Monday 3 March 2014

LIGHTLY GRILLED

My build buddy, Pete kindly posted to me, the corrugated cardboard template he had made for cutting the mesh screen that he fitted into the engine cowling of his car. Some  original Morgans had water cooled engines and the cowling housed the radiator.

My engine, like Pete's is air cooled has no radiator and without a mesh you would be able to see around the cylinders and under the bonnet, hopefully not too an untidy sight, but like Pete, not what I wanted. I first fitted Pete's template and then cut a modified one, as my engine doesn't have a distributor, it having electronic ignition. I then laid the revised template onto the stainless mesh and started to snip away.


It was time consuming as my cutters are quite wide and I had to make the cut wider to allow room to cut to the edge of the template. After I had cut the top line, I decided to try using my angle grinder with a new cutting disc, I clamped the template down onto the mesh with a strip of wood and the disc did a very neat job.



The final result looks good I think, although it may need a little more clearance around the cylinders. The breather pipes from the rocker covers will have to pass through along with the cable from the oil pressure switch, but it will be easy enough to trim back a little, better that way though.