Ulf Soderback has been restoring
a Left Hand Drive Series 1 Eight two seater and this is his story
of the car and its restoration
Chassis no. S I/E 130816; Motor no. 131003
was exported to Sweden in 1937 and the two pictures show it in
April 1938 when it at last had found an owner in Sweden. Although
it came to this country the year before Ulf thinks that the approaching
winter season made it difficult to sell. The blanket over the
radiator in April suggests that this is a likely explanation.
The spare wheel is missing on the Eight and the arrangement of
the cars was to give a comparison of the size of the two cars.
The picture below shows the car with its interim number plate
(red with white figures). Because the "Difusa" frosted
type headlamp glasses were never approved in Sweden clear Lucas
glasses were fitted
.
The three pictures below shows some pictures
of later owners. Before Ulf bought it the car had 13 owners and
was reported as scrapped in 1956.
Somehow it survived and popped
up 20 years later, when its new owner, a 84 years old, made the
car driveable without restoration.
When Ulf saw the car for the first time,
he thought it looked very decent and had not the slightest idea
how things should be. At least from the front the Eight looked
not so bad when I first saw it. The worse then from the back -
slanting and wry.
It
had been fitted with a lot of Bosch items and the carburetor came
from a moped and none of the ancillaries were correct. There was
a curious American ignition coil with a lamp inside, the lamp
could be easily removed which was an effective way to prevent
the car from being stolen.
This led to the years of research to get
the correct specification including every single bolthead marking,
how many (23) holes in the firewall to plug with welding because
of earlier owners´ inclination to mount a lot of accessions
and so on...
When dismantling the car, Ulf found the
original dark maroon colour, which, he thinks is much better than
the fire-engine red in these pictures.
Ulf bought the Morris in 1982 and kept it
in its as found condition until 1988. During this time, it was used
as few as 5 times; The photo shows one of those exclusive opportunities
("beautiful house - not mine" says Ulf!).
It
had been fitted with a lot of Bosch items and the carburetor came
from a moped and none of the ancillaries were correct. There was
a curious American ignition coil with a lamp inside, the lamp
could be easily removed which was an effective way to prevent
the car from being stolen.