MORRIS MINOR

Well June 2003 to June 2004 we used the truck, as you can see the truck was looking a bit bit shabby but it still turned heads out on the road. One time we sat at the traffic
lights on the high street in Scunthorpe a Merc soft top pulled up alongside us lights being on red a crowd outside the pub came out to look the poor guy in the merc sat there thinking he was getting alot of attention but he was a bit dismayed when we got the crowd surrounding us, I think its because you don't see cars like this now as most customised cars nowadays come out of places like Halfords or shops like that and its all bolt on crap. Another time same lights same pub a hen night was in full swing but I get the to be bride spread eagled across my bonnet holding the wiper arms crying out rev it more I didn't now why ! but the lights changed 3 times before she was lifted off by the rest of the party. Chris Evans Radio 2 says if you want to pull get a Morris Minor you will pull everyday and I am sure this is true. The box on the back is just a travel chest from the fifties but we have no room in the cab so it was not going to be permanent as i had planes to put a body on it new front and rear wings a steel sun visor and new wheels.

MORRIS MINOR

Well 2002 we decide enough was enough we got our fingers out after doing nought for the last couple of years. The front wings we could use and I suppose all the panels but we did intend to replace or repair any that needed it once we got it up and running. the main aim was to get it working on the road and then take it off again and do it this time for real to take to shows and really enjoy it. 2003 June it was ready for MOT it passed first time got my 12 months exempt road tax and out we went. Like a big kid again out cruising. The first engine was a 1800 ford pinto but after a couple of months I new it was not enough. The second was a 2.1 pinto that was better but without the twin 45 Weber's and exhaust system I was never going to get the power out of it and with its high lift cam it was never going to run right. Next engine was a bog standard 2000 pinto 35000 on the clock runs like a sewing machine. This time out came the type 9 5 speed gearbox and in went a m75 a better gearbox with a rubber drive coupling to remove drive vibration and take up roughness through the prop.We put all new red cloth and leather bucket seats but the rest inside the cab we left.The old wheels usable but after all the years on the truck they looked a bit tired. The whole pick up was looking tired but I didn't care this is what I used to own and its back on the road. All I need to do now is iron out all the faults sort out what I want to do and get on with it but not until I had a bit of fun in it.

Hi to anyone reading my blog once again sorry I have not updated it but I will try to do a couple of post this week. Well we picked the pick up up from York and home was the next stop. I paid Rob £200 for the pick up and even the fact that it looked a load of junk it caught the eyes of other road users on the way home. The news soon got around that I had my truck back but I had to explain what state it was in nobody expected it to be on the road that year (1989} and and how true it was because it never got to see the light of day for the next 8 years when it was dragged out put in the back of a removal van and delivered to our new house it then sat there for a further 4 years. As for Rob well the only time I was in contact with him was 6 o'clock one morning going up the A1 a car overtook me as I passed the A64 then cut across the front of me realising he was going to miss his turn off to go to York rolled it down the bank. The guy I was travelling to Scotland with in our 38ton trucks stopped with me and we ran down the bank to check these guys in the upturned car only to hear a voice say is that you Alan for Christ sake don't ring emergency services will you because it will be the watch that has relieved us will come out and we will never hear the end of it so I guessed Rob was still in the fire service. As for Rob and his mate not a scratch the car well we just tipped it back on its wheels and off they drove. I lost touch with Rob after that until 2008.
On close inspection of the pick up I found it was going home to that land where rust lives so off came the cab the marine ply floor was still as good as when I fitted it in 1983 so that was saved the side inner sills needed replacing and the inner foot wells needed sorting. The chassis was starting to look like a fresh paint would help, so a complete nut and bolt strip was done. Shot blast red oxide for £50 bargain, so the chassis looked like new complimented with Hammerite silver that was that bit done. Next the rear axle from the 1970 jag xj6 that needed 2 new wheel bearings 1 cv joint a set of discs and brake pads, fitted and painted red that was another main part of the rebuild done. So now I had to get the front triumph herald suspension on after a check over 1 wheel bearing 1 track rod end a set of discs and pads a coat of red paint and that's the front done. Now it was starting to look like my pick up again and even more so when we lowered the cab back onto the chassis, all bolted on it was a good feeling especially for my son as he had heard from me all the stories about the pick up and I suppose if not for him helping and pushing me on all the time I would guess it could still be in the garage waiting for the rebuild.I am putting some photos of a couple of my wagons and a couple of my pick up so you can see why I went for the lorry look

well here we go again. if you have just stumbled on my blog please go to the bottom of the page and click on home and this will take you to the start of my story. hope you enjoy it as it has a long way to go its now valued at £8500 so come back when you have time to my blog as I will keep adding more as I get time. comments keep me going. Thanks for reading my blog. Regards Alan.


Well the next show was Quibell Park 1983 Bridge county cruisers annual show and as I said the little children with no fathers was one day going to steal it from the lockup that I had it hidden in this I was sure, they had got into most of them lockups on the row were I had it, so this was the show that I put a for sale on it. Straight away it was sold for the whole sum of £750 as this is what it cost to build I thought let someone else finish it and have the fun from it. The truck was looking good with its paint job the wheels I found at a right good price in a warehouse in Sheffield the tyres again good price down nr oxford these, rear ones are still on the truck up to this very moment,I think with having no body on the rear it never wore the rubber out. It was sold to a garage in Scawby nr me in Scunthorpe so I was going to still see it about. I am told that like me they had to go drag racing at York. I believe they soon sold it on probably doubling the price which stuck in my throat a bit as it was now going out of the reach price wise for the normal hard working man to buy it and have some fun. This is the time I lost contact with it but I have been told it went to a garage or a mechanic who worked there [also drag raced ] and then to another garage /car sales Russel Atkinson on Doncaster road Scunthorpe [also drag raced it]. From here I think it went to Snaith in Yorkshire. This was the person who I did not know but who was telling everyone that he built it and new all about it [don't think so]. The next owner was a guy who I have now got to know Rob[also drag raced it] he was doing a course at the railway workshop in york and then went on to be a fireman at selby. I am confused as to how we met or got in contact with each other but I do remember he asked me did i know what it was built from and I said of course as I built it, he said he was told the guy in snaith had built it [Wrong]. We came to an agreement that he could ring me anytime for advise on the condition that if he ever wanted to sell it he would give me first refusal.
Well I can only guess Rob and the other owners must have had the truck about 5 years in total. But the phone call came that I had so long waited for it was my friend Rob it went like this Alan if you still want the pick up come up on weekend and make me an offer as it has to come out of the garage as I am selling the house due to him going through a separation with his partner. I spent the week on the road with my new lorry not excited about the new lorry but excited about getting my beloved pick up back. Rob you will never know how you made my day the reason my old man came with me was because he was more excited than me.
Robs garage was broke into and as the pick up was being worked on it was not in the best condition the fatherless little children had smashed nearly all the glass and with the engine out the wings now off it looked a bit sad but was I so pleased to see it again after all these years.
Going to stop now no pics for this blog as I am using someones laptop with none of my pics on it. Will try to add some more pics on next blog will tell you what I paid for it and what went on.

Hi all [if anyone is reading my blog]if you have just stumbled on to my blog go to the bottom page or earlier blog and start from the beginning you may or may not find it interesting. You can click on any photo and it will enlarge. but most of all send me a comment even if its negative. I will finish it and show you what its like now complete with body and extras,

Hi all, a great day out at york dragway and no problems as you may see on today's blog photos raced a couple of yanks just before the photos blew them out, Even Ben and his green and silver pop [a club member] was a push over until he managed to work out that when the lights went green you had to go and not sit there waiting for Christmas, in the pop Ben had a 3ltr straight six vauxhall opal engine with 3 webbers feeding it all the fuel it needed so in the end he just got over the line first. Times for the race not great but for a bog standard 3 ltr ford I was chuffed.
78 mph at 16.9 seconds not great but OK for me.Next show was at Lincoln so back home to get cleaned up ready for that one as I have to show the world my creation or that is how it felt. No photos of that one but I do remember what a fantastic sunny day loads of comments and no problems apart from them bugs still trying to get nectar from my pickup. All this happened in 1982 but this was the year that I started working for myself and I left the steelworks and had purchased my first lorry. This was also the time when all those little children I have to use this word as blogger wont let me call them by their correct names went around nicking cars for joy riding. As I was working away on the road all week my big worry was would they find it as I had rented a lock up away from my house. A guy who rented the lock up next to mine told me that since I moved my pick up in a number of doors had been forced but nothing taken and so was I going to be next and bang goes my pick up. Next show I go to it was going to be put up for sale as trying to make a living from my lorry was all the worry I needed at that time.

As you can see on my last blog its all filled on the wings and a rolling chassis. I was now in a race to get it to the first show.This was the Bridge County custom car club yearly show at Quibell park Scunthorpe. From the idea of building to finishing it only took 13 weeks I was up to getting it to the show in 2 weeks time finished or not it was going to be at the show. well I did make it but no raidator fuel tank exhausts and rear mudguards etc. The spraying I did in my single car garage but as that year 1982 was the hot summer it baked it on within minutes it was dry, no time for them bugs to come and land on it to get nectar from it as this colour has been a problem all the time I have had the pickup. well as you can see from the scunthorpe telegraph I made the paper. As soon as the show was over it was back home and back to finishing it as there was talk of going drag racing and I was up for that.As you can see on you photo mudguards on and exhaust stacks started nothing was going to stop me getting to york drag racing.