Talk Morgan Forums Community Welcome Forum New Member

Welcome, Nestor From North of France

A picture of Your Car ?

tnaks very much one and all

Hi everyone, I’m Michael and I have just started reading this forum, old Miscellanies, as considering a new Morgan, although now somewhat concerned from some comments. I have had 4 Morgan’s.
The first was bought in 1970 from two ‘Afghan’ wearing lads (only those from the 60s and 70s will know this great fashion !) the Stapleton Brothers (?) in South Kensington, London. Is this now Morgan London? It was from their showroom and perhaps one of the last +4 s built?
There might be lots of minor errors as I have a bad memory due to age etc. ! My first job after my postgraduate and having been living not too far from the factory for 3 years, visited wanted one, and now as funds allowed bought a +4 in a BRGreen .
I still have my monthly wage payroll slip and it was close to £78 a month ! Sadly the car cost me £44 a month……….well worth the sacrifice of little food and flat sharing.
I seem to remember belonging to Smogmog , I remember a nice chap called Chis Woods and John someone,I remember seeing PLU58 on a plus 8 about town and I completed the 1 year hood down challenge, even though on one trip up north to my hometown, having to put my head fully in a service station hand dryer. Happy days.
Sold my first Morgan in the 70s for a blue plus 4 again but quickly followed the purchase of a new signal Red and cream leather plus 8 from my then friend Alf Miles(?) of Phoenix Motors in Woodbury, Devon. This car, I seem to think it was DDL346T - would that be appropriate/likely as I’m now lost with reg dates. I sold it at a good price to someone who was shipping it out to Japan to use. Alf was good to me and secured me a new Black , stone leather interior , Plus 8 , the hot colour combination in 1979. It looked stunning but in hindsight not as pretty and I had to write a letter to Peter Morgan to get the faults sorted! Still have his personal reply and still have the car . I did not have any real issues after the factory and Alf sorted but the battery did fall out on a trip to St Tropez . My rich mate had a 928 and he was so disappointed that everyone looked at the Morgan and not the Porsche. My wife also found the steering too difficult and heavy , so she did not enjoy driving it much.
Sadly it’s in the garage and not been used in a decade, with only 17/18K miles on the clock
Excuse is, I’ve been real busy for 20 years and now retired have some choices to make. My wife always said when we sold our equity rich house in London and move to the coast I could buy a supercar. She has kept me here in London until I probably cannot get in a supercar , no longer sure I want one - her plan all along perhaps.
So some decisions need to be made in 25. I seriously thought the new cars would be super reliable, super easy to drive , so I might buy one. I hated the cross eyed era …….so the latest models did retain the visual charm.
The price makes me wince as I seem to think my last Plus 8 was under £4K - - have I lost the plot with that figure ?

Also the new Plus 4 without indicator units , especially in light blue, now looks like Noddys car ( oldies know what I mean).
Are they again trying to make their cars less attractive like all the cross eyed, boat back nonsense that put me off some years back. I guess I am a an old traditionalist but I want reliability, non leaky hoods etc also
The loss of those minor details on the plus 4 and the headlights has put this buyer off…….The plus 8 without the spare wheel , agghh, looks pants !
Squirty stuff in punctured tyres is not for me and my Volvo had to be bought with a spare run flat or I wouldn’t buy it .

Now a real dilemma. I wanted a quick fix, new car, sell the old to someone to bring back to life. I just don’t have the time to get it done myself, although I know a body man who sprays classic cars.

I also want a quick fix because I drive 900 miles ‘non stop’ several times a year in to Europe to my favourite country. Leave late pm or early evening on The Shuttle and I can be in our paradise early, mid or lunchtime latest, depending on toilet stops, roadworks on nighttime German & Austrian motorways. I just cannot drive long distance during heavy daytime traffic truckin, hours. (Try Trieste to Venice to get a plane - it’s trucks on the inside lane all the way, hate it.) Our trips home are always more civilised with stops in Germany or Belgium. I want to do these trips in a Morgan again, until I simply cannot due to age.
Yes I did consider an electric car for normal motoring but all our U.K. trips and European do not lend themselves to this type of propulsion and I like driving through the nights to miss traffic.

This forum might have the answers for me but at the moment my reading of the threads has confused.

Lovely to join you but I will for a while only be reading not Morganing yet…
Regards Morganmike
PS Apologies if all you technical wizards know of mistakes in this post but it’s just my fond memories

As you already have the Morgan then possibly the resto/recommission could be the cheap way to go (even paying a bit of a premium for a rapid turn-round) ... especially if you went the 'lived-in' look ... there are those who value the car being mechanically right but not concours to look at .. thumbs the nose at those obsessed with appearance and encourages adventurous use as less worrying to park up or take down byways ... depends on your outlook.

K

Ps ... I bet good money those guy's Afghans came from Kenny-Market ... got mine there in the early '70s ... all the rage for a while, but if you got them wet they ended up smelling like the animal they were roughly fashioned from!! 🙂

As above, this was when the Judy's paraded around with those stupid dogs of the same name if I recall correctly.

Good luck with your car choice, resurection et al

Welcome please keep us updated on progress.

Welcome also from northern Germany

Funny that you write about "Afgans".

I also wore one -in brown- and have been trying for years (in vain) to describe it to my much younger wife.

A warm welcome. Looking forward to your progress updates.

Here we go several images and some for sale.

Thank you for your welcome .
It is nice to know some of you are knowledgable about my vintage. Buying a car from a mews garage operated by two long haired hippies just out of the 60s, may seem strange .A long way from todays rather formulaic grand sales palaces, Nespresso & crèched up, with suited and booted salespersons, technicians not mechanics and the finance men determined to get you tucked up. Soo wonderful to get a video of the tyres et al and a £900 bill for 3 hours servicing and rebooting the computer…
Phoenix Motors & FH Douglas were old timers, dirt under the nails, knowledgable in all things Morgan, exact opposites of my two hippy friends . Melvin Rutter was always a nice helpful guy, new blood at that time and I am pleased to see they continue in business.

Wet, an Afghan coat did smell like long damp laundry but saved you putting a sheepskin on the drivers seat. Can I also say how much we enjoy our stop offs in Southern Germany. So very beautiful, wonderful rivers, castles and with such interesting old historic towns,….you really do not promote your tourism enough. 2 years ago we drove up the lower part of the Rhine repeating a goodwill school trip I did back in 1960,
Finally :
So used to driving 3 or 4,000 miles over 2 or 3 summer months and need a reliable Morgan ,

Will a new or very late CX do this or is it bring out the old plus 8 and do it up …..I’m unsure . I’ve always told friends the plus 8 was a very fast tractor , rough, ready and powerful but at its age is it suitable - I’m only just about suitable but I’m going to continue to enjoy my fourth quarter. Michael