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Morris Tilly late model


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Hello All,

 

Some months back I introduced myself and the Tilly that Hugh Davies had located for me, a rather battered relic, but due to its location has remained largely free of serious rust. Heres some new shots of it in my mates workshop.P1010859_zps8hl4rij2.jpg

 

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Our first step is to strip back to the "chassis", make it sound then on to the steering and suspension, so bits are progressively being sent off to the local sand blaster then being undercoated, plenty of "minion" work for an unskilled/inexperienced knucklehead like myself, leaving the more technically challenging work for my Mate /mentor/master John Neville.

 

Unexpectedly an opportunity came up to acquire some more! through Hugh Davies and negotiations by John Neville, i met Lenny Watkins, who offered me two more, it was an all or nothing offer, as he said as soon as you see the good one you won't be able to leave it. Despite initial misgivings, I don't regret getting them both. Especially since much of the sheetmetal of the "rough" one is sadly as thin as egg shells and of little use. We may get an engine and lots of useful fittings out of it though.

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The Good one is, extremely complete, its not without issues but despite not being ran for 15-20 years with new points, goes! and moves under its own steam! :wow: Very exciting! My Wife has named it, rather appropriately, Matilda! Its not without its isues and may need the sacrifice of a morris 10m

 

Since a feature on the first tilly was placed in Tilly Text, a chap called Andrew Curran in Perth, currently restoring a Austin Tilly offered me parts he rescued from a Morris Tilly in a garage due for demolition many years ago, which should be arriving tomorrow at my work. Exciting times!

 

Chris Collins

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Looking forward to seeing the resurrection of this Tilly;

Could I ask a favour? Would it be possible to take a photograph and measurements of the rear shock absorber brackets, the lengths of the arms and links.

 

Regards

Andy

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Andy B: I'll see what I can do! Should be able to find what you want though it might be somewhat disassembled.

 

Richard: it is still a bit of a treasure trove there though now due to the road situation getting some of his bigger vehicles would be a real challenge to get out, though he has a lot of nice things under cover.

 

Cheers

 

Chris Collins

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  • 7 months later...

Time for an update!

 

:blush: AndyB, sorry i havent peiced together those photos yet though now the rear axle is coming together, i should be able to get what you need now that its more than just a bewildering array of parts back from the sand blaster.

 

below you can see much of the progress we've made so far, note SCC2 brown made up based on Mike Starmers mixes (from Tilly Colours a great little resource), suprisingly close to the colour of several parts we're finding here and there (not to mention amo boxes).

 

Rear axle 1.jpg

 

A nice original feature we have on the diff housing on the SA tilly is a partially whitened diff, no doubt for the convoy light, kind of suprising it would have such a feature as you could barely see it fron another vehicle

Diff White.jpg

Another project we are contemplating is the steering wheels, the originals are badly degraded and we're debating either finding better new old stock examples or homebrew recasting them using High impact resistant resins, A local wheel restorer quoted a scary figure. we're figuring they must be a pretty common wheel used in a variety of Morris/BMC vehicles and we're hoping some might surface (hint hint...)

steering wheels.jpg

 

Next major task is getting the wheels cleaned up and tyred, then we're sacrificing a Morris 10m for a decent uni-chassis.

 

Cheers

 

Chris Collins

rear axle 2.jpg

Front axle.jpg

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  • 5 months later...


Here an update from John Neville, showing the

First Tilly arriving from SA. Its currently posted on MLU.

 

 

"Having finally got all the Tilly photos on to a computer that is easier to load on this forum than using an Ipad it is time for an update and a few more 'before' photos.

 

Chris aquired over a peeriod of about four months either complete(?!) or the remains of a total of four Morris Tillys out of what we beleive was forty that came to Australia. All so far have been 'knockdown' versions with removable rooves. There was enough to complete two vehicles as detailed above. To date we have completed the rebuild of two rear axles, front axles, two sets of springs, tailshafts and steering boxes. Out of the total of about ten complete sets of front and rear springs I salvaged enough leaves to reset two complete sets. Many of the leaves were broken or had splits running lengthwise, which I had never seen before. Many hours of hammering to reset the leaves sand blasting and reassembly.

 

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This original vehicle had come via Hugh Davis from outback South Australia. I believe when Hugh rescued it it was upside down which may have saved alot of the sheet metal and at some stage an excavator bucket had been rested on its roof. It looks alot worse than it is with all the timber having rotted away. The initial thought was it could be rebuilt but after assessing the complete Tilly from Len Watkins the chassis of both are a bit too far gone.

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We were short of an engine with this original Tilly hence the lead to Len Watkins and the purchase of the complete Tilly plus the remains of a second which had a complete engine still in situ. We got the complete vehicle running, and the engine was stripped from the othe remains.

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As you can see I have a very robust portable workbench and overhead gantry. It was easier to lift the front hald up in the air and drop the engine out from the chassis. Bit like slaughtering a beast. That front half is not much good but wil provide a few bits and possibly some rust repair patches before its carcass hits the scrap heap.

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So after assessing what we had we decided that although the first chassis was restorable, the amount of work did not warrant it and a replacement would be a better option. We located a 1946 model car which shares the same chassis and with some modiification came be made to look identical. That is Chris posing next to what should have been his new pride and joy. Shame it was to be sacrificed as it was quite restorable itself.

 

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The Tillys share the same B pillar as the car, it is just moved back a few inches to accommodate the wider door of I think the Morris 8. The roof is the same, just chopped, folded and re-enforced with timber. The rear floor is a different panel so I had to remove that from the original and after repairing that it will be fitted. All the surplus sheet metal from the car was removed. I found that repairs had been made roughly to the rear chassis rails so that presented a problem but the rear chassis on the original Tilly seemed salvageable. Luckily Tillys are small enough to work with on a bench. Helps having a small excavotor.

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The floor panel was removed by drilling out all the spotwelds. It is pretty solid still with one small area rusted through. The rear section is badly rusted and will need to be replaced. Chris wants to tow a trailer so I will replace the rear section with some heavier 3mm sheet re-enforced so I can incorporate a stronger section to mount a tow bar.

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Once the floor was removed I cut off the rear chassi rails of the Tilly complete with the rear side mounting points. I then altered the floor pan of the car to match. This only required squaring off at the rear most end. A folded section was removed from the Tilly that goes under the rear to brace the end of the floor. I then cut away the outside skin of each chassis rail to the sill leaving as much of the inner section as possible.

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I am happy that this section will all go together well. I will get it all sandblasted and primed while all the pieces are open and accessable to blasting before it is reassembled. I also took the opportunilty of installing new shackle bushes in the chassis rails while they were easy to handle.

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As these Tillys have the removeable roof, the A pillar on the car needs cutting and fitting with plates that bolt together. I welded some braces to the pillars so the windscreen stayed in place when cut. I cut up the required sections from 2mm plate, slipped them in situ and tacked them in place.

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Edited by Chris_Collins
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I removed the roof from the complete Tilly and stripped the timber from it so I could take measurements and comparisons in replicating a Tilly roof from the car roof. It was cut to length and removed from the car chassis and a 20mm fold formed up with pliers. B pillar upper sections from the damaged roof were removed and grafted onto the newly formed roof.

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Edited by Chris_Collins
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A couple of other modified pieces from damaged roofs were also removed to be fitted into the new roof. All the timber pieces will need to be replicated from the intact originals. Then all the pieces will be sand blasted before being reassembled. So out of four authentic Tilly rooves, plus the car roof I can salvage and complete two Tilly rooves. Next I moved onto relocating the B pillars. The car pillars are simply relocated back to accommodate a bigger door. I cut the sill around the pillar, wiggled the pillar until the internal spotwelds gave and removed the whole lot. The gap is filled with a patch just as the originals were done. I did cut the right side a bit too long so an extra patch will be required. I wil grind up the weld so it can't be seen. The rear curved section of the pillar is cut away to square it up.

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As I was completing the A pillar joints I noticed the 1946 car was finished off with nicely applied lead filler around the door frame and guttering. The wartime Tilllys got no such treatment so I melted all the lead from the entire door frame with the oxy torch. I didn't like the look of the rust behind the guttering so I unpicked the spotwelds and removed the guttering. It wasn't rusted through the body anywhere but I can now clean the guttering in my electrolysis bath and sandblast the body properly before reattaching the guttering.

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Another area that requires modifying on the chassis is the seat mounts and passneger floor. The car was fitted with an under floor toolbox. Strangely that appears to have been a feature of the prewar cars as well but was removed from the Tilly. The floor was patched over. As the wartime seats were different and simpler the mounting is different but can be simply swapped over from the rusty Tilly. I would have thought leaving the toolbox in situ would have made more sense for a military vehicle.

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