Morris Minor Owners Club

Ive checked the measurements, and placing the tape measure in the same position as your photo ( keeping the tape measure parallel with the upright bar ), my reading is 17 inches. I get 18 inches if the tape measure it placed at the pivot point, but then angled out towards the top ( so its not parallel with the upright bar ).

I think that must be where its going wrong since yours is 18 inches measured parallel to the upright bar. One more inch would make a big difference to the tightness of the cover at the back. So im now going to give ESM my measurement and ask them to check the other frames they have in stock.

Hopefully ESM are going to say the length should be 18 inches in which case I will ask them to send me a replacement tensioning rail.

Ive put the vid showing how ive had it measured on youtube : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj-lWurqZAI

Just spoken with Graham at ESM, a really nice chap. He asked me to send them the Tensioner rail so that they could weld in an inch of extra steel and send it back to me. Instead, ive agreed for ESM to send me a section of the steel and I will splice the tensioner rail and add in the extra steel. It wont take more than an hour to chop, grind-in an angle then seam up with the mig, then polish level with the bench grinder.

Aparently, this situation is not at all unusual and its common due to the irregular shapes of Moggies to have to either shorten or splice in extra metal. Im just glad there is a solution, even though it is a bit of messing around to sort it.

Thanks to everyone for your very kind comments and advice. Everyones support has been very much appreciated !!

Charles

ESM kindly posted me two sections of old hood frame steel which I spliced into the new frame to make the tensioner rail 2 inches longer. It was a shame to have to damage the gold paint on the frame, but it had to be done !

After seam welding the steelwork up, grinding, polishing and respraying the entire tensioner rail ( took a day ), the result is a tensioner rail that looks exactly like it did before, but two inches longer. The fit is now bang on perfect and the hood is nice and tight. What a relief !!

As can be seen from the pic below ( I was loading Daisy into a container to ship out to my other home in Hong Kong ) the hood looks nice and tight at the back. Cant wait for its arrival. Really looking forward to driving out of the container and into the bright lights of Hong Kong. Im not quite sure what the Chinese are going to make of this car......they are so used to seeing flashy Porchers, Beamers, Mercs and Bentleys. I reckon they will appreciate a slice of proper British culture and history.....if they are patient enough when im going up hills !

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An excellent result to a challenging problem. Well done.

Glad you got it sorted in the end.