Best of friends
‘Rosie’ the Morris is reunited with her previous owner
It was a warm and sunny July morning at the beginning of a highly-anticipated week-long break from work. What better day, then , to take ‘Rosie’ the Morris 1100 back to the city in which she was originally built more than half a century ago. The factory was Cowley, now the site of BMW Mini production; the city is Oxford – on the outskirts of which Rosie’s previous keeper of 28 years, Jane Pusey, still resides.
As mentioned previously (PC, August 2019), Jane had only let Rosie go reluctantly when a failed MOT highlighted just how much welding would be required to allow the car to safely return to the road again. I’d promised to visit Jane once the repair works had been completed, which is exactly what my wife Abby and I did, with Abby’s name now on Rosie’s V5.
I don’t know who was the most excited beforehand, but Jane was delighted to see Rosie again on our arrival, as well as being over the moon that she’s back on the road and being enjoyed once more. Jane’s daughter Helen and son-in-law Nick were also in attendance and, over copious amounts of tea, coffee and homemade chocolate brownie, we shared a lovely couple of hours
together as Jane reminisced about how she came to own Rosie and how well the little Morris had served her over the years. We’ll definitely be keeping in touch.
Paint and protection
Weeks before, when the time had finally come to stand the welder down, I protected the repaired areas so that they would last for many years to come. To that end, the underside of the car was hit with primer, seam sealer, more primer, top coat and finally, a coat of underbody wax. I also cleaned up the surface rust on both the driver’s side and passenger side foot wells, before treating them to a coat of direct to metal black paint from a tin that I had lying around in the shed. It pays to hang onto these things – you never know when they might come in handy! Other than the obvious rust-related tasks, a few less problematic tasks were also taken care of to allow the trip to the MOT station to happen. Replacing the faulty brake light switch was an easy task… once I’d deployed both the wit and heft of my esteemed colleague, Matt Tomkins, who simply restrained the four-way brake union on the bulkhead with
a sturdy pair of mole grips, preventing it from turning, then wound the errant switch out.
With the new one screwed into position and the relevant wires connected in the correct order, brake light function was restored. New wiper blade inserts were also fitted, meaning that the windscreen is now cleared effectively when the wipers are activated. So far, so inexpensive.
Stay safe, kids
One area that inevitably needed more serious investment was the tyres. The extensive pile of invoices in Rosie’s history file revealed that Jane had replaced tyres on a piecemeal basis – the result being that all four were of different brands, three of which were either perished or simply timed out on grounds of age. Tyre number four was in decent nick and had been replaced in 2017, which made it a prime candidate to become the spare, in place of the aged 5.50 x 12 cross-ply that was possibly a factory original.
Brand new 155 R12 tyres proved to be a little more pricey than I’d hoped, so instead I went for 165/70 R12 versions all round. I ordered four Nankangs online at £36.99 a pop (including fitting, new valves and disposal of the old tyres) and was happy enough. The supplier then telephoned me to admit that, unfortunately, it could only find two tyres in my desired size across its entire stock inventory. Bugger!
I eventually bought a further two Ovation tyres from a different online supplier for £43.10 each, again all in, meaning that Rosie now has brand new rubber at each corner, with each axle sporting a matching pair. Plus, fresh boots all round means that we’re more confident when using the car in all weather conditions.
Taking care of business
The Morris has since been getting plenty of use, with Abby using it for work on a number of occasions, while we’ve made a few minor tweaks along the way. The indicators were very slow in operation to start with, but I sorted this by replacing the Oe-spec bi-metallic flasher unit with a modern electric version. Result – indicators that flash twice as fast! Makes a difference when queuing at a junction on a dark and rainy day.
Out of curiosity more than anything else, I also fitted an oil pressure gauge originally intended for the ’76 Triumph 2500 saloon that I managed to own not once, but twice. The oil feed pipe to the capillary-type gauge was just long enough to reach the underside of the dashboard without it getting in the way under the bonnet, and I used a pre-existing hole and screw to mount the gauge pod, so this modification is completely reversible, should any future owner wish to remove it.
The 1098cc A-series engine sounds sweet and I have paperwork to confirm that it was rebuilt some years ago, so I wasn’t worried as to what the new gauge might reveal. Happily, figures of 70psi on start-up, 25psi at hot idle and 50psi on a motorway run can only impress.
And sad it might be, but I like the fact that the gauge was made by Raceparts U.K. LTD, Oxon.
matt.george@practicalclassics.co.uk