Chris_Collins

Three 10mm template pieces were tacked together and positioned over the 5 mm piece and then clamped together. I welded small positioning tabs around the outside to locate the top template. I added loops for lifting as It was getting pretty heavy. Heavy angle iron was drilled and positioned over the templates to clamp the die together. I then drilled and tapped into the heavy plate for the bolts to secure the angle iron. My gantry allows me to move anything anywhere easily which came in handy for drilling the heavy plate. Attached Thumbnails

A heavy steel base was cut which had a 5mm template plug welded to it. The small pieces to fabricate the movement mechanism was also lazer cut. I got a few extras done just in case. Attached Thumbnails

My youngest son Nick is an engineer so I convinced him to give me a hand to make a die to press the cross into the seat base. Once I had measured it all up and worked out an idea I got him to draw some CAD plans to get some steel laser cut. Attached Thumbnails

I have digressed a bit to do some work on the Tilly seats. We only have one set of original seats which are virtually the same. The construction is simple formed mainly by flats and angle and straight sheetmetal. The base has a pressed cross in the centre which is the only complicated piece. There is a simple lock to allow movement of the seat. Attached Thumbnails

Then I remembered we had a spare set from the car which were in excellent condition. The panel on the later cars had the flutes pressed differently but that is the only difference. So these engine covers have been sacrificed to provide the inner ribs for the Tilly. Attached Images

More news from the House Of Neville "We have already cleaned up one set of engine side panels and after searching for several weeks I stumbled upon the second and only other set we have which one of us misplaced. Since I am typing this I blame Mr Collins. This set is from the very rusty remains we originally got from Len Watkins. Like the rest of that vehicle it has weathered badly and although the main panel is redeemable, the inner rib is very badly rusted and will not survive the sandblaster. I carefully drilled out the spotwelds and removed the rib with the intention of fabricating new ones." Bounder, cad... They were placed in a fairly visible place ands we'd no doubt wandered past the dozens of time and we'd not noticed. No matter, they're found now and on their way to being resurrected

well, I'm not sure its ever been a conflict to win or lose in my case, My wife has been extremely supportive in fact she seems to be a bit of a petrol head anyway and loves cruising around in olive drab clad vehicles. It helps that she has expensive hobbies as well, Horses means first name terms with vets, shares in feed suppliers.... I actually think she'd look rather fetching in an ATS uniform (grrowl), it'd just need to come out of my pocket. Her rules are simple, no vast piles of rusty crap, and the shed needs to be pretty, no colorbond monstrosities. She's already named the Tilly, though its an easy sell, a dirty great truck might be harder. Cheers Chris

Hinges completed and tailgate finished off ready to paint. Attached Thumbnails

A piece of 4" heavy angle iron gave me the shape to cut down to form the hinge base. The rest involved a bit of lathe work, angle grinding and file work. The raised bumps are little pieces turned on the lathe and bronzed on.

Correction!: the timber is mountain ash https://www.woodsolutions.com.au/species/ash-mountain As mentioned above, (despite Chris amassing 10% of all the Morris Tillys that came to Australia), we only had one set of tailgate hinges from all the remains. Each hinge is a strange shaped cast piece with a fixed pin which holds the long upright flat piece. It also has slightly raised bumps where the bolt holes are.

Tailgate fits very nicely. We need to make another set of hinges as we only had one set.

Tailgate put together over the last couple of days. I first glued and clamped the planks together then assembled the outside frame complete with mortise and tenon joins and then glued and clamped that all together.

This rear timber piece has been added. It was a bit confusing to work out as it was missing on all our wrecks and didnt make sense until Andrew Bloxham sent some clarifying photos from the UK. Thanks Andrew.

And just as swords when their work is done are turned to plough shares, old Tilly timbers having given up their measurements, become firewood.

This is what we have remaining of the rear seats.

I might add for those who don't know, the rear passenger seats fold down when not in use to lengthen the cargo area. The Morris also has this strange little panel to access the rear diff dipstick. Attached Thumbnails

the dance floor is cut and fitted complete with seat bases. The rear passenger seats we have,(one original set only), are not complete and have been patched up and repaired (butchered). I have modified some modern hinges to suit for lack of original pattern and we can fabricate the rest from what original bits we have plus photo references.

We are looking for some assistance in locating an additional fuel filler neck and cap. We have two fuel filler tubes and cover caps but the Tilly has a pull out funnel tube which contains the actual bakelite fuel cap. Hoping someone might have a spare funnel tube and bakelite cap. The funnel tube I can make if necessary but is the bakelite cap a Morris part only or does anyone know if if is common to any other British vehicle.

I believe its the locally available hardwood known as "Tasmanian Oak" which is a Eucalypt, so completely "incorrect" as what we've found looks like a softwood, but we've gone for something that will be a bit harder wearing. Its a shame its destined to be painted as its an attractive timber.

The sides are now painted and the timber frames nailed on and most of the hood bow fittings added. I have salvaged screws and bolts where possible as like Colin Jones has found with his counter sunk bolts, trying to get slotted screws and bolts in Australia these days is very difficult unless you have old stock. Very annoying when you only need a few of each different size. In fitting the sides I found they didn't marry up to the chassis as good as I would like them to. Some further study at the remains and scraps of wood I have been working off found that I had made the body 20mm too wide. So it all had to come apart again and the holes to the B pillar widened and the cross beams shortened and then on reassembly everything went together perfectly. I had to redo the front B pillar lower timber supports as I had made the gap between them too narrow to allow the rear seat to fit when folded down and they were also a few millimetres too low and the floor boards would have dipped at the front. That is the problem with not having an accurate body to copy from. In places it has been repaired over the years inaccurately so what I thought were accurate facsimiles looked good until it went together. There is an awful lot of trial and fit and refit with this sort of coachwork restoration but I am happy that it is now ready to lay in the floor boards. Incidentally, I had to get my timber man, Nigel Effemey at Streamline Timber in Geelong to machine up the tongue and groove floor boards as the modern boards have a 'double frog' (grooves) in the bottoms that wouldn't look right.

Completed side panels back from sandblasting ready for paint and assembly.

Any little dents were straightened in the outer skin. It was then a simple matter of cutting the two inner sections were they overlapped and manipulating the lap joint so when welded together and ground down the welds would be flush. The edges were then hammered back over and redressed. I needed several clamps to get the corners tucked in tight to start with.

Hello Andy, I'm but the monkey, I'll let the organ grinder comment on this. John? Both sides are now complete with inner guards manufactured and welded in place. I will get them blasted for better paint adhesion. Chris has primed all the timber which has been glued and screwed together ready for fitting. In the meantime I assembled one of the doors.

I then drilled a series of 6 mm holes around the edge of the new top panel and plug welded it to the original inner panel. One down.

The inner wheel arches were salvaged from the original sides and sandblasted. On closer in inspection they were too dented and with too many rusted through areas. I could have reused them but considering the rest of the rear body will be all new and straight, these parts would have detracted from the finished look. I have decided to make new ones but after working out how to do it I decided I could re-use the inner panel which was easily straightened. The top panel I removed by grinding away the spot welds of the top panel to preserve the inner panel intact. I new top panel was formed up using angle irons and G clamps and working from my pedestal vice.