Well after a long break started working on the Morris again.. Wife and I bought 10.5 acres in the hill country and have been busy with that but started on the ol' Morris Altered once again. I'll get some pictures up soon. Went ahead and welded rear fenders on, installed the front frame rails, currently working on one-piece front end and I'm modifying a Model A front axle to parallel leaf. I need to order spindles and front runners and the Anglia roll cage. I want to get it off the jack stands sitting in its own weight and mock engine and tranny.
Rear fenders welded on and hand rolled wheel opening. I Have lots and lots of grinding in my future. I order the Speedway complete front suspension, brakes and steering kit this morning. Once that's in I can start engine an transmission mock up. Then I will order the Anglia roll cage kit. Hoping to be ready for Lonestar Round Up 2022.
I'd try to get away with body filler instead of grinding the weld out/down. Less chance of a crack ruining your paint later.......+ EZ'er! 6sally6
I'm still working on the front sheet metal. It was wrecked in passenger front not bad but lots of body hammer work and rust repair. This thing was laying in a yard of tall grass and covered in vines for 30years so it has been a challenge. I do not like the grille or nose section so I welded the fenders to the hood when one piecing the front end in away to make them a little fatter so they are tweaked up and out and a little forward. Kinda hard to explain. But makes for a lot more work, but worth it. Gives it a more flatter front and open grille area.. little bit like an Anglia 100e.. but any how I need to make a bunch of poster board patterns and piece it back together, I've been avoiding it. I'll take some more pictures looking straight on and y'all will see what I mean. I also wanted front frame rails to stick past nose about 4".. I just didn't want it flat cut wanted a slight taper. I have the Griffin 4 row aluminum radiator that fits between the frame rails. Oh and if you have never welded on Morris Minor sheet metal it's really thin, like arc welding tuna cans together. So I promise I can weld. I haven't really ground any welds. To give you an idea each fender weighs 9lbs and the hood weighs 18lbs plus my 3/8" round stock bracing. I can lift the cab up by myself. So it's very light, like too light, like gonna have to add weight light lol. Still can't decide if I want the front to flip open, nose down or nose up. I may fab some sturdier hinges in stock location and have entire front flip up. Rear section of front fender is welded to cowl and you can see in the picture the cut line between rear section of fender and one piece front end. Sorry for the long post. More pictures coming.
Yeah they look worse in the picture but are very stout welds no fender flex, it's just structurally stronger. So not too much grinding there. But definitely understand what you're saying.
I need to run to paint shop and get some rust inhibitor and etching primer and paint chassis. It's been real humid and surface rust on chassis is getting to where I can't look at it. It's all light surface rust but is really bothering me.
Your really making the car look awesome. How many inches from the ground to the rocker panel are you aiming for?
Thanks for the words of encouragement. I'm not completely sure yet.. I want to get the front suspension under it and go from there.. I want it high but not extreme.. I just need to see it sitting on the ground with wheels and tires. I moved the rear axle back 1.75" to center wheel better in wheel well. The front spring eye to eye length is 26", so I have enough front frame rail length to move the axle forward enough to have about 97"-98" wheel base and that will have a lot to do with how high the front sits for tire clearance. But ultimately it needs to look right.
Really like the patina on that Morris.. finally picked colors for mine. Prussian Blue for exterior and Jaguar Old English White for interior. Thanks for sharing.
This will show you what I'm going for when I say flip up front end. I still need to fabricate external hood hinges and add more bracing. I'm still utilizing the stock hinges and even though it's light for a one-piece front end, I don't think they are strong enough.
The front shackle mounts are bolted in.. the rear spring hangers are just clamped till I can get the weight of the engine in.. it looks like a Street Freak right now due to not being at ride height and will probably end up removing a leaf.. but I kinda like the nose in the air. The shackles are @ 69.5° right now, it's not permanent. I know they should be at 45° at ride height and full weight. They are bolted up front with 1/2" fine thread bolts, I had grade 5 but will buy some nice grade 8 after mock up. spindles are on.. I was real tempted to paint today but gonna wait till after mock up. No sense in scratching the paint and having to repaint everything. Y'all have any ideas for suspension paint.. no wrong answer. Just curious on y'all's opinions. I was thinking of painting the axle and spindles Gloss bright white.. or Halibrand dow-7 Gold or Gloss Black or combination of all 3.
Also I don't know if I mentioned it. But the front fenders are welded to the hood with 3/8" solid round stock in between. But I wanted the fenders in the front to appear to be fatter so I tweeked them out a little and moved them forward a little. Gonna start making the poster board templates for front sheet metal. I've been putting it off because it will be a PINTA to piece it back together. Here you can see how much the fender is pulled up. It is by no means finish welded on the front sheet metal. Welds are not ground down anywhere. The metal is very thin.. like 25+ gauge sheet metal but I wanted the body to be all metal. I just wanted to get it in the general shape I liked for mock up.
So I was reading an article that said that I could set the shackle angle without the weight of engine and transmission. It said I could set the shackle just off vertical and when weight of engine / transmission are added it would put me close where it needs to be. Is this true? I always thought you had set shackle angle with entire weight of vehicle including driver. Just curious because I still need to fab engine / trans mounts brackets.
If the springs are right for the front weight, it "should" be fairly close. But there are alot of variables. IMO, if you need to attach the spring hangers so you can make a rolling chassis, then I would mearly tack weld the brackets onto the approximate location, and wait until you do have the engine/trans and components in for mock up.
I would want the shackles to be to where whne there isn't any weight on the front they can't reverse themselves with no weight on them. It would sure put things in a bind after a wheelstand if they did. If you look at the swing arc, the lower the front gets, they less they will move forward.
@greybeard360 , the only issue with doing it that way is the shackle could potentially be in such a wrong spot that it has to much swing under load. See below, the mounting point doing as you suggest could end up on the wild side of point A and darn near folded over. Also setting it up initially to be at point B will not cause it to go into reverse as you suggest....unless you mounted it way past that point, then potentially maybe. I understand what your saying, but it is darn impossible from my experience mounting leaf springs for that to happen. When I mounted them on the rear of vehicles (muscle car stuff, moving springs inboard for tire clearance) I always set it up under load so it was at 90 degrees to the datum line. Then I added a hole in front and behind that point for extra tuning at the track. Again, just my personal experience, I am not an expert.
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