Project Phoenix.
Not long after I had walked away from Project Enid, I was offered the chance to help out a forum member, on the Morrisminorowner.co.uk , called Dave (Dave S) who had a bit of a dilemma.Dave had 3 Morris Minors, one of them- a four door saloon, was sitting outside in all weathers whilst awaiting renovation. Dave was thinking of scrapping this car .
I had not thought about using a Saloon as my project, as I have said, even though I had previously owned a lovely late '53 , 2 door version in Black.
When I received a picture of this 4 door, actually taken on it's 49th birthday "09-02-09", looking very sorry for its self- well ! As we say ,the rest is now history.
So the above project came out of my search, primarliy on the M.O. uk forum ,and the generosity of two Forum members-Dave and his good friend Kevin (DaveS and Orkney).
So,through the generosity of one , along with his good Lady wife, and the casual insistence of the other, who knew the proper condition and value of the car-
"I now had my Retirement Project !"
Orkney- I also suspect, read between the lines , and assessed that Daves car was "too good to go" to that great scrapyard in the sky. I also think that Kevin suspected that the car would receive the correct attention it deserved ,in the hands of someone keen enough to take it on in the first place.
I decided that as I had found the car through the forum, it was only right that it's members were given a chance to name the project-I never liked the idea of having a" horse with no name"anyway.
A Poll was conducted for me by a certain Mrben-as I did not know how to run one myself in the early days- and the results were very interesting.
The Poll revealed nine suggested names amongst them were,Smithy,Lucky,Cybil,Duff,Old Red,Rusty,Red,Llama,
Red Ox, Duffer 2,and finally "The Phoenix"-surprisingly nearly all the names were none gender specfic. I have to say though, I personally liked the names Rusty and Lucky-"it was and I was".
I "felt" the car was going to be a "she",as someone once quoted " whether it wears dirt or a skirt-it'll give you trouble".
Upon completion of all voting, there was a tie for first place, between "The Phoenix" and "Lucky " both proposed by Jonathon and Mrben respectively.
I asked Dave , my sponsor, to cast a tie-breaker vote, and it was his casting vote which "Christened" the project- "Phoenix"he wanted to drop the "The" ,and hopefully the car would be rising from the ashes, within the next couple of years.
I would have been happy with either name, because they both fitted the circumstances perfectly.
Here is "Phoenix" on her full first day, at my house , on a cold but dry March morning, approaching her 50th year celebrations.
She is sitting patiently, awaiting my initial probing and my "limping" around her -as best I could- to assess what I have , what is required , and what I could do to keep busy, until yesterdays exertions have subsided.
The car is in front of the integeral garage, which I built over a period of 12 years-" to prepare for this moment".
My Wife thinks that I built the garage, with the two extra bedrooms above , to give our family extra living space !
Wrong, -------I had to put something up there to extend the roof over, so the garage had a cover on it , lol. My only regret was that our neibours at the time ,considered it too much of a problem to them ,for me to build a bigger garage extension-for me to attain more car space.
So as I see it now , I'm presently the "Gaurdian" of the car,and during my ownership I intend to be the "enabler" to put back on the road. I am hoping that the car will be renovated to such a standard that it will last another 50 years.
I feel its a bit of a priveledge to be owning her at this time,a significant age milestone of 50 years, this coming February 2010.
I am also hoping that future owners,(including our Daughter Kathryn Louise- MA,) will be able to see this part of the cars history, if I can record it all properly-who knows what they'll all make of it?
This period of time has lots of advantages in technology which will allow the recording of such things.
I'd love to be able to see some of my previous cars or personal events that transpired in my history! Sadly many have either been forgotten or just were never photographed or recorded in any way.
Finally I want to say that I am quite staggered by the generosity of some classic car enthusiasts, not only giving cars away, but the continued support in advice and materials-many free parts, all of which go to help "the cause" that is really wonderful. I in turn will continue that tradition, by helping others as and when I can.
She is sitting patiently, awaiting my initial probing and my "limping" around her -as best I could- to assess what I have , what is required , and what I could do to keep busy, until yesterdays exertions have subsided.
The car is in front of the integeral garage, which I built over a period of 12 years-" to prepare for this moment".
My Wife thinks that I built the garage, with the two extra bedrooms above , to give our family extra living space !
Wrong, -------I had to put something up there to extend the roof over, so the garage had a cover on it , lol. My only regret was that our neibours at the time ,considered it too much of a problem to them ,for me to build a bigger garage extension-for me to attain more car space.
So as I see it now , I'm presently the "Gaurdian" of the car,and during my ownership I intend to be the "enabler" to put back on the road. I am hoping that the car will be renovated to such a standard that it will last another 50 years.
I feel its a bit of a priveledge to be owning her at this time,a significant age milestone of 50 years, this coming February 2010.
I am also hoping that future owners,(including our Daughter Kathryn Louise- MA,) will be able to see this part of the cars history, if I can record it all properly-who knows what they'll all make of it?
This period of time has lots of advantages in technology which will allow the recording of such things.
I'd love to be able to see some of my previous cars or personal events that transpired in my history! Sadly many have either been forgotten or just were never photographed or recorded in any way.
Finally I want to say that I am quite staggered by the generosity of some classic car enthusiasts, not only giving cars away, but the continued support in advice and materials-many free parts, all of which go to help "the cause" that is really wonderful. I in turn will continue that tradition, by helping others as and when I can.
The car was originally supplied by the Jones Boys, who ran the Imperial Garage in Pwllheli, North Wales. It was first registered in the County of Gwynedd. The present Registration is a replacement one issued when the original one was transferred, previous to my ownership, to another car. (originally the present reg of OAS 386) was issued in Nairn, not far from Inverness in Scotland.