Just When You Thought Morris Minor Week Was Over ...

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MMW had barely ended when UMPH came across this excellent Morris Minor ute in Burnett Street, North Hobart, and had a chat with its owner's son, Scott.  

Scott's father, Darrel, built the car over a twenty-five year period and only fully completed it recently.


Being a mechanically-minded sort of bloke, Darrel did pretty much all of the work himself, including fitting the Datsun 1400 motor, four-speed gearbox and front disc brakes. 


Darrel also manufactured the custom extractors that can be seen above and fitted the Weber 45 DCOE carby that Scott says gives the car a bit of oomph and makes a fabulous induction noise under acceleration.


One of Scott's brothers did the paint job at the beginning of the restoration and made the front spoiler, while it was Darrel that was responsible for the tray and rear mudguards.

The interior also looks a treat with its wooden steering wheel and colour-coded bucket seats.


One of the few jobs that Darrel didn't take on was rewiring the car, which was only recently done and has made a fair difference to its reliability.


Darrel, Scott and other family members enjoy getting the car out for the occasional drive, especially around their home town of New Norfolk, where it attracts lots of friendly attention.


A car like this one is a real gem:  it's got style, personality and a great history, and it's a bit of a show-case for Darrel's talents, too.  





U M P H

(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

All iPhone images.

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