A Dream That Came True

by Mike Thorne, a member of The Ferguson Club

About 30 years ago, I dreamt that I had bought and restored a Morris 1000 pick-up and painted it in my firm’s colour of BMC Lime Flower Green.

I should explain that a few months after my 21st birthday, in 1959, I bought a brand new Morris 1000 Pick-up, XXM 572, from Henley’s of North London for the sum of £370-0-0 plus £7-10-0 for the passenger sea. It was pretty basic, no heater and no form of directional indication. The day I drove it home, my father left the family!

This little Morris served me well, clocking up 187,000 miles before it was scrapped. To achieve this, it required 3 Gold Seal engine and gearboxes. (Gold Seal was BMC’s trade name for it’s rebuilt power and transmission units) During the course of it’s life, the chassis had to be replaced; the commercial Morris 1000, unlike the passenger models, had a separate chassis.

On waking, I felt, well that is a good idea. So, that is exactly what I proceeded to do! I soon found that there was a sad looking 1968 Morris 1000 Pick-up in a barn at the nearby village of Winkleigh. I approached the owner, who had used it in connection with his forestry work, and he seemed very keen that I should buy it for renovation. I cannot remember how much I paid for it – if anything! Anyway, my long-standing friend, Robin Haughton, and I soon had it back home at my workshop at Lower Park, home of my Coldridge Collection and work commenced. We took off all the mechanical units, this was followed by removing the doors and body panels, leaving just the chassis. As Robin and I picked up either end, with the intention of putting it into the scrap metal skip, it folded in half!

The next stage of this project was to make a preliminary list of replacement parts required. At this time, there was a firm by the name of Hendrix of Nottingham who specialised in Morris 1000 parts and they were able to supply a replacement chassis, fabricated using thicker steel than the original! They were also able to supply a pair of front wings, repair parts for the door bottoms, inner rear wheel arches but sadly not the outer repair kit. Fortunately, Robin’s skills overcame this problem! The

engine rebuild was entrusted to Chris of Kar Engine Services of Barnstable, a most competent machine shop man whose speciality at the time was service exchange cylinder heads, all complete, suitable to run on unleaded petrol. The gearbox was rebuilt by the late Gordon Rogers, the proprietor of Mid Devon Motors in Winkleigh, using all genuine BMC parts. The rear axle just required replacement bearings, as did the propshaft. The rear shock absorb had to be replaced but the front ones were still serviceable. All parts were ordered, and paid for, from Hendrix, and Robin and I drove my Peugeot 504 to pick them up.

To start off with we gave the chassis two coats of heavy duty black paint, and then a good dose of Waxoyl. Then it was a gradual process of building up the suspension and installing the braking system and the engine, gearbox, propshaft etc etc..

All the body panels were repaired by Robin, and then taken to Peter Clarke of Lapford for priming and painting with two pack BMC Lime Flower Green. Peter, of course did a first class job. They were very carefully brought back to Lower Park and we started bolting it all together.

A new windscreen was fitted by Autoglass and I was able to persuade their fitter to install the rear window as well!

After Peter had painted the four wheels, which are slightly wider than the car’s, new radial ply tyres were fitted, so we were now getting on well. Next we had to install a new wiring loom, new control box and new lights all round. At this point, I did take the opportunity to fit hazard warning lights, a rear fog light and reversing light, I did not bother to have the seats or door cards retrimmed until it had had it’s MOT done, which it passed without a hitch. Then the vehicle was taken to Exeter Motor Trimmers to have the seats and door cards recovered, and they also made a very nice cover for the load space.

The final work was to have the signwriting which was done by Ken Back, also of Exeter. He did this in the traditional way, by hand, with a brush. The type face I used on my vehicles was Consort Light, the letters have a slightly exaggerated serifs, some of which Ken chose to join together. It looks the ‘cat’s whiskers’!

Back in the Autumn of 2020, I had our local body shop tidy up the rust patches which they did without any ‘damage’ to Ken’s beautiful signwriting!

Since being put back on the road, it has clocked up a further 25,000 miles of mainly dry weather driving. It is a very nice balanced vehicle to drive and it so often gives bystanders a smile, as well as always giving me a good feeling!

Mike Thorne.

Footnote: Mike has a wonderful collection of Tractors and Implements at Coldridge Nr. Exeter which you can visit by appointment only. Mike does not make a charge but does ask for a donation of at least £5 for the local hospice, which he has been supporting for many years. His phone number is 07966 328600. A tip, from experience, take your sandwiches and a thermos!