Talk Morgan Forums Community The Malvern Arms Fathers old Morgan - Project

Hello
I have joined the forum as my father has a morgan which he has owned since the late 60's. However for the whole of my life it has been in parts in his lock up garage as he before i was born he dismantled it with the idea of rebuilding it. This however did not happen and he seems to have a new set of priorities (my children - his grandchildren). To cut a long story short he would like to sell the car as a project as it seems a real shame that such a great car is in bits, where an enthusiast can really get their teeth into it. Is this a good place to find people interested in the car? and if so do you know what kind of price morgan projects fetch? Im also considering doing the car up myself... but i think it could be beyond my capability (especially as i have two very young children. :-)

I'm just trying to find out the best direction to take - if this is viewed as an advertising email then please take it down and accept my apologies.

Welcome to TM.

Perhaps if you find more information as to model / year etc. and post in the For Sale / Wanted section?

Alternatively, you could talk to the likes of New Elms (Tim Ayres).

I would not guess at what a 'project' should fetch - it very much depends upon the condition of various parts (as it would with a complete running car...

Cheers,

thanks graham.
i will talk with the admins about posting an advert in the for sale section.
i will get a spec list for the car - but i imagine that the engine would need rebuilding and many of the parts replacing.

Thanks

Anthony

Welcome Morgan Cherry,

Can you find a chassis nr ? and pictures please.

Cheers Rudy.

i will give him a call and get as much info as i can.

i have found out some more info.

1960 Morgan 4/4 in morgan BRG
There have been extensive modifications undertaken by morgan racer Griff Griffiths (he died shortly after doing the work on my fathers car in a powerboat accident)
the modifications Griff did include:
race prep. Ford Escort 1300 engine
Ford Corsair 2000 gearbox
Woller Remote change
hand crafted exhaust manifold
oversided front drum brakes
modified standard morgan wheel to take wider tyres

my father says that everything is there, but the car would pretty much need to be rebuilt as it has not been used for over 35 years.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks

Anthony

Andy
Spec does not wholly add up.

1960 car will have discs - Morgans were the second manufacturer to fit discs after Jag, mid 50's on I think.
1300 Engine is odd, given the car will either be a 1500 or a bit more as standard. Common tweak to Morgans of that vintage is to fit a 1600 crossflow (1960 is pre-crossflow). There is something in my mind about fitting 1300 pistons to a 1600 block but I'd need to some reading on specs to sort out what the full story is.

The 1600 and 1300 engines are easily told apart as the 1300 is exactly the same - but shorter. It's going to look too short to the experienced eye.

Ford Corsair 2000 gear box is almost certainly a 3 rail 2000E box, and if it is, well worth having - nice ratios and much sought after. Will fit both pre and crossflow engines.

Widening Morgan wheels was another common thing to do, but beware, Morgan wheel centres are not really strong enough (although some did get away with it). Much better to widen and offset alter a VW wheel as the PCD is the same.

I suggest you don't rush into selling, but get some help in determining what you have. I can see a whole range of values here.

Rebuilding a car from bits is always harder than if you took it apart yourself, but you'd get plenty of help from here, and these days, dead easy to get loads of folk looking at your pictures.

Whoops - I've been looking up the spec of a 1960 4/4.

Brakes - yes the 4/4 of this vintage was drums, only the +4 was discs.
I can see some logic now to the engine size as it's not much off what was fitted when new. Car probably is a Series 2 4/4, and the standard engine was both small and by today's standards feeble at 1172cc.
Could well be 16" wheels in which case, not easy to fit VW centres and make stronger ones. But the wheels you have could be the later 15" ones.

Needs careful examination

I always thought that the TR3 was the first UK production car to have discs. That was in 1956. I think that Morgan offered discs as an option in 1959 and they became standard in 1960 (on the +4 anyway, can't find the info on the 4/4).

Jag certainly fitted discs before Triumph, but maybe not on production cars, Citroen were also earlier but not UK?

Malcolm

Malcolm
Yes, wikipedia thinks the same, but I was sure I'd seen Morgan were after Jag. Suspect a lot is hanging on the meaning of 'production' and the fact that Morgan did, and still does do a lot of things if you pay for them that are not in the standard specification.