I have been trying to get the family to sell but the poor old guy is in late stage dementia aged 95. His daughter knows I will buy it back. But time is not right for them. She feels it would be a terrible wrench for him at this time. The photos were taken ten years ago but I was back last January and nothing has changed.
I can understand the nostalgia relative to the opportunity of buying back an actual car in which you may have created early motoring memories, though given the chance to buy the Frog Eye back that was my first car, today, although very unlikely as it was a rot box in the late sixties, thus there is zero chance it might still exist today.... Wind back the clock 20 years to a time when I was still happy to bash tin spray paint, and indulge in mechanical mayhem and the thinking could be somewhat different..?
Today I have to push myself to perform the simple servicing stuff that a Trad Morgan requires. As for restoration of a long dormant old Morgan, where one might require to engage others to be involved, that could be potentially rather more than the car will ever be worth to anyone but you, and in the passage of not too much time given ever more restrictive regulations, you or someone else might have to pay to have it disposed of...? OK so I am ever planning for the worst while hoping for the best, but unless just having it in it`s current state and having the place and space and be happy to just own it as it is to let it sit appreciating it`as being special to you as a form of nostalgic garage art....?
Of course if you are determined to restore it back to road use... Power to your elbow...
By coincidence, I was down at the marina yesterday where a retired friend of a friend showed me over his 100+ year old vessel sitting under covers up on the hard, which he has in the process of replacing some planks on it`s starboard side, it was obvious that the old boat had been run on a budget for many a year, and created many memories for him in the process. Once aboard there was hardly room to place a foot without standing on tools or signs of some task in a stage of partial completion, I think she must have been at least 30 ft if not a shade more with a big old heavily painted diesel engine below decks....The owner was full of enthusiasm and told me the story of purchasing the vessel many years back from an old chap who had owned it for decades, who when he had approached the house where the vessel had been laid up in the large garden for quite some time. Some time was spent chatting about the boat`s history, and the intended owners plans for the old thing The purchaser offered a deposit of £50, and said he would pay the rest the following day, and the owner replied no further payment required.... I liked that story, thought you might have interest in it too.... Anything of real value is hard to quantify in pounds shillings and pence...?
