Morris Ten Four Thread.

[HillmanImp]

How good is that eh?

[Micrashed]

Roof chop, slam, stretch, V8, Hotrod.   

Thank God he's not going to ruin them with any of that gubbins.

If possible could you post pics of the restoration.

Pretty please.

Well, now theres the thing.

 

We have two cars, one good original (albeit yellow and black in colour) one will be made out of two fairly knackered ones retaining the original chassis and engine, but with a body tub off a 1934 car.

 

That will leave a chassis, running gear and cab - the rear of Ellie Mae's body tub is really really knackered.

Talk of a "pick up" using modern mechanicals took place last night and may not be entirely out of the question for chassis number 2. My lad is going to be involved in the resto process and fancies the idea of the "pick up", it may even keep a sidevalve engine as there is one kicking about the workshop that needs a rebuild (read rusty pile of metal).

 

A lot depends on how much work chassis number 2 requires. From what I saw last night its in better condition than we first thought, though admittedly its covered in mud so once all the crud is stripped away it may be quite shonky. It didnt flex though whilst being hauled onto a drop side so there is hope.

[holbeck]

Niiiiiiiice!

[pompei]

Fuggin'ell, not one but two pre-wars!!  There really has been some epic tat collection of late!

[Sloth in a bowl]

My father loves Morris 10s. When he worked part time in his uncle's garage then they used one as a towing car till it got replaced with a Landrover some time in the early/mid 50's.

 

He still says that it was the most fun car to drive.

[Micrashed]

 

Playing already!

 

OK, so this bonnet is in worse shape than the green one, but it gives an idea of the bumble bee colour scheme that it once carried and will carry again.

 

Engine turns over but not getting a spark at the plugs. If the engine can be left without rebuilding the car will get on the road a lot quicker....

[Squire_Dawson]

Superb, and I cannot fault your choice for lunch.

 

In those days of 'make do and mend', loads of old bangers would have been converted for further use, so a pickup would be a good and interesting project.

[Micrashed]

Pro'ly last pic for a while now ( not working on the car next weekend as its Wray scarecrow festival)

 

Getting em started off young...

[londonm]

Brilliant stuff, real motoring history being bought back to life. Keep us all up to date.

[Micrashed]

Spent the day at Bob's and this is the state of play so far....

 

 

Pretty much all of the bodywork has been stripped back - this remaining body tub is being removed (subject to a nice day) once the wheels are back on as it will need to be shoved outside for the swap over - the tub has been off in the recent past and the chassis is in fact in fine fettle and needs no welding.

 

The eagle eyed amongst you may notice a Freelander prop in the background - that was another of the jobs done turning a knackered 4WD into a functioning 2WD

 

The engine turns over both on the handle and on the starter (run with a 12v battery so went like the clappers) and appears to have good compression.

 

 

The loom has been replaced at some point with a new one - whether or not its actually correct for the car is anyone's guess, but it appears to have the right amount of wires.

 

 

Rear tub is beyond redemption - these photos simply do not do the tub justice for just how much rot there is.

 

Eventually this will get married to chassis 2 and turned into a flat bed pick up with wooden bed/frame - but thats a long way off. Ellie Mae needs to breathe again first!

 

 

 ,

[Vince70]

What a great thread, thanks for keeping us updated on the 10's, I've always had a soft spot for a prewar Morris as my father had one as his first car.

His was a 1936 Morris 8 and he took his driving test in it and did many a long trip to Norfolk in the car but this would of been in the late 50s so it was only 22 odd years old then, so back then it must of just been the equivalent of an autoshiter driving an early Rover Metro with worse lights but with a better head gasket.

[wuvvum]

I have a hankering for another pre-war car at the moment.  Sadly half-decent ones have gone well out of my price range in the last few years.  Plus they can be a pig to drive if you get the wrong one.  The Renault Novaquatre was lovely, Vauxhall Ten was pleasant enough if rather underpowered, but the Austin Ten was dreadful (not that I ever drove it far).  Never driven an old Morris, but I've heard good things about the 8.

[Squire_Dawson]

The 8 must be the longest lived of all of them. The Series E is quite nice and seem to be robust.

[Micrashed]

So, more work today on the Morris...

 

At the start of the day she looked like this:

 

Only with wheels attached and a newly painted floor (painted last night)

 

By mid afternoon she was looking like this:

 

 

The body tub (secured by four very stubborn bolts) now resided outside...

 

 

The chassis is in very good condition - there are two welded patches to it which seem well executed and sound, though there is always that niggly doubt as to whats under them as they are plated on to the chassis - they certainly look a fer years old though.

 

 

Once off, you can see exactly how bad this body tub is - it has the structual rigidity of a crisp packet

 

 

Partly down to the rampant woodworm in the frame

 

 

But mostly down to the rampant tin worm

 

 

This door is actually quite good, and will repair fairly easily.

 

 

Then we shoved Ellie Mae outside for a spot of spring cleaning - the eagal eyes will have spotted the spare battery off my Maverick - we'll come to that later on...

 

 

Power washer broken out....

 

 

And the old body shell dumped next to the donor 10-4 (the one with the shagged chassis you may recall)

 

 

Remember that battery?

 

Well this is what its for...

 

[DSdriver]

I read Minor Update and thought you meant Morris Minor. This is far more interesting.

[Micrashed]

Small update, only a couple of pictures as most of the other ones involve my kids sat on the mocked up floorpan with seats in place.

 

So, the Chassis has now been painted in black hammerite (2 coats) and a further coat of underseal - nowhere near original or concourse, but Ellie-Mae is never going to be a concourse winner its going to be used all year round, which is another reason for todays roof decision.

 

The floorpan was fitted shortly after this was taken then the seats put into place to make a decision regarding whether or not to change the original into a DHC or keep as a standard saloon - much tea/coffee was drunk whilst the girls clambered all over the car, oh and some very smelly sand was spread on the lawn at this point. Eventually we concluded that the saloon body shell would stay as the 8 was the convertable for nice day use and the sliding sunroof fate was sealed. Originally the car had a sliding sunroof - these leak, they leaked pretty much from new and cause much of the rot found within the wooden frame at the front of the car. The update above shows the sunroof sealed up with a piece of steel pop riveted into place - both body tubs have this "modification" and its quite common on unrestored cars owing to the afore mentioned leaky sliding roof.

 

The plan with Ellie Mae is to neaten off this repair by seam welding in a new piece of steel then grinding the welds down - how neat this looks is the difference between the roof getting a skim of filler and spraying or getting vinyl covered. Again this isnt going to be original as no 10-4 left the factory this way, we debated leaving the roof drains in place, I thought it would be a good idea, Bob thinks it will look better without them - either way the car will be more weather tight and more useable in winter/inclement weather - which is what he wants.

 

/

This ^^^ is actually quite an easy conversion to do and makes the car worth nearly twice as much - but it wont be happening to Ellie Mae.

 

This is body shell number 2 (the 1934 car) and is very solid - two small simple areas need fabrication on the inner rear wings, and of course the roof - which is going to be a bit of a bugger to do. The wooden frame however is actually worse than the 1933 body tub off Ellie Mae, which is why for now it remains on this car. The metal work is going to be fabricated first, then the wooden frame replaced before moving it over to the 1933 chassis. 

 

 

Sorry there are not many pictures this time, but work is progressing quite well so hopefully the next update will include some hardcore welderizing action rather than hardcore sanding,painting and spreading manure action.

[Micrashed]

Its bitterly cold, not only that Bob has managed to slice a large chunk of his leg with a plate glass window ( I offered to suture it up be he declined and went to A&E where they glued it back together), so with Christmas, New Year, a trip to France and some snowboarding and climbing (not by me) the car has taken a back seat.

Not a right lot has changed since we were last here, mostly bits of body work prep.

 

 

Not run since 1965, it does at least turn over on the starter freely. 

 

 

Today it was the "lets get this thing started day"

 

A lot of fiddling with the electrics got us ( and a heavy duty 12v battery) to the stage where the genuine 1960's sparking plugs burst into life As you can tell from the commentary this was a huge family occasion with three generations present. t 

 

Then we set about feeding the car with petrol, though this was after bolting the cylinder head back down ( no torque wrench here, just a big spanner and a "thats tight" attitude)

 

Sadly after a Heath Robinson affair involving a funnel, the top of a wood glue bottle, some rubber hose and a couple of coke cans worth of unleaded we were no nearer, even trying to get it running on fumes wasnt working. By this point it was late and we buggered off in for our tea. Hopefully in a couple of weeks it should be running. Then its on with a gusto with the body work. A pair of headlamp bowls were proving very difficult to part company with the light bar, they seem to be held in place with a brass washer that almost seemed to be shrink to fit. I was in danger of wrecking either the bowl or the washer so admitted defeat with that today. Heat and swearing clearly wasnt working, but then the whole lamp bar was working as a giant heat sink and clearly too much for the soldering torch.

 

 

Everyone needs a tin of rusty big ends

 

 

[cros]

Not much Morris 10/4 action around here lately so heres some.  Mine is more of a perverted 10/4, not a pure one like the aforementioned example. Proper aficionados would say that its been polluted by the fitment of the wrong engine, and mine has one from the slightly later Ital. Then again I would never have bought a proper one as I can only afford abominations.

  Not only has the car got the wrong engine, it has been fitted as badly as it possibly could be and still remain under the bonnet. The second time I drove it the rear gearbox mount, which had been welded to the underseat battery boxes, let go and only the exhaust system prevented the transmission hitting the tarmac.

  I'm gradually sorting out the horrible mess. I'll stick some photos on tomorrow.

[cros]

First a picture of the car as it is now undergoing more remedial work. Note the sympathetic choice of colour for the battery cable. Actually its just an orange plastic sheath over the old decomposing insulation, more nasties later.

I've had the car for several years and used it only occasionally. On a memorable journey from Kings Lynn last November I decided something must be done about the lighting, brakes and indicators. A heater would have been nice too. My wife drove it to work a couple of days later and wasn't very kind in her comments about the car.

 

[cros]

The headlamps 'work' by tilting one of the reflectors for main beam, and switch the O/S light off completely when dipped. Fortunately later dipping bulbs can be fitted so I've bypassed the solenoid thing and fitted 2 mighty 35/35watt bulbs. LED bulbs are available but at £50 a pair will probably only be fitted to cars never used at night.

 

Onto the indicators, I rather like the semaphore type and at first fitted flashing LED bulbs that make them  more visible than originally. However when the state of the wiring dictated complete renewal I thought it would be twattish not to add 'normal' flashers. I made a holder to take two separate bulbs and which would fit into the original sidelight. After all the trouble the previous owner went to I want to keep it looking standard.

 

 

Glowworm

 

 

With LED bulb (flashes on and off too, £15 a pair)

 

 

Heres the bulbholders, not beautiful but solid. You can buy ready made ones, £35 though.

 

 

Finally this is the newly dipping headlamp and the indicator. 35watts doesn't sound much, but at least there will be two of them on when 'dipped' now. Indicator looks more amber in real life.

 

 

 

 

[UltraWomble]

I'll update this 10-4 thread at some point, unfortunately both Bob and I have had other things filling our time recently.

[LC Torana]

Goody. This is the greatest thread on the whole site (or at least would be if the pictures were still up)

[UltraWomble]

Not sure why the Facebook photos have dropped off the face of the Earth - but much of the above can be found in this album:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/micrashed/albums/72157644354579484/with/16487682670/

 

EDIT : Found  few photos from FB so upload them too.

[mercrocker]

Those LED flashing semaphore "bulbs" are the bollocks...Put them on my Cowley and people actually see me indicating now.    They are just about the correct amber in "real life".  Looking forward to more Morris goodness on here, lovely looking car...

[cros]

Sorry mercrocker, I can't offer much goodness, but plenty of nastiness. Heres a photo of the flat battery box strut  that was deemed strong enough by the prevous bodger to support the gearbox mount.

 

 

The welding was so poor that you can't see any evidence of a join, but it was spitted onto it and bolted up to the gearbox lugs above.

 

 

I made up a new bracket and with a pair of cortina rubbers joined up to the original Morris mounts.  On the right there is horrible lash up to operate the hydraulic clutch. A hole was cut through the cross member with a gas torch and the master cylinder bolted up at a jaunty angle. You can see the brazed together pipe which is joined onto the original kinked red plastic one after a few more inches- this bloke didn't believe in wasting anything.

  The Ital engine and box was sourced from a van and whilst the engine goes very well the gearbox is knackered and horrible, and also looks wrong with the gearstick emerging between the seats. My intention is to replace it with a Minor box with an early long gearlever giving me a mechanical clutch more suited to the pedal arrangement.

 

 

 

 

This is underside view of the beautifully crafted front engine mount, complete with weld spatter and even a bit of welding wire hanging down. I've got to grind the entire mess off the chassis and will use the original mounts as they look as if they'll line up fairly well with a front Minor type engine plate.

 

 

 

Finally the engine itself doesn't look too out of place, and pushes the car along very well. Doesn't look like it was the owners pride and Joy when under the Ital's bonnet...

[mercrocker]

Makes you wonder why the bloke didn't do it your way in the first place......Also quite ironic that there was a 1980 engine that would probably have fooled a pre-war owner!   

 

Great stuff, I am getting a fair bit of wantage for a pre-war Morris.

[UltraWomble]

   

 

Great stuff, I am getting a fair bit of wantage for a pre-war Morris.

Hang around for a bit and there will be a whole (sheddy) car going once Ellie-Mae is finished. Bob isnt keeping the spares car.

[alf892]

Cros.......that looks quite well in there and I bet it makes it more usable too.

 

Makes good sense on cost especially if you can do it in a way the lets you go back to original if you ever need/want to - certainly a good way to get mobile if the original needs an expensive rebuild.

 

BTW was it you that had a diesel P4? One has turned up in Rushden recently. Solid and used looking on rostyles which suit it well - seems to be driven with a purpose too.

[cros]

I did have the Diesel P4 which I sold to another shiter. Its an easy conversion, the hardest bit is making a big enough exhaust if you've used a TDI.

 

Back to Morrises, I still don't really know what a decent one is like to drive. Though I bought mine with a new MOT the brakes have always been appalling, randomly pulling to one side then another. On stripping them down I've found that none of the shoes match, being an assortment of bonded and rivetted linings, sometimes on the same wheel. Legend has it that asbestos linings stop you better (maybe that should be stop you breathing better) which hopefully will account for the cars errant behavior. I have a new set of modern bonded ones to put on, happily these are available complete and 'off the shelf'.

My car had belonged to a wedding hire company in its past and was not treated to modern fripperies such as anti-freeze. Predictably the engine split in half one winter and being a notoriously fragile block anyway was deemed unrepairable. I was told by the former owner that this was one of several 10s that got the 1275 treatment and that the perpetrator considered himself a professional mechanic. I always thought those cans strung out behind wedding cars were part of the ceremonial ritual, but if you see a Morris dragging a load of scrap on a string its probably just some sort of land anchor.

[cros]

Just got in from a session in the shed, wiring is now just about in place. I had trouble with the brake switch but managed to revive it - the best thing about old stuff is that most bits are salvageable due to lots of brass being used. 

  I wont be able to do any more on it until the weekend, but hope to finish it early next week.