KR 5670

[mike houston]

Ian,
Great pictures, and what a superb guide to originality. I can see the dilemma you are in re. restoration/repair, but I am sure that you are going down the right path. Keep the pictures coming,
Regards, Mike.

[Highlander]

Ian, Wonderful photographs. You have got something special here. To start with this should not be a 'Halbe' restoration - no offence here Halbe I am sure you understand - This is a time capsule. The seats are not leather but I am sure they will clean up but what do you do to keep them 'like new'? Something like shoe polish? The headlining? Leave that to last and see!!! The outside fabric as I mentioned washing with soap and water will clean it up but what then? Would shoe polish help? The dash board will clean up as will the instruments and the steering wheel and horn rim. I wish I was nearer I would love to help. What are Ken's and Paul (remember him) thoughts. All the best, Highlander.

[Ian Grace]

I started to clean the mustard-coloured superstructure last night. As I mentioned, someone had wiped it over and left black smear patterns all over it which have ingrained themselves into the paint. After experimenting, I found I could remove 95% of the smears and only a very little paint by carefully rubbing with Brasso. It has just the right abrasive quality and unlike Solvol is a liquied, so is kinder to the underlying paint. It will take many hours of very careful work - a bit like cleaning an old master - but the result will be well worthwhile. I also cleaned up the radiator shell and part of the front bumper - they came up like new. With hours of very careful cleaning, I think she is going to look quite presentable.

I did run into one problem - the radiator cap would NOT shift. I was worried that if I applied any more torque to it I was going to break the calormeter off. I carefully went round the cap with WD40, and a couple of hours later, I managed to free it. As I unscrewed it, I noticed that the thread felt silky smooth - like no other radiator cap I have had before. The calormeter is missing its wings and also the side lamps are missing. Question - should I source said items and refit them, or leave it as it was in the sixties? Similarly, the coil and horn are not original. My thinking is that I should replace, but not with fresh-painted items. And I should also check to see what happened to the original sidelamp wiring, as I don't want to install any modern shiny plastic wire. Boy, this does get complicated!

[Highlander]

Looking back to page one of this 'blogg' and seeing again the wonderful photographs of Goodwood in 1960s I would 'restore' to that condition and leave the wings off the callometer. Side lights are easy to get. Wish you luck and I wish I could help. Highlander.

[Ian Grace]

I think you are right Alister. Looking again at that photo of the car at Brooklands, it really was a nearly new car at that time, and hasn't done many miles since.

I sat in it for the first time last night. It was dark inside the car inside the garage, so I did everything by feel. It is immediately noticeable that there is no wear in anything and everything feels brand new - the gear change is precise and tight, with an crisp 'snick-snick' when changing gear. The handbrake lever has absolutely no side play or other free play in it's mechanism, and when you apply the brake, you can feel that the ratchet is unworn. There is minimal play in the steering. Even the window cams feel unused.

This car is changing the way I want to approach the restoration of the McEvoy. I will concentrate much more on removing wear from moving parts and controls, to try to make it feel more like a new car - not just make it look like a new car.

[Highlander]

Ian, Your last paragraph says it all - To Paul and I (and many others) just what the old car movement is all about. Here endeth the first lesson. Rev. Highlander.

[Ronald]

Ian, re the fabric, I personally wouldn't touch it with shoe/boot polish, whilst that would work on leather, the vinyl won't absorb anything from it like the leather would, I'm pretty sure it would just end up smeary....... I would use a purpose made modern vinyl cleaner on a hidden area to see what the effect might be, I would hope that it might bring back some of the original colour............!

One other thing to note is that the seat springs will now be old, and if they've not had much use, I suspect that they will quickly settle/sink with use, this might be the area where in time a 'light restoration' might be required.......... also dare I mention it, the headlining looks awful..... to me anyway!

[Ian Grace]

Ronald,

Thanks for reminding me - I meant to mention the seats. When I sat in it last night, the driver's seat springs felt very fragile - the seat squashed a little too easily and there was a chorus of squeaks as the springs complained - and I'm not that heavy! I think the seat base covers are tacked onto 1/2" ply bases, so it should be possible to ease them off and fit new spring units while retaining the original covers. Do you know of anyone who is making spring units for our cars? The last ones I bought came from a certain R Hogg, Master Upholsterer in Dorset somewhere. I should perhaps try sourcing this side of the pond this time.

Yes, the headlining is a bit sad - you often find this with second-hand cars! I'm hoping I can discretely pint things roughly back in place. A related challenge is the rear window which has crazed and yellowed significantly. I need to check to see if I can remove the glass and replace it without disturbing the surrounding lining too much.

I am looking forward to showing it to Heather when she visits VMR HQ in July.

[Ian Grace]

Just managed to find an hour or so to get started on the re-commissioning. The first job is to fit the new Blockely tyres, because the car is immobile on four flat, uninflatable tyres, so I can't roll it outside to get at it more easily. I took the nearside front off and removed the brake drum - all seems fine - no detectable movement in the bearings or kingpin. The 180 degree cables are in place, but I will remove the pulleys to check for wear and generally lubricate. I'll take all four wheels, one at a time to the tyre shop and have the new tyres fitted. Some of the spokes have surface rust, but all appear sound.

I then turned my attention to the carb. I can confirm that an M9 needle is fitted, and it is highly likely that this is the original needle.

I'm getting through copious quantities of WD40 as I wipe everything down, and I'm being very careful not to over clean anything, or polish anything that wasn't originally polished.

One odd thing was found. The firewall appears to be hand painted with gray paint - even behind the engine, and was evidently painted before it was bolted to the scuttle dash. I am as certain as I can be that the engine hasn't been out of the car, so can this be an original finish? Is it possible that Maltby's did this when they received the chassis from Cowley? One thing is certain - this won't be the last mystery that emerges as I delve deeper into this enigmatic car.

[rmburnett]

Ian: I was very interested to read about the column control unit. I was always fascinated, and puzzled, by the headlights on my car (1931 MG M Coupe). These are larger than on most M tourers and have separate inner reflectors (like that on one of your lamps) connected to a small piston in a cylinder. I assumed that they were vacuum-activated but, since the reflectors do not move very easily, could not see how such a small cylinder could generate enough force to move them reliably. Moreover, there is no trace of vacuum equipment on my car. Mine also has a steering column-mounted stalk with a "dip" switch (and horn button) that activates one headlamp. When I bought the car in 1960, the near-side headlamp was simply switched off (I have since discovered that it was the off-side lamp that was originally switched; presumably leading to the quick discovery that this is not safe!). I assumed until recently that the movable reflectors were never functional and were perhaps only present because the MG factory were using up some surplus ones (as was their practice).

In 2009, I met Tom Rollason (Coasting Ltd.) at the Vintage Minor Register Summer Rally. An expert on lamps, he pointed out a flaw in my reasoning by telling me that movable reflectors can indeed work if they are very well-balanced (whatever this means). He found it odd that my 1931 car had a stalk switch as he thought that these were introduced later. He surmised that the movable reflectors may have been original equipment but that they were not very reliable and so were replaced by the stalk switch method when it became available. He was puzzled though by the presence of two lamps with movable reflectors. Since our conversation, I have learned that similar stalks were used on 1934 Morris Minor cars, but they may have been available earlier.

Ken writes that his MM has a similar controller. Could you both look at your dipping reflectors and report back on what you find? Can anyone else cast light on this matter?

[Simon]

I think that I may be able to throw some light on this car. In Tubbs profile book on Wolseley Hornets it says that the earliest Hornets had the SWB Minor fabric body and to distinguish them from the Minor the top half of the body was cream with the bottom half black. As far as I can determine no fabric bodied Minors were ever cream or two tone.

How about Maltbys being asked to rebody an early Hornet (if no chassis only were available then) with a Maltby body then they would be left with a Minor body. Solution order a Minor chassis and fit the body to it, a simple job and stick a Maltby threshold plate to it .

Question? Does KR5670 have a Minor body number or a Hornet one, if they were given numbers.

[Ian Grace]

Interesting. I have a longstanding question that so far no Minorist or Horteeer has been able to answer. The Hornet chassis was LWB, and since the width at the axles had to be the same, then the angle between the two side rails was closer to parallel on the Hornet chassis than the SWB Minor chassis. This means that the two main ash sill rails would have to be more nearly parallel in the hornet body than is the case for the Minor body, so they should not be interchangeable, and the Hornet body numbers I have been quoted don't match anythign I have on Minor saloon body numbers.

The Hornet and Minor salon bodies may be virtually identical but cannot be exactly so - and so I think Tubbs was mistaken in this detail, although generally correct - unless you are in the arcane business of swapping bodies between Minors and Hornets.

[Simon]

Were early Hornets available in chassis form, you might like to check with Gaydon, if not where did the specialist coach builders (Patrick and others) get their chassis from. I will check with my list of Hornet Specials whether Maltbys actually bodied any Hornets.

Is the body number on KR5670 a Minor one ?

[Ian Grace]

I had an interesting chat with Simon Hodgins yesterday regarding the ongoing mystery surrounding KR 5670 - that it left the works as a chassis but appears to have a standard Minor fabric saloon body on it.

One theory - and the best I have heard so far is that the body is, in fact, off a Hornet saloon. We know that most (if not all?) of the early (OHC) Hornet saloons (both steel with folding head and fabric) had two-tone coachwork - to distinguish them from Minors. Here are a couple images from the contemporary press:

The theory is that someone took a Hornet saloon to Maltbys and wanted an open body fitted. So he offered the saloon body as part payment. This left Maltbys with a spare body, so they ordered a chassis from Cowley and fitted the body on that.





The only problem I have with this is that the angle of the chassis rails on the LWB chassis would be less than on the LWB chassis, remembering that the inside edges of the main sill timbers fit more or less exactly over the inside edges of the chassis rails. So I did some calcuations which show the difference in chassis rail angle between the SWB and LWB chassis is about half a degree. That doesn't sound much, but it represents about half an inch difference each side at the front of the body compared to the rear end over the rear axle. This would be very obvious, but I have crawled under the car, and the timbers are indeed sitting perfectly on the chassis rails...

[Simon]

Well they would do wouldn't they (famous misquote) if the Hornet body was in fact the same as a Minor one. A volunteer is now needed to crawl under a Hornet saloon to see if the main sill timbers do line up the chassis rail. One volunteer is worth ten pressed men.