Wednesday, 18 September 2013
Monday, 2 September 2013
Out with the old and in with the new.
First things first in getting Molly ready for the wedding is to give her a face lift. She's getting on a bit and everything is starting to slip as it happens to the best of us. We decided to respray her and make any required repairs along the way.
Here she is looking a bit of a sorry state after her rear door had fallen off. This happened earlier in the year but other projects meant the repair was postponed. In the picture you can see I have started the long and arduous task of rubbing her down.
Now, Our Molly doesn't have an awful lot of steel in her compared to other vans of her size but what steel there is is subject to the same fate; rust. We'd done a bit of welding to her before including repairing the bulkhead, a small section of chassis and the NS inner wheel arch. But I also knew there was some lurking behind her front panel so I removed it to make the repairs.
Here is a section I removed and next to it is the new one I made to replace it. At the bottom is another replacement although I've not yet made the square hole in the pic.
The next sequence of photo's show the section being installed. The top of the panels either side of the radiator were also rotton and needed replacing as were the forward part of the front wheel arches. All the metal is good nick was ground back, treated and then primed. I'll paint this all and waxoil what needs waxoiling in the near future.
Here she is looking a bit of a sorry state after her rear door had fallen off. This happened earlier in the year but other projects meant the repair was postponed. In the picture you can see I have started the long and arduous task of rubbing her down.
Now, Our Molly doesn't have an awful lot of steel in her compared to other vans of her size but what steel there is is subject to the same fate; rust. We'd done a bit of welding to her before including repairing the bulkhead, a small section of chassis and the NS inner wheel arch. But I also knew there was some lurking behind her front panel so I removed it to make the repairs.
Here is a section I removed and next to it is the new one I made to replace it. At the bottom is another replacement although I've not yet made the square hole in the pic.
The next sequence of photo's show the section being installed. The top of the panels either side of the radiator were also rotton and needed replacing as were the forward part of the front wheel arches. All the metal is good nick was ground back, treated and then primed. I'll paint this all and waxoil what needs waxoiling in the near future.
Bloody hell, it's been nearly a year since the last post in this blog. Well that shows how savagly neglected poor old Molly has been. Not to fear however, her spirits have been lifted by a most unusual request.
While Molly was gathering mould beneath the Sycamore and spending her hours knitting spiders webs things were happening elsewhere. Just when she thought she'd been heartlessly abandoned for the second time in her life she was asked to take a young lady to her special day.
"What joy!" Said Molly. "I'll be the belle of the ball!"
"Half a second miss." Said the bride to be. "I rather hoped I'd be the belle."
"Ah, yes." Molly replied now rather embarressed by her outburst.
"Anyway" Contined the bride to be. "You can't very well go like that now can you."
Molly limped over to the pond (for her clutch was seized) and gazed down into the misty waters. The bride to be was right, Molly was not looking her finest. She looked back sorrowfully at the bride to be.
"Come along now Molly, lets get you fixed up aye?"
The two walked hand in hand back to the workshop.
While Molly was gathering mould beneath the Sycamore and spending her hours knitting spiders webs things were happening elsewhere. Just when she thought she'd been heartlessly abandoned for the second time in her life she was asked to take a young lady to her special day.
"What joy!" Said Molly. "I'll be the belle of the ball!"
"Half a second miss." Said the bride to be. "I rather hoped I'd be the belle."
"Ah, yes." Molly replied now rather embarressed by her outburst.
"Anyway" Contined the bride to be. "You can't very well go like that now can you."
Molly limped over to the pond (for her clutch was seized) and gazed down into the misty waters. The bride to be was right, Molly was not looking her finest. She looked back sorrowfully at the bride to be.
"Come along now Molly, lets get you fixed up aye?"
The two walked hand in hand back to the workshop.
Monday, 1 October 2012
There were three in the bed...
If anyone is interested in rescuing Dolly then please get in touch. She'll be moved down to Somerset near Taunton before long where she will be taking audiences. Alas, with the new Morris on the scene something has to give and sadly it is Dolly.
Sunday, 5 August 2012
Sunday, 29 July 2012
From worse to worser.
I had a disastrous trip down to the garage to book Molly's MOT the other day and returned with this!
It's a 1968 Morris 1000 four-door. One lady owner from new. It's be sat in the back of the garage pictured for the last six years but had been used as an everyday vehicle as recent as 2002 I beleive.
It's a 1968 Morris 1000 four-door. One lady owner from new. It's be sat in the back of the garage pictured for the last six years but had been used as an everyday vehicle as recent as 2002 I beleive.
Tick tock goes the MOT clock...
Well, I'd made some progress with Molly and got her driverside door back on. Rather than using wood this time, as per Martin Walter coach builders, I went for what I hope to be a more lasting solution and made some plates up of of 3mm mild steel. These were drilled for the hinges and had their nuts welded int position so I can really do up the mounting screws tight without fiddling around with spanners in small sapces.
I then welded large bracing sections that I cut serrated sections into to grab the glassfibre when it was laid.
I then glassed in some more wood between the plates replacing the original door frame. The plates were bolted to these and the whole lot was glassed over with thick matting and Polyester resin.
All fixings are stainless and of larger size than original.
That door won't be going anywhere for a while!
One down, two to go.
The glass issue was sorted very easily by a local company in Taunton called Roman Glass. They were incredibly helpful and in the time I'd gone to get money from the cash machine they had made a prefect replica of the original out of 6.4mm laminated glass inc hole and cut outs. The chap charged me £10.
The aluminum strip at the back edge of the sliding window didn't fit with it's original gauge gasket so I have refitted it with a smear of silicone.
The fixing screws for the bottom section of window frame were long passed serviceable and had to be drilled out. I found a 4mm nut held itself captive between the aluminum channel so I used these with CS stainless screws to reassemble.
The second MOT is tomorrow!
I then welded large bracing sections that I cut serrated sections into to grab the glassfibre when it was laid.
I then glassed in some more wood between the plates replacing the original door frame. The plates were bolted to these and the whole lot was glassed over with thick matting and Polyester resin.
All fixings are stainless and of larger size than original.
That door won't be going anywhere for a while!
One down, two to go.
The glass issue was sorted very easily by a local company in Taunton called Roman Glass. They were incredibly helpful and in the time I'd gone to get money from the cash machine they had made a prefect replica of the original out of 6.4mm laminated glass inc hole and cut outs. The chap charged me £10.
The aluminum strip at the back edge of the sliding window didn't fit with it's original gauge gasket so I have refitted it with a smear of silicone.
The fixing screws for the bottom section of window frame were long passed serviceable and had to be drilled out. I found a 4mm nut held itself captive between the aluminum channel so I used these with CS stainless screws to reassemble.
The second MOT is tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)