Welcome to the forum Mike, I hope you find a Morgan which suits your aims.
Next to nothing on +4 and a bit of a rant as is my habit, but hope you might find something of interest in it should you care to read through it Mike...(-:
As a m/cyclist my first venture into car ownership was to buy a Frogeye Sprite, found as a non-runner living under a tarpaulin. Such is the foolishness of yoof that whatever was wrong with it`s engine I reckoned I could fix it.... Pushed it home, lifted the soaking wet mats out to dry and most of what was left of the floor lifted with the mats. That was my introduction to the realities of corrosion in monocoque construction... As you will well know trying to build back strength to quarter elliptic rear suspension has a degree of complication once the tin worm has had it`s fill....
Some 30 years down the line and many corrosion repairs later carried out on a mix of mundanemobiles and interesting sports cars I had owned, I arrived at thinking a Morgan might be the perfect solution for my motoring desires..... ALL that Image typed above, combined with UK industry deciding downsizing, delayering and pension enhancement and lump sums, seemed to equate to many of those compulsory retired looking for a relatively simple automobile restoration project.... Not too difficult to imagine it took me circa five years of searching for a "cheap" Morgan in need of repair produced quite a few Morgans in need of repair and even one the advert of which seemed to fit the bill perfectly, but turned out to be someone`s left overs from an insurance funded repair that had been added to with a quantity of Morgan related parts, and no registration document... a disaster for anyone putting all their time and money into that then trying to register that collection of parts as a Morgan given the repaired car and it`s new chassis would likely be running around with it`s original identity attached..?
Knowing well the amount of time effort and money put into a restoration, it seemed there was no Morgan in need of repair at any price that made sense to ME... Quite by chance near the end of five years of searching a Canadian Morgan enthusiast I met through the fledgling MSCC DG, determined he had found me the Morgan I MUST buy...!!! It was a concours condition +8 that had been "barn found" with circa 8k miles on the clock and which had then been subjected to a nut and bolt rebuild into his idea of a perfect Morgan built to last by a garage business owning Morgan enthusiast.... Looking at the quality of the work and SS fixings etc.etc.etc. and the price asked it was a no brainer in comparison to the time effort and cost for me to attempt to replicate his efforts... Some twenty years and a few European adventures later, I still own that old Morgan, and although it does indeed wear it`s age and usage... but does so very well... (-:
I suspect your timing relative to possible Morgan acquisition may be much better than mine was Mike, as the baby boomer generation who created the price hike in old car valuation may now be loosing their grip on the perch, with numerous cars being marketed as per Bangers & Cash, which seems to clearly identify the reasons behind decisions made by both the sellers and buyers in the marketplace... Not much Yoof in evidence at either end of the processes..?
I guess we all have our Morgan favourites, I wanted A Morgan with a large engine to provide me with a degree of a vintage car driving experience and with all the drama of a noisy big engine such as the big ol 20`s/30`s Bentley I had followed for a few miles one day... However I also was a fan of the 4/4 with the ubiquitous Ford engine, Had I bought one of them a Twink transplant might have been on the cards...(-: I still look fondly at 4/4`s of the 60`s & 70`s as being a fun car to take to the A & B roads...(-:
As for Production Car Trials, Monklands sporting Car Club puts on a few of them over Winter and the other MSCC JockMog members tend to be welcomed and play a part in running those events... There is even a +8 that often took part with it`s luggage rack carrying a wooden box filled with what looked like old style wooden sash window weights.... As if having a limited slip diff was not advantage enough...(-:
home - Monklands Sporting Car Club (mscc.org.uk)
