Brad King | January 7, 2015 

Special thanks to author Brad King and Frank Wnek, editor of The Morganeer, the Journal of the 3/4 Morgan Group, Ltd. for allowing us to reproduce this article.

THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE WING(S)

Where was I? Oh yes, sobbing quietly to myself at the sight of Molly’s bare bones in the garage. I have done so out of sight of the Mem’sahib, as the English way is to present a stiff upper lip at all times and to exude confidence in the face of overwhelming odds. Think of Flynn and Niven in their hilltop fort in The Charge of the Light Brigade or the British Infantry squares in Waterloo and you’ll get the idea.

Jay, my wonderful neighbor, has a 16 foot enclosed trailer and he is a long-distance lorry driver -and a mechanic. He offers to take me to Maine to pick up Molly who is finally ready in her new paint. So far so good.

For the past months I have been scraping, cleaning, painting any bits of car I can see and have had the bulkhead repaired and painted good old Ford Vermillion. I am anxious that the formula given to the local painter matches the formula from the one in Maine.

I have labeled and stored parts in four cardboard boxes in the garage and not thrown one thing away. Being a museum guy I have done an inventory check and everything is bagged or labeled. My inner geek sets me off to re-box the bits into some sort of “conveyor belt” system of replacement. Hopefully it is all there. Finding it when needed will be the trick.

I have bought stainless screws and bolts plus any auxiliary part I can think of, ready for the Great Day. And it has come. Jay and I start off early at 0-dark thirty and his confidence behind the wheel and talkative nature is at odds with the time of day and my lack of consciousness. Nevertheless we arrive in Maine at Brad Carter’s, meet Frank Wnek, Morganeer extraordinaire, load up, break bread for lunch and before I know it we are on our way back, Molly secured safe, snug and screwed to the floor (ah! the beauty of an ash frame!) in the back. We arrive home safely after a long day. Molly sniffs her old stall and trots right in.

Jay has lent me some massive jacks and the chassis is at a comfortable working height. The chassis is painted and new varnished, marine-ply floor boards are in, but I have left the front ones unbolted as there will be a lot of jiggery-pokery to be done when I put the bulkhead back in. This is essential as my scrabbling about days are well and truly over. I cannot take short cuts anymore – not since that incident when the Fire Brigade…well, that’s another story.

What about the body tub though? I have extravagant plans in my head for a trellis system made out of sawhorse components to get the body fitted out and ready to be installed. I explain to Jay who looks at me in pity. “Just hang it from the rafters.” he says. Doh! Or is that DUH!? So simple, so effective. So there she is, the daring young Molly on the flying trapeze suspended over the chassis. Harbor Freight car dollies mean I can scoot the chassis out of the way single-handed, and this done I can start to work.

With the tub suspended at shoulder height, putting in the new rear part of the wiring loom (called a harness here) is a breeze, although every time the Mem’sahib comes in with a mug of tea there is a snigger at my LED headlamp arrangement. Oh! how we suffer for our craft.

Dave at Ace Hardware (yes, truly the ‘helpful hardware man’) has sorted out the bolts I need up to now, as has Linda Eckler and Steve at the Temple of the Almighty Morgan in Copake. In fact Linda has been great, not sighing once or pretending to be a Chinese take-away when I ring and start every conversation with vague, ignorant enquiries like “Hi Linda, it’s Brad. You know that black rubber thingy on the door…”

In the meantime I have loosely placed the bulkhead back in position to find only two of the holes line up. Go figure. The bolts are too short to pull down the bulkhead and I’m off again to Ace Hardware. Dave obliges.

Larry Sheehan foolishly said he could “give me some time” to put the body back on.

He duly arrives, but with a sad air about him as no air tools are in evidence – but he is the first to advise against them on reassembly. We bring down the body on the straps and slide it in. Mating the tub to chassis, as they say. Easy-peasy. And then the God of Morgan intervenes. Right side line up? Perfect. Left side? All over the place. “How could this BE?” I exclaim. “It’s a Morgan” Larry nonchalantly replies. Small children and ladies are banned at this point.

None of the holes line up without the strain of pushing the body rail forward to a seemingly impossible degree. Borrowing a trick from Frank’s book I slip a bolt in quickly with a persuader. It’s too short and I head off to Ace (again). Dave obliges.

I can’t get the UK “damp course” material used between the body and chassis, so I use that plastic roofing membrane and it is a perfect replacement. ‘B*%^#- a – thane I believe Frank calls it (due to its tendency to fold over and stick to itself – or you).

The bulkhead has been a PITA and I have taken Frank’s advice and walked away on many occasions. Now the body is in, some order has come to the job and I have had to re-drill some holes. I have no idea what has gone wrong here. The bulkhead is buttoned up (I have previously installed the wiring loom on the bench). Frank, ‘Dr. Destructo’, labeled the old harness as we took the car apart and I have transferred the labels over to the new harness. The tension on the body bolts and bulkhead seems so great that I am waiting for a huge explosion of bolts as the car pings apart like a stripper’s corset in a speakeasy. Amazingly, Molly seems to adjust to her new ‘tack’.

Larry has been fed and watered and is on his way with thanks as always. I now start attaching the floor boards a final time. Given the variations in the chassis some bolts are too short of course. “I’m just going to Ace dear”. Dave obliges.

Now it’s time for the wings and there is only one course of action. Time to call the Wingmen. Larry, Frank and Bill ‘Inspector Gadget’ Gartland duly arrive. The teams are picked and they roll up their sleeves. Frank is at the back end left side. Me at the front. Larry and Bill tackle the right and it suddenly goes quiet. I seem to be tool gopher. Larry’s advice on using long-nose lock pliers is genius and allows bolt and nut tightening one handed. His reasoning is that as the pliers turn “They’ve got to hit something.” They do and it works.