An Introduction: Chris Collins and Morris Tilly Project

[jack neville]

The inner wheel arches were salvaged from the original sides and sandblasted. On closer in inspection they were too dented and with too many rusted through areas. I could have reused them but considering the rest of the rear body will be all new and straight, these parts would have detracted from the finished look. I have decided to make new ones but after working out how to do it I decided I could re-use the inner panel which was easily straightened. The top panel I removed by grinding away the spot welds of the top panel to preserve the inner panel intact. I new top panel was formed up using angle irons and G clamps and working from my pedestal vice.

[jack neville]

I then drilled a series of 6 mm holes around the edge of the new top panel and plug welded it to the original inner panel. One down.

[jack neville]

Both sides are now complete with inner guards manufactured and welded in place. I will get them blasted for better paint adhesion. Chris has primed all the timber which has been glued and screwed together ready for fitting. In the meantime I assembled one of the doors.

[jack neville]

Any little dents were straightened in the outer skin. It was then a simple matter of cutting the two inner sections were they overlapped and manipulating the lap joint so when welded together and ground down the welds would be flush. The edges were then hammered back over and redressed. I needed several clamps to get the corners tucked in tight to start with.

[jack neville]

Completed side panels back from sandblasting ready for paint and assembly.

[jack neville]

The sides are now painted and the timber frames nailed on and most of the hood bow fittings added. I have salvaged screws and bolts where possible as like Colin Jones has found with his counter sunk bolts, trying to get slotted screws and bolts in Australia these days is very difficult unless you have old stock. Very annoying when you only need a few of each different size. In fitting the sides I found they didn't marry up to the chassis as good as I would like them to. Some further study at the remains and scraps of wood I have been working off found that I had made the body 20mm too wide. So it all had to come apart again and the holes to the B pillar widened and the cross beams shortened and then on reassembly everything went together perfectly. I had to redo the front B pillar lower timber supports as I had made the gap between them too narrow to allow the rear seat to fit when folded down and they were also a few millimetres too low and the floor boards would have dipped at the front. That is the problem with not having an accurate body to copy from. In places it has been repaired over the years inaccurately so what I thought were accurate facsimiles looked good until it went together. There is an awful lot of trial and fit and refit with this sort of coachwork restoration but I am happy that it is now ready to lay in the floor boards. Incidentally, I had to get my timber man, Nigel Effemey at Streamline Timber in Geelong to machine up the tongue and groove floor boards as the modern boards have a 'double frog' (grooves) in the bottoms that wouldn't look right.

[jack neville]

Pictures would help