The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Is it a car? Is it a truck? Is it a train? No it’s John Steele’s Morris ‘cut-down’.

by Willy Carson

Back in the 1920s and into the 1930s, tractors were a rarity on small farms in Britain and Ireland. For the more enterprising farmer, wishing to increase efficiency in his field operations, the growing number of expired motorcars offered an alternative. An old Morris ‘Bullnose’ Cowley may have come to the end of its life as transport for the local squire, but providing there was some life left in its mechanical components, it had the potential to become a tractor… of sorts…known among today’s vintage eccentrics as a cut-down; for obvious reasons.

The first task in creating such a mechanical marvel was to remove the bodywork rearwards of the scuttle panel and, with the rear chassis exposed; the first modification could be made.

For heavy draft use in an agricultural environment the typical British family saloon chassis would have experienced stresses beyond its design specification, but having been built for rougher roads in rural America, the Model T Ford, many of which were long passed their best days by the 1930s, had a stiffer chassis so a cut-and-shut operation was performed adding strength to the basis of this new contraption.

The main design differences between early cars and tractors were a result of their required torque characteristics. The car only had to propel, from rest, its own weight and that of its passengers and their luggage. Once this initial task had been performed its power could then be used to accelerate the car to reckless speeds of 40mph and beyond. The tractor’s job, however, was to drag its own weight, the weight of its driver and his dinner bag, as well as a plough or cultivator as it fought against the resistance of the soil. The secret was to increase the torque available at the back wheels of the tractor by reducing their forward speed while allowing the engine to run at the upper end of its rev. range and so deliver a large proportion of its maximum power. To make this all happen the clever farmer would simply fit a second gearbox between the original ‘box and the rear axle, select a low ratio, fit some suitably agricultural tyres, bolt in the original seat, fix a clevis at the back, attach the old horse plough and then sell the horse.

John Steele is in the driving seat, John McKibbin is sitting on the plough and Robert McKibbin is standing by the plough. John’s cut-down began life as a Morris light commercial vehicle, before being converted for a new career working in an orchard in Co. Armagh. Shortly after he bought it, the clutch began to show signs of significant wear but since the friction face was made up of a series of cork pads, a home-made repair seemed the obvious option. “I bought a box of corks from a DIY wine makers’ supplier, cut them to size and fixed them to the clutch plate,” explains John, “This worked fine but about three months later the bottom end of the old Morris engine started to knock.” Because of the engine design at the time it was going to be very expensive to repair, so John started to look for another option. He found a 5 cylinder engine in a 1960s Mercedes and fitted that along with its clutch and gearbox. It meant making new engine mountings and a new propshaft, suspension spacers to allow clearance for the sump and then forming a new, longer bonnet and having new side panels fabricated. This being John’s cut-down, it would need some final modifications, “I had bought an old donkey’s cart previously. It was rough and when we went over to lift it, just as we were dragging it out of the shed where it had been sitting for years, there began a real downpour of hailstones. Karen must not have thought much of my new purchase, because she told me to wait until the hail shower had passed in case the cart disintegrated! I bolted the cart body onto the chassis and fitted a new seat base with one of the greedy boards used as a seat-back. The old back crib was beyond repair so I made a new one and fitted all the original iron fittings. The number plate came with the cart so I screwed it on to add the finishing touch. We take it to working days and plough with a John Deere two furrow steerage plough, which would originally have been pulled by a team of horses.” . John was looking for an old Austin car when he came across the

Austin 10. The mudguards were missing and there was a lot of rot in the bodywork, but he had it running about two hours after he had trailered it home. He took it to a show on New Year’s Day and drove it round the back of the field with a five gallon drum in place of the missing driver’s seat! There was a man there with another Austin 10 which had been really well restored, but it was John’s rough old motor that drew the crowds of onlookers. Maybe they were expecting it to fall apart before their eyes.

The bodywork had deteriorated to the point where it wasn’t viable as a restoration project so John decided that, if he couldn’t add value to the car, he would add character. “I wanted to turn it into a pick-up so I cut the roof between the B post and the boot lid. I then cut the top off the two back doors and moved the upper back panel forwards to meet the front section of the roof. I bought mudguards, running boards and seats from a donor car, painted it in matt black and then made the wooden pick-up bed and bolted it in place. It’s perfect for a bit of fun in a show field.” While these two vehicles have gained local celebrity status since John waved his welder in their direction, the third automotive antiquity in this line-up came with established ‘A’ list credentials.

Introduced before Herbert Austin directed his marketing efforts towards the popular end of his range of motor cars with his Austin 7 and Austin 12 of 1922, the Austin 20 was ranked among the most prestigious motors of its day. The prospective owner could add to the kudos of his purchase by ordering a rolling chassis and having it delivered to one of a number of coachbuilders who would add another level of luxury. Options included the Tourer, the Coupé, the Limousine or the Landaulette, the model characterised by its folddown rear hood making it first choice for royalty and the upper echelons of society. John’s 1927 Landaulet has been upholstered with Bedford cord in the place where the important people sit while the driver sits on a leather covered seat, indicating that man-made fabrics were considered more exclusive than ‘utility’ leather. Despite all these outstanding historical features, it is the Austin 20’s more recent history which caught John’s attention, “I saw the motor advertised on the internet. It had been used in the filming of the Peaky Blinders TV show and when that finished the owner decided to sell it. It has a more sedate lifestyle now, going for drives to the coast for ice cream.” Less villain and more vanilla you might say.

Which is the Good, which the Bad and which the Ugly? Of the three vehicles, the cut-down is Karen’s favourite. As for the Bad and the Ugly...