Sign written today in Wimbledon.

 Took the van to the head quarters of R G Jones in Wimbledon SW19 to have the sign writing carried out. I'm glad the tennis had finished but it was still a nightmare journey.

 Some of the sign writing was not to their liking so it was removed by the guy doing the job. It still looks good, maybe a nice drop shadow on the lettering would also improve it still more.

Also had to load up with four large horn speakers, they will be mounted on a frame and then mounted on the roof to play period fifties music to Her Majesty The Queen and her guests while the van is on display in Buckingham Palace gardens.
I will have to get up early tomorrow morning, I will have to leave home at about 4.30 am to "book in" at the check point in Constitution Hill SW1.
Wish me luck.

OBL 432 has been having a right Royal clean up.

The JB van has been having a right Royal clean up and re-paint.
A very special and important event in London, means the van has been having a long overdue tidy up.

 The cleanest the inside has been in many years.

I even got around to re-fitting the "mates" seat, removed many years ago when I had to change the fuel tanks sender unit.
Further details and I hope some pictures to follow shortly.

Yet another J type Pick-up found and its in Thailand.

While trawling You Tube video's for all things Morris my friend M.P. came across a whole batch of video's from a Thailand Motor Museum.
The place is large with all manner of vehicles from around the world.
Many have there original number plates so you can see what part of the world some of the strangest ones came from.
Many sport UK number plates and I wonder what their owners would think of them now. At the beginning of this video a rough J pick-up can be spotted sitting outside awaiting its turn to be restored, in company with DC3 Planes, helicopters and host of other Morris minors, Morris Oxfords, mini's, BMW, Merc's, and even a Wolseley 6/80 etc
The J pick-up truck is right at the start of this half hour video, about 20 seconds in and again about 57 seconds.

Link to video here.

Facebook and J types?

What a combination of old and new technology.
A Facebook page has been started by some owners to spread the "word" about our old vehicles to the young out there. They after all will one day be looking after what vehicles we leave behind.
It seems that the idea of the "page" has done what was intended.
A new van, up and till know unknown to us has surfaced in North Island, NZ.
Here are some of the owners pictures.
He is into customising but maybe something he throws away can be saved and used by another J van owner.
I have already asked one of my e-mail friend to pop in and make face to face contact with the owner. (and get those all important numbers!)
Another example of a small world?
Check out further pictures here.http://www.nz-hotrod.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?8243-The-quot-I-must-be-crazy-quot-Project

The Morris 100th Rally at Cornbury Park.

About 1500 vehicles present over the weekend, a sprinkling of J vans but as we had gone to the rally in a November 1951 Wolseley 6/80, it's those cars I photographed the most.

From it's once splendid condition, the well rallied GPO mail van of C.B. is starting to look a little shabby in some places. Come on CB your trusty steed needs a very small amount of TLC.

The J type registers J van rally this weekend.

Quality vans on display.

More buses than vans in this video, it does give some idea what happened on the Saturday.

Four Australian J type van owners managed to get to Wythall, why did you miss this event?

Yet more "New" J type vans found.

With the finding of the HVP Postal van you would think the number of J vans that are still out there waiting to be discovered would be small.
And yet like buses, another two vans have been found and are now in safe dry storage.
One civilian one and one ex-GPO mail van.
We have all the details on these vans but the owner has asked us to respect their privacy and withhold this data at the present time.
In a way the restoration of these vans has already started, with the wheels being freed off to be able to move them and a full list of expected parts required has already been made.
These are both JB vans and were both on the road prior to being stored in far from ideal conditions.

GPO J type vans 60 years ago.

These interesting details taken from the GPO archives by Mr C Hogan. POVC.
On Wednesday 21st May 1952 a GPO mail van carrying HVP High Value Packets was intercepted by raiders. The 3 Post Office employee’s were violently attacked and their van stolen with a loss of £200k.
They were carrying old bank notes that were destined to be burned.
From then on these HVP vans had an alarm fitted and were followed by other GPO vans as the police were unable to provide an escort for each van.

No such HVP J type van has survived until now. (If the van turn out as good as the photographs suggest this will indeed be an interesting vehicle).
No trace of the alarm system seems to have survived but the different partition fitted (no sliding door) is a big clue to its former use.
Further details shortly.

Did you know? In 1950 the GPO ordered 3000 gents Universal bicycles and then a further 3000 in 1952.

In the 1952 Engineers-in-chief report, states the following problems with the new Morris J vans.
They were having operation and maintenance problems. 

1, Jumping out of 2nd gear.

2, Main wiring loom and starter cables had both given trouble owing to chafing at various points needing many additional clips to be fitted.

3, The starting handle brackets failed when used.

4, The battery box lids hinges needed improving to improve access to the battery master switch.

5, Many complaints about poor heating and ventilation.

From then on existing vans (whose drivers had complained) were converted to opening windscreens at a cost of  £4-12s-6d each, from November 1952 all GPO produced J vans where fitted with opening windscreens on the production line.
The first of these to be registered was MYE 100 in spring 1953.

6, Many GPO drivers complained that the driver seat were to high, a problem I’ve found, you almost have to duck your head to see through the top of the windscreen.
The GPO solution, where necessary the wooden seat base was made 2 ½ inches lower. That cured that problem.
Further interesting gems are yet to be uncovered.

Further pictures of the former Work Ambulance.

Point to notice is the roof has been cut back and fixed to the tops of the doors to give more headroom.

Inside the van were many boxes of bits, spare parts, new and old all wrapped up in old local newspapers from the 1980's.

Cut down door pocket cover, gives more light inside the van and better all round visibility.

A side valve engine but with out its cylinder head.

Overall a very sound van, rare as well and should be kept as an Ambulance.