This'll be my thread on bringing a Moggie back onto the road. I am hesitating on using the word 'restoration' as big wigs and frock coats have never suited me
but, to be honest, this traveller needs TLC and not a lot of restoring- so *warning alert*- this may not be a very exciting thread.I have been keeping an eye out for a Morris Traveller for a few months now, my wife finishes uni soon and as her family car in the 70's had been a traveller, this seemed like a ideal surprise for five years hard work.
The criteria was easy: not needing too much work as I am not the greatest mechanic in GB, and not too expensive as many years supporting a family on one wage does start to add up, or is that minus down?
Two months ago a friend told me there was an old traveller in a double garage he had just rented and the owner of the garage wanted it to go so he could rent both spaces. The traveller's current owner had moved overseas and so might be willing to sell.
So, on a drizzly January afternoon I took a trip to the garage to check out the traveller which, to my inexperienced eyes, looked sound but just very very dirty. The body work had many interesting colours, the chrome was speckled and there was some slight rust along a door panel, and the wood had darkened under a leaking roof. Oh, and the spiders were huge, I mean, huge; white swollen bodies, black legs and white knees... better than guard dogs... still got no idea what they are.
Not wanting to appear too dumb, I had sent a text to my dad to ask for areas to watch out for. His reply "Underneath seats where torsion bar adjusters are RUST floor pan. No adjust left on adjust screw plus usual rot x" was sound advice. I looked under the seat but that was as far as I could go since my grasp of mechanics went to the second word of his erudite reply, but it was the thought that counted and I couldn't see any rust.
So, with a little haggling and agreeing to give the garage owner the old AA badge off the grill, I bought my first moggie.