Well February has been and gone and as with every other deadline with this project, we didn’t quite meet expectations, but there has still been a lot of progress.
Today the interior marked pretty much what I would call completion. With the exception of the trim beneath the rear seat, all the trim has been fitted. Sound deadening has been installed and carpets are in. The seats are all bolted in, door cards fitted, and pillar trims fitted.
Over the last several posts, the trauma of fitting the hood lining has been fully detailed. The new hood lining arrived from England just before Christmas. Everything was carefully measured, the lining laid out and the bows and front timber panel transplanted from the old to the new. This time it was pretty much in and done within an hour. Its amazing how much difference that extra inch of length made!. The only small disaster was one of the rear window hooks snapping off as we tentioned the rear hood wires. On consideration it was thought that the mounting of the rear window rubbers would hide the slightly different contour of the lining around the window which proved to be correct.
This brings me to the window installations. We had a professional come in to do this and thank goodness. Under no circumstances would I suggest you do your own.. We had several front and rear glasses to chose from so selected the ones with the least scratches. I had ordered new rubbers for both front and back which arrived with the other items prior to Christmas. The front window went if fairly seamlessly in about half an hour, then the plastic chrome locking strip had to be inserted. I commend the patience of the installer. Due to the tight fit, this process took over an hour, and unfortunately a portion of the Chrome finishing failed and peeled off in one section, but at least it was in. Now the rear window. The rear window was offered up and pushed, and nudged, and hit, and sworn at but there was absolutely no way it was going to fit into the opening. After about an hour I could see the installer reaching the “I really don’t know what to do” stage. It was at this point we got another one of the glasses out and compared the two. Same number stamp on the glass so they should be exactly the same. We laid the two glasses over each other …and they weren’t the same. The one we were trying to install was about 5mm wider than the other. So we fitted the rubber to this alternate glass, offered it up to the opening and with a bit of a suction sound it pushed into place with one shove. Another half an hour and it was in. Another case of no two morris’ being the same in any way.
So on we continued, wheels were sandblasted then primed and sprayed in Old English White. The 155 x 14″ tyres arrived and were fitted then installed on the car. This showed us two things. One was that the front drivers side torsion bar needed a little more adjustment upwards, and two that a 155 tyre is just wide enough to stop the wheel fitting into the spare wheel compartment above the petrol tank. A 145 tyre will be ordered and fitted once the car is registered. Until then the spare can sit on the shelf in the boot (trunk for Americans).
A day was spent doing the final wiring, with headlamps, LED indicators, horn, stop lamps, side lamps all wired and tested. The stop lamps did not work first up, nor did the horn. Doing a bit of bypass wiring I found that the horn was working fine if connected directly across the battery. I traced it back to a voltage drop across the fuse in the fuse holder. These were original fuses. I had purchased a couple of new fuses so I fitted them, cleaning up the fuse housing at the same time. Low and behold the horn and the stop lamps all started working. Lastly the wiper was wired.
So that brings us up to date. Left to do before registration is :Fit the rear winding window dust felts (glue in). Fit the door seal around all four door openings. Recondition and fit two trafficators. Wire interior lamp to dash switch. Fit after market Oil Pressure /Temp gauge. Trim the front drivers side suspension. Change over fresh fuel and tune. That’s about it. The list is literally down to half a dozen item. The next post should be a registered car!