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Betty (BO)

 
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Scouse
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Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 5266
Location: Wollondilly, NSW

PostPosted: Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:12 pm    Post subject: Betty (BO) Reply with quote

Thought it was about time I stuck my cars in here Embarassed , so here's the first:

A bit of history to start:
She was made in December 1948 & is the 728th MM made. It arrived in Australia around March 1949 & was bought by Betty Oldfield who worked for the NRMA. Betty had one of the first sets of personalised number plate sets in NSW (BO-424) but only kept the car for 6mths before selling it (still with BO plates).
The car remained in the same family & was passed down to Mrs Foley, who I bought the car from in 1985. Despite spending it's later years on the NSW central coast, about 200m from the water, it had absolutely no rust at all. The engine still ran but the brakes were seized. The original Platinum Grey was covered in a bright red/orange colour applied with a flyspray gun - they hadn't told the Grandfather about that though Embarassed .

My part:
This was to be my first "restoration", so it progressed rather slowly while I figured out how to proceed. I removed the mechanicals & stripped the body back to bare metal. Most of the original paint was OK but badly crazed (crows feet). The underside was steam cleaned, inspected & just re-bitumened. A couple of minor dings were repaired & I repainted the car in Slate Grey (VW) as it was the closest I could find to the original colour.
Mechanically, the car was fine & the engine, gearbox & diff were just cleaned & repainted before reassembly. The brakes were overhauled & new suspension bushes were fitted.
The interior was retrimmed in Vinyl (couldn't afford leather Embarassed ) & the original wiring harness tidied up.
She was put back on the road just a week or two before the Toowoomba National Rally in 1989 & did the trip quite easily over a few days in convoy with other Morries. She looked OK but not quite as pretty as she should have been as the chrome was still very tatty. Nevertheless, it was my first National Rally & a great experience. I toured around for a couple of weeks after the rally as far as Maryborough &, apart from a bit of overheating, she performed quite well.

2 months later, I was returning from a club run & was T boned by a car coming through a stop sign. After bouncing off the Armco railing & rolling 1 1/4 times, she came to a rest on the drivers side. Despite not having seat belts, I escaped with only a bruised back.
After getting a few quotes for repairs which varied around the $10000-$12000 mark, the car was written off as she was only insured for $6000. I had to buy the wreck off the insurance company for more than I originally paid for the car & started stripping her again.
I finally found a sympathetic panel beater who was prepared to tackle the body repairs for a reasonable price. I supplied a replacement turret & all the panels (all excpet the bonnet, LHF guard & grille were destroyed) & the panel beater set about correcting the damage. The car took ages to repair & the repairer found it a bit of a struggle working with "real" metal. After many months the car was ready, this time in another colour a bit more closer to the original. I again started the task of restoring her to her former glory. I had every nut & bolt cadmium plated (body & mechanical) & rebuilt the engine. Every part was stripped down & painted. Finally, she was ready to have the glass fitted & this is where the problems started.
First problem was that the RH rear side window would fit the aperture. When the repairer had replaced the turret, he cut a few corners & just cut & shut the pillars. The bottom half was OK, the top half not so & the glass wouldn't fit. I had to have a piece of glass made to suit the odd aperture. Next, I found the windscreen aperture was too big, resulting in the centre pillar not being long enough. The repairer didn't want to know about these faults & along with a few other paint problems refused to rectify them. I wound up going through the MVRIC (repair council) & was awarded the measely sum of $1000 which they claimed was sufficient to realign the turret & repair the paint work. Of course, I couldn't even find anyone to touch the car for that money & applied to get the $1000 & repair it myself. This became a court matter & the repairer shot through, never to be seen again (mmm....might do a Google search on him now). So I didn't get my money but at least I caused some grief to the repairer Very Happy .

She was back on the road again in time towards the end of 1990 & has been in regular use ever since. She's travelled to the National Rallies in Wollongong (1991), Ballarat (1993), Canberra (1997), Dubbo (1999) & Bendigo (2001) as well as various club trips & a tour of Tasmania in 1998 with the touring club. She's starting to show her age a bit now with a few chips & scratches over the place, but she still looks neat & tidy and ready to go virtually anywhere Very Happy .
I've since found the code for the correct colour, so maybe in a few years time I'll fix the roof pillars & treat her to a respray to look "right".

Wollongong (1991):


Current (2000ish):


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Markr
valued contributor


Joined: 22 Feb 2004
Posts: 95
Location: Victoria

PostPosted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great looking lowlight Scott. Have you got any pics of the interior to post?
Very Happy Very Happy
Regards,
Mark Yellow Ute


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Scouse
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Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 5266
Location: Wollondilly, NSW

PostPosted: Mon Nov 29, 2004 12:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I should be able to take some pictures of the interior this week & put the photos up Very Happy .


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