A day out for woodworkers

[Woodchips2]

I recently had a tour of the Morgan Motor Company factory in Malvern, Worcestershire and can recommend it if you are interested in seeing traditional ways of turning metal and wood into highly desirable motorcars made in Britain.

The guided tour takes around 2 hours and needs to be booked in advance http://www.morgan-motor.co.uk/mmc/factoryvisits.html. Charge for adults £12.50 and children £7.50. Our tour guide was Mike the archivist who is in charge of the museum and has restored four cars of his own.

Morgan produces about 5 cars a day from a workforce of 190 and not a robot in sight. They still take on apprentices and the majority are offered a job at the end of the apprenticeship that will last until they want to retire. You get the impression going around the factory that people are enjoying their work and getting a great deal of job satisfaction.

For woodworkers the woodwork shop is fascinating. Much of the car is made from Ash. I imagined they would steam-bend but it is all thin laminated strips glued together around formers that haven't changed for 100 years. They also vacuum-form items like seat bases to complex forms.

Panel beating shop is amazing watching a craftsman hand-making a complex bonnet and then fitting it to the car trimming to size with tin snips.

Marvel at the skill in the trim shop where they are making and fitting the leather trim and canvas hoods. Somebody had ordered an orange car with orange leather upholstery!

Recently Morgan has reintroduced the three wheeler. They anticipated demand for 200 units in the first year and orders exceeded 1000. From April you will be able to hire a three wheeler for the day.

We all came away with a piece of a Morgan, an Ash offcut that will be the closest I get to own a Morgan except in my dreams!

A different day out but one I think I will repeat.

Keith

 

[No skills]

That sounds very interesting, wonder if my dad might go.

Cheers.

 

[gregmcateer]

Thanks for that - sounds like a worthwhile one.
Greg

 

[devonwoody]

Sounds interesting.

I went to the Porche museum in Austria some years ago and there were many wooden displays at that exhibition as well which was very interesting.

I posted pictures here at the time.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Keith, many thanks for posting that.

I've visited Malvern on many occasions, and walked the ridge looking down on the plant, wondering how they are put together (pointing bits out to the kids just got, "Shut up Dad, it's cold!".

I love manufacturing (sounds weird, probably, but hey), and Morgans, and have a birthday coming up, too...

Cheers,

E.

 

[Woodchips2]

Keith, many thanks for posting that.

I've visited Malvern on many occasions, and walked the ridge looking down on the plant, wondering how they are put together (pointing bits out to the kids just got, "Shut up Dad, it's cold!".

I love manufacturing (sounds weird, probably, but hey), and Morgans, and have a birthday coming up, too...

Cheers,

E.

Thanks Eric, I too love manufacturing but it seems to be disappearing from this country.

Maybe you could ask for one of these for your birthday :lol:

Here is a photo of the chassis shop where one engineer is responsible for the total mechanical and electrical fit.

A photo of the panel beating shop. This craftsman is making bonnets.

The battery on my digital camera expired before I got to the woodwork shop so that will be for next time.

Regards Keith

 

[dickm]

We used to live in Cranfield (Bedfordshire) which had a specialist Morgan garage (Allon White). They used to rebuild their cars to factory standard - sometimes I suspected they probably rebuilt nearly as many per month as the factory turned out new. No idea if they are still there but well worth a visit if you are anywher nearby.
Oddly enough, there was a 4/4 with their name on the licence holder at the last Crathes vintage rally - only 520 miles from "home".

 

[powertools]

I live near to Cranfield and remember the garage but have not been there for some time and don't know if the garage is still there.
It is important to remember that this country builds and exports more vehicles than it imports.

 

[Woodchips2]

We used to live in Cranfield (Bedfordshire) which had a specialist Morgan garage (Allon White). They used to rebuild their cars to factory standard - sometimes I suspected they probably rebuilt nearly as many per month as the factory turned out new. No idea if they are still there but well worth a visit if you are anywher nearby.
Oddly enough, there was a 4/4 with their name on the licence holder at the last Crathes vintage rally - only 520 miles from "home".

They're still there http://www.allonwhite.co.uk/Home/ :lol:

I had a colleague who used to take his Morgan +8 there for servicing and he spoke highly of them. His car used to frighten the life out of him in the wet spinning the wheels in 3rd gear

Regards Keith

 

[Woodchips2]

Another member on this Forum had also visited the Morgan factory and kindly sent me their photographs with permission to post here so some examples of the woodwork in a Morgan.

All of the timber is pre-treated and is Ash from this country.

Regards Keith

 

[devonwoody]

So if you could buy in shaped panels it should be fairly simple to build your own DIY motor vehicle, visit breakers yards for the mechanical parts. Or obtain mot failures of a mass produced model.

Wish I was 18 again :wink:

 

[Eric The Viking]

DW: I know someone who restored a three wheeler beautifully. I think he did just that - bought in the ash and carefully recycled the original panels. Aren't they lovely, just to look at, never mind to drive!

Many years ago I used to work on one of the early 'countryside' TV programmes. I can't at this distance even remember what it was called, but it probably had Angela Rippon as presenter. She had a red Saab 900 turbo, IIRC, but one of the others, Phil Drabble, had a beautiful British Racing Green Morgan (can't remember the exact model, but I think it had a pretty quick Ford engine around 2 litres). It was a real head turner, always kept really tidy and shiny.

Happy days.

 

[devonwoody]

ETV.

Have a word with that top gear bloke he and his mates wrote off three cars last weekon tv in Africa.?

Should be some spares about.

 

[marcros]

i saw the most beautiful 3 wheeler parked up near work a few months ago. It was outside the chip shop actually! Must have been almost brand new

It is only now that I realised what it was- the new Morgan 3 wheeler, having clicked on a link in this thread. I really want one now!

 

[andersonec]

Morgan was featured on telly a couple or three years ago when some money man was trying to get them to upgrade to modern tooling and manufacturing methods otherwise they would go out of business, according to him they were doing it all wrong and wouldn't survive, the boss just laughed at him and said "no thanks" and they are still going strong.

Andy

 

[LynnJ]

Andy

I think that must have been a repeat of the Sir John Harvey Jones Troubleshooter programme on Morgan?

I just did a Google search - the original broadcast was 1991 - hard to believe it was over 20 years ago.

I also came across an interesting 2009 telegraph article at the link below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/bu ... rtune.html

Lynn

 

[andersonec]

Andy

I think that must have been a repeat of the Sir John Harvey Jones Troubleshooter programme on Morgan?

I just did a Google search - the original broadcast was 1991 - hard to believe it was over 20 years ago.

I also came across an interesting 2009 telegraph article at the link below:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/bu ... rtune.html

Lynn

Lynn, Might not have been a repeat,,, I do snooze off for a while every now and then.

Andy

 

[Peter Sefton]

We went out to an auction for the Charity that the school supports last night
http://www.funnyblood.co.uk/art-exhibition-and-auction/ and with my birthday coming up Sarah decided to bid and won a Morgan VIP tour of the factory and afternoon driving the cars.
I can’t wait as my last visit was as a ten year old boy. They are such a local and traditional job for life type of company, a school friend joined them as a sixteen year old apprentice and is now the Operations Director.
The Sir John Harvey-Jones TV programme from the early 90s was a great watch and has changed Morgan and made them stronger over the years.

 

[AES]

Gents,

Very interesting post & thread follow ups which for some reason I missed when first appearing. Thanks for all the pix posted gents, if I ever get the chance I'd love to visit Morgan and had no idea one can do that (unless you're buying one of their cars I guess). Malvern's a nice part of the world too.

I was particularly interested in this because for the last nearly 2 years now I've been building a child's pedal car based on an MG TC Midget. It's a part-time job only and has taken so long because A) I'm a VERY slow worker; B) I was away overseas on a couple of 2-4 month long projects; and C) I was in hosptial a couple of times.

Although it's not an ash frame/metal panel jobbie like a real car (not like the Morgan), this car is ply and softwood plus some maching and welding, I have been running pix as I go. When (WHEN!! don't hold yer breath) it's finally finished I'll post them up here in the Projects section.

BTW I'm also probably "a bit stange" because I too find manufacturing visits rather interesting. Surprisingly enough there are some to be made here in Switzerland (and I don't just mean chocolate and gold bars!).

Thanks again

AES

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I thought the M.G. Midget was a child's pedal car?