Where it all started.
Like most 17 year olds I was desperate to get my first car! Unfortunately with insurance prices being up to three times the value of the cars I was very limited to choice. The very first car I actually had was an old Vauxhall Corsa that I shared with my mum! All was good for the first year, mum put in the petrol and I used the car :-)!
Soon it would be my 18th Birthday and I was running out of things to modify on the Corsa! So instead I started browsing eBay to see what goodies I could find on there. I had always been interested in classic cars and at the time my dad owned a Morris 8 and a Sunbeam Alpine. Getting my hands dirty was also not a problem as you will see from the 'other projects page'. After spending silly amounts of time with my eyes glued to the eBay classic car screen I decided that my next project would be a classic car!
At first I was looking at cars like MG's and small softops but after a few insurance quotes that idea was binned! Very quickly!! The only real cars that I liked and that had sensible insurance was the Morris Minor and the Triumph Herald. At this point in time I preferred the Triumph herald for its more sporting looks and very useful tipping bonnet and wings. Again hours were spent on eBay and looking through classic car magazines to see what beauties I could find. After lots and lots of research I came to the conclusion that although the Triumph may look a bit nicer, with my limited budget a Morris would be a sensible choice! With this decision made I went to my parents and asked for a Morris 1000 for my 18th Birthday! :-) I was willing to put all my £600 towards it and then my parents would pay the same amount that they paid for my sisters polo a few years ago £400! So all in all I had a budget of £1000 pounds.
After we had narrowed down our search to a handful of Morris minors we set out on a sunny crisp Sunday morning to go and view them! The first car we went to see was 1/2 hour away and was owned by my great Granddad! He is a very wealthy man and bought the car as a wreck. 4 years ago he had the car completely rebuilt by a Morris minor specialist and he had used it only a dry days 'for fun' ever since. We pulled up to his very big house and there it was, gleaming on the large driveway sitting so proud! I absolutely fell in love with it! It was perfect! The colour was old English white, the bodywork was very straight and true, and the interior was immaculate red leather that had an amazing classic car smell as you opened the door! Everything was gleaming! I knew this was the one I wanted but then reality kicked back in! My £1000 budget would never be able to afford such an amazing car! Chris said it was going to auction soon and so feeling a little down I thanked Chris for showing us round the car and moved onto the next one. From adverts that read 'Good condition' in the paper we saw cars with holes the size of tennis balls in wings and chassis rails that make jelly look tough! After a long day I was very disappointed! The only good car was well out my reach!
Time went by and I constantly kept pushing adverts in my dads lap! Annoyingly he never seemed that interested or never wanted to ring them! Little did I know that this was for a reason! I was starting to get annoyed, every advert I showed him he 'rang at work' and it always came back with a problem! Was there anything good out there?? I couldn’t stop thinking about the amazing Morris that Chris had and the fact that very soon it was likely to be auctioned off!
A few weeks went by and still no sign of a good car. The before I knew it, it was my birthday! 20th December! My family did the usual thing, my presents were all laid out in the lounge before I had even got up! as we were walking into the lounge my parents said that they were sorry they couldn’t find a good Morris like you wanted but we will give you the money instead and you can save up a bit more and get a good one after Christmas. As I opened my presents I came across a very small box that was from Mum and Dad. I opened it up and I was blown away!!!! A SET OF CAR KEYS! I was over the moon! Unfortunately they keys were for a VW and were the same as my sisters Polo keys! I was excited that I had a car but still at the back of my head very disappointed that it wasn’t a Morris Minor! My parents took the keys and said "it’s parked up the road! you guys look out the window and I will go and get it" Meanwhile my mum told me about the car "its a light green" she said as I felt more and more upset she said "Its got a bit of rust but dad can sort that out" I felt here we go! I have a lime green banger! My sister jumped out her seat and shouted "OH MY GOD! HERE IT IS" I launched myself up to the window and at that moment in time I felt like crying!!!!! Cruising down the road through the frosty morning light fog with its little side lights gleaming was Chris's 1959 Old English White Morris Minor!!!!!!!!!
I could not thank my parents enough!! Even Chris left his insurance running so I could drive it around a bit during Christmas!!! I quickly threw on some clothes and begged to take it for a drive! Me and my family got into the car, I carefully crunched it into reverse! :-) and off we went! All of a sudden I felt like I was driving something alive! The car had character, its was a machine that would tell you if anything was wrong, you could feel everything in the car working away! It was truly mind blowing! People out for a Christmas walk around the village waved as I cruised by feeling like royalty listening to the track of the beautiful burbling exhaust!
And that is how I became the owner of my 1959 2 door Morris Minor!
