Wondering/Reminiscing/Curious/Nosey....

[Ondergard]

Long, long go, back in 1976 when I was nineteen, I bought my first ever car. The fact that I had no driving licence at the time, and had never sat behind a steering wheel, and was not an habitue of cars at all - my dad didn't possess a car nor drive - put me off not at all.

The car I bought was a 1957 Morris Minor. I don't know where it came from originally, but I do know that my brother-in-law had bought it and replaced its normal engine with the engine from his Austin-Healey Sprite Mark 1, which had died of severe body corrosion. My brother in law also re-sprayed its front and rear wings a sort of dark British Racing Green, whilst leaving the rest of the car its original grey. He sold it to a mate of his, who then sold it on to me.

I paid him £45 - and that included the tax disc!

I had the car for about a year, and learned to drive in it. One of my friend's fathers lent us his garage and we replaced the clutch, which was slipping, with a new one. We had to hire a clutch alignment tool to do it, and also to borrow several sets of spanners because the bolts and suchlike were a mixture of American Fine, Imperial, and Metric. I don't know why. I replaced the carpets: not with standard Morris carpets, but with a deep pink household carpet I had - ahem - "borrowed" from the offcuts in the cupboard in my sister's bedroom.

I loved that car, but as a learner I couldn't drive it every day, and as we lived on a main road in Chingford E4 (yes, Beckham country - we actually went to the same schools, albeit fifteen years apart) I had to park it our of sight in the turning opposite our house.

Once, when I had left it a week, I went round to give it a start-up (illegal, but hey, I was young) to discover that someone had kicked in two panels and a headlight, and removed the fuel cap and stuffed the fuel tank with dead leaves. The council had slapped a tow-away notice on it, which had two days to run.

I panicked in a nineteen-year-old sort of way, and when the next evening some bloke knocked on the door and offered me £50 for the car, I nearly bit his hand off.

It is a decision I have regretted ever since, because looking back on it from an adult (cynical?) perspective, I can't help wondering if there might have been a connection between the trashing, the towaway notice, and the knock on the door. Especially when you know that the numberplate was TMJ 45.

I've often wondered what happened to my car, and whether someone is still now driving around a grey Morris with Racing Green wings and a Frogeye Sprite engine... and whether some rich bugger has paid hundreds for the numberplate!

I don't own a Morris now - a situation I am thinking of remedying as soon as I can, among other things, persuade my wife that I don't need to sell my motorbike to do it - but I wonder what I would feel if one came on the market which I was pretty well sure was my original?

I wonder what happened to it? I don't suppose any of you out there in North or East London in 1976-7 could tell me....?

[toginthemog]

thers a link to dvla site that you can check the reg out at the moment the site is down for repairs but if you cant do it someone will be along as soon as the site is repaired like a london bus one will come along

[mickessex]

Well just checked, it's no longer on a Morris and is not on any vehicle that has insurance, It could be on retention though or on a SORNed car.


Mick

[Ondergard]

Thanks for that, Mick.

I can't decide whether I'm glad it (the number) isn't being used at all, or sad that it probably also means "my" moggie has bitten the dust - or do I mean rust?!