It has been well over a year since my last update!
I acquired this McEvoy in 2007 and have been slowly accumulating parts for it over the years. But now is the time to really press on with the restoration and get it back on the road. Over the past two weeks I have completely overhauled the front axle, with new pulley type kingpins, as well as all of the tracking. Now starting on the back axle. I have the chassis frame completely stripped and will be getting it in for blasting and powder coating shortly.
I have managed to gather all of the brake parts needed to return the car to its original cable brakes - it came with hydraulics.
The goal is to get the rolling chassis completed this summer and then frame up the original body on the chassis. Virtually all of the ash frame is perfectly sound, as is the steel skinning, except for a little rot in the bottom of the doors.
Meanwhile, I'm sorting the manufacture of a McEvoy remote for the four-speed gearbox.
In England in July I want to bring back all of the parts I'm going to need for the engine rebuild and get that in for rebuild in the autumn.
NV 2803 - 1933 McEvoy Special
Moderators: Ian Grace, Will Grace
Re: NV 2803 - 1933 McEvoy Special
Much progress to report over the last four weeks. I have spent hours cleaning up all of the rolling chassis components, fitting kingpins, brake backplate bushes, all new sealed bearings in the hubs, etc. I have several tubs of new parts, including all of the brakes parts, shackle pins, gaskets, etc.
The front axle beam is cleaned up and the stub axles trial fitted with the new pins - no serious issues. The biggest job so far has been cleaning up the back axle casing which has 90 years of paint, road dirt and grease on the outside and solidified oil inside. I also had to clean the insides of the ends to take the new cork seals. While cleaning it up, I found a 1/8" hole drilled in the top on one side. I'm not sure whether all back axles have this or if someone has drilled it. I have heard that without any vent, pressure can build up in the axle (due, presumably to things heating up when running) and this can push oil out into the brakes.
I also found stamped serial numbers on the casing and on the front axle beam, with the model code 74 also stamped on both, matching the code on the 4-speed gearbox. 74 is the model code for the 1933 season SWB Minors with 4-speed boxes.
On the downside, I found a broken leaf in one of the road springs, but I have a spare pair.
The next big job is to see if the fuel tank is solid enough to use. If not, I'll need to source a spare. I also need to make up a pair of tank straps, as the old ones were rusted through.
And in June, the chassis frame is going in for blasting and painting. If I can get everything else painted by then, I should be in a position to finally assemble the rolling chassis, at which point it should be worth posting some photos here!
The front axle beam is cleaned up and the stub axles trial fitted with the new pins - no serious issues. The biggest job so far has been cleaning up the back axle casing which has 90 years of paint, road dirt and grease on the outside and solidified oil inside. I also had to clean the insides of the ends to take the new cork seals. While cleaning it up, I found a 1/8" hole drilled in the top on one side. I'm not sure whether all back axles have this or if someone has drilled it. I have heard that without any vent, pressure can build up in the axle (due, presumably to things heating up when running) and this can push oil out into the brakes.
I also found stamped serial numbers on the casing and on the front axle beam, with the model code 74 also stamped on both, matching the code on the 4-speed gearbox. 74 is the model code for the 1933 season SWB Minors with 4-speed boxes.
On the downside, I found a broken leaf in one of the road springs, but I have a spare pair.
The next big job is to see if the fuel tank is solid enough to use. If not, I'll need to source a spare. I also need to make up a pair of tank straps, as the old ones were rusted through.
And in June, the chassis frame is going in for blasting and painting. If I can get everything else painted by then, I should be in a position to finally assemble the rolling chassis, at which point it should be worth posting some photos here!
Re: NV 2803 - 1933 McEvoy Special
I just published a piece on the McEvoy in the May Newsletter, so thought I might as well copy it here:
1933 McEvoy Special Morris Minor NV 2803 – The Story So Far
I first became aware of this car when in correspondence with the late Harry Edwards, historian of the Morris Register, back in 2006 when we were exchanging information on known surviving McEvoy and Jensen Minor specials. Harry sent me a list and on that list was a car I was unaware of – NV 2803. The owner, Simon Marriage, had joined the Morris Register many years before, which is how Harry had the data, but the subscription was not renewed the following year. - because the Morris Register never replied to Simon's enquiry! Harry didn’t know whether the car was a McEvoy or a Jensen – the only distinguishing factors being the McEvoy script on the radiator and, in the case of the Model 70 McEvoys, the tuned engine featuring a special McEvoy finned manifold fitted with a 1.25” downdraft carburetter and skimmed and polished head. (McEvoy Minors were bodied by Jensen Bros. to McEvoy’s design.) In this case, there was no sign of a radiator script and the engine had been lost by the owner at some point in the past. So it was impossible to determine whether this was a McEvoy or a Jensen. (At some point Jensen started offering their own Minor special, fitted with the McEvoy-designed body, but with no tuning.)
I visited the Ipswich workshop behind the High Street in the summer of 2006 to take a look at the car with Simon. He told me the history of the car, as far as he knew it. His father had bought the car for £6/10/- in 1938 from a chap outside a pub who wanted GBP 7/10/- for it, but also wanted a drink! It had been crashed into a tree. Simon’s father was an engineer and was also in the Home Guard during the War. The car was run by his father during the war, and fitted with a pair of Bren guns, so he could get recce petrol for it and it was used as a high speed defence vehicle along the Suffolk coast. The family moved in 1942 to Bristol, where Simon’s father took up a job with the Bristol Aeroplane Company but returned to Ipswich in 1946 where he bought and ran a garage. The car was run until 1956 and then pushed to the back of the workshop, where it remained for exactly fifty years until 2006. I carried out as much of an inspection of the car as I could while Simon searched the workshop for the engine – but without success. A deal was struck because even Jensen Specials are rare and interesting cars. I then returned to the USA to arrange collection and shipping.
A couple of months later, I heard from Simon again. He told me that he and his wife had visited an old family friend over in Stowmarket for dinner the previous week. Simon’s wife mentioned, in passing, to the friend, Eric Bauly, that her husband was selling the old Morris. Said Eric, “Oh, so he’ll be wanting the engine back, I suppose?” It turned out that Simon’s father had given Eric the engine many years ago for rebuild, but it had been completely forgotten! The upshot of this chance comment was that I called Eric from Seattle. It was dark in England when I called in March 2007. He told me that the engine was dismantled and stored under a workbench in a shed at the bottom of his garden. He was on a cordless phone and so he grabbed a torch and headed down the garden path.
“Can you see the engine?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see the manifold?”
“Wait. Yes, here it is.”
“Can you describe it to me?”
“Well, it’s a finned cast iron manifold, configured to take a downdraft carburetter.”
Eureka! It WAS a McEvoy! And a Model 70 at that.
Shortly after that, I shipped the car, along with the ex-Olive Willats fabric saloon that I had also bought and a Mirror dinghy I found on eBay, to Seattle. (The Mirror was bought so as not to waste the remaining 15 feet of the 40-foot container – better than paying to ship 15 feet of fresh air!)
But that was fourteen years ago. I completely dismantled the car for restoration while I set about finding the myriad parts I would need for the rebuild. The major task was the braking system. At some point in the distant past, the car had been fitted with hydraulic brakes but I wanted to revert it to original cable braking. It is surprising just how many parts comprise the Minor cable braking system, from the backplates and alloy shoes to the cables, pulleys and brackets and the correct pulley-type kingpins, not to mention the brake cross shaft. But eventually I found everything. I also gathered together shackle pins, kingpins, new sealed wheel bearings and a host of other parts. I had the original wooden dashboard restored by a local furniture restorer, I had the windscreen, Ashby steering wheel and downdraft carburetter restored, but progress was painfully slow, as time to work on it was hard to come by.
By the beginning of this year, I had several plastic tubs containing all of the new parts that will be needed to restore the rolling chassis and I came to realise that if I didn’t crack on with the restoration, it may never get done. So the last few months have been spent cleaning and fettling everything necessary to assemble the rolling chassis. Everything is now ready for paint except the chassis frame itself which is booked in next month for blasting and painting. My objective is to have the restored rolling chassis completed this summer, at which point I will re-mount the body which, fortunately, is in remarkably solid condition – except for the ply floor. There is a little rot in the steel at the bottom of the doors, but the all-important rear body tub steel covering is in near perfect condition and all of the ash is in perfect condition. The car also retains its original green upholstery and trim panels. The seats will require recovering but I think I can save the trim. It won’t be perfect, but it will be original.
Next will be the engine. I have gathered a few parts for it over the years, and plan to get everything else I’m going to need from Ian Harris at the Summer Rally in July. The block is going in to have its bores measured shortly, at which point I will know what oversize of pistons to order, and to be fitted after the rebore. As for the white metal bearings, it is fortunate that the early Model T and Model A Fords had Babbitt engine bearings (Babbitt is American for white metal - The Babbitt bearing was invented in 1839 by an American named Issac Babbitt), so there are companies Stateside that can undertake this work.
McEvoy offered two models of Minor special – the Model 60, which was a Jensen-bodied car with no tuning – just the McEvoy radiator script, and the Model 70 (reputedly good for 70 mph) which featured the downdraft carburetter, finned manifold and a skimmed and polished head. NV 2803 retains its original polished head, but needs a little work because the skimming done my McEvoy has left so little metal between the core plugs on the side of the head and the cylinder head surface that a small piece of the casting has broken away and will need specialist laser welding repair.
McEvoy offered his Minor specials on the 1932 and 1933 season chassis. As of today, two 1932 models are known to survive (the prototype RC 300 owned by Stuart Cooke, and VK 6158 owned by Sarah Gibson) and two 1933 models, one of which is NV 2803, the other being the ex-Bev Hicks, ex-Tony Dunster TJ 1876, currently owned by Etienne Tinant over in Belgium. Are there any more out there? Or perhaps a McEvoy-bodied M Type? (Yes, McEvoy also offered his special bodies to M Type owners.) The ultimate plan? Of course, once complete I will return the car to England – hopefully in the not too distant future!
1933 McEvoy Special Morris Minor NV 2803 – The Story So Far
I first became aware of this car when in correspondence with the late Harry Edwards, historian of the Morris Register, back in 2006 when we were exchanging information on known surviving McEvoy and Jensen Minor specials. Harry sent me a list and on that list was a car I was unaware of – NV 2803. The owner, Simon Marriage, had joined the Morris Register many years before, which is how Harry had the data, but the subscription was not renewed the following year. - because the Morris Register never replied to Simon's enquiry! Harry didn’t know whether the car was a McEvoy or a Jensen – the only distinguishing factors being the McEvoy script on the radiator and, in the case of the Model 70 McEvoys, the tuned engine featuring a special McEvoy finned manifold fitted with a 1.25” downdraft carburetter and skimmed and polished head. (McEvoy Minors were bodied by Jensen Bros. to McEvoy’s design.) In this case, there was no sign of a radiator script and the engine had been lost by the owner at some point in the past. So it was impossible to determine whether this was a McEvoy or a Jensen. (At some point Jensen started offering their own Minor special, fitted with the McEvoy-designed body, but with no tuning.)
I visited the Ipswich workshop behind the High Street in the summer of 2006 to take a look at the car with Simon. He told me the history of the car, as far as he knew it. His father had bought the car for £6/10/- in 1938 from a chap outside a pub who wanted GBP 7/10/- for it, but also wanted a drink! It had been crashed into a tree. Simon’s father was an engineer and was also in the Home Guard during the War. The car was run by his father during the war, and fitted with a pair of Bren guns, so he could get recce petrol for it and it was used as a high speed defence vehicle along the Suffolk coast. The family moved in 1942 to Bristol, where Simon’s father took up a job with the Bristol Aeroplane Company but returned to Ipswich in 1946 where he bought and ran a garage. The car was run until 1956 and then pushed to the back of the workshop, where it remained for exactly fifty years until 2006. I carried out as much of an inspection of the car as I could while Simon searched the workshop for the engine – but without success. A deal was struck because even Jensen Specials are rare and interesting cars. I then returned to the USA to arrange collection and shipping.
A couple of months later, I heard from Simon again. He told me that he and his wife had visited an old family friend over in Stowmarket for dinner the previous week. Simon’s wife mentioned, in passing, to the friend, Eric Bauly, that her husband was selling the old Morris. Said Eric, “Oh, so he’ll be wanting the engine back, I suppose?” It turned out that Simon’s father had given Eric the engine many years ago for rebuild, but it had been completely forgotten! The upshot of this chance comment was that I called Eric from Seattle. It was dark in England when I called in March 2007. He told me that the engine was dismantled and stored under a workbench in a shed at the bottom of his garden. He was on a cordless phone and so he grabbed a torch and headed down the garden path.
“Can you see the engine?”
“Yes.”
“Can you see the manifold?”
“Wait. Yes, here it is.”
“Can you describe it to me?”
“Well, it’s a finned cast iron manifold, configured to take a downdraft carburetter.”
Eureka! It WAS a McEvoy! And a Model 70 at that.
Shortly after that, I shipped the car, along with the ex-Olive Willats fabric saloon that I had also bought and a Mirror dinghy I found on eBay, to Seattle. (The Mirror was bought so as not to waste the remaining 15 feet of the 40-foot container – better than paying to ship 15 feet of fresh air!)
But that was fourteen years ago. I completely dismantled the car for restoration while I set about finding the myriad parts I would need for the rebuild. The major task was the braking system. At some point in the distant past, the car had been fitted with hydraulic brakes but I wanted to revert it to original cable braking. It is surprising just how many parts comprise the Minor cable braking system, from the backplates and alloy shoes to the cables, pulleys and brackets and the correct pulley-type kingpins, not to mention the brake cross shaft. But eventually I found everything. I also gathered together shackle pins, kingpins, new sealed wheel bearings and a host of other parts. I had the original wooden dashboard restored by a local furniture restorer, I had the windscreen, Ashby steering wheel and downdraft carburetter restored, but progress was painfully slow, as time to work on it was hard to come by.
By the beginning of this year, I had several plastic tubs containing all of the new parts that will be needed to restore the rolling chassis and I came to realise that if I didn’t crack on with the restoration, it may never get done. So the last few months have been spent cleaning and fettling everything necessary to assemble the rolling chassis. Everything is now ready for paint except the chassis frame itself which is booked in next month for blasting and painting. My objective is to have the restored rolling chassis completed this summer, at which point I will re-mount the body which, fortunately, is in remarkably solid condition – except for the ply floor. There is a little rot in the steel at the bottom of the doors, but the all-important rear body tub steel covering is in near perfect condition and all of the ash is in perfect condition. The car also retains its original green upholstery and trim panels. The seats will require recovering but I think I can save the trim. It won’t be perfect, but it will be original.
Next will be the engine. I have gathered a few parts for it over the years, and plan to get everything else I’m going to need from Ian Harris at the Summer Rally in July. The block is going in to have its bores measured shortly, at which point I will know what oversize of pistons to order, and to be fitted after the rebore. As for the white metal bearings, it is fortunate that the early Model T and Model A Fords had Babbitt engine bearings (Babbitt is American for white metal - The Babbitt bearing was invented in 1839 by an American named Issac Babbitt), so there are companies Stateside that can undertake this work.
McEvoy offered two models of Minor special – the Model 60, which was a Jensen-bodied car with no tuning – just the McEvoy radiator script, and the Model 70 (reputedly good for 70 mph) which featured the downdraft carburetter, finned manifold and a skimmed and polished head. NV 2803 retains its original polished head, but needs a little work because the skimming done my McEvoy has left so little metal between the core plugs on the side of the head and the cylinder head surface that a small piece of the casting has broken away and will need specialist laser welding repair.
McEvoy offered his Minor specials on the 1932 and 1933 season chassis. As of today, two 1932 models are known to survive (the prototype RC 300 owned by Stuart Cooke, and VK 6158 owned by Sarah Gibson) and two 1933 models, one of which is NV 2803, the other being the ex-Bev Hicks, ex-Tony Dunster TJ 1876, currently owned by Etienne Tinant over in Belgium. Are there any more out there? Or perhaps a McEvoy-bodied M Type? (Yes, McEvoy also offered his special bodies to M Type owners.) The ultimate plan? Of course, once complete I will return the car to England – hopefully in the not too distant future!
Re: NV 2803 - 1933 McEvoy Special
With the coming of the warmer weather, I've had a chance to pick up on the restoration. Right now I am concentrating on the engine. This has been stored, dismantled for decades so there's plenty of cleaning and removal of surface rust to get through.
I'm having the cylinder bores measured so I can order oversize pistons and have it bored. The camshaft has cleaned up perfectly and the general condition of everything looks sound. I will have the block professionally cleaned and take it from there. I have put in an initial order to Ian Harris for engine parts and right now, I'm rebuilding the DJ4 distributor.
I also want to get the chassis frame blasted and painted this year, and get it back on its wheels, so it will be mobile to ship back to the UK next year. And I want to build the new ply floor for it so I can mount the body back on the chassis, as it is currently fragile and not easy to transport off the chassis.
I'm still looking for a few items that I need, including the brake rod between the handbrake lever and the cross shaft, a pair of SV headlamp bowls and reflectors (I have the rims and fluted glasses), and I also need a nearside front wing support - standard Minor type. I have it, but it has been badly mangled.
There's still a vast amount of work to be done before it is driven again, but every job sorted is one step closer, and it feels good to be able to resurrect such a rare and special Minor.
I'm having the cylinder bores measured so I can order oversize pistons and have it bored. The camshaft has cleaned up perfectly and the general condition of everything looks sound. I will have the block professionally cleaned and take it from there. I have put in an initial order to Ian Harris for engine parts and right now, I'm rebuilding the DJ4 distributor.
I also want to get the chassis frame blasted and painted this year, and get it back on its wheels, so it will be mobile to ship back to the UK next year. And I want to build the new ply floor for it so I can mount the body back on the chassis, as it is currently fragile and not easy to transport off the chassis.
I'm still looking for a few items that I need, including the brake rod between the handbrake lever and the cross shaft, a pair of SV headlamp bowls and reflectors (I have the rims and fluted glasses), and I also need a nearside front wing support - standard Minor type. I have it, but it has been badly mangled.
There's still a vast amount of work to be done before it is driven again, but every job sorted is one step closer, and it feels good to be able to resurrect such a rare and special Minor.
Re: NV 2803 - 1933 McEvoy Special
So I decided to clean up the chassis frame myself, rather than having it blasted. It was a LOT more work, but gave me the chance to closely inspect every inch of it for damage or potential issues - there were none. There is slight wear in the spring hangers, but nothing that merits boring and bushing them.
After three long days of cleaning down to bare metal, I primed it with good rust-killing primer and now it is ready for the gloss black finish coat. Meanwhile, I will be priming and painting all of the running gear, which I cleaned to bare metal earlier. At that point, the rolling chassis will be ready for assembly.
Dave Schild in Australia has kindly made up a stainless steering column tube for me, as well as a new rear chassis cross tube, as the original was bent and badly worn around the fuel tank hangers. The tank hangers will be re-made with new straps riveted to the original threaded ends.
I also cleaned up the fuel tank, which looked almost scrap, but surprisingly, under all the dirt and grime, it came up almost like new, and there's very little interior corrosion. The sender is also in near perfect condition, but three of the six setscrews that secure it into the top of the tank sheered off, so there will be some judicious drilling and tapping required.
Once the chassis is rolling again, the major task of sorting the body tub will begin.
After three long days of cleaning down to bare metal, I primed it with good rust-killing primer and now it is ready for the gloss black finish coat. Meanwhile, I will be priming and painting all of the running gear, which I cleaned to bare metal earlier. At that point, the rolling chassis will be ready for assembly.
Dave Schild in Australia has kindly made up a stainless steering column tube for me, as well as a new rear chassis cross tube, as the original was bent and badly worn around the fuel tank hangers. The tank hangers will be re-made with new straps riveted to the original threaded ends.
I also cleaned up the fuel tank, which looked almost scrap, but surprisingly, under all the dirt and grime, it came up almost like new, and there's very little interior corrosion. The sender is also in near perfect condition, but three of the six setscrews that secure it into the top of the tank sheered off, so there will be some judicious drilling and tapping required.
Once the chassis is rolling again, the major task of sorting the body tub will begin.
Re: NV 2803 - 1933 McEvoy Special
Quick update.
The car is now a rolling chassis again. All done except the wheels and fitting new Hartfords.
I have also collected the cylinder block and head from Autosport in Seattle. They have magnafluxed the block (no cracks), rebored it, skimmed the gasket face and re-cut the valve seats and fitted new valve guides. The head has been skimmed after welding.
The next task is to fit the bell housing and front engine bearers so I can drop the basic engine into the chassis ready for containering and shipping back to England in the spring.
I have also stripped the old steel panels off the scuttle and re-mounted it on the chassis, and also dropped the rear half of the body onto the chassis. I have made new ash sills. All this to make shipping of the body far simpler as it now sits on the rolling chassis.
The car is now a rolling chassis again. All done except the wheels and fitting new Hartfords.
I have also collected the cylinder block and head from Autosport in Seattle. They have magnafluxed the block (no cracks), rebored it, skimmed the gasket face and re-cut the valve seats and fitted new valve guides. The head has been skimmed after welding.
The next task is to fit the bell housing and front engine bearers so I can drop the basic engine into the chassis ready for containering and shipping back to England in the spring.
I have also stripped the old steel panels off the scuttle and re-mounted it on the chassis, and also dropped the rear half of the body onto the chassis. I have made new ash sills. All this to make shipping of the body far simpler as it now sits on the rolling chassis.