Morgans Exocet build thread

[themorgster]

I looked around for a while for a very specific donor (6 speed, Torsen & 1.8), put in an opening bid on an eBay auction and was surprised to win it.

I did a little research and decided an Icon, 10th anniversary or a Sport was the way to go. I picked up a 2000 Icon with 95k on the clock, and 10 months MoT for £700 in early Feb’18.



I wanted an Mot for 2 reasons: 1) to drive it home, work out how it ran etc & 2) better chance of it being mechanically sound (that didn’t work out so good!)

1 month later and I have mostly stripped it and sold a few parts - to my surprise, I have made £700 back already! The biggest surprise was the £165 I got for the wooden Nardi steering wheel. I was lucky, apparently the Icon was quite well equipped and came with (rare?) beige leather... I got £70 for just the tonneau cover!

Mechanically, it smokes like Churchill, leaks like a sieve, almost all of the bushes are shot and the rust on the suspension is on a par with the Titanic!

I’m planning on rebuilding the head anyway, so the stem seals will get replaced (I’m hoping that’s the issue). I also have a blasting cabinet, so I’m hoping the suspension will clean up - not decided on paint or powder coat yet. Got a cheap (£30) used steam cleaner off eBay, which I’m hoping is going to help with a very oily engine.

I’ve already put an order in with Summit Racing Equipment (in the US) for a full set of Energy bushes (I can’t run to £700 for power flex bushes).

www.summitracing.com/parts/ENS-11-18102R

I’ve also got a chain hoist, ready for the shell lift and getting the engine on the stand. It’s looking a little sorry for itself now...

[themorgster]

All but the dash is now stripped, getting ready to lift the body off the skate and see what I’m dealing with!

[themorgster]

Got the energy bush kit (11.18102) from the US today and have rigged up the lifting gear to get the body off. Just need to wait until the temperature creeps above freezing so I can spend a big more time on the garage! Running total on parts sold is now £930 (£700 car purchase price). I also plan to tap some grease nipples into the suspension arms so I can re-grease the bushes in situ.

[garman]

I envy your hoist points. I should have done more research on how to remove the body from the PPF when I removed mine. Congrats on the sale of parts!

[sheffjohn]

Mar 21, 2018 20:56:00 GMT garman said:

I envy your hoist points. I should have done more research on how to remove the body from the PPF when I removed mine. Congrats on the sale of parts!

Ditto! That's a super nice setup for the lift

[themorgster]

Mar 22, 2018 17:03:59 GMT sheffjohn said:

Mar 21, 2018 20:56:00 GMT garman said:

I envy your hoist points. I should have done more research on how to remove the body from the PPF when I removed mine. Congrats on the sale of parts!

Ditto! That's a super nice setup for the lift

I’m mainly doing this with my 8 year old boy so need to essentially do the lift on my own. I found some lifting eyes that fit the bolt holes on eBay and also bought some “serious” D-shackles and lifting straps, which will get reused when I lift out the engine/gearbox.

[themorgster]

Removed the dashboard, pedals, steering column, brake servo & abs module ready to lift the shell at some point soon.



I also bought a non-abs master cylinder & proportioning valve to convert the car to non-abs, although looking at the loom, I’m starting to question my resolve! I’m hoping the ecu doesn’t need the ABS unit or airbag sensor to run the engine.



250kg of shell seems like a lot to move around the garage on my own so I built a dolly out of an old pallet and some heavy duty swivel wheels. The plan is to lift the shell (suspended by the rafters of my garage) roll the skate out onto the drive, drop the shell on the dolly and then push it sideways into the other half of the garage. The skate can then be rolled back to its original position. The misses has told me in no uncertain terms that nothing “scrappy” to to be placed on the drive!

[mikeeyboy]

You can definitely swap the abs for none abs brake master cylinder.

I did in on mine and it is what most people do.

Removing the airbag is the same although I'm not sure whether it will throw a warning light. I fitted a digital dash so the warning light issue never came up.

[p5curly]

We have swapped the abs servo to a non abs one and using the original clocks we have a warning light issue

[themorgster]

Working from home today so spent my lunch hour lifting the body. I took most of the bolts out last night so it didn’t take long. Aside from missing a back box hanger and not unbolting the column from the rack, it was very straightforward. My lift setup came into its own and I managed perfect “floating body” balance!


I pushed the skate onto the drive and dropped the old body onto the pallet-dolly I made.




That’s enough for today.

[garman]

Congrats!!

[themorgster]

It all just about fits in the garage...

[themorgster]

There is sooooo much rust on everything, but I happen to have a sand blasting cabinet (inherited from my dad). It was rigged up with a woefully underpowered Clarke Jumbo Air (0.5hp, 3.5 cfm), so I have bought a 2nd hand, 3 phase, 3hp 14cfm compressor with a 100L tank, that should shift the rust... I pick it up tomorrow. I’m now seriously considering investing in an air wrench, but funds are running low! Maybe I should start up a small blasting enterprise...

[hammy3601]

Good work mate, not sure there's much money in blasting though. The guys I used were sooooo ridiculously cheap and absolutely brilliant service

[themorgster]

Got the compressor today. The guy threw a load of air tools in, happy days! Best £130 spent so far, should save hours of manual rusty bolt action.