1967 Morris Oxford Traveller - off to a new home

Had a day off work, and got a few hours on the grinders/welder
Here is the front wing, and I've started to repair the area where it joins the front valance.


All the grot cut out, and a nice flange built up, perfect for bolting to the valance.


I wasn't expecting to be able to repair this complex section with a single piece. 
But it seems the sandbag and ball-pein hammer gods were with me today


Yep that went well - good and solid.


I've got a replacement headlamp ring from a Mini to weld in.
But I'm concentrating on getting all the flanges etc in place to get the wing bolted into place.

Thanks for looking.

Love to, but alas my garage is really short - it won't fit - oh well 

So disc brakes on the front of a Farina.
Caveats - I'm not the first, and I'm not a engineer with access to a lathe/mill or stress modelling software. But this is what I've done.

Firstly thanks to Seth - as I've robbed the first picture from his conversion, which he has done differently to me - but we started from different places.

A bit of background to give the complete story.
A semi straightforward way of attaching disc brakes to the front of a Farina is to use MGB kingpins and stub axles in place of the Farina items.

...Seth .... picture showing
Farina at the top, which takes a 3/4" fulcrum pin
Wider MGB kingpin in the middle, which takes a rubber bush
and Seth's machined slimmer kingpin at the bottom


Now I bought a set of MGB kingpins and brakes that had been modified to fit a Farina from an abandoned project.
These got me some of the way to a conversion, but needed some modification.
The bottom of the kingpins looked like this.

I'm not sure what that "sleeve" is, but there is something similar in the vertical part of the stub axle.
I'll run with it for now, but if it proves an issue, some kind of bronze sleeve may be in order - we'll see.

Excuse me for using metric on an old car, but I don't count in 64's
A Morris kingpin is 37mm wide


An MGB kingpin is 46mm wide


Yet the ones I had were machined (and I use the term loosely as they weren't parellel)  down to 40mm


The way my wishbones (and I assume every other Farina) bolts up gives you this.

The gap between the arms is 38mm so just enough space for the cork seals, and so that isn't a mating surface.

The astute will notice that something 40mm wide isn't going to fit into that gap.
Time for some booty fab engineering in part 2.

The original kingpin uses a cotter pin to hold the fulcrum pin central.
Along with the end caps - that will keep everything tight and square and hopefully in tolerance.

But the MGB parts never had a cotter pin, so I had to drill a hole for one.
A kingpin is an impossible thing to hold in a pillar drill, and it just wasn't worth the effort.
Some careful measurement and a keen eye......



This is the original cotter pin and the thread has gone, so it isn't pulled up tight.
But hopefully you'll agree that isn't going anywhere.
Some hard to find 5/16" cotter pins have just landed, so I can continue.



Oh yes - and I've got to cut the recesses for the o-rings on that king pin.

In contrast the top mount bolts straight up !!
Yeah I know all the bolts are loose - this is a test fit



Those in the know, say the MGB kingpin lowers the car slightly - whoo-hooo I'll take that.
But also that it gives a little positive camber.
I planned for that back on page 11 and moved the shock/top mounts in a little.

Beer is definitely called for tonight 

Quality!

The missing caliper turned up today, so time to get the wheels back on.

The MGB kingpins seem to drop my car by about 6mm - so better than nothing.

Here it is on the bumpstops



Some rough measurements seem to indicate about 0.5 degrees of negative camber in this position
and about 0.5 degrees of positive camber at ride height.
So, yeah happy with that.

I love the way you say you’re not an engineer, I think you sell yourself short a little there! Great work. 👍

Work on the inner wing / A-pillar continues

This triangular panel which seems to be nothing more than closure for the back of the hinges, has been pieced back together.



This captive was completely missing on mine - just a rusty hole. Must be for a dashboard fixing.
The replacement piece was cut from the spare A-pillar I've got, and welded in.



This is the a-pillar all done. It is fairly close to the factory setup - aka - a weird mismatch of angles/sections/panels.
The drip rail was cut from the donor panel. Even that finishes off 3 layers of sheet metal.
It is a more than a bit of a patchwork quilt, but it isn't rusty, and there should be plenty of strength there.



The scuttle skin has been repaired/prepped/kurust/primered and is ready to be welded into place.



Hopefully I can find a couple of hours tomorrow to get that skin welded into place.

As always - thanks for looking

After running out of welding gas after Christmas - I'm back in the game.

Seems my R-tech regulator isn't as gas tight as I'd hoped, and I obviously didn't tighten the bottle enough - lesson learned.

I've now switched to HobbyMig 10L tanks as the distributor is just 5mins from my house 

So, I welded in the scuttle repair cut from a spare a-post.
I know you lot like a welding shot - so this is my effort.



That all ground down pretty nicely, and  is ready for filler etc when the time comes.



But I was left with this gnarly little in-fill to make and weld in.
Thankfully I seem to be getting slightly more adept at hitting metal with hammers on a sandbag 



Before I show the finished corner, allow me a distraction.....
I always hated the Morris bonnet stay, a weird slide/click thing, and worse of all, it was only on one side, so the bonnet wobbled around when open.
So a pair of gas struts were in order.
The original pair of 500N ones were way too strong - it was always going to be guess work. The second pair of 300N ones are still a bit stiff, but will do for now.
I copied the original brackets, as seen on the right - but they weren't up to the gas struts.
Remade in much heavier gauge, and we are golden.


Temporarily pop-riveted those into place and refitted the bonnet, now that corner is all steel again.


Yep very happy with that.
Now I've got the tedious task on bonnet/wing/door alignment to get as good as possible.

@grumpynorthener - I'll pass the bonnet over for dipping once I've set the alignment, and pinned it for easy refitting.

As always - thanks for looking.