An Introduction: Chris Collins and Morris Tilly Project

[Alex van de Wetering]

Jack,

Excellent work on scratchbuilding a fuel tank! Well done.
I also admire the work you did on the sheet metal of the Tilly and Dodge Ambulance.

Alex

[jack neville]

Thanks Alex. I think I am past the most difficult parts and they will start taking shape.

[jack neville]

Second tank completed. The ends and baffles on the second were not as good so I put them in the electrolysis bath for a few days. The ends have some fine pin holes in them. I then had them re-zinced at a local electroplaters. Before reassembly I ran some solder over the holes on the inside of the ends and then put it all together. They now only need pressure testing and painting.

Chris had painted both rooves and all the timber inserts.
These have been reassembled and the first one installed. Timbers for the spare wheel carrier have been cut and fitted. The timber doesn't bolt down satisfactorily to the roof contour and i am thinking of steaming it to get it to hold its shape. My plan is to crank up my Wiles Cooker to provide the steam and pump it into a piece of pvc pipe. A job for later.

[jack neville]

some time ago I had pieces folded up to form the rear body sides. I had the front and top fold done and the rest I will hand form. Now the roof is on I can start on the rear body. I started by supporting an original side in place to use as a guide for the main timber support. This has been marked out, cut and holes drilled to line up with the cage nuts in the B pillar. This is then placed on the new panel so it can be scribed out and cut to shape.

[jack neville]

Time to finish the side panels.
First they need trimming to shape and folding the edges. I bought a couple of sheets of heavy plywood to use as a former. Placing an original panel to trace the shape I then drill a few holes into the plywood which are shared by both metal sides. The two sheets of plywood were bolted together through those holes and the shape cut out.

[jack neville]

One of the plywood sheets was laid inside the metal blank and the shape traced out with appropriate allowance for the folds. That shape was then cut out of the metal blank x 4 and then the two plywood sheets were bolted together with the metal sheet sandwiched in between.
A few clamps were added to secure the edges. I only need these formers to survive long enough to make four panels so they don't need to be too elaborate although I need 30 mm folded over for the wheel arch in a circular pattern which needs a lot of slow tapping and is a significant stretch..

[jack neville]

First panel done. Came out quite well.

[jack neville]

Two sets done. The formers barely suffered at all. Now just need a lot of holes drilled in them.

[jack neville]

With one set of rear side panels in place with their timber support and the roof all bolted up and in the correct position, I bolted a brace across the two B pillars to keep it all in place and then made up another new timber bulkhead which bolts to the rear of the roof.

[jack neville]

Using the other set of rear panels allowed me to lay out the timber frame as I cut each piece. A very time consuming excercise with each piece lapped into two others. I also did two sets at once so glad to have that out of the way.

[jack neville]

A bit more progress of the timber work. The side pieces are all now screwed and glued but not attached to the metal sides yet. The front main cross bearer is complete and joined up to the main pillar supports. The rear main cross bearer is cut to size and clamped in situ to hold the sides up. I am waiting on more timber for the rear tailgate hinge supports and rear floor step. I need that assembled to help get the whole body square before I put the floor boards in and make a tailgate. But before I can do that though I have to rebuild the inner wheel arches.

[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

[Mike K]

Starting to look like a tilly . Have you worked out which tilly is going to which owner ? And the paint schemes , its a choice of many colours and finishes , matt satin or gloss

[Chris Collins]

I was going to pop down today and do my bit but was feeling a bit flat after the shellacking the catters got last night... . i've a few odds and sods here to work on here though.

The Vehicles show signs of being painted probably Scc15 OD, but as they never saw service here and theres a gazillion Olive drab trucks around, we've gone for something a bit more British.

The scheme is going to be SCC2 Brown with SCC 14 grey-black disruptive over the top (variants of MTP 46a schemes, one of which is the well known Mickey mouse pattern). This is a scheme that was seen from late 42 till the end of the war, even though it was officially phased out mid 44. This is why everything that has top coat is Poo brown

I'm pareticularly looking forward to put all the formation signs, gas paint splodge etc etc, make it really stand out from the crowd.

The paints are based on the blends researched by Mike Starmer, using mixs of readily available hobby paints and based on extant examples and colour chips.

We're settling on a egg shell semi gloss for finish, John has had a bad experience using flatting media, most tilly pics seem to have a slight sheen.

Ownership? well, we have a co- funder so the plan is to get one each, I think I 'll get the last one as i want to keep the energy up to keep the project going, he has magnanimously said I can to drive the first one while the second one is being worked on.

[jack neville]

the dance floor is cut and fitted complete with seat bases. The rear passenger seats we have,(one original set only), are not complete and have been patched up and repaired (butchered). I have modified some modern hinges to suit for lack of original pattern and we can fabricate the rest from what original bits we have plus photo references.

[jack neville]

I might add for those who don't know, the rear passenger seats fold down when not in use to lengthen the cargo area. The Morris also has this strange little panel to access the rear diff dipstick.

[jack neville]

This is what we have remaining of the rear seats.

[jack neville]

We are looking for some assistance in locating an additional fuel filler neck and cap. We have two fuel filler tubes and cover caps but the Tilly has a pull out funnel tube which contains the actual bakelite fuel cap. Hoping someone might have a spare funnel tube and bakelite cap. The funnel tube I can make if necessary but is the bakelite cap a Morris part only or does anyone know if if is common to any other British vehicle.

[jack neville]

And just as swords when their work is done are turned to plough shares, old Tilly timbers having given up their measurements, become firewood.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by jack neville

The Morris also has this strange little panel to access the rear diff dipstick.

So do the 15 cwt British trucks like Morris CS8 and I think Bedford MW etc.

[Mike K]

The petrol filler cap: Might be worth checking if somebody can make one on a 3D printer .

[Mike K]

These are a Bedford GS MW body, the Morris CS8 has a similar setup, the actual size of the removable section seems to be smaller on the Morris.

[Tony Mathers]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

The petrol filler cap: Might be worth checking if somebody can make one on a 3D printer .

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Making one is fairly simple. Finding the right plastic filiment, that is petrol and sun resistant is the problem.

[Chris Collins]

I'm not sure you'd bother 3d printing, just use the cap as a master and cast it in a resin, should be quite fuel resistant using the right formulation.