Morris Minor Owners Club

Got my front wings fitted now. The drivers side was easy, passenger side was mega hassle, due to the rear mounting flange being 15mm wider than the other side . Some modifying with the welder and grinder sorted that out. Strange really as both wings came from the same supplier, from the same panel manufacturer, but the passenger wing also had another label with a comapny name and "made in taiwan" on it .
I digress, wings now fitted, and I tryed the bumper assembly on. The edges of the valance don't match the wing at all. Is there an easy fix for this. i was going to cut and stretch the valance to match the wings, welding in a piece to make good, and seeing if I could bend the bumper ends to match the valance. I thought this would be easier than reshaping the wings. Any one else had this problem.
Some pictures below to illustrate the problem, and a gratious shot of the front of the van as its coming together now.



And finally the van itself

I get this problem all the time with pattern wings. Basically the wings are not right round the front end and when you pull them in to get the hockey stick holes to line up, it opens up a gap between valence and wings as you have now.
What I do, is to cure the problem not the symptoms. Assuming the bumper valence is straight and unbent, leave it alone. Unbolt the wings from the grill panel and pull them out so the fit the valence. You will then need to weld a strip on the inner edge of each wing, weld up the lower two hockey stick holes, refit the wing so it fits the bumper then mark and redrill the hockey stick holes. Bit of faffing, but its the best way to do it in my view, rather than modifying a perfectly good valence to fit poor wings.

I've done so many now, I just weld a strip onto the inner edge of a new wing, before I even try and fit it. Sometimes they're not too bad, but mostly they do need it. I may have photos of one I did a while back, as I did an article about it for the branch newsletter once...

Well, just been down the garage, unbolted the wings from the front panel, and guess what, they now match the valance near perfect
Cheers Iain

Glad to have been of help!

I've moved this to useful tips - because it is!