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.

Another JB van is rescued and restoration has already started.

The story of this van. The current owner of this van purchased it in 1984,  He stripped the van of the doors, panels, engine & other bits off the van and transported them and they have been in safe storage ever since.

The owner finally collected the van and transported it from about 60 miles south-east of Melbourne to his home about 100 miles to the north-west.

He is embarking on a total restoration and the van is already up on axle stands.
It is remarkably rust-free & complete in all original details under all that neglect damp; grime and  sump oil. It was kept in open storage since the mid-90's. - the sump oil coating was intended as an improvised conservation technique and it does seem to have worked. 

It is hoped that the new owner will start a blog/web site so we can all see the progress of the restoration or if not, carry on sending pictures to me and I will post them here.

The only part that is missing is the Metal Driver seat frame, any one have a spare?

Rather a lot going on in the J type world.

 The blue project van currently on e-bay is doing rather well, good news that people out there are willing to take on a big project. Also in view is another J van in Ambulance trim. Both these vans came from the same collection. It is thought the previous owner lost them as he had not paid his storage fee's for his collection of vans for over a year, so the landlord cleared them out about 6 months ago. The current owner of the Ambulance, I'm pleased to say is planning a full restoration and it is hoped we have persuaded him to keep it in Ambulance trim. There are not many of these left. Also we have now gained the chassis number and date of registration, so another gap in the J van data base has been fill.

 Picture taken many years ago when it attended a couple of rallies, always on a trailer and often left in the carpark.

News on the J that was recently sold on e-bay I'm told will shortly be moving to Scotland, I'm told it has been purchased for spares.
Another van that has been out and about is a Cummings bodied ice cream van. Registration number JVH 717, currently taxed and MOT'ed and first registered 20/5/1955.
What is strange is I cannot as yet find a picture of this van, any one out there have a snap.
As you know, this blog has two authors, well to go one better a group of us owners have decided to start a FaceBook page for the J van.
Now some of you may know about FaceBook. Well this is the idea.

Facebook and J type vans, sort of chalk and cheese. We all know what a J type van is but what I hear you say is Facebook? Well I would say “Facebook is an online social networking service, whose name stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other. It was founded in February 2004”.

Now there is a “page” on Facebook dedicated to the J van. Now, “why?” comes the question. Well its an idea, as many clubs are finding that “new” members are few and far between. To gain more members who we hope in the future (when we are long gone), will carry on and treasure our vehicles. The greatest slice of the population out there are the young, to reach them we must connect with them, maybe not using the same language (they do speak their own) but at least a medium (not because their dead from the neck up) that they understand and embrace.

Facebook is free, so there is nothing to loose but we might gain.

Of course any J van enthusiast who uses a computer can use the J type page. I hope they do, maybe to post events/pictures old and new/ gossip/ maybe owners going to a rally might post just that to tell other J fans to come along as well. Who knows how this site could evolve, it could become whatever the users want it to become.

Links to interesting web site/ personal blog sites and of course e-bay (so full of mad people now, not like the old days) can also be listed. Anything in fact to raise the profile of the J van and old vehicle clubs.

http://www.facebook.com/SaveTheMorrisJTypeVan?

Or search for Save the Morris J Type Van under pages on your Facebook home page. Any advertising is good, free advertising is better.

Remember Facebook has over one billion active users!!!

One of the first pictures posted on the site was one by Graham Carr, an ice cream van in action, a nice period shot of a working van.

I've never seen this picture before, how many other gem's are out there?

Anyone know anything about this van? Do let us know any details you have.

And too finish off todays posting, another period ice cream van picture, it would seem to be a good idea.
http://www.vividowebdesign.co.uk/russclassicices.co.uk/gallery.old.html

Another e-bay project J type for sale.

MORRIS J TYPE VAN FOR FULL RESTORATION. THIS IS RARE OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE AN EARLY MORRIS J TYPE VAN REQUIRING FULL RESTORATION. I HAVE NO REGISTRATION DOCUMENTS OR OTHER DETAILS, BUT IT IS THE EARLY TYPE WITH THE SIDE VALVE ENGINE. THE ENGINE TURNS FREELY, AND THE VEHICLE APPEARS TO BE NEARLY COMPLETE, MISSING ONLY ITS RADIATOR, LIGHTS, GLASS AND PERHAPS ONE OR TWO OTHER SMALL ITEMS. THE BODYWORK REQUIRES FULL RESTORATION, AND THERE IS DAMAGE TO THE OFFSIDE BODYWORK AS CAN BE SEEN FROM THE PHOTOS. THE VAN COMES WITH BOTH ITS STEEL FRONT WINGS, WHICH ARE ROUGH BUT PROBABLY RESTORABLE, ITS OFFSIDE STEEL REAR WING, AND TWO SPARE RUBBER FRONT WINGS. ALTHOUGH REQUIRING MAJOR WORK, THE VAN WILL MAKE A FANTASTIC VEHICLE WHEN FINISHED, BOTH IN TERMS OF ENJOYMENT AND INVESTMENT. THANKS FOR LOOKING, FOR MORE DETAILS PLEASE CALL JOHN ON 07702274887. DELIVERY CAN BE ARRANGED AT EXTRA COST.

I wonder if the Ambulance van will be for sale shortly?

More J types than you can shake a stick at.

For sale on e-bay.
Morris J type chassis.. Very rare and sort after vintage ice cream van as seen on the main photo are two that have been finished by Whitby Morrison.
This is being put up for auction with no reserve so don't miss out.
You are bidding for the one that needs to be finished.. It has engine and gearbox and very good chassis.
Call me if you have any questions 07540141261

You can tell its a J from the inside view.

Not the best picture of a vehicle for sale.
This vehicle has been a project for many years, its not a project for the novice.
Original registration Number was 5027 N. Also it has an Austin chassis plate, JB/AR.

Needs a fair bit of work.

Here are 3 pictures when it was on e-bay the last time, about a year ago.

Two conversion's already in their ice cream fleet. The badge on 942 BYY looks a bit low or is the chrome grill edge a bit wide? Now 942 BYY is a bit strange, I have recorded on my list 949 BYY as a GPO planners van from March 1960, I don't have 942, so another one to add to the list.

Now another fully restored van is on e-bay and also in various other classic vehicle magazines.

Its the well restored JB van dating from 1st January 1959.

Excellent condition, zero vat item. for more information ring Ian 07711 880510 This vehicle is advertised elsewhere, we reserve the right to remove listing if sold.

Now the North African van I recently featured, well it turns out this is advertising a restaurant in Morocco.

Thanks to Charlie in Canada for the added information.

Another New van to me, is this one owned by Bernie Stewart.

An Austin 101, unknown chassis number or date of registration, I cannot find any trace of it on any government vehicle data base, and yet here it is.

4x4 Morris J type van.

As many J van owners will know, a couple of pictures of YLH 799 have been about on the web for many years. The owner at the time who did the splendid conversion has recently published on his flickr site a full set of pictures of "the van".

I have copied his captions and these are shown in red type.

These were basically single seat delivery vans that were widely used by the GPO and other utility services. The front and rear wings of the GPO models were made of rubber, and the 'dent' on the N/S front wing would just 'boing' back into
shape.

This old van was fairly unique in 4x4 guise, and it performed well enough off-road.
This ex GPO van was mine back in the 1970's. For an experiment I decided to convert it to four wheel drive.

The 4x4 experiment resulted in one wierd looking van ! I added the Turner winch to complete the conversion.
Both BMC marques, Austin and Morris, produced these J series vans. Fundamentally they both looked the same but mechanically the Morris had a side valve engine and the Austin an OHV 'B' series engine.

I sold it to a landscape gardener named Simon who used it for his work. I was living in Birmingham at the time and he was located in London. A mutual acquaintance tells me that when he sold it he regretted it and in fact tried to buy it back. I lost his contact details so hopefully someone will see it and give him a nudge.

Mostly Austin Gipsy stuff used in the conversion, the ratio's matched which meant less faffing about and I had the parts around the place.

When I was running this one my mate had the Morris version, great vans and great fun.
I used an Austin Gipsy front axle, ideal because the 5.125 diff matched the vans own rear axle. I just had to fit some spacers between spring and rear axle to make up the difference in height. I originally used a single speed Dodge WC52 transfer case mounted independantly, this allowed me to retain the vans original 1600 cc engine and gearbox. It soon became obvious that it needed more 'grunt' so I later replaced the lot with a Gipsy engine, gearbox with integral 2 spd transfer case. Thanks for your interest.

Check out his set of pictures here http://www.flickr.com/photos/66663687@N04/8619131060/in/photostream/

Can you add any information about this van, does it still exist?

NGY 953

I mentioned in the last posting that NGY had rather changed since I last saw it.
Here is a copy of the posting I did on the van in 2010.
A rather fetching 1955 Hi Top van. First seen 30 years ago in Hereford.


According to the DVLA web site this is a September 1955 vehicle, un-taxed but with a recent owner change and fitted with a 1489cc engine, colour Brown.

Looking just the same as it did 30 years ago it re-surfaced and was for sale with a classic car dealer and restorer.

As you can see it is ex-Ministry of Defence, Army Transport. Dating from 1955 it's actual use within the Army can only be guessed at, maybe a NAFFI wagon?

Needing a bit of work but on the whole all there. It was advertised for £950 and I assume it sold very quickly.

The new owner has left it with the vehicle restorers David Wall of Wroham Nr Norwich to be restored!!

Also out and about, spotted recently are the Pickford's van and the well known Royal Mail van.

I understand the Pickford's van is currently for sale at an asking price of £15K.