22nd November;1968 White 2 door saloon advertised on auction site; description; morris minor unfinished project 95% finished starts and drives perfect ,needs cosmetic work to finish . Contacted seller for more details including hint of reserve price and he told me it had 10 months MOT & Tax, but little else. Trouble is that the car's only 10 miles away!!
29th November; Car is sold as reserve met for what seemed to me like a pretty low price ( not saying what as I'd like your valuations after some photos........you all say you LOVE photos!!!). I have been watching the car on a daily basis and biting my lip but didn't bid.
9th December; Seller sends me a message stating that the car is still available ( or at least "on site") if I want a look.
10th December; Can't restrain myself any longer! Phone him and go to see it! It's in a wee coastal village and is sitting in a wee garage ( ie a car repair business) and apparently the person who placed the winning bid is a total tosspot from a long way off who has some pretty bad feedback and hasn't even bothered to make contact since the auction ended.
Story behind the car; It would seem to be, of late at least, a local car. Bought in a sort of "Barn find joblot!" which included 6 vehicles; a Ford Consul,a Ford Popular, 2 Lotuses and another Morris Minor. It has clearly had a vast amount of time and probably money spent on it. There has been a little welding done, but very well, and it would appear to be a complete strip and restore job. 4 new metal wings are fitted, and there are pictures of most of the underside to follow. All pipes, suspension, and brake components appear to be new or, if not, have all been removed and carefully cleaned and repainted. All the underside is painted white with no nasty underseal or goo trying to hide anything. Nuts and bolts appear to be new. Whole car; underside and engine bay has been repainted in Old English White, and the engine bay has clearly had everything out to facilitate this!
1098cc engine has been completely rebuilt and the clutch is new.
The only bits that I can see that need to be done to complete the restoration are glovebox lids ( were they even present on this age of Minor?) a few interior panels and parcel shelf and a few seals and draught excluders.Also needs to have rear wing piping fitted
Has 4 new Nanking tyres and a new battery. Engine fires up first time.
There are a few wee bits of rust here and there on the bodywirk, but no rust bubbles under the paint anywhere. A liitle "rust streak" coming from the back of both roof gutters ( but no sign of serious rust in the roof/gutter seam which can often be seen forcing the two apart), a wee bit on the upper driver's door aperture where the door needs a bit of adjustment ( though I think it's actually the window frame that needs adjusting. Bit of rust showing through on the bumoer valences and front bumper is a wee bittie rusty, but I have spares. It even has some new bitties still waiting in boxes to be fitted; wing mirrors, windscreen washbottle.
The guy who owns the garage offered to put it up on the ramp for me to see so I had the opportunity to take the following pictures. I won't bore you with all of them but these should give you an idea.[frame]
I have more, but I'm sure you get the jist! Funnily enough I didn't take any of the outside or of the engine bay, but the engine bay looks "as new" with all components having been dealt with, and the bodywork is very presentable although it's not what one may call a concours respray.
I am looking at it as an everyday runaround after a wee bit of work and a whole lot of Waxoyl.
PLEASE give me your opinions as soon as possible and what you would expect to pay for it.
And, as a final picture...the chap that has the garage also has an antique/collectable shop next door, and he has this GENUINE old metal sign above the desk in his office. How meanings change!![frame]
The car looks very nice