An adventure building a Morgan automobile body frame

[Frederick Skelly]

Glad to see this update Roger. This is one heck of a big job, but it's coming along well. I can't wait to see the finished pictures.

I didn't quite follow you about the steel shims, so if they negate the need for this concern/idea, please forgive me. But I keep wondering whether body flex (e.g., driving ove railroad tracks) is going to break the wood shims loose over time - even with the pocket screw? IF it does, how much problem does it cause if the wood on either side of that broken glue joint can move up/down or back/forth?

Do you have space to reinforce it with some angle iron or by laminating more wood across that joint? If not, do you have room to wrap a wide automotive hose clamp around the shim to keep the wood on both sides aligned if the joint does break? I know that's ugly, especially on a beautiful full up restoration like this. But if a broken glue joint can cause a bunch of aggravation later, it might be worth considering.

Best regards,
Fred

[Jim Becker]

This is truly fascinating! Congrats on the progress and on the "adaptive craftsmanship" to, um...reengineer...where necessary.

[John C Cox]

That really is impressive. Thats a serious amount of steam bending. No doubt plywood and high quality laminations was a huge technological leap for these cars. I have enough trouble finding short clear sections of well behaved grain for my guitars... I cant imagine trying to source clear, straight grained ash in 6 and 8 foot long sections...

I wonder if they left the parts screwed without glue so they could replace individual bits when the time comes.

Any chance you made a set of patterns? I am sure a number of Morgan collectors (who are not serious woodworkers) would love to have some of these parts available. That - and if something happens (a deer or dog runs into the car) you have patterns to make new parts...

[Roger Los]

Thanks for the kind words!

John, just to be clear, nothing on the car is or was (when new) steam bent. The wheel arch in the back was laminated over the form, the rest is plain cut timber, with lap joins where it turns a serious corner. Some effort was made to try and match grain to mild curves, and it's rumored the rocker piece, below the door was often milled from "special" timber which was naturally curved along the grain.

But steam was a bridge too far for them, and definitely for me.