There is a
great philosopher somewhere who once said ‘when you are on a role, keep running’
so if you are not a petrol head by nature, turn away now, because this blog will leave
you wondering whether Mike and I have totally
lost our marbles.
Mike saw this 1958 Morris minor 1000 on le bon coin and asked if I would call the venders for more photos. They live 2 hour drive away so I did the call knowing that Mike would not normally travel so far and that would be that. The pictures came through on e-mail and when I came home from my visit to Genevieve on sewing Wednesday Mike asked me to PPPPlease call these people again and get more info because this looks like it may be a good buy and he really really wants it. I know I have the knack of talking Mike out of unreasonable activities I don’t want to get involved in but I spoke to the seller and had taken his address down and made an appointment before I could take breath and we found ourselves on the road at 7:30 the next morning on our way to see this little gem.
Our GPS took us directly to the door of a very nice and chatty French
couple who bought this car because it was built in the year he was born and
they wanted to cruise around their little town of Janzs with their grandchildren
on board. They did not realise however that
it is an all singing and dancing English car that they did not understand and
lost interest when the French MOT came back with a list as long as your arm and
when they could no longer get it to start , locked it away in the garage for a
year. Mike looked the car over, he looked inside and out, then tinkered and
poked and finally sat in the driving seat in a realm of nostalgia turned the
ignition on and asked the vender if he could just turn it over to make sure the
engine was not seized and to the utter amazement of our hosts their little
moggie spluttered into action and coughed and spat on three cylinders. The very
kind gentleman laughed out loud and asked how that was possible as the battery
was flat and he had been unable to start their Morris or even get close to starting it all year. I
shot Mike a knowing look and explained in my proudest French that Mike has the
knack and their little gem was now in good hands and will see another day on the
road after a good seeing to, in English.
On a foreign drive with no tools Mike continued to work his magic and could see what needed doing but decided that it might be better to push the car into the road and winch it up onto our newly acquired car transporter trailer and bring it home for a better inspection
The trailer was all part of the big plan and we were forced to make the purchase quicker than anticipated just to get Moggie back to the garage which will be its home for the next year that we have allocated for the rebuild, and relaunch onto the roads
There is a bit of rust and Mike has polished up his welding kit to accommodate that aspect of the renovation, the seats will need a total rebuild but there is nothing too scary. Mike has now spent the last three days going through the parts catalogue making costing and availability lists as this sort of project needs to fall into a budgetary plan and I for one will be paying attention to that aspect of the project. I am excited at the prospect of Mike loosing himself in the garage and can see us off to the car shows to troll for spares and I can see this little part of our youth back on the road moggying along on French roads that we now call home
And
what of Monty I hear you cry, Well Monty is good and well, this is a relic of a past beyond our memory
and is a vehicle we have to maintain and keep warm and dry whereas Moggie is to
be striped and made good, for its own good, to arrest the deterioration for its
future existence. It also means that when both cars are on the road I can drive
Moggie and Mike can drive Monty and we can do the shows and rallies as a his and
hers team. Besides which, Monty has a 1936 4 speed crash gear box that despite
myself I know I will never master and requires a gentleman’s touch………
Mike saw this 1958 Morris minor 1000 on le bon coin and asked if I would call the venders for more photos. They live 2 hour drive away so I did the call knowing that Mike would not normally travel so far and that would be that. The pictures came through on e-mail and when I came home from my visit to Genevieve on sewing Wednesday Mike asked me to PPPPlease call these people again and get more info because this looks like it may be a good buy and he really really wants it. I know I have the knack of talking Mike out of unreasonable activities I don’t want to get involved in but I spoke to the seller and had taken his address down and made an appointment before I could take breath and we found ourselves on the road at 7:30 the next morning on our way to see this little gem.
Our GPS took us directly to the door of a very nice and chatty French
couple who bought this car because it was built in the year he was born and
they wanted to cruise around their little town of Janzs with their grandchildren
on board. They did not realise however that
it is an all singing and dancing English car that they did not understand and
lost interest when the French MOT came back with a list as long as your arm and
when they could no longer get it to start , locked it away in the garage for a
year. Mike looked the car over, he looked inside and out, then tinkered and
poked and finally sat in the driving seat in a realm of nostalgia turned the
ignition on and asked the vender if he could just turn it over to make sure the
engine was not seized and to the utter amazement of our hosts their little
moggie spluttered into action and coughed and spat on three cylinders. The very
kind gentleman laughed out loud and asked how that was possible as the battery
was flat and he had been unable to start their Morris or even get close to starting it all year. I
shot Mike a knowing look and explained in my proudest French that Mike has the
knack and their little gem was now in good hands and will see another day on the
road after a good seeing to, in English.On a foreign drive with no tools Mike continued to work his magic and could see what needed doing but decided that it might be better to push the car into the road and winch it up onto our newly acquired car transporter trailer and bring it home for a better inspection
The trailer was all part of the big plan and we were forced to make the purchase quicker than anticipated just to get Moggie back to the garage which will be its home for the next year that we have allocated for the rebuild, and relaunch onto the roads
There is a bit of rust and Mike has polished up his welding kit to accommodate that aspect of the renovation, the seats will need a total rebuild but there is nothing too scary. Mike has now spent the last three days going through the parts catalogue making costing and availability lists as this sort of project needs to fall into a budgetary plan and I for one will be paying attention to that aspect of the project. I am excited at the prospect of Mike loosing himself in the garage and can see us off to the car shows to troll for spares and I can see this little part of our youth back on the road moggying along on French roads that we now call home
And
what of Monty I hear you cry, Well Monty is good and well, this is a relic of a past beyond our memory
and is a vehicle we have to maintain and keep warm and dry whereas Moggie is to
be striped and made good, for its own good, to arrest the deterioration for its
future existence. It also means that when both cars are on the road I can drive
Moggie and Mike can drive Monty and we can do the shows and rallies as a his and
hers team. Besides which, Monty has a 1936 4 speed crash gear box that despite
myself I know I will never master and requires a gentleman’s touch………
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