car has been rust proofed at some stage. All four door bottoms are in
need of repair, but the sills seem to be in good order. Daniel says he is
going to be very busy during these winter months preparing his find for the
Princess 30th Celebrations and Austin Centenary event at Cofton Park
Longbridge in July 2005.We wish him well with his restoration hope he will
keep us posted on progress.
August 2005
The Front End Prior to Dismantling.
A few days later - engine and all mechanicals
removed, ready for action.
Corrosion Damage to Left Side Inner Sill and lower
bulkhead area.
Left hand floor-pan and lower bulkhead area.
April 2011.
Dan has 0bviousy kept this
special restoration going during these
past six years, and has sent Photos to see progress, and enjoy.
Both front corners taken from donor car back in 2006, plus new steel
folded
to fill in where donor panels had rusted!
There is an other beige door, but that was removed to hoist the shell to
45
degrees for more work under-floor.
Refitted bonnet about fortnight ago, she gets a lot more admiration now.
and the rear of the floor pan. The triangular strengthening
brackets were not originally fitted and hopefully stop the suspension
collapsing as it did.
The first main corner I tackled, because it was by far
the most rusted. The ankle here was not separated from its donor
floor-panels, but they still had to be cut to exact sizes. And yes the
'wall' of the inner wheel arch was all changed, not easy to do.
Showing the main part of the new achilles ankle (made at engineers'
shop, £30), and the brace I made to align it to the opposite side. A lot of dimensions to take in to account, but
only 3mm accuracy is required for the repair industry standard.
This wing is planned to be replaced as a whole,
you can perhaps see the old filler half knocked out from a who-knows-when
collision repair. The masking tape was made up as a copy from the new wing,
to give me an as near as I'll get point to where the sill ends. As with the
off side sill, this side had a cover panel over the original. These were
removed again over winter 2010/11 with the rear end of the cover being mig'd
straight to the original in place the holes!
Last batch for now, as always your thoughts and advice are mostly
appreciated. Next phase are as said passenger wing and
front valence, which hasn't yet had its filler ground down. Best of wedging
- Dan.
The drivers wing. I said earlier one this topic that this wasn't bad
nick and wanted to keep it. A mistake. That was said before I grinded the
filler. But... it is actually still in its shape, only the edges arch edges
and around the front have holed through sooo... I'm planning to restore it! Yes gas
welder, hammers and dollies, watch this space.
the front have holed through sooo... I'm planning to restore it! Yes gas
welder, hammers and dollies, watch this space. The drawing above the arch
was my reckoning some years ago for rebuilding around the hydrogas unit, quite
pleased with myself here - it was done very early on in the project. Just
needs a spot welder now to finish.
The passenger side wing is sadly too gone. It's full of bodge and badly
aligns to the door (when fitted). So this will be getting changed for the
one off... some may remember a bronze Prin I
bought in Blackpool many years ago, for a fiver!
Underside the rear valence, just the edges that are gone and couple
holes, better repair here than replace. This was done recently, last couple
of months.
May 2011.
These pics do load up in reverse order! So this
is its new
wing, not fitted just clamped into place for now, some fettling
clearly required. I haven't used the panel gaps for fore-aft
alignment, but
measured from the rear wing drivers side and
copied it to that. From this
I've worked out the averages of the
3 gaps either sides of the doors. Before
I had a late '81 door
fitted, to line up to the wedge-edge (cantrail, yes?)
but that
wouldn't go high enough, although this door is originally blue
(Terry Millers' Wolseley) it fits fine.
Nice simple now. Being an 18-22 there's no
chrome sill strip, in re-fitting the doors I've gone for them just by feel
as the curve of the door 'flows' into the sill. With the old wing mishapen
and the new wing needing a hammer, there's not much else to go on. What
has suprised me is both sill have approx 1' degree bellow at the B-post,
making the floorpan extremely slightly circular. Please don't tell me I've
screwed it up!
Well common sagging door hinges. My complex
fix here involves an engineers' shop reaming out the hinges for new
larger pins. However the hinges would need to be precisely fixed with
the required access to do this. My idea here involves a scrap door,
cutting it into a triangle comprising of within the two hinges and the
striker plate and then to engineers shop. Ambitious? Yes. Achieveable? I
think so.
his should be pic 4. All wedges I've seen
have the top chrome rim slightly proud of the C-post, why is this? If
you can see the bottom where the door skin curves out into the
wheel-arch is considerably different. Not sure what can be done here,
note this is a 1979 door. Again I've lined it up to above the central
to the top of door skin/wing.
Again this is a 1980 boot lid fitted, the
original had a dreadful overhang outward of the light-plate areas, it
wouldn't shove up towards the back windscreen any higher, but did not
have this proud gap above the drivers' rear wing. Did BL have a range of
hinges to compensate for great differences in panel production?!?
Although just fitted for renewing the nsr wing, I may keep this boot lid
permanently as it's in far better shape than the original.
And lastly(!!) The Austin having endured to
winter in this very position. However watch this space I have something
up my sleeve here!
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