With an extremely early and sunny spring in Belgium, I have a lot of work to do outside the house, so the Morgan project is a bit staggering. That’s the price one have to pay for living more in the country, in a house with a nice workshop in the backyard, but also with a big garden around it. But still I try to do some things that are progressing the restoration in their own way. A continuous search for parts and technical advice on the internet is one of those things. Looking forward to have some things ready to make reassembling in the future more easy, is another. So I took the front cross member, the empty rear banjo axle, and the brake anchor plates to the powder coat company, to give those parts a nice black jacket. It would take a week or two to have them back so they said, but that was no problem at all, I even found that fast.

But every time I walk in to my workshop, I have the feeling that the chassis looks at me and screams “paint me – paint me, I will look so much better afterwards”. I could no longer resist on that cry for help, and on a sunny Saturday I decided to lay it out in the sun, and give it a go.

My choice is to go for a two pack black chassis paint, as I always used by my other restorations in the past. I think that is a good basic paint, and I like working with to the pack system. Nice, fast, and with a great finish, what do you want more?
So after some sanding down to give the paint a better grip, I sprayed first the underside of the chassis, and turned it after 30 minutes so I could do the top side. And yes, it looks better in black, although I think that the green undercoat was no bad at all. Even my youngest granddaughter found it ok, and she is a very critical judge

I also took the brake shoes and drums to a guy that I know for some times, and that used to work in a car parts company that also provided brake relining services. When the company stopped about two years ago, he simply bought all the machinery and had it installed at his shed in the backyard. And now he does brake relining for friends and acquaintances, just as a hobby. Yes I know and admid, I have some strange friends…

But anyway he did a great job, relining the shoes and having the brake drums rectified. Also parts to put on the shelf for a while, until things are ready to be reassembled, but it gives me a good feeling to know that some pieces of the puzzle are already done.

But the best move I made by far was to contact George Proudfoot in the UK. I been told that he was definitely the man with the most knowledge about Morgan series 1 in the world.
And he also runs the MSCC series 1 spares department, so I hoped to buy some necessary parts for my restoration from him. But it was not easy to find a date that suited both of us, phone call after phone call followed, but finally we made an appointment for Friday the 13e…   For superstitious people real horror, but for me a very good choice. Now I could combine that with the Beaulieu Spring Autojumble, because the motor museum is only about 30 minutes from where George lives.

Visiting George has been a (great) experience on its own. He is a charming helpful man, and he really knows everything about the subject. A series 1 encyclopaedia on two legs, packed with good advice and some amazing tips and tricks. The work I saw from him on a few cars that were in his workshop, made me realise that despite my experience with restoration projects, I still have much to learn. Great respect man!

I had a lot of old parts with me that I had to re-use, and for a lot of them I needed his advice. No problem at all, with patience and experience he has gone thru the whole pile of “junk” with me. And then as a cherry on the cake, he provided me with a lot of otherwise nearly not to find parts. It has made my day and the displacement to Fareham really, really worthwhile. Again, thank you George!

The next day I had a good English breakfast at the hotel, and was rather early at the autojumble. But that gave me the time to search and find a lot of useful parts, and that turned out to be mostly electrical parts for use in the end stadium of the project.

But if there is one thing that I learned from the past, than it is, if you see something on a jumble that you can use: buy it! Later on can be never again, and than your stuck with the stupid feeling “if I had…”
So when I returned to Belgium in the late afternoon, it was with a very good feeling and an empty wallet. Happiness can be simple to archive .