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Hi Everyone,
I thought that you might be interested in seeing photo's of Doug. Townsend's [my first cousin and another of Williams grandsons ] 1926 Bullnose Morris that he built from the scrapheap! Also the story that goes with it, I think he did a fantastic job. This is one of three cars that Doug has rebuilt. regards PeterT.

The Restoration of RP 3229
1926 Morris Oxford 5 Seat Tourer
During 1990 we were looking for a 4 seater Bullnose that I could restore .Our Cowley, a 2 seat & Dickey Coupe we felt was a little dangerous for our two young grandsons who delight in driving in our vintage cars. Whilst browsing through the Automobile I spied a 1926 Oxford 5 seat Tourer for sale. Two months later it was still for sale and having found a photo of the car in the 1969 Christmas magazine of The Bullnose Club I checked it out with The Register of Surviving Bullnoses & Flatnoses I discovered it was possibly the last Bullnose Oxford to come off the production line (only 20 were set up after RP and none of those have surfaced) and decided it might be worth seeing.

A trip was arranged to see the car, it was in a poor state.
Eventually a deal was struck and the car was delivered to a cottage we had at that time in Mid Devon where it slept awaiting my early retirement. In Dec 1992 we took a trailer down and hauled it back to Gerrards Cross.
The car had been found by Fritz Spiegl musician and writer in 1958 in a lock-up in Liverpool. Photo's show that it was in quite a state at that time. Ian Jennison who was then a Bullnose Club member was given the job of restoring the car and it was in Fritz possession until he sold it to a dealer in 1989.
Once the car was home I spent sometime surveying the vehicle wondering how to go about the restoration. The body had been lead loaded along the bottom 6 inches very badly. It was decided that the body would have to come off. As I removed the valances they nearly disintegrated in my hands, this did not auger well for the rest of the body. Amazingly the floorboards were original, complete with part No's and in excellent order without any trace of woodworm.

A team of friends were organized for the Saturday 7th August 1993.With great care the body was lifted off the chassis then gently lowered onto the front lawn and turned upside down. It was at this stage that the full extent of the work required was revealed. The bottom runners were both rotten, one cracked in half as we lifted the body off. The wheel arches and the rocker rails under the rear doors were also in a poor state. After some head scratching the body was moved to the rear of the garage were it would be worked on. Visits were made to High Wycombe the centre of the chair making industry, where some good quality ash was found in the correct sizes. A good friend (Dave Dixon) a fellow old car buff loaned a bandsaw.
As I started on the body it was obvious that I would have to take great care otherwise the body would lose its shape and the doors would not fit. Each side was tackled separately, and the various pieces taken out very carefully. The side with the cracked runner was tackled first. Having taken the runner off, the problem with the rocker rails(under the door) was revealed. The rocker rail is made in two sections then scarfed together. With great care I managed to get these out separately, but both were disintegrating and had to be stuck together. Cardboard patterns were then made. The great difficulty was the various angles, some of which were lost due to the fragility of the wood. This was my first experience of a bandsaw, but I soon got the hang of it. Gradually all the pieces were re-manufactured (not without error!) each side being completed before moving on to the next. We managed to cut the bottom runner on the band saw, as this was 10 feet long help was needed to push the ash through the bandsaw, having previously transferred the actual shape from the old rotten runners. Eventually the woodwork was complete and new metal wheel arches formed. Having treated the ash, the body was turned up the right way. What a moment, when the doors still fitted and the body looked straight. At this point new galvanised steel was let in around the back of the front seat, although this and the wheel arches were my first attempt at metal work, they went in very well and even looked professional! I then started to remove the paint from the body, using firstly a hot air gun, then paint stripper, it was finished off with fine wire wool and white spirit.

The bottom six inches of the body were very rusty and flimsy and needed replacing. As indicated earlier an attempt had been made to "lead load". Having taken stock I decided that it would have to be done by a `professional'. Some phone calls were made, one said "oh yes I can do that". So the body was taken to him. He looked at it and said "It will have to be reskinned" and quoted an enormous price and wanted to do it in aluminium. As I wished to retain originality, I restarted my search. Through the Automobile I found Bernard Fuscoe in Iver Bucks. He came looked at the job and quoted a price to replace the six inches all round, re-skin a door, and recover the bonnet louvers. Good to his word he did the job for the price, in the agreed time to a high standard. While this was being done the chassis was collected from my friend David Dixon who had stored it alongside his 1934 Rolls Royce 20/25 which he was restoring at the time. On the return journey behind his BMW I felt like Zebadee as I bounced along diong! diong! diong!.

The chassis was in remarkably good condition, just surface rusting in places, apart from under the radiator, but even that did not require any attention. The chassis was stripped to bare metal, then given 4 coats of Smoothrite. The bearings were all checked, the nearside rear bearing had a slight click so was replaced. The steering box had play so was stripped down. An ex work colleague put the mast in his lathe and trued up the bottom end, which was oval. The dimension was sent to Colin Watson a Bullnose Specialist in Norfolk who manufactured a new bush for the bottom of the box, still a little play in the gears but not sufficient to give problems. The Smiths shockers were taken apart and found to be in good order, (This being one of the last Oxfords made, the Smiths are correct) so they were stripped, painted and reassembled. The brake mechanism and linings were checked and again found to be in good order. The back axle was drained; the cover removed and allowed to drip for a week. When inspected the crown wheel and pinion etc all looked fine, so decided to leave well alone (What ain't broke don't mend!). All the gunge from the bell housing was carefully removed a new gasket made, then the cover replaced.

Half way through the chassis work the bodywork was completed. So a trailer was hired, the body collected, and off we went to Parkstone Trimming Centre, West Howe, Bournemouth for the trimming to be commenced. When purchased the car was trimmed with vinyl and enjoyed bits of upholstery from 50/60's cars accept for one seat back that was original.

Once the chassis was complete it was time to look at the engine. The engine fitted in the car when purchased was a pumping engine No 5764.The original engine was sold separately by the dealer but I am pleased to say is now back with the car, although not yet fitted. This happened through the good offices of Margaret Goding Registrar of the Bullnose Morris Club who kindly forwarded a letter to me which she had received requesting information about the original engine from a club member. Contact was made and eventually I collected the engine and it is still standard bore! Engine 5764 was removed from the chassis. The clutch corks were smooth with the plates, so were quickly despatched to Colin Watson for re-corking. The bottom end was checked, all the journals were in good condition. There was one question concerning the tightness/or lack of in the big ends (more of that later). At top end the valve seats were pitted, so a seat grinder was borrowed and these were re-profiled. The valves and head were taken to Ring Engineering in Hayes who refaced the valves and planed the head at a very reasonable price and a same day service! Apart from these points the engine appeared to be in excellent order (having I am reliable told completed less that 5000 miles having been found boxed in Wigan in the 60's) Before reinstalling the engine it was gently `bounced' on a thick carpet to remove as much of the crud from the water ways as possible. Then this was craned back into the chassis, carefully lining up with the gearbox etc. The gearbox had previously been drained and I had peeped inside, and then decided to leave well alone! (This has proved to be the right decision).

Parkstone Trimming arranged with Connolly’s to produce new leather to the 1926 spec. My thanks to The Bullnose Club Historian Robin Barraclough who kindly supplied a sample in the shape of an original pocket flap which Connolly’s used to check that all was correct. After some delay the leather arrived at the trimmers and they got on with the job this included making the carpets from carpet to the original spec supplied by The Bullnose Club. Parkstone Trimming also had the seat cushions and backs made. The long awaited phone call came to say that the job was complete. So off we went with a trailer to collect. It would have to go back for the finishing touches later.
By now the chassis was completed, so was sheeted down in the garden. The first job to be done to the body was to remove all upholstery that was moveable and the balance covered very carefully as the body was to be prepared for spraying. You are probably asking why have the upholstery done before spraying? reason being the logistics of an end on double garage and already having two other Morris's, in a word `space'. The next question was how was I going to spray in a garage that is only 8 feet wide. The answer was to spray the body on its own. Rubbish skips were scanned for balks of timber, and from this two trestles 18 inches high by 5'6"long constructed. This way I could slide the body around which gave me room to spray. A booth was made by hanging sheets of DIY plastic from the garage walls and ceiling, this also helped to avoid spraying the Cowley which was now at the rear of the garage.

Some years ago I had purchased an Apollo 500 `Hot Air' spray gun that has been used successfully by friends, but I had never used. So this was my first attempt. A friend of ours owned a paint franchise, as I had done them several favours they insisted on supplying the paint for the job. They mixed an original colour Oxford Claret (Jaguar Burgundy) and also came and gave me some very useful lessons on spraying. Many hours went into the preparation, but finally we got down to putting the paint on. I lost count of the number of coats but it was in excess of 20.The final result is quite acceptable, although I plan to improve it in places later on. The Apollo did an excellent job and I found it easy to work with, better to have the cellulose thin than thick!

While all this was going on, the nickleplate had been away to Taylor’s Plating at Banwell, Avon, who did a good job. Sometime after the car was purchased it was found that part of the windscreen was missing and the top rail was cracked in so many places that it could not be recovered. So replacement parts were supplied by Cooks of Wigston Leics, made up, then plated by Taylor’s.
As mentioned earlier the valances were in a bad state, and had to be replaced. So sheet steel was purchased that had been guillotined near to size. Fortunately the old ones were useable as patterns, they were laid on the new metal and carefully marked round. The metal was then cut to size with shears and jig saw. To get the correct shape a 6" plastic stench pipe was `G' clamped in place, this was then placed on the lawn and rolled, the result being an excellent valance!

Having completed the spraying it was time to commence putting it all back together and remember where I had stored all the various parts! Somehow or other they gradually came to light. When the body had been taken off it was found that there were laths of hard wood between body and chassis. These were held in place by pieces of string through the boltholes and must be original. So the first job was to remake the laths and replace them in exactly the same way. Having replaced the bottom runners I had to be very careful to get the body in the correct position, this was completed by trial and error. To get it in position we rolled it on rollers that were then removed once the body was in place, this made the job very easy.
When all the fitments had been replaced on the body it was time to look at the hood. This had been covered in material used for making raincoats this had been supplied by the late Lord Cagan of Danimack fame, a friend of the previous owner(and the late Harold Wilson!). The inside was tartan which was different!, but the material on close inspection was perishing. When the material was taken off and the hood frame exposed, it was discovered that the frame had been got at and needed some specialist attention. The completed car was then returned to the upholsterers for the hood, hood bag, tonneau's and front carpets to be completed. Parkstone Trimming sent the hood frame to Cooks for them to sort out. It turned out it needed quite a lot of attention.

In late January the call came that the car was ready, just at that moment I had been through a flood with my Renault 25 and suffered pneumatic lock in the engine as the result of a low down air intake that sucked up water into the engine. So being without a car, a professional was called in. Rudler Car Transportation of Swindon Wilts, did an excellent job. They collected the car in a covered trailer from Bournemouth and delivered to our home for a very reasonable charge. Parkstone Trimming had made a superb job of the interior and hood, the car was back as near as original as it is possible to be.
Eventually we were ready for MOT. The car was taken to Stoke Poges Motors for the MOT on 28th Feb 1995 and passed with no problems at all.
On the 5th March we took it on it's first run, the Morris Register London to Brighton, which started in Battersea Park. We had a good run until just before Hand Cross when petrol starvation set in. After the halfway stop it got worse, so a spare Smiths Carb was fitted in pouring rain! and appeared to solve the problem only to return after about 50 miles on the return journey (cold petrol soon corrected). Driving the car after all the work and effort was a real joy, the car drove well the engine was good. On the return journey a rumble was noticed on the overrun that suggested big ends! So during the next few days the sump was dropped, once the oil had stopped dripping, I was on my back to check them out. No 1 was the real culprit where two shims each side were removed, No's 2,3,& 4 had one per side removed. The engine now runs very smooth and no rumbles! Soon after this an SU Carburettor was purchased and the fuel starvation stopped. I have had to replace the Crown Wheel and pinion after 6000 miles. One of the valve seats lifted at 3000 miles, the engine was stripped down and hardened seats fitted together with bronze bushes and stainless steel valves.

Since putting the car on the road we have travelled around 7000 miles, we did a sponsored drive to Liverpool and back and raised £14,000 for the Roy Castle cause for Hope Appeal. We regularly rally the car with the Bullnose Morris Club and Morris Register and take part in Charity Events when ever possible. The above written by Doug. Townsend.