Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Miken]

Later this year I intend to take my pre war Morris off the road to renovate it.
I expect to have to replace some of the wood frame in the bodywork.
In anticipation of this, I inquired at my local wood supplier about purchasing ash wood. They offered me American ash.
Is this suitable for car work?
Unfortunately i am a mechanical engineer and not a carpenter so buying wood is all a bit strange to me.
Mike

[Rosco663]

Gidday Mike,

I will also be restoring the coachwork on my Series 1 Morris 8 and have done quite an amount of research - which I will gladly share with you.

The following (I hope) will help with your timber selection . You'll need to scroll down to the Coachwork article as the link I copied desn't take directly to it. (damnit)

http://www.morganownersclub.com.au/technical%20talk.htm#CoachbuildingTimberSelection

And as I come from a land downunder I will be using Spotted Gum.

The next link will hopefully give you more insight as to how to better select your timbers and some techniques as well - 'cause I know everyone likes a good old 'how to' article A good rule of thumb when buying any timber is to hand select it from well seasoned stock. have your timber supplier thickness it you your requirements as this will save you so much work and heartache.

https://sites.google.com/site/morganatica/bodywork-and-chassis/body-frame

Cheers
_________________
Rosco

[Kelsham]

I think Ash was used because it was easy to cut and bend. I have just finished rebuilding a 1931 BSA four wheeler body and used a mixture of Ash and Oak.
Mainly because I was swapped the Ash for some headlining material and had some Oak in the garage surplus to requirements.

Some years ago I rebuilt an SS body 1935 and saw it recently still in good order. For the SS I used a hardwood that a local coachbuilder sold to me, they used it for building van bodies. Sorry can't remember the name, it was a red wood and pretty hard.

The BSA cars and Trikes were built using cottonwood. I suspect price was the decider.

Kels.

[Miken]

Rosco,
Thanks for replying with the Morgan information.
So,reading it, It would appear that American ash was used for coach building and so should be suitable. Screwed and glued with Araldite.
And oak can be used for the sillboards in contact with the chassis rails.
As just about every European ash tree in the UK has been cut down and burnt over the last year due to fungal infection I'm guessing that American ash is the only type that will be available for some time .
I dont think my wood place will be able to obtain Aussie spotted gum.
I wonder where "copper naphthalene" can be obtained? And if not, what is the next best thing to preserve the wood?
MN

[Uncle Alec]

Bit of a panic just now about European Ash. There is loads of it around; most timber stockists can supply.
And I much prefer European Ash, it seems so much more resilient. Different species to American.
Having said that, I do have a garage full of European Ash which might be biasing me!