New project wanted, new project found.

Well a new project, not true, had a bit of a tidy up in the garage, moved some plastic sheeting and behold the "Polly B Pickup". You will soon work out what the B stands for.
Rather sparse cab area, missing windscreen, lots of dangling wires.

Shades of many colours, this is a real "bitsa".

Oh it does have an engine, a mighty gold seal 948cc, an engine with hidden power, Well hidden, I have never found it in any of my many Morris Minors.

Any colour you like, take your pick (up). Might need a bit more work before it's due for its MOT.

Rather novel tail gate assembly, unpin it and the offside moves away from the chassis.
Rather loose side panel, problem located, due to the house brick holding up the side incorrectly fitted.

All joking aside, I had started making a list as requested by RODs new owner of spare parts, not being a tidy person, you can never find the floor in the garage for example due to all the "stuff" littering around. So I needed to empty it to go spares hunting.

After a while of hunting I thought, hang about, it would be easier for them to tell me what they want rather than me spending time making a list of new and second hand stuff. Then later on I thought, they don't need any spares, I've replaced most things on ROD. It transpires they want spares for the ESSO van, engine and brakes as well as some body panels.

Well I need all the bits I've got, you never know what you might need one day.

My Jb van is nearly finished at MTR restorations, the pictures I've seen make it look stunning, I wish I had enough money to get them to do an all over body refurbishment, I know it would end up as a real show winner.

Having taken it to a restorer that has worked on J types before and as they do have a J type themselves it has paid dividends. They know what their doing, they know how it should look and "what goes where". An ordinary body shop might well have done a similar job, but I bet they would have been "scratching their heads" and wasting time trying to piece together how the step/door runner/sill etc should fit.

Now that I'm going to be working on a MORRIS MINOR, for the next few months, (unless a J type turns up) I'm deciding whether to stop blogging, (let some of the other J bloggers take over), do a separate Minor pick-up blog or just delete the whole of this site and give myself a couple of hours extra a week to play out in the garage.

It could all change, you never know, my spy has been sent out to locate the site of the the J van pictured on the top right hand side of this blog. It was photographed only 4 years ago, so might be still there!

Another project might well be on it way in a few months who can tell, I have had a couple of calls about an early van in FINLAND, LHD and missing many parts.

I then got to hear about a GUY Vixen lorry (1948) with a nice Meadows petrol engine, then a rather nice 1950's Albion recovery truck, with the wonderful EN286 oil engine. I love this engine, I rebuilt one (top end) in one of my vintage coaches that I had in the 1970's, that's when I had money and space to keep big boys toys. The latest "find" is a Morris Commercial LC3/5 Crane!! What interests me on this is that the crane controls, (lift/slew and rotate) are all electrically controlled. A bit like a mad professors lair, levers and switch gear/rheostats all over the place. This has frightened off most people but not me!! Time will tell.