Morgan Technical and Other Topics Blog: Aluminium Tool Tray - Fitting My Own 'R. Nick Taylor' Tray.

Fitting my R. Nick Taylor Aluminium Tool Rack.
Some of us have suffered from damaged Tool Trays due to the Differential hitting the lowest part of the Tool Tray Profile and,
in my case, punching a hole in it.
Having seen Nick Taylors marvellous Aluminium Tool Tray a few of us have request Nick to have extra
Trays made for us.
These Two Drawings from Nick, give the dimensions he used for the Roadster 100. He points out that Owners of other Morgan Models need to check these dimensions on their cars before ordering.

The manufacturer, Kevin McTighe, will tailor one to fit your needs if you speak to him about it.
The Tel No. is: 0161 7637403

The address is: Unit 2, The Sawmill, East Street, Bury, BL9 0RU

K&S Aluminium Email Address

or

mailto:angie.ksaluminium@yahoo.co.uk
.

Cross Section
I have only just made time to fit mine but before I did I decided to add an enhancement of my own.
Hopefully the inserts will prove to be useful, but if not, I can always remove it without too much trouble.
In my loft, which I am in the process of clearing 32 years of clutter, I found a single sheet of 1mm thick Fibreboard which I have used in my past to make Long Life Patterns for Garment Making.
When I checked the current version of this board I was astounded to discover that The Supplier, Morplan, now charge £32.95 +VAT for a single sheet and that they have also changed the colour to red.

http://www.morplan.com/shop/en/morplan/garment--manufacturing/pattern-making/pattern-papers-boards/pattern-board

Not being an engineer, my design is a little 'Heath Robinson' and my Very Rough Sketches were subject to many

alterations as I discovered how the board reacted to being folded.

Scribbles and Scrawling.

My Plan was to make a series of Box like Trays which each fitted a section of the Tool Tray so that any items stored there would be contained within its Tray.

Not wanting to commit too much time and material before being happy with the idea, I decided to make the Smallest Trays first.

Here are the First Two small trays and the largest in place. Due to the thickness and strength of the card, the Staples I used to fix the corners proved to be a nightmare to insert requiring quite a few 2nd and 3rd goes before getting a 'perfect' staple.

The Largest tray needed the full length of my Sheet of Board and even then there had to be a slight compromise

on the depth of the end sections to get it to fit the sheet.

This Close Up shows the deep 'Stanley Knife scoring needed to both provide a guide for cutting and to

aid the folding process.

Here is the Folded and Stapled Deep Tray - You can see the compromise shorter end piece.

Here among the junk in my bedroom office you can see the Large Tray

The Last Tray to make and fit is the Large Side Tray of which there are also two.

Here is the cut piece of one of them ready to fold and staple.

Here is the Tool Rack with all Seven Trays fitted in position.

The Last Part of my assembly process is to use this High Adhesive Duct Tape to fix the Trays together and in place. Another 'Heath Robinson' method which may not hold up over time.

Before this stage I have taken the Tray back to the Car and drilled Five Fixing Screw Holes.

The Three Front Holes line up with the Screw Hole locations of the Original Tray.

This Frame is only 1/2in wide offering little room for manoeuvre.

The Back Two Holes are New Holes in the Upright part of the Back Support Frame which is

only 3/4in deep

The next stage was to apply strips of adhesive sponge to the underside edges, which in my case was left over sealing strip from fitting a Sink Unit, but Adhesive Draft Excluding Strip would provide the same 'Leveling' function.

My Hood Supporting Rig allows me to work with maximum space.

Here is the rather messy looking rear axle bay showing the marking on the differential caused by the old tool tray

Before fixing the new tray I took the opportunity to Spray my Leaf Springs with Castrol Aerosol Motorcycle Grease.

Here is the Tool Tray fixed in place.

I decided to make the Rear Fixing in the upright section going right through the Lining Tray.

The Side Fixing using the existing Screw Holes is a Temporary Fix using two old French Coins which already

had a Centre Hole. I did not have any Penny Washers or Shaped Brackets to hand.

The Side Supports on the first 6 of the New Tray were too narrow to reach the existing Screw Holes and the make a full overlap with the Wood Frame. The overlap here on my tray is less than 1/2in each side so too risky to drill new holes.

Apparently, Nick and K&S have now modified these side strips to fit the frame recess exactly.

Here is the finished job.

Each Box section is loaded with all of the items that I took from the original tray.

Jack

Jack Handle

Mallet

Wheel Nut Spanner

There is still plenty of extra usable space for numerous additional items.

I have taken the project one stage further to eliminate the Tea Towels that I used to use to wrap the heavy items.

I like to make Drawstring Bags from Waterproofed Nylon Fabric. My plan was to make bags for the Jack, The Mallet and the Spanner with a Lining made from Towelling. The Bag for the Jack Handle is made unlined.