A nice period advert and what price a J type in 1953?

Well in August 1953 a chassis list price was £285 with purchase tax etc the total amount ends up as £340-9-1, yes the days of good old pounds shillings and pence.

A fully assembled van was £411 list, on the road £466-9-1, rather cheaper than they go for now. Thanks again to the great G.D. for these scans and lots of other J photographs I will upload to the J van picture album shortly.

Another J type project for sale.

Standard radiator fitted with an electric fan, rather a good idea.
Body work looks to be in good order and well polished.
View of the 1500 cc Nissan engine. A very interesting conversion, I would be interested to know how easy the job was to fit this type of engine, what about the clutch operation, propeller shaft modification engine and gearbox mounts. Just what is involved?
Rather a thick skim of filler on this side panel.
Nice repaired panels ready to bolt back on.

Here for sale my 1957 Morris commercial j type van in use up until November since then I have stripped the van ready for restoration Ive prepared or replaced/restored most parts including rear doors, all wings have been prepared and primed/powder coated, new floor has been made and lacquered ready for installation, the roof has been prepared and primed, the front grill has been restored including cutting out the bottom section and replacing rusted metal, prepared and primed. Van runs a 1.5 Nissan engine and gear box sale includes spare engine and manuals and booklets please contact Paul 07956421760

Starting price for the kit of parts is £4000.

The ex New Zealand van has arrived.

Looking splendid in the sunshine, the NZ van has been allowed into Australia and is soaking up the sun. I'm not envious, I bet they would love to be playing snowballs at minus 2 degrees and tonight it should drop to about minus 11. Still what ever the weather get out there and enjoy your J type. It can cope, trust me I know.

The journey to work.

The bike started OK, after I had thawed the ignition switch out, but both the choke lever and twist grip throttle were frozen solid.
So the J was pressed into service again.



The view from the driver seat as we moved along at 20MPH, very few other vehicles about during the rush hour, this road is normally "nose to tail".

Had to stop twice to clear the screen by hand, the poor old wiper just gave up.


The empty car park at work, all the bosses stayed away today but they had given us a nice memo yesterday, the long and the short of it was the weather is not their fault, if you don't turn up for work you will be docked a days pay. We have all been wondering if they filmed a version of "A Christmas Carol" here . Still without the bosses, far too much tea drinking occurred and there was not a snowball fight in the car park, we would never do a thing like that.
I hope the snow is not too bad where you are and I might have to put a couple of bags of sand in the back of the van for tomorrows trip.

The early postal van (SLO153) that was featured on this site recently has indeed gone to a new home in the south of France.
Also the green New Zealand van has arrived in Australia, it has yet to be fully fumigated and steamed cleaned to be allowed to enter the country.

A J type on Brazils version of e-bay.

Fed up with the high prices of UK vans, check out this early (square side lights) van.

Do a "Top Gear" and drive it back to Blighty as a new years challenge.

Details are as follows.

Morris Furgão 1948
Otimo Furgão
Mecanica Original
Funcionando
Precisa de um banho de tinta
Peça Rara
Valor de 15 mil Reais

Thanks again to Mike Parry of the MO and 6/80 car club for this.

Further up-date on this vehicle, it has been pointed out this is the same van that was for sale in Montevedeo, Uruguay. (Montevedeo is about 800Km far from Rio Grande do Sul (the place where it is now). If you compare it to the pictures posted of it in September last year on this blog you will see it is the same van. This vehicle sold for $500US, It has moved across the border and according to the current advert it is in running order with all original mechanical items.
My local contact Diego Moreno Bravo, who is restoring a Morris Oxford is contacting the owner by e-mail to try to get the chassis number. In the original advert it was listed as a 1951 van, while it is currently being advertised as a 1948 vehicle. If this was true it would be the oldest known J in the world and the chassis number would be barely into double figures.
I will keep you posted.
This a 1980's picture of OBL432 outside the original (stars entrance) to Pinewood Film Studios. All general traffic had to use a side entrance, as Pinewood was a grand house (and still is) and has often been featured in period films. I will take the van back to the same location soon so you can see how it has changed. Thanks to D.E. for the picture. (sorry about the quality, the print has faded in the last thirty years).

We had a bit of snow, just a light dusting.

I have been using OBL432 all last week and most of this week to get to work and do my shopping. It handles rather well in the snow and ice, maybe the low gearing helps, moving off in first gear on tick-over speed, no wheel spinning and away we go.

I have been out with the grease gun twice these few weeks, it's a wise thing to do, to drive out the water in the king pins and handbrake cables.

A happy New Year to you all.

Some feedback and another new site.

I had a very nice e-mail today and I quote "Your website has been very useful to me during my restoration and I have enjoyed the latest news and information that you show.
Thank you very much".
It is rather nice to get some feedback on what I get up to. One of the things I always wanted to do was a full blown web site covering all aspects of the J. Blogger can be limiting in many way.
One thing I have just competed is a separate blog on windscreen rubber replacement. I would ask you to have a look at this blog and give me some more feedback. If it is a success I will do more of the same. Take a look at it here. windscreen-rubbers.

Of interest is the fact that this site in its present layout was started on the 20th December last year, we are coming up to our first years anniversary and have had a staggering 20475 visitors.
Of those I'm pleased to say 737 people have viewed/downloaded the on-line manuals the most popular is the windscreen rubber profile page!! Hence the above new blog!!
I'm rather busy at the moment so I may well break my promise to do at least one blog entry a week, so if this is the last one of 2009, Have a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year... I know I could do with it..
And as a fellow J owner always remembers " The only way is a J ".. Thanks G.S.