TR2/3/3A door wood

[TomMull]

Thanks John. Will keep that in mind if my whittling doesn't work out. The Herald hasn't been out at all this season anyway. Tom

 

[2long]

Who know if these pieces would be helpful, but for sure they are the correct Ash wood or whatever was originally used.

Dan

https://www.ebay.com/itm/vehicle-pa...%3A38226a7d15d0aa47267115a6fff4b00d%7Ciid%3A1

 

[TomMull]

Who know if these pieces would be helpful, but for sure they are the correct Ash wood or whatever was originally used.

Dan

https://www.ebay.com/itm/vehicle-pa...%3A38226a7d15d0aa47267115a6fff4b00d%7Ciid%3A1

Thanks very much Dan, but not much like mine. I don't know what the little pieces are but the big ones look like the like they might hold the sidescreen brackets. I think there were quite a few variations to the wood parts. My car is quite late.

 

[TomMull]

Thank you. At least one of us has no problem here!(me). We don't often get into woodworking issues here.

If you have to replace the long strips you could laminate them to the bend, an carve out the twist. As i said, a real challenge, aka PITA. I made the stem of a small boat like this with (3/16ths?) strips and epoxy. very stable.

Perhaps I won't buy a Morgan. Tom

 

[TR4nut]

Tom -

i just realized you are working on a post 60000 car - any chance you have earlier doors? For the later cars I'd only expect the smaller wood blocks not the complicated longer piece.

Earlier doors would be squared off at the bottom, if yours are rounded I'd suggest just putting in the smaller backing pieces.

 

[TomMull]

Tom -

i just realized you are working on a post 60000 car - any chance you have earlier doors? For the later cars I'd only expect the smaller wood blocks not the complicated longer piece.

Earlier doors would be squared off at the bottom, if yours are rounded I'd suggest just putting in the smaller backing pieces.

Nope, TS58023L, just before they changed the doors and other things.
Tom

 

[2long]

Another flyer:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222583613510?clk_rvr_id=1259152574635&item=222583613510&rmvSB=true

Dan

 

[TomMull]

Perhaps a little clarification would be helpful. I am working on a pre-60,000 Commission car. The top of the door has a wood frame that goes from the front to the rear of the door, a photo albeit of poor quality, is at the beginning of this topic, and another below. It is made from 3 pieces fastened together with 4 long wood screws. It holds the sidescreen brackets and the lift dot fasteners for the tonneau. Post-60,000 cars have two wood pieces at the two top corners of the door and are separate. They are held to the inside of the doors by wood screws, I think there are two on each end. And here is the big difference, unlike the earlier piece these two do not contact the outside on the door so shape is not critical and they are made from simple flat stock. There is a picture on Dan's post above.
Not so with the early ones which contact the inside and some of the outside of the doors. They are not a simple shape as John kindly pointed out, but have both a curve and a twist to them.
My first attempt to saw, plane and sand them to shape was a mediocre success at best. After looking closely at the old one I find no evidence of cutting or scraping the wood to shape so I am now guessing that the originals were steamed into shale. I have now made a wood mold that mirrors the shape of the inside of the piece. If I steam it and clamp it to the mold, the outside should closely follow the shape of the inside and the piece will be of uniform thickness, just like the original. The one thing I have not done is to allow for spring back. I will make a guess with some shims.

 

[CJD]

Awesome! I would have chosen steaming, but didn't want to take the time to teach myself. Be sure to take pics for us!

 

[PeterK]

From a 2010 thread on team.net - Bill Beecher was the guy replicating those door tops for someone. He stated he thought mahogany with ash at the top.

 

[charleyf]

The original pieces that were on /in my doors is mahogany, all the pieces.
Charley

 

[CJD]

Mahogany was my guess. It was too dark for ash, and too light (weight) for oak. Of course, Standard being Standard, it's likely they changed the wood type over the production run.

From my boat building studies....Mahogany will be less prone to rotting in a wet environment. Ash will be stronger, but much more prone to dry rot. Oak is perfect, but very difficult to work with and prone to warping if not seasoned well.

 

[TomMull]

Mahogany was my guess. It was too dark for ash, and too light (weight) for oak. Of course, Standard being Standard, it's likely they changed the wood type over the production run.

From my boat building studies....Mahogany will be less prone to rotting in a wet environment. Ash will be stronger, but much more prone to dry rot. Oak is perfect, but very difficult to work with and prone to warping if not seasoned well.

My guess is Philippine Mahogany, not actually a true mahogany as the term was used in the 1950's for a variety of woods. Philippine mahogany was used extensively here and in Britain in boat building in the 1950's and 60's. I have some stored away.
https://www.ohc.net/blog/is-philippine-mahogany-a-true-mahogany

 

[CJD]

Interesting. And it leads me to believe I used Meranti Nemesu for my door wood.

 

[martx-5]

I made our dining room table out of that stuff about 25 years ago. It's still with us in the same spot in the same house. I still have a couple of pieces floating around.

 

[TomMull]

Awesome! I would have chosen steaming, but didn't want to take the time to teach myself. Be sure to take pics for us!

Sorry for the delay but about par for me. Here's what I did. I first bandsawed, carved and whittled a form on which to bend the piece.
The old piece sits flat on the form.

I then steamed the new piece cut to shape but still flat. Here is where you should shape the cove on the top edge. I did it after I bent it and it would have been easier when still flay. I used a 1/2 inch radius gouge and the sandpaper. I have lost the pictures of steaming. I did it on the kitchen stove when my wife was out of town. The apparatus consisted of teapot, a length of hose, and a piece of 4 inch PVC pipe which is not ideal but handy. I blocked one end with a cap and stuffed a rag in the other, around the hose. I steamed it for 30 minutes and then clamped it to the form.

If you look closely you will see two tapered shims (shingles) under the middle. I did that to "over bend" allow for "spring back" when I relieved the clamps. It turned out that two shims were not enough and I did the same piece again with two thicknesses of shims, overbending by about 1/2 inch.

The new piece conforms to the mold unclamped. I had it clamped for a couple of days and then clamped it up again until I got back to the project.
Here's how it looks. The twist is not apparent in the picture but conforms to the old piece and will be more apparent when two end pieces, which seem to be flat, are screwed on.

Not a quick process but a little more precise than carving and once you have the mold and have sorted the variables, you could make several in short order. (Not sure but I think you'd need another mold for the other side. Most of the twist on mine seems to be on the back end. I'm only doing one)
Note that steaming time and spring back are somewhat dependent on species. I used "Philippine mahogany".
I'll be away for two weeks so won't be able to tell you if it passes the final test, i.e. fits the door until then.
Tom

 

[CJD]

Very cool! You make me wish I had gone the steaming route instead of the carving. The beauty of it is you can pop them out easily from now on with little additional effort.