WOW £2330.00 for a project!

Nice GPO van, rubber wings, headlamp and side lamps mounted on the cab side.

The van body is rather rough, over the doors, the central roof section is lifting with rust. The nearside front wing is missing, the list of missing bits goes on and on.

The engine might need a bit of work. Still some people like a project, so when its on the road they can say "all my own work" with pride in their voice. For me I like running restoration projects, more mechanical than body work.

Latest news........

I have added more j pictures to the link on the right hand side. 

The link to MTR Restorations that are repairing the Magpie van is now live.

With regret I have today listed ROD525 on e-bay, (click here) the listing goes live at 8pm tonight.

I have started at long last to upload the restoration pictures of MYH238 so do have a look at the first ten pictures.

Latest news.

Did you see this in the papers at the weekend? 100 thousand for a J type ice cream van!
I have been away for a few days, a holiday combined with meeting up with friends and property viewing.So sorry for the delay in replying to all your e-mails. The next few pictures are of ROD taken at the weekend. I shall be using some of these for the forthcoming e-bay advert.
I might list it as a Jack Russell carrier but the Heath and Safety people might be on to me about mistreating the dogs. 


ROD with his unrestored sides fitted.

The original tailboard, not restored as I wanted to save the signage.

Rather cute? Took Caroline my partner in life (wife) for a spin round the block, she enjoyed the drive of her life . (NOT).

Recycling? The old fashion way.

Well work has started in earnest on OBL's sills/step/van side. I knew the whole bottom edge of OBL was "full of filler" the previous owner had told me this. Repairs had been carried out to the rear light clusters but the guy doing the repairs would not weld near the petrol tank, so filler was used. On cutting away the lower edge/side, a repair section was uncovered. Yes the repairer had recycled an old ICI paint can, to form a sort of "bridge that gap" backing plate.

Here we see one of the first new panels having a trial fit in the drivers side step.

Many more pictures are being loaded on to MTR's blog site, it should be on-line this weekend....

J type Trafficators.

In the Lucas Parts book they call them Trafficators. And yet the model numbers begin with SF.

SF short for Semaphore.

Semaphore signaling using flags have been with use for hundreds of years. The railway system of up/down arms has been with us since the 1840's. (by railway law, horizontal is the fail safe position of the arms and the arms must tilt to a 45 degree angle, either up or down). A little known fact that is of no use to a J type owner.

If you want to fit semaphores remember to use the commercial version, these had no chrome on them, just the metal painted black. Watch out if your buying some second hand units,as not only do they come in chrome/black finish, all of the smaller units could be 6 volt or 12 volt operation.

I have added two links on the right hand side. The first is to http://www.cartell. ie/ 

a site you can use to check on a vehicle, you only need the registration number unlike the DVLA site where you also need to know the make. The second site is full of fleet data! enjoy.

1. The Road Transport Fleet Data Society - road vehicles of the past ...Commercial

vehicles, military, local authority and distribution service vehicles . Picture albums and text lists.A very interesting site enjoy.

A nice pair.

Here is the "New" ice cream van I photographed last Sunday.It has taken me a couple of days to find a picture of their other 1961 JB ice cream van so you can compare the two.
KFL 954 dates from 1960 and should have the same Morris badge as WLD 759.

I understand the vent/grill at the rear is for the chiller cabinet, operated on "mains" electricity the cabinet is plugged in at night to chill. The ice cream is then scooped out into the cornets when being sold. These vans do not do "soft ice" piped into the cone.

WLD uses the original J type windscreens and surrounds while KFL has custom made windscreens and quarter lights.

If you go down to the woods today!!

As the old song goes, you're in for a big surprise.

Well Sunday morning Caroline and I took the dogs out for our normal walk. We like to do a couple of hours if the weather is good.
Well what do you find in the local "country park" a rather fetching J type ice cream van. Well I just had to walk over to it and check it out. I sat and looked at it long and hard, the registration number looked familiar, so I spoke to the "man in charge" tell me about this van, how old is it. 1960 came the reply, from Pino, a very pleasant chap. Most of you will have already realised that the Registration number is indeed 1960 and was the old blue bread van that was up for sale last year on e-bay. Well it has been totally overhauled by Whitby Morrison and is a real credit to them.

What confused me for a short time was that it had the JB engine cover but has been fitted with the earlier Morris Commercial Badge.
Only recently finished it looked splendid. I asked where they are based
and I'm pleased to say that it is to be local to me.

So I introduced myself and exchanged details with the owner, and we hope to get ROD and KFL together for a picture.

So what a plesant way to to find a J earning its keep, a real eye catcher, and when I returned in the afternoon with my camara the crowds were heaving all round the van and cafe. Full credit to them for investing the time and money to get KFL back on the road.

Another J type picture find.

G.D. has sent me another J type picture, found while he was trawling the net. Its not a van I have seen in the flesh. Mainly due to the fact I only "do" one or two rallies a year.
I always feel the Austin grill makes the van look grumpy, is it just me?

The yellow Austin 101 used to belong to Trinity Tool Hire . They were based in Ledbury, which is between Ross-On-Wye and Malvern . I think they also owned a Ford E83W van at the same time, which was in the same livery.
The two vehicles, were a regular entry at local steam fairs/vintage rallies , but I believe they have now moved from Ledbury.

On a lighter note.
Good Luck to Charlie on his Wedding this weekend. All the best to the kilt wearing Canadian.
My I wish you both a very long life and happiness together.
Now remember if you have nothing to do on your honeymoon you could always do a few hours on the van.

More good news.

In the wake of the good news that ROD 525 is now on the road legally, the first pictures of OBL432 at the body shop turned up in the post. MTR are going to do a stage by stage, pictures as they tackle the step and lower side replacement which will be on their blog site.

A link to this site will be made active shortly once their "blogman" gets their site up and running.

OBL432 parked up last week, just after it had been unloaded. Work has already started on one side and you will be able to see the progress shortly.

ROD's big day.

Well as some of you readers might know ROD went off to the MOT testing station today. I left late to try to avoid the heavy traffic as I was dropping ROD off, on my way to work. I left him there and walked the rest of the way. When I arrived at work I was pleased to see the bosses car was not there, thought I might "get away" with being late. No such luck, when the boss walked in, the first thing he said was "I saw you", "you cannot hide a J type in traffic..."
Walked back during lunch time to collect ROD, it was then I remembered I had forgotten my camera..
So here is one of those camera phone pictures..
Sorry about the quality. Yes it did pass, so with all the paper work filled in and forms from the Internet they were all in the post tonight to get a new FREE tax disc for ROD. I had to send the paper work away as I was changing the taxation class from, would you believe from Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) to Historic. You cannot do this at a Post Office, it all must go to your nearest DVLA local office and not the head office in Swansea.

Interesting but expensive on e-bay!

A postcard for sale by a dealer on e-bay.

These were issued by Morris Commercial as a "sales tool" free giveaway for free advertising. Would you pay £25 for a postcard?Here are a few real "beauty" pictures found by G.D. while trawling the net and felt we should all see them. Many many thanks.


This "Cripps" one is just rather "crisp" in it's staged way. Anybody out there know anything about these firms? Within a few min's of posting this I had a reply, listing the history of W.Cripps of Hobart.

So here it is,

The Cripps name is synonymous with baking in Tasmania. The tradition started with William Cripps who in 1858 operated a bakery in Sandy Bay in Hobart with his wife Eliza Burchett. In 1860 he moved to 4 Barrack Street where he remained for 4 years until moving to Hampden Road in Battery Point. Another bakery was built across the road in 1885 by William’s oldest son William Jnr. It was around this time that the family separated and went different ways.

In 1881 both Williams moved to a new location in Elizabeth Street. In 1887 William Jnr moved to a larger premises at 131 Elizabeth Street where a new bakery was built – the first freehold property William Jnr owned.William Jnr was notorious for insisting on having the latest and best equipment for baking. Even the fire bricks and tiles were imported from England.

He was the first baker in Australia to install a dough dividing machine and was keen to adopt anything new to improve his bread and ensure cleanliness.William Jnr retired about 1913 although he was still interested in the firm of W. Cripps consisting of George, William, Thomas and Harold.

In 1928 the firm bought out the Tasmanian Bread and Biscuit Works. With this expansion came semi-automation and the bread now required hardly any handling.

By 1931 there were 16 delivery carts and vans.The bakery then moved to 269 Argyle Street where the business was shared by William Jnr’s sons.In 1961 W Cripps Pty Ltd was sold to Consolidated Foods and in 1977 moved the business to Swallow Parade Glenorchy.

The bakery became fully automatic in 1978 with the introduction of a new automatic dough mixing machine. The machine mixed dough under vacuum which allowed Cripps Bakery to produce new fine textured bread.

The merger of Cripps Bakery – Hobart, Nu-Bake Bakery – Launceston and Bass Bakery – Cooee in 1997 saw the change in name to Cripps Nubake.This move saw the business move into a scale of operation that manufactured a vast range of bread products including bread, crumpets, rolls, buns and muffins that were delivered to the Tasmanian market. Biscuits produced at our Kings Meadows facility are distributed Nationally.

Today Cripps Nubake employs around 160 people, it has 2 manufacturing sites, 1 in Glenorchy - Hobart and 1 in Kings Meadows – Launceston as well as a distribution depot in Ulverstone in North-Western Tasmania. We use about 130 tonnes or 130,000kg of flour per week, all sourced from The Tasmanian Flour Mills Pty. Ltd. in Launceston

A rally shot of this well known van.

An interesting item on E-Bay?

There is currently on e-bay UK, a guy offering to make J type chrome grill parts. The price is 400GB pounds. (wow)

 He has been a member of e-bay for a few years but has only done seven deals in that time and they all seem to be for curtain rods!

I'm not sure if the owner of the van featured in the advert has anything to do with the seller. Maybe some brave sole should sound him out on what he's offering!

The Bank Hoilday draws to a close.

Ken Bennetts 1961 Morris Jb G.P.O. planners van and correct tool cart seen on their way to Brighton. They were taking part in the annual London to Brighton Commercial road run on 3/5/2009. They had great weather for it. I myself did a bit more pottering on ROD and took him out for a spin down to the Petrol Station. I meant to take his picture but forgot, in my haste to leave the very crowded filling station. From there I popped in to work and parked up with the two van I sometimes drive.

ROD looks a bit lost next to these every day vans. From there I went for a longer drive and did a rather scenic route back home. I stopped at a junction to turn right, opposite this junction is a Public House, and a friend of mine was standing outside in the fine rain having a cigarette. He waved, so I drove over. He bought me a drink and we went back out side. Most of the "pub" had now emptied and the men were all looking and pointing. One was even on his knees checking the "beautiful shaped" wooden beams on ROD. He was so impressed by all the work that Mr Snow had put it to building the body.

I got home a wee bit late but it did make a nice change.

ROD ran well and I will try to book him in for an MOT this week.