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Thread: "PHANTOM" Morris Minor Woodie

  1. #21
    Moderator Brizey's Avatar
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    After seeing the fully stripped down photo`s that's a heck of a lot of work you`ve done so far Merv`, all good solid top stuff too!.
    "The older i get, the faster i was".
    Out to pasture ...
    My Intro My Rods

  2. #22
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    Right, having now replaced the sills and half the floor (Isn't seam welding fun?) the next area that needed attention was inside the engine bay. Don't know what the panel's called but as the it looked fairly simple I thought I'd give it a try and make it myself. It consists of a flat sheet with a return edge all round and 4 holes also with return edges.
    The edges were fairly easy to do (Hammer over the edge of the vice). The scrap bin revealed two bits of tubing of the correct internal diameter. Holes were cut of a quarter of an inch smaller diameter. I placed the holes over the tubing and hammered down, creating an internal lip.
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Whilst scanning in all these photos from my album, I came across the next. It's not relevant to the build, but it reminded me how nice it is to be working on the car on a beautiful sunny day. Aaaaaah
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    Soppy bit over, the car was removed from the rotisserie and onto the stands. The engine/box came from a Fiat Mirafiori that I bought locally. I took everything I thought I might need and scrapped the rest. You'll have seen in the very first pic of this thread, a photo of the empty engine bay. Across the front is a 4 inch wide piece of metal that holds the two chassis rails together. This has to come out to get the engine in, and a removable replacement made. One of the tricks to installing this engine in a Minor is the need to cut a relief slot in the top of the gearbox bell housing. This limits how far back you can fit the engine and that's why it's so far forward.
    At the back of the gearbox is the mounting and as my car is so low I had to create a mounting that didn't hang below the chassis rails. I hope the pics explain what I've done. It mounts onto the two original holes (Bottom right pic) but with two extra mounts to the housing to help resist twisting.
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  3. #23
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    Creating these pages is as much fun as seam welding! I was so carried away that
    I missed off the pic of the removable front panel. Ooops

    Click image for larger version. 

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  4. #24
    NSRA member Brian Eddison's Avatar
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    nice fabrication there and the woodwork is just awesome too
    cheers for posting the pics
    be quiet when you leave.... mr munn lives right around the corner

  5. #25
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    The back axle is an Escort MkII with 9 inch drums. The width is perfect but the spring hangers are in the wrong position so I removed the existing perches and welded new ones on. As I use gas welding (18 Nozzle!) i figured there would be a lot of heat in the casing, and having heard horror stories of warped casings I made a jig using a 6x6 timber with angle iron to keep things in line.

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    I wanted to convert all the shocks to coilovers (More on the front later). The rear attach to a plate between the axle and the spring with the top protruding through the floor, as shown in bottom right pic.
    I didn't feel that welding the support directly to the floor was enough so I made a rather convoluted box section to spread the load and tied it into the nearby chassis rail.

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    With the rear suspension in I had a trial fit of the wheels to ascertain the ride height and see what's involved to get to the height I wanted. Two inch lowering blocks at the rear were enough, but the front required some serious surgery (Butchery?)

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    As I'm converting to coilovers, the original shocks were no longer needed. However they form the top arm of the suspension, so were still needed. I drained the fluid, leaving them as purely suspension arms. Most coilover kits give you a small bracket that welds to the inner wheel wall. I've always thought that a bit flimsy, so I designed something a bit more substantial. For a start I removed the inner wall and replaced with 2mm thick steel. I then secured the top mount to a tubular fixing that goes through the inner wall into the engine compartment. The tube is then welded to the inner panel. Then two more smaller tubes are welded to this to take the loads into the bulkhead. The last pic probably shows it better than I've explained. I've also added in various gussets to spread the loads even more. If you're a Minor nerd you'll recognise what I've done.

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    Hope this all makes sense.

  6. #26
    NSRA member dwgunn159's Avatar
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    top quality fabrication there,this is one cool morris.

  7. #27
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    Some very well thought out fabrication, very nicely done

  8. #28
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    Good to see you posting this Merv. Hope to see you in the summer. Al

  9. #29
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    Please keep posting, love to read this,well done.

  10. #30
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    Very cool

  11. #31
    NSRA member STEPSIDEBILL's Avatar
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    Brilliant and on a morris minor.love it.

  12. #32
    NSRA member randrhotrodimports's Avatar
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    Vey nice indeed look forward to seeing it out and about
    www.randrhotrodimports.co.uk
    IMPORTER OF AMERICAN CARS AND PARTS, SHIPPER OF PARTS, SPEEDWAY MOTORS DEALER/STOCKIST, BROOKVILLE DEALER, O'BRIEN TRUCKERS DEALER, CARS INC TRI CHEVY STOCKIST AND DEALER, . https://www.facebook.com/randrhotrodimports/
    ALL MAJOR CREDIT/DEBIT CARDS TAKEN

  13. #33
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    Having fully welded the inner wing and tubular supports, I fitted the lower wishbone. (Is it a wishbone if it's in two U-shaped halves that bolt together?) Again for reasons of strength, I boxed in the two halves of the wishbone. (See later pics in primer, it's clearer) Additionally I created a bracket that's welded to the wishbone, rather than bolt-on which comes with a lot of kits.

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    The shocks are Gaz, but I can't remember what the spring rating is. Does anybody else find that when a build takes years a lot of info is forgotten, or is it just my age? Hey ho.
    The disc brakes came as a kit from David Manners in Brum. It's Escort based, with alloy hubs. One problem I did encounter is that I needed half inch spacers which then made the studs too short. I eventually found some in the States. Think they're Camaro. See, memory failure again.
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    You'll see from the pic below, how close the top of tire was to the upright. This is before the spacer.
    I initially thought I'd leave the tubing supports showing, to give the engine bay a space frame look but decide against it in the end, instead plumping for a covered in look.
    About 14 years ago I'd bought a two door minor that was too rusty to save, but it yielded a lot of compound curved metal that I used in the traveller. If you squint your eyes at the pic below you can just about make out the outline of the inner cover panels. These are the bulges from the front doors of the two door, with the headlight buckets covering the shocks. Is this recycling or what? Do I get a badge from the Green Party?

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  14. #34
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    The previous post shows a cardboard mock up of the flare to the front wheel arch, just to see if it would work. It worked, so I cut back the arch to clear the wheel, whilst keeping the cut off portion as it contained the return lip.
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    As the flare involved "bowing" the top of the arch, I cut the whole opening back about 3 inches and back to the door shut. The hole was replaced with a fresh piece of metal that I "bowed" before welding into place. This left a sharp edge to the opening to which I welded the off cut original lip. Does this make sense? See pic below.
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    Now for the benefit of Black Pop Racing, the grille. It's from a Ford 100E that I got from an Autojumble for £20. Result!
    It had the grille opening that I wanted, but I knew I'd have to make up the rest. Most Twin Cam conversions use a modern slim radiator, but as I'd taken all the gear from a running Mirafiori, I had the radiator that went with the engine, so used that. Being fatter than a modern one, it meant the grille would be further forward by maybe an inch. So the first thing to do was offer the grille up to see what needed doing.
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    Amazingly it fitted the width, but the corners were way out. To get the grille at a height level with the top of the rad meant I had to trim the leading edge of the bonnet by about an inch and create a peak in the bonnet to match the peak in the grille shell. The bottom corners were created by using curves cut from the nose of the bonnet of the two door. Finally I created a panel to go across the top to cover the radiator which you can just about see in the photos.
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  15. #35
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    Very nicely done, the way the seem runs around the front panel just looks right and meant to be

  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by yjohnb View Post
    Very nicely done, the way the seem runs around the front panel just looks right and meant to be
    Thanks for the compliment. Yet again I've left out an important pic showing the top of the rad! Aren't I a silly billy?Name:  28.jpg
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    Enjoy.

  17. #37
    NSRA member crumble's Avatar
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    what a great build and some very nice body mods to.
    Real steel

  18. #38
    NSRA member Blackpopracing's Avatar
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    Nice job, I knew there would be a lot of work involved yet most people wont even realise what you have done - that will be a compliment though as it looks so 'factory'

  19. #39
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    To make up the new transmission tunnel, I used the original but cut out the center and created a new structure to go round the fiat gearbox.

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    At this point in the build a friend with a traveller came round for a visit, which was all the excuse I needed to wheel the Morris out for a comparison.

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    Next on the list was the dashboard. It seems that Birds Eye Maple is the wood to go for and I wanted to do the entire interior in it but unfortunately it was only available locally as veneer and I wanted solid wood particularly for the dash. The reason is that I wanted the dials to be recessed and whenever I've seen recessed dials on a veneered dash you can always see the underlying plyboard on the sides of the hole. I managed to find a supplier in Yorkshire and called in whilst on holiday and spent the entire journey home with the 8ft planks sticking out of the rear hatch! Not a popular move with Mrs K, but needs must...

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    I bought two hole cutters which was fortunately enough and routed the edge of the holes and the dash itself. The dials are smiths and the air vents are Rolls Royce. The bottom half of the metal surround is a second dash from the butchered 2 door mentioned earlier, turned upside down and welded together.

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    Back in the engine bay, I created covers over the bulkhead from 2mm steel because I wanted a perfectly flat surface when it's painted. The center raised area used to contain the battery, now it's for the wiper motor, coil etc..

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    The oil filter is a remote unit from Guy Croft Racing who is the guru for Fiat tuning. As there was little space under the bonnet, I moved it to just under the steering rack, and no it doesn't touch the wheel on full lock.
    The bonnet itself hinges forward on a rather complicated mechanism, but it works. Took weeks to work out and sleepless nights.

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  20. #40
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    Oooooh!!!! Great Fab work going on their.... keep it coming love it.

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