Morris Minor Owners Club

Not sure about your conclusion regarding British engineering, there are companies that turn out precision work to rival any. The problem is with the setups that produce low level parts like repro car spares. Not at all sure of their credentials when it comes to engineering. You certainly wouldn't commission them to produce something for a space mission! There are engineers and 'engineers' !

I have had heritage rear wings supplied for a Traveller. When fitted the bottom of the rear section of wing stood out like Prince Charles ears.
I phoned to complain that the wings were not right, "they are all like that" I was told.

"That is funny I told the supplier, I have four other travellers sitting outside that have had new wings fitted in the past and they are all parallel and true" . "You will have to dress them" excuse me but do you mean bend them straight "yes he said but once you do that we do not want them returned".

So they are on a win win situation.

I also had a full set of seat covers supplied for a Morris Minor Traveller that were different shades of colour. I was told that the suppliers who manufacture the covers made them from the same roll of vinyl.
The bags the covers came in had no batch numbers,so how could they say that,even the vinyl backing was different on the reverse side on some of the covers. I persisted in my complaint and sent two of the covers back to the supplier. Now after two months the suppliers have admitted liability.
Apparently one or two covers are for a different vehicle to the Morris Minor but look the same,someone had bagged them up wrong.
I knew all along I was right but nobody will say so.
But the cheeky supplier has tried to charge me for the replacement covers that have been manufactured correctly if they send them to me,but I have I stood my ground and refused to pay out any more money.
The jury is out on this issue at the moment.



M M

I have made a slight edit to remove the rather obvious clues to who the supplier is - Matt

Les I should of said British motor engineering and its the get rich quick merchants who give the industry a bad name just to make a quick buck

Fettling the tooling is basically dressing up or down any high or low points and re striking the blow of the press just in case over a period of time the "blow" isn't quite low enough to from the pressing to it's complete and uniform shape or indeed too low ....in a nutshell

What is the tooling made from then? Something very heavy duty I suppose.

Very heavy, all steel e.g if its a large floor pan off say the Austin princess wedge which I remember working on then the press itself is 60 ton in weight alone without the pressure exerted on it from the blow/cycle while the "tool" alone could weigh a few ton !

Sorry for the thread drift but this is both interesting and still relevant in a way.
I've only heard of dressing using a hammer and dolly on sheet metal, what do you use one a tool of that size?

Bloody big grinders at first if the tool requires major redressing so you'd have to load the area with fill-in weld that needs work and grind back, and small air powered "dizzooter" grinders for fine finishing and scrapping to get the correct finish depending on what the finished pressing is.

Makes sense. A mate builds GRP boats and they're constantly having to fix/re-finish the moulds due to damage during use.
Same concept I guess. Everything wears eventually - even a massive steel die/press tool.
I wander if they have chaps in Sri Lanka or wherever regularly checking tolerances and whatnot on the tooling?

my understanding was that the sri-lanken panels are all hand made...

I visited the workshop where the panels are made, there was a press there but it was a pretty small affair from what I remember, the bed was about 1 square metre.
It wasn't in use and the amount of stuff piled on it suggested that it didn't get much use.
Hammers and dollies were the order of the day and a reinforced shell for measurements.

Did you check to see if it was a Minor shell?!!

dunketh wrote: I wander if they have chaps in Sri Lanka or wherever regularly checking tolerances and whatnot on the tooling?

There's an article in today's Telegraph describing how the panels are made, and they also carry out restorations: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/cla ... Lanka.html

You would have thought they'd provide the poor chap with a workbench

Found an interesting link off the Telegraph article, a testimony to the longevity of old cars and the ingenuity of Sri Lankan mechanics.

http://www.movingimages.asia/2011/04/kerosene-2/

Excellent links! So - 5 head gaskets...with grease between? And then I can run on kerosene.... But - will I need to change the ignition timing setting? And will the coil handle it ok??

We need a 'highly recommended supplier' thread I think after reading all this horror.

Just about to purchase a pair of lower sections for the doors and am now becoming worried.

Won't name obviously, but one largish supplier I've used for other bibs and bobs did not come anywhere near up to scratch in the customer service stakes, in fact, it was more like couldn't give a jot tbh, got your money, now sod off.

The supplier I used didn't even bother responding to the e mail that i wrote.
To the point in terms of constructive criticism, but polite and definitely NOT offensive.

Stuff 'em. Lost my custom.