Talk Morgan Forums Community Welcome Forum The Morgan I grew up in, now a daunting task...

My childhood memory of being in this car, huddled on the floor of the passenger footwell, trying to get a bit of warmth off of the heater before the side curtains let them escape off into the Indiana winter cold (seriously, I fit in that footwell, 4 years old?) is one of my earliest.

A few years later, enjoying summertime rides, asking Mom to "make it shimmy" (IE. going over 70MPH)and watching people doing double-takes, seeing my sister's cello "driving" the car (right hand drive, with the cello riding shotgun, a strange thing to see in the colonies)...very good memories.
Did I mention the fact that it was a +4 four seater?

When we moved from Indy to a rural northwest Indianapolis area (including a very steep hill with winding gravel driveway) Dad parked his '56 Morgan +4 4 seater into his new pole barn...about 1970.

No idea of its true origin, but it did come with a real enclosed boot; "Thunderbird style" as Dad says, pictures to come. It supposedly came from a Japanese businessman who imported the car to the US. All I know is Dad bought it from a used car lot in Indianapolis around 1960.

When my parents downsized last year, I now found myself the owner of:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bzyp_TBTkjQXczlDdjR5UmFlODA&usp=sharing

Sorry for the out-of-focus cellphone-camera pictures. The wood floor sounds solid, and the frame only has surface rust. The clutch was depressed during attempts to tow/park it onto the trailer, but is stuck in the down position. It took 2 car guys (one foreign car bloke as well as me) to figure out where the clutch throwout fork was (and that included me jiggling the clutch pedal)...we were used to it being a big bulge on the bell-housing. During last Saturday's assessment it was also found that the TR4 motor had seized (though hoping the aero-kroil squirted in the cylinders will help over the next month).

Thus, the "daunting task". I have googled the F out of the web, and have found lots of Morgan sites, but with lots of parts information....lacking specifics.

It would be nice to have an excel spreadsheet, knowing that in what year/model:

engine/mfr/bore/stroke
trans/type/mfr/clutch
front brakes/type/mfr/(pads|shoes)

but at this point all I have is Dad saying it was a "moss" transmission, but really a Jaguar....

--Ken

Wow. You've really got your work cut out there, but how fantastic to have that family connection and childhood memories of that car. The phrase "labour of love" is often bandied about when talking of car restorations, but in your case this will clearly be so. Best of luck with the project, and looking forward to seeing photos of progress.

Good luck Ken, I'm sure it'll be worth the effort to have a special car with so many memories back on the road.
You'll probably find www.gomog.com an invaluable source of technical information as well as plenty of advice fom Talk Morgan members when you need it.
Do keep us posted on progress, preferably with pictures!

Hi Ken,

Quite a bit of work to be done,but with that Family history....priceless!

Ken,

All I can say is you are one lucky bugger. Not only do you have a great looking car to restore, but you will have enough conversations to keep this forum going for months. The experts on here will provide you with advice, contacts, suggestions, what not to do and how not to do it. Alongside that will be the rest of us putting our two bobs worth in and picking up a wealth of knowledge as well. Good luck and keep the photos coming as your project progresses.

Hi Ken,

Welcome to Morgan ownership.
If it still has a Morgan Moss box, these are different to the Jaguar variety and at least one of the Jag variants has no compatible parts. One of the others is much closer, but still not an identical box...

It may also be worth you hunting down a few of the Morgan books (there are loads of them). One entitled "Moggie", long out of print but does appear on the used market, will help with the Moss box compatibility.

Also, Dennis Glavis, of Morgans West (out on the West Coast), is a mine of information on these cars.

Oh, BTW, welcome to the forum!

Hi Ken, welcome to the forum and very best wishes for your restoration.
Great set of photos.

Ken

A warm welcome to TM.

A fantastic story and what a project I take my hat off to you taking this terrific opportunity on and I wish you the best of luck with every step of your journey.
Thanks for all the photographs already supplied, we will be eagerly awaiting any progress as you know we are all pretty keen, there is no such thing as too many pic's on TM.

Hi Ken,

What a great project and the family history makes it a real labour of love.

Looking forward to hearing details of your progress in due course and welcome to TM.

Cheers

Brian

Hi Ken,

I *love* stories like yours. Best of luck with the restoration.