Morgan BLK 9 1934 F4
PART 2
Front seats. It was decided that with two very basic bucket seats
provided with the car that some professional attention was required to
cover these. I approached Paul of Cox & Perry at nearby Horstead if
he knew of anyone who could cover these in either pvc or leather. As he did not have a dedicated upholsterer
he would approach his mate Tim to give us a quote. I presented the seat
frames and base to Paul who immediately recognised them as a basic seat
pan similar to Austin Healeys and that his
mate would be able to sort them out with no problem. The quote which came
back was acceptable and the two seats were completely covered and upholstered
in leather including the wooden base which acts like a mini toolbox under
the seats. Once fitted they set the car off a treat.
MOT 1. The
MOT was booked for the morning of 9th June at Nicholls Garage Stalham as this is one of the few garages locally which
will MOT three-wheelers. The day dawned as the hottest day of the year
and it was decided that I would go to the Coltishall garage
to get petrol for the run up to Stalham and
that Cynthia would follow at a decent interval in case of breakdowns. On
arrival at
Five miles up the road just after the Westwick crossroads
the power died and the Morgan came to a halt. I pulled over onto a drainage
platform just off the road and decided to wait for Cynthia to pass me
by not knowing that during the few minutes of re-fuelling she had gone
by. On reaching the garage where no Morgan was visible she made enquiries
and was told that I hadn't arrived. She returned by the agreed route
and eventually saw me stranded on the side of the road. Morgan rescue
was contacted and again this was not straight forward as the original
registration, ASV 161, had not been changed to the reclaimed one of BLK
9. They were very understanding and for the princely sum of £19.95,
being the year's subscription to Morgan rescue, sent out a breakdown
truck from the Nicholls garage at Stalham I
was endeavouring to reach to take me and the Morgan home.
Repair. The mystery of the breakdown was never fully sorted.
During all the tests I always had HT spark at the coil but nothing came
out from the distributor. It was decided to replace all; distributor cap
and rotor arm and these are original 100E replacement parts and no other
faults have occurred since.
MOT 2. The MOT
was re-booked at the Nicholls garage on 8th July at Stalham again
with no further problems. Minor issues raised were all sorted out and the
remaining paperwork was sorted out with a request for a tax disc at our
local post office.
Interior Finish. On
consideration of the interior requirement being pvc leather
cloth over foam I decided to carry out the final interior finish myself
using material supplied by Cox & Perry and a local foam dealer. This
proved fairly straightforward with two dickey seats being built either
side of the rear wheel and covering of the interior surfaces. I also carpeted
the floors.
Test Runs. The first test runs with two people on board produced
some strange noises from the rear wheel making contact with part of the
body. This was never fully understood as there were no visible contact
points found on the body. Later with four people on board the noise was
more noticeable and it was decided that the rear springing was too weak.
After considering the problem I needed more spring tension and damping
on the rear wheel. This was solved by building into the system a set of
Dominator shock absorbers and springs as normally fitted to a 650SS as
they have variable spring rate and the fixing points would be straight
forward. Brackets were built to take the top of the shock absorber and
put all the forces back into the body, extended rear spring bolts were
made to take the lower fitting and with the required spacers the system
has solved all of the rear wheel problems.
Lionel's Run. This event took place in the evening starting at the Scottow Horseshoes. All was going well until I came across
a section of road going towards a common which really upset the front end
of the car. It became uncontrollable and I had to stop to prevent me going
off the narrow track. I spoke to Alan Jones of the
Dave Rogerson Memorial Run. We took the Morgan on Dave's Memorial Run starting from the motorcycle
museum at
We were awarded the Dave Rogerson Memorial
Trophy for being the oldest opposite class with Mike Henry picking up
the award for the oldest machine with his 1925 Panther.
Front Dampers fitted. The
front dampers have been a great success but with the flexible steering
system fitted to these machines that in reverse and on full lock the tyre
was contacting the top of the shock absorber. The top mounting has been
modified to prevent this happening again.
Hood and Side Screen. The car came complete with the hood frames and brackets
so it was decided to make enquiries about fitting a complete hood and side
screens. Making enquiries with Colin Wilson, a the Morgan Three Wheeler
Club parts supplier and repairer,
the earliest that these can be done will be early 2005 at Grays in
Bob & Cynthia