Charlie Grahn in Canada has sent this photo showing the state of play with his restoration. It’s really coming along! Check out the side-valve gallery (by clicking the Morris~Commercial badge on the right) to see what it looked like before work started, some eighteen months ago. Brilliant work Charlie, on a very rare Canadian survivor.
Check out Charlie’s bog at http://www.victoriajvan.blogspot.co.uk/
Classic Van and Pick-up features a four-page article on JAV 160, the 1953 Morris~Commercial J-type still sporting its original livery. It’s a shame it didn’t get top billing on the cover!
Also in the mag is a photo of the ex-GPO Utility PUL 580, and an advert for an Austin 101 pick-up which may be unknown to the Register. Hopefully someone will pass on info about this one.
Register member Pam Mulholland has sent this photo of 585 TFM at the Austin/Morris day at Brooklands racetrack, its first show following its thorough restoration. The Austin 101 is signwritten with the garage name of her husband’s first work in 1960! The Mulhollands are aiming to bring their van to Gaydon for the Classic Commercial Rally, where we hope to get a number of Register vehicles together.
Register members Pam and Bob Mulholland recently sent photos of their Austin 101, painted and ready to put back together. It is hoped that 585 TFM will attend a few 2012 rallies, possibly including the Gaydon Classic Commercial Display.
Another Oz J type is to change custodianship. The van which originally was from Wangaratta in Victoria is leaving Steve Hartnell’s care and travelling the 2500 Km’s to Sydney to become a very pampered van for my plumber! Steve has been looking after this van for many years and it has travelled from Victoria to Darwin and then on to Cairns.
Before leaving North Queensland, Alan Hurst, the custodian of JB 46632 (the Sahara van-Bertha) went to take the attached photographs. Not bad eh? Look at the atlas and check out Cairns. It is in Queensland, Australia and is closer to Papua New Guinea than to the state capital, Brisbane. And here, we see two J type vans! Almost like the Scarlet Pimpernel!
Peter Bateman Sydney February 7, 2012
A few days ago, Register member James Hewett sent in a greetings card new to me, by well-known designer and illustrator Emma Ball. It is a lovely addition to any collection of J-type ephemera!
Emma has a website at http://www.emmaball.co.uk/ where I found another card with a similar drawing on it and also a 2012 Calendar. Since the calendar was for sale at a reduced price I ordered one, and the other card. The items turned up a couple of days later, beautifully packaged in a carton that made it impossible for the postman to bend; neatly wrapped in tissue paper were the items themselves. I was so impressed.
Let’s hope Emma adds more J-type designs into her range.
Australian member John Beaton sends details of this Morris J/B van for sale at the moment on the Just Cars website. A second van advertised a week or so ago on the same site apparently failed to sell. This van is known to the Register and appears in the Morris J/B gallery.
While children around the world were trying to stay awake and catch a glimpse of Father Christmas, he was enjoying a feast at Doyles Fish Restaurant.
Thanks to Peter Bateman for the photograph.
To J-type owners and enthusiasts everywhere. All the very best for 2012!
Yet more from our intrepid Oz photographer and reporter of all things J-type. Peter Bateman writes:
“The attached are of Ian Booth’s old van from Christchurch, NZ. Now owned by Ben Doyle of the famous Sydney fish shop family at Watsons Bay, the van has found a new home. Any J enthusiast who wants one of Sydney’s best presented fish dinners can now enjoy their feed whilst looking at a J. After coming across the Ditch (the Tasman Sea for those geography pedants) the van was given the correct documentation for road registration by the local mechanical firm IFIXEM. Then a short transport stage to Bathurst for sign writing before another transport stage back to sunny Watsons Bay.
Not looking too bad for a van which was restored about 8 years ago. Now Iain has a reason to visit the Big Island!”
We have added the photograph and three others to MORIS J’s gallery page.
