The first snow of 2013.

The first snow of this year was due to hit us early this morning, I left for work late, but no snow anywhere.

By 8am there were small flakes.










By 8.30 am

By 10.30am a good dusting.

By 12.00 pm

Time to go home, a quick brush off and we were ready for the trip.

The plastic sheeting stuffed in the grill had been put there in haste as for the last couple of trips the carburettor had been icing up.

Even the Wolseley 6/80 under the car port got a good covering.

Pickford J van is for sale.

I'm told the restored Pickfords J van is for sale, for once NOT on e-bay, eliminates the www dreamers.
Advert states,
For sale..................in Classic Car Buyer

1954 Morris J Type van for sale in Pickfords livery.
70,000 miles.
Very good condition, but not concours.
Selection of spares included.
Owned and well maintained for 6 years.
£15,000
Tel: 01768-341215

The above pictures are NOT from the advert but were taken about 3 years ago.

Looks a good one.

Is it me or is the rear door badge on the wrong door?

Sorry, picking holes again

A covering of snow.

The J van had a covering of snow on it this morning, I was going to Bike it into work today but changed my mind.
Woke the J up and trundled into work.
Very cold this morning, not helped by the frozen sliding window that was open slightly and would not close.
Still the J van did what it was designed for , it was out and about and getting in the way of other drivers, all hurrying to work but despite their best efforts they had to join the crawl.
Talking of J vans out and about, below is a short video of another J now road legal and is out and about.

If your into Custom Vans.

Take one very rusty J type van, spend hundreds of hours and Dollars on it, build a custom chassis. Up-rate engine, gearbox, suspension, electrics, wipers etc.
To suit the new width, widen the front and rear wings by 4 inches.
Give it the "Rat Look", matt black paint.
It might not be your "thing" but in a way the rusty starting vehicle may well have been scrapped by a normal restorer, so in a way this process of customization has saved this vehicle.

Specifications

Vehicle:	1953 MORRIS J-TYPE	Asking price:	$45,000* Firm
Body :	VAN	My Car is:	rodded
Engine Size:	5 Litres	Condition :	perfect
Engine Cylinders:	8	Fuel Type:	LPG
RWC:	Yes	Fuel System:	GAS
Registered:	Yes	Transmission:	TURBO 700
Rego Number:	BKX72A	Drive:	Right Hand Drive
Colour:	BLACK	Interior Colour:	GREY
Advert Number:	JCW3264356

Features, Options & Modifications

• STRAIGHT GAS
• POWER STEERING.

So Price for a 1953 MORRIS J-TYPE , $45,000*

Current exchange rate,  £29,461 plus shipping back to the UK.

DGL 993

 A nice period picture.

Zooming in we can see a Hi-top van, made by cutting off the roof, weld in ten inches of metal all the way around and stick the roof back on!
One would guess it was used for delivering clothes on hangers.

An ice cream van project for sale.

Check out e-bay for an ice cream van project.

I think this was on e-bay last year.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Morris-J-Ice-Cream-Van-/140900920178?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item20ce596b72

In my last post I mentioned this GPO J type, fleet no 42583, turns out its is MLB 591 which is no longer with us. See these data bases do come in handy for some things.
I still want all the numbers of all your vehicles major components. Additional data also required is not only the body number Jxxxxx but also the Zxxxxx number on the body plate. These Z numbers seem to relate to the drawing number they were working to at the time, as modifications occurred, drawings were updated and changes made to the construction of the body. Please tell me yours.

Have a Vantastic New Year.

The data base and period Post Office vans.

Well the J van data base spread sheet has been started. All known chassis numbers of vehicles that  have been noted in the last ten years are listed. Vehicles that are on the road, projects and even the many that have been for sale in newspapers, magazines and the good old internet.

I doubt the list is complete, vans are still being found, vans are still being scrapped and I bet many are in hiding. I even have a picture of a van at a rally taken less than 5 years ago and know nothing about it so cannot add it to the list yet!

I must point out that many Australian and New Zealand owners have been very quick off the mark and have produced many numbers of the major components. I suppose they were quick off the mark as they have better weather than we do at the moment. I still have to get my own gearbox number and I also want to check the date coding of my glass, to give a better idea when the body was manufactured.

On another note, I love looking at old films, street shots are great, you never know what your going to spot driving around in the back ground.

I have been sent a link to a 1961 video, its only 9 minutes long and for me the shots at the 5 minute marks are just great, the local Post Office yard with all the vans coming out.

Sorry cannot post the link to the video as its under copyright.

 Six minor vans with adverts pasted directly onto the body work, they couldn't be bothered to use the standard issue sign boards. You can just see the n/s/f corner of a J van .

 J van fleet number 42583, are you still about? I have contacted the POVC to see if they can give me the registration number for this van.

 Nine minor vans and two J types. The Minor van with the black wings is a rare "rubber wing" van, these wings were made by Dunlop out of old melted down Wellington boots.

As we have had a bit of bad weather the 52 year old Morris Minor saloon has been my daily transport this week, just too cold for biking. With a couple of nights dropping down to minus seven and a night of thick freezing fog the car was the best option.

I took the picture below at 12:12 on the 12/12/12 and shows we had a slight dusting of snow on top of a hard frost.

I hope the weather where you are is better and also there are No mad armed Americans wandering around your local school. 

The body number data base has been started.

What a marathon job this is going to be. I started off designing a data base and have had to modify it several times already.
To be able to add data as and when, the format of each item is important as most items are a mixture of numbers and letters.
Take the engines fitted to our JB vans, various versions fitted and now many vans have had updated items fitted, reconditioned items and totally non original items fitted.
Thankfully Standard JB van engines are easy to track.

BMC 'B' Series, 1947 to 1981.( First real 'B' series was in 1953.) 

BP, at the front of a JB engine number denotes 'B' series, 'P'ush rod ohv.

The first car to use the 'B' series was the M.G. Magnette ZA, in 1489cc form.

Based on the earlier Austin A40 Devon 1200cc unit.
Engine codes.

ie. BP15M was a 1489cc Morris Oxford. 

     BP15GA  was the ZA Magnette of 1489cc. 

     BP15GC  an improved ZA Magnette, with full flow oil filter. 

    BP15GB was the first MGA 1489cc engine, 

    BP 15GD followed it.

    BC16GB was the MGA Twin Cam, 'B' series, 'C' camshaft. 

1956 to 1970 'A', 'B',  engine Prefix. 

The 'BP' prefix was dropped once BMC had its three engine types, A, B, and C. 

Again, there is a prefix, consisting of a number, then letter/letter/letter, then the 

engine number. 

      Cubic capacity             Make             Compression 

  8   803cc             B  BMC Industrial      H   high comp 

  9   948cc             G   M.G.                    L  low comp 

  10  1098cc          A  Austin                              

  12  1200cc          W Wolseley                           

 12  1275cc           H  miscellaneous                    

 15  1489cc           J   Commercial                       

 16   1588cc          V  Van den Plas          

 16   1622cc          M  Morris                  

 18   1798cc          R   Riley                     

ie,  15W / U / H  1234    1489cc Wolseley 15/50, central gear change, high comp. 

15GE / U / H 1234   1489cc M.G. Magnette  Mk3, central gearchange, high comp. 

16AMW / U / H 1234  1622cc Austin, Morris Wolseley Farina, central gear, high c. 

16GA / U / H 1234  1588cc MGA 1600,central gear change, high comp. 

15AC / N / L 1234  1489cc Austin 15cwt van, column change, low comp. 
If any one out knows of an engine production list thats shows production dates, please let me know.
So the numbers I'm after for this list is engine,gearbox,front and rear axles, chassis, body and a new one, the triplex glass code as this could give an indication of when the body was made. Remember chassis and body numbers are different and the van bodies were made in another part of the factory and delivered in batches.

Triplex Glass date code.

Remember you are only dating the glass of the vehicle and it is best to check as many of the pieces of glass as you can.

First you need to have an idea what age the vehicle might be, well to the nearest 10 years at least.

You now need to look for two dots, one dot will be above the letters T,R,E, or X

 (in TRIPLEX) and gives the quarter of the year the glass was manufactured.

T=Jan,Feb,March

R=April,May,June

E=July,Aug,Sept,

X=Oct,Nov,Dec.

The second dot to look out for is below one of the letters in the word TOUGHENED.

T=1, O=2 etc (if no dot the year is zero).

Therefore a July 1955 J type should have glass with a dot above the letter "E" in TRIPLEX and a dot below the letter "H" in TOUGHENED.

This is only a rough guide but might be of interest to you all.

Body number plates.

I have another "bee in my bonnet " very un-apt for a bonnet less J van.
Our vans have chassis number and these are recorded on the vehicle "log book".
It has been recently felt that BODY numbers should also be recorded while we still can.
The reason, well lately some vans have turned up that have lost their chassis plates as they have been stripped of parts/larger engines fitted etc and also with out the "registration plates" it is very difficult to date a J type.
You can of course date it from the Triplex glass code if the glass exists.
Now I would like to go one step further and the Oz and Nz group (MCJTV) have been a great help in various owners supplying data.
I would like to record the following.

 Front axle number

 Rear axle number,
Chassis number,
Engine number (original if known),
Gearbox number and
Body number.
(Remember this has never been recorded apart from on the factory production record).

The Body number is on the right hand side of the Nuffield Metal Products plate, Fixed to the body behind the grill and below the radiator. In this case body J 41842.
Why do I want to do this? To help others, the list of year by year production figures at the bottom of this blog have helped a few owners to date their vans, body numbers could help to increase the accuracy of this list.
This could help owners who have had age related Number plates issued and also project vehicles out there that have NO identity.
As there could be a small risk of vehicle identity theft, this data base would NOT be published but genuine enquires would be answered.
Owners names, addresses, phone number, e-mail address or vehicle registration numbers are NOT required and will not be recorded.
I doubt I will get more than a handful but I hope at least the owners that are currently doing restoration projects will take the time to make a note of their Body number. Go on surprise me, give me all your numbers.