The Big End - Refinements You Can Do

Now you have the vehicle set up to your satisfaction and handling well, it is just like driving a go-cart and it goes exactly where you point it. The vehicle is now behaving as was the original blueprint you had in mind all those months ago. You may have spent a packet on the modifications, perhaps money that you may never see a return on. So what, you now have a vehicle that suits your personal needs, and although it does not perhaps go as fast as some modern vehicles, it does stop and can keep up with the traffic. Most of all it is much safer to drive and not so tiring over a long journey. It also has so much more personality, individualism and charm. It will most probably out last many of its modern counterparts and see out new ones yet to be designed. A satisfying thought.

What more can you do to this fine little car. Well, the possibilities are great as you can add many more refinements giving you more comfort and service. Just to name a few - you could fit a two speed wiper system, heated rear screen, inertia seat belts or perhaps an electric fan. The list is very big.

In one area alone which is mostly not considered, is to dampen interior sound which, in the Morris, resonates on an increasing volume the faster you drive.

What can you do here? Noise is invasive and will tax the stongest character, after a while it will lead to a very stressful condition, and might turn you into Mr or Mrs Agro. This is not good for you or your driving ability as your concentration will be marred by this situation.

Several products are now on the market place which are much more durable and capable of sound deadening. The old hairy felt I have always found messy and very incapable of serious noise control. What you need is a rubberised noise reducing foam blanket which, cut to shape, can be stuck in place over the floor areas.

When fitting this material the areas you are working on should be clean, dirt free, and free of any corrosion. If any of these conditions exist then you should pre clean and remedy the condition before attempting to stick any sound deadening in place. Special attention should be made to the areas of the engine bulkhead, over the transmission tunnel, gear box cover or any area that is prone to generate noise.

Certain areas of the Morris body act as amplifiers and by judicial application of sound deadening perhaps a saving 75% could be achieved. You will certainly notice the difference after this mod is embodied. However you will never get full noise reduction on the Morris because of the nature of its design.

Around the windows and the frames many points exist which catch the slipstream wind, thus causing a high volume of sound here. The modern counterpart vehicle has much more flush fitting doors, windows and seals etc, which of course in many cases makes for a silent drive.

Don't forget to fit noise reducing materials under the rear seat well and in the boot areas, cover as much as you can to maximise the reduction of sound. Another place you could look at is under the bonnet. In this area many new vehicles have a special noise blanket fitted.

Other places you can look at is the underside of the vehicle. Here you can apply a rubberised shultz spray. Its application will reduce any resonations.

Other suitable materials could be used such as foam injection into the chassis cavities, but be careful here as these areas can suffer from corrosion, therefore any welding repairs done in the future would encounter problems in the repair process etc, and if anything toxic fumes could be emitted. Only use this additional method if the area is in excellent rust free condition.

The Morris has always had an excellent burble from its exhaust system, and although this is acceptable, with any extra power a much larger exhaust will have to be employed, this to extract the exhaust gases and achieve the correct back pressures, etc. The down side here is that with the larger bore pipe system, an increase in noise is inevitable. You can fit extra silencers but again much care will be needed to achieve a good state of tune. The outcome is that noise levels will increase with any extra power.

In the case of the Morris Minor, the quest for a silent car is almost impossible, but with some judicial innovation much can be achieved towards this goal.

© Chris Street, June 2000