Morgan car factory visit

I just found these photos from a great tour of the Morgan car factory last year, hope you enjoy them as much as I did the tour. Looking down on the back wheel of the new 3 wheeler.

and from the front, can't beat a big V twin engine.

 I quite liked the WW11 fighter style paintjob

 parked outside was Charles Morgan's personal aero 8

 We started the tour with a walk through the museum to give us a taste of the history of the company, set up by Charles Morgan's Grandfather in 1910

Then into the first workshops where they put together chassis and engine.

 Next the bodywork shop, lots of handwork here, just like it used to be done.

 Bodywork is still all supported on ash frames, is this the 21st century?

 These guys were using the lovely fly press to put the vents into a bonnet.

 The finished bonnet

 bodywork fitted to chassis

 cutting out and fitting body panels by hand.

into the woodwork shop 

 Finishing a dashboard with a spokeshave

 These are laminated wheel arches/mudguards

 and the clamp for laminating them.

 lots of handwork on finishing

 into the spray booth, all by hand of course, not a robot in sight.

now our tour gets to the fitting room where all the leather and upholstery is added.

 again everything is made from scratch in this room and skilfully tweaked to fit by hand.

 fitting seat belts and steering wheels.

 apprentice work, a final polish.

 I would love to own one. Our vicar used to race a supercharged Morgan and has a lovely original 3 wheeler which I have driven, it was surprisingly swift and agile for a 80 year old car and everywhere you go in one people grin and wave.

and if you can't afford a Morgan how about buying a raffle ticket with a chance to win one whilst also supporting a great charity? Morgan donated a 3 wheeler to the Horse Loggers Trust get your tix here

the boat that didn't float

After our replica bronze ago boat failed to float on it's maiden dipping we had to tow it round to the waiting crowds and assembled press on a trailer where there were speeches and a bottle of bubbly cracked over her. She was named Ole Crumlin-Pederson after the archaeologist/shipbuilder who gave much advice and inspiration for the project but sadly passed away before completion.

 The pics that appeared in the press showed her from a very unflattering angle so I wanted to share some more images taken the next day when I went to say my sad farewells before heading home.

Rachel had a thing about not getting inside the boat until launch day and having missed that she sat inside for the first time.

We will be back and we will have her on the water, but we are out of time to do so before she has to be got ready for her museum tour so we have a reunion to look forward to in 18 months time.

Dover boat launch day, end of 3 months work

After 3 months work May 12th was scheduled launch day for our replica bronze age boat. We had been working flat out just to get the thing together in time and had no time to test if it was waterproof and make adjustments as planned. We had a relaxed start for the first time in 2 weeks, if 8.30 after 5am bed is relaxed. There were a few bits of lath left to fix and lots of wedges to cut off, diagonal bracing to cut and fit and lots of other minor jobs we had not thought of.

I was flat out working again so never got to do interview with the rather pretty Ros.

 Mastic in hand maybe should have used a few more tubes.

Keith who found the original boat in 1992 came to lend a hand.

 Then Richard watched by Pete Clark pushed the boat off the building platform.

Richard with wife Lee and his boat, I can not tell you what a pleasure and an honour it was to work with this wonderfully humble man and help him realise his dream.

 Tony Robinson had changed his hectic schedule to stay over for the launch.

Then suddenly it was away

Hotly pursued by Tony and crew.

 through the market square

and away

 Whilst everyone else followed allong we were left with a rather sad empty tent full of tools to clear up and lock away before dashing down to try to catch the launch.
We were just in time to get a pic before they started to lower it in.

 Then a dash round the other side there was something wrong

 she was taking on water and had to be lifted back out......I was gutted, it felt like reaching the FA cup final after monumental effort only to loose in injury time. I got a big hug from Tony Robinson who could feel our pain. It was always going to be a difficult brief to build a boat that can float one day then take apart to get into a museum a few weeks later on a very tight time schedule and we came very very close.

Here is an index for all blog posts on the Dover boat project
bronze-age-woodworking-adzes-and-axes
more-bronze-age-woodworking
bronze-age-boat-building-pictures
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-2
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-3
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-4
bronze-age-boatbuilding-part-5
bronze-age-woodworking-tools-early thoughts
building-bronze-age-dover-boat-part-6
building-bronze-age-dover-boat-part-7
boat-building-steaming-timbers
filming-with-time-team
more-bronze-age-boatbuilding.
casting-bronze-axes-and-adzes
more-bronze-age-boatbuilding.
20-hour-woodworking-marathon
woodworking-marathon-continued-just 18 hours to go.
dover-boat-launch-day-end-of-3-months work.
the boat-that-didnt-float.