Trouble at t’mill

Oh dear. I’m in trouble again. It’s not every year that one goes on no fewer than THREE cruises and then to Geilo in Norway for a skiing holiday at Christmas with all the family. But when writing the previous post, all of this went right out of my head and as Granny-Anne paid for the cruises and the Geilo holiday in 2015, she was not amused. I’m in the doghouse again.

We went to Amsterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg on our “European Cities”cruise. Norway was the destination another time and the picture shows Fred Olsen’s Balmoral at Olden, one of my favourites, situated at the inner end of a fjord. Our third cruise was around some UK cities and islands. All three cruises were on Balmoral, because we enjoy the ship so much that we have tended to choose Balmoral first, then accept wherever she happens to be going, within our budget of course.

A large part of my time, in the first half of 2015, was spent emptying Gerry’s house under the direction of her immediate family (who live well over 100 miles away but visited a few times to help where only close family can help) and preparing it for sale.

(Some days later…)

I wrote this post while in the hospital using the hospital-supplied wifi. When I  tried to publish it, a message told me that it could not find the WordPress website. So a lot of struggling with one-finger typing and many errors was wasted as there was no way to save the post.

I have been at home for three days and trusting that my wifi will work correctly I am starting again.

This year has seen the sale of both the VW camper van and the Morris 1000 Traveller. Although we had several enjoyable outings in the van, it was under-used as we never actually camped in it. The Morris, having lost the use of Gerry’s garage, was kept on the drive, albeit under a good weatherproof cover, but not a satisfactory arrangement.

We now have a 5-year-old VW Polo Bluemotion which suits us very well, and when I am strong enough to give it a wash and take some photographs I will have more to write about it.

Save

Meg the Mog

The time has come to put as complete an account of our Morris Traveller as I can on the blog, for the record, before I advertise her for sale.

First, some identification: This is a Morris 1000 Traveller, built in 1970 and first registered on June 1st, 1971. The hugely popular Morris Minor was announced in October 1948 having been on the drawing board in various guises since 1941.  It was the first British car of which more than a million were made. The first cars were the two-door saloons, closely followed by the open tourers. Four-door saloons appeared in 1952 and the first Traveller in September 1953. There were also van and pick-up versions from 1953 and by the end of production 1,619,958 vehicles had been made, of which 215,328 were Travellers. According to the website http://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/ (quoting figures from the Department for Transport) there are 804 Travellers licensed in the UK for the road at the time of writing, with a further 254 off the road.

Our Traveller came from the renowned Charles Ware’s Morris Minor Centre at Bristol. We have owned it since September 27th, 2011. At that time I had not owned a car for more than a year and didn’t really want one. However, the prospect of numerous essential local journeys, which would have been difficult or impossible by public transport and expensive by taxi, persuaded me to become a motorist again. The idea then was to have an economical classic with a useful load-carrying capacity, mainly for local use with occasional outings to holiday destinations etc. I reasoned that as my previous 50 years of motoring with neither claims nor convictions had earned me no appreciation whatsoever from the idiotic insurance industry, I might as well compensate myself by having an affordable and interesting car for which “road tax” costs nothing and which might show some prospect of it holding its value over the medium to longer term.

My reason for deciding to change the “family car” now, after only a year, is largely a matter of mindset. A year ago I was living in the shadow of a cancer diagnosis. The future was even more uncertain than usual and the name of the game was survival and everything was overshadowed by the task at hand. Thankfully all that is in the past. The whole experience convinced me that my generation became too influenced by the notion that three score years and ten is the norm (if you are lucky) and after that it is “injury time”. This is nonsense of course. The world has moved on. 70 is the new 50 is it not. and if you are healthy enough (despite being well into “injury time”) to be reasonably active then there is no excuse yet to settle for the slippers and TV existence. Therefore, as explained in my previous post, we have bought a VW Camper Van and intend to enjoy it as much as we can while insurers will continue to insure ancient citizens like us.

I am lucky to have the use of our neighbour’s dry, secure garage in which to keep the Traveller and there is no rush to terminate this arrangement. The car also has its own weatherproof cover should it be needed. The Traveller’s condition is very good indeed and it would require little work to make it a concours winner. This, in itself, is interesting as I know very little about the history of the car.

To the best of my knowledge the Traveller has its original engine and is Bermuda Blue in colour. This was one of the original colour options though this car may have been repainted in green at some time in its life. The current mileage reading, 18,040, is hardly likely to be genuine but if the mileometer is on its second time around, 118.040 might be about right. Apparently there have been seven previous owners. Did any of them live in Oxfordshire or Hampshire I wonder.

When I bought the Traveller I gained the impression that The Morris Minor Centre had worked on it, and sold it, previously. Perhaps it has been one of those lucky Morris Minors that has been returned to Bristol a few times over the years when major maintenance or restoration work has been needed. The condition of the timber suggests that it is only a very few years old and it seems likely that the car was repainted (perhaps returned to its original colour) at the same time. Did it acquire its new (modern Mini) front seats at the same time and was that when it gained a five-speed gearbox (Ford Sierra) and a brake servo, taking it well on its way to a “Series III” specification?

When I bought this Traveller a year ago it was my intention to keep it for at least a few years and to upgrade it to “Series III” eventually. To explain: The first Morris Minors, from 1948 on, were known as Series MM. Later models, from 1952 on, were known as Series II. The latter progressed through 803cc, 948cc and 1098cc A-Series engines by the end of production in 1971.

In 1976 Charles Ware established his Morris Minor Centre at Bath (since moved to Bristol) to specialise in restoration work of a high quality and soon found that there was a demand from customers for various modifications to make the cars that much more usable in modern conditions. Thus Morris Minors could be fitted with brake servos, front disc brakes, upgraded suspension systems, larger engines, a five-speed gearbox and lots of electrical and interior options. Restoration work remains the core business to this day and unless a car is structurally sound to start with, most of the major upgrades would be a pointless waste. However, I digress. The point is that The Morris Minor Centre produces an upgraded Morris Minor to its own specification which is known as the Series III.

It seems likely that a previous owner of my car (like many others I am sure) aimed to upgrade to Series III as it can be done in stages. I had intended to continue the process and made sure that the car came with an alternator (rather than a dynamo) and electronic ignition (I have spent quite enough time over the years fiddling with distributor points) and also a cigarette lighter socket to power any accessories that I might use in the car. This car came with the modern seats, the five-speed gearbox and the brake servo. It also came with a two-year chassis guarantee from The Morris Minor Centre. This has another year to go but, unfortunately, it is not transferable to a new owner. However, it does give some indication of the condition of those parts of the car that are not easily inspected.

Much as I would like to keep the Morris, as a local runabout and occasional visitor to classic car events, I cannot justify the expense of running two vehicles. So, despite the fun I have had driving Meg, who has been extremely reliable, and the many conversations that she has started on our supermarket car park in Cardiff and elsewhere, she now needs a new home.

Living with the Morris Traveller

I have owned the Morris 1000 Traveller for almost nine weeks. It was not love at first sight. Prior to taking delivery of the car I had not driven for about eighteen months and before that I had owned a succession of larger vehicles with bigger engines to match, which had a much heavier and more substantial “feel” about them from the driver’s point of view. At first the Traveller felt rather light by comparison. The front doors closed with a rather “tinny” slam rather than a more refined click and engine noise levels in the car were louder than I had been used to in my previous BMWs. These are not criticisms of the Traveller though, as most small cars of the ’50s and ’60s were much the same, or worse, and it is worth remembering than the Morris Minor was designed in the 1940s. The problem was that I needed to become accustomed to the car.

Having concluded, most reluctantly, that I needed to own a car again I decided on my budget and I did consider a few modern cars. Nothing interested me enough to catch my attention for more than a few minutes and I was haunted by the long-held belief that most affordable modern cars are doomed to last only a few years thanks to built-in obsolescence, an early decline in spares availability and an inadequate supply of restoration skills and facilities in the average local garage. So my best bet was a well catered-for classic car which would be affordable and user-friendly to a DiY oriented owner, so that I would have the choice of taking it to a specialist or doing work myself when it becomes necessary.
The Traveller fulfilled all of these requirements. It helped that Charles Ware’s Morris Minor Centre at Bristol, arguably the leading specialist in these cars, is only about an hour from here by car or public transport.. Secondly, I needed the ability to carry larger loads than would fit in a smallish saloon car and, thirdly, if I bought a good enough example to start with, it should be that much easier to preserve its condition during my ownership and thus avoid significant (or perhaps any) depreciation if I kept it for a few years.

To my surprise, I felt a marked lack of excitement on taking delivery of the car.  I gave it a cursory inspection and put it away in the garage, from which it emerged every few days for short shopping trips. I think the problem was that I really didn’t want to own a car again but it had become a necessity.
After a while it began to grow on me. I had to admit that it always starts without delay and has no difficulty in keeping up with the modern traffic in town. It is very easy to drive and to park, being relatively compact and quite nippy. It is also very comfortable, especially since I acquired a couple of special cushions for the front seats  so that the passenger and I could enjoy a slightly higher viewpoint on the scene around us. The front seats shown in the picture below are from a modern Mini and form part of the upgrade to the “Series 3” models now being built to special order at the aforementioned Morris Minor Centre. The Traveller puts smiles on other drivers faces and has started more conversations with total strangers on our local supermarket car park than I have experienced in years! How could it not grow on me?

After a month or so it became dusty and was treated to a wash and polish, by hand. I am sure that the woodwork had been more than adequately treated at Bristol but, a few days later when the car had dried thoroughly, I decided to add a further coat of Rustins Danish Oil. Apparently, varnish dries hard and eventually cracks as a result of temperature variations and general weathering. The cracks not only allow water to gain access to the wood but actually retain it while it helps to promote rot in the wood. Danish Oil, I understand, remains flexible enough to avoid cracking. However, it does need further applications twice a year, each consisting of several coats applied by brush. I was keen to ensure that there were no potential water traps along the inner edge of the wood or in the joints, So I took my time to apply the oil to all the wood, not wiping it on with a rag, but applying it generously with a half-inch oil painters brush which, as you would expect, did rather a good job!
Whenever I have acquired a “new” car, even decades ago when I knew even less about cars than I do now, I have always been keen to inspect the beast from end to end, checking on oil and water and hydraulic fluid levels, and on the wear in brake shoes and pads, among other checks. It is a familiarisation exercise as much as anything else. I also make a point of obtaining and carrying the tools and spare parts that are most likely to be needed. It’s called “be prepared” and it’s ever so good for the peace of mind.