OBL 432 update.

One of the many stage pictures of OBL, kindly taken by the staff at MTR who are giving my van a make over, it should look at least 10 years younger shortly.

They have added yet more stage restoration pictures to their site, do check it out.

ROD has sold!

ROD has sold, the price sounds better when its in AU$ 12,219.24.It all happened in the last few seconds of the auction, watchers got up to 188. The second place bidder has e-mailed me to say he still wants it, and he was bidding but the bids were not being taken by the site, he was bidding higher than the winning bid.

How true this is, site problem or internet connection at fault we shall never know.
New owner is planning to rebuild the cab and back end of ROD, throw away all of Mr Snow's hard work 55 years ago, seems a shame but that is PROGRESS?

On a lighter note G.D. has again come up with a little gem of a period picture!

Members of The Southbeats band pose in front of their van

Producer: Grant, Henry

Date: c. 1964

Members of The Southbeats band pose in front of their Morris J-Type van. Young followers of the band aped their style, often sourcing their fashionably neat gear from boutiques in Carnaby Street or the King's Road.

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.