Morris Minor Owners Club

To add further insult to injury, after having my weekend ruined by a time-waster "selling" a car, I've discovered my "Alta" cylinder head is missing from the garage. The door was damaged by someone reversing into it a while ago and has left it easy to gain entry, though this is now repaired.

The Alta cylinder head was a period tuning item for the original Minor MM series and was left to me by my Grandfather. It is in poor condition but it is very rare and hard to come by. It is covered in surface rust and has a light splattering of British Racing Green overspray on the top and down one side. It is also chipped on the top corner where I dropped it.

I doubt if it could be used on a car today due to its poor condition, and it probably isn't worth more than its scrap value. I would rather like it back though due to its sentimental value. If anybody is offered it for sale or sees it advertised, please let me know. I would be very grateful for any information leading to its recovery.

Go round the local scrapyards ASAP and ask questions (but not too specific - they'll shut up like a clam if you say you're looking for a stolen item which they may now have). Unfortunately some toad has probably nicked it to weigh in. Hope you are able to find it.

scrap yard dealers have no morals they even let people scrap grid covers knowing they are stolen.

irmscher wrote:scrap yard dealers have no morals they even let people scrap grid covers knowing they are stolen.

The sad thing is, if anyone was that hard up that they felt they had to take what is to anyone other than me just a rusty piece of scrap junk, I'd have willingly given them a few quid to leave it alone. This head might be scrap now, but it was off my Grandfathers first car and left to me with his things when he passed on a few years ago. He always meant to show me how to re-machine it and make it useful again. Alas we never got around to it. It meant a lot more to me than the few quid it will fetch as weigh-in and was irreplaceable. If this has been the fate of my "head", and the chances are it is as it was probably too far gone to be machined now, its a great pity that more people at these places don't ask a few more questions about provenance.

Sad story, hope you do manage to get it back.
Just out of interest, does anyone know how much a reasonable, (well useable atleast) one of these is worth/sells for?

Mike Perry would be the man to ask. These days they're a bit like hen's teeth!

set up a daily search query on ebay....

I would think it is only worth a couple of quid scrap value, if that was the only thing stolen it is more likely to have been targeted by someone that knew what they were looking at. I would love one myself but as someone else has said "hens teeth and rocking horse droppings" come into it, hope you get it back