| The 1934 Morris 8 |
| Early in the summer of 2002 we moved to England, leaving behind the warm, dry and sunny weather of the Philippines. And also leaving behind the wild little yellow Hot Rod and the big comfy Chevy Nova. A replacement was needed to soothe my creative urges and a '32 Ford rolling chassis was ordered from one of the British rod builders. |
| This was not a good move, and three months later we were still waiting for the chassis rails, ordered from the good old USA, to arrive. So, bearing in mind that finances were stretched somewhat after our move, we decided to buy into something a little cheaper and not quite so adventurous |
| Our Morris 8 'basket case'was basically just a nearly complete body shell and a variety of non-Morris related parts that came with it. There was the steel tube to build a chassis, two axles, wheels, steering gear, tyres, brake pedal and all manner of bits that the previous owner had painstakingly collected together to build a hot rod Morris from. Now we are the owners and work will soon begin on what is going to be our 'keeper'. (We've already loved and lost two cars that we'd busted ass working on, so this one is going to stay in the family) |
| Contrary to the background effect of this page, the Morris is solid steel, with not a drop of 'glass or plastic in it, nor will there be, as I intend to learn the black art of panel beating/bodywork to keep it in the material it was first built some 70 years ago |
| The photo below is pretty much the same model of car we have in our garage. I think the '34 was almost an experimental prototype, and there are definitly very few around nowadays. For that very reason there won't be any wild top chops or outrageous body mods to our '34. We'll leave it a little dignity and self respect. |
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| What we have looks just a little different...... |
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| The dash looks pretty interesting, and will be used for the rebuild |
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| The new box section chassis coming together in the back yard. |
| The front end is kicked up to allow room for the Sherpa front axle to live underneath it. |
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| Above is the chassis with the cleaned up Sherpa axle roughly positioned. A four bar rear end will be used to locete it eventually. To the right is a picture of the front axle, RV8 motor, and the body in the background. |
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| Above is a rough setup of the trimmed down Sherpa beam axle, with the Pilot leaf spring and mucho modified Ford pop hairpins. About 3/8" was cut off the front and back of the 'I' beam section, to save weight and reduce the agriculturaly massive appearance a little. |
| The pop wishbones were shortened and a 1/4" plate insert made to fasten them to the bracketry I'd made to go on the Sherpa axle. Above is a pic of the bits and pieces that went into each one. Looks simple, but took an age to gas cut and grind the taper so it was a good tight fit when tapped in before welding. The bit with the holes may get trimmed a bit......... |
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| One of the interesting items that came with the pile of odds and sods we bought. I believe they are from a Ford Pilot. We have two, so they will be used, one at each end. |
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| The body dropped on the new chassis for the first time. Surprisingly, it fitted! |
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| Back end of the chassis is nearly complete, apart from final welding and some odds and ends. Tall prop shaft loops are for if I ever decide to run it reeeeeaaal low. |