The Burlington Register

 

 

 

 

 

In 1985 I embarked on a project to build my own car as you can see the result is 'not too shabby' It took me fourteen years to complete which includes a number of times that I nearly gave up on the whole idea, nevertheless I managed to finish it and this is the result. I built a beach buggy some years back so I had some experience as to what to expect. At the time I was working for SAA as a flight steward so managed to bring in a few things from overseas, The mudguards are from Burlington Motors in the UK who at the time were making a Morgan replica based in the Triumph Herald. I then acquired a Ford Granada 3Ltr V6 from a scrap yard and set about making a chassis, my first attempt was a disaster. I had Alfa front suspension and Nissan rear. Neither was working too well so I gave that up as a bad job and bought a made up chassis from Kit car centre in Boksburg, (one that was made for thier Lynx roadster. I did quite a bit of research before beginning, buying books and even paying a visit to the Morgan factory in Malvern England where I picked up a fewtips such as the construction of the doors and the bonnet, the difference being that my bonnet is hinged only on one side and not down the middle.

As you can see the finished article hasn't turned out too bad (for an Amateur). The entire project cost me about R10,000 give or take a few cents. It certainly fills me with pride when people stretch their necks to have a look when I drive past in my home/hand made Moggie.

The gauges are from a Jaguar XJ6 because I lined up the mudguards and then built everything in between the interior is much wider than the original and much more comfortable.

The reverse lights and front headlamps come from a bedford truck I found at a truck scrap yard in Pietermaritzburg. The Morgan badge was lazer cut in stainless steel.The taillights are Lucas as used by Morgan. The shrouds are made from truck oil filters, The rims are Compomotive and come from Ripspeed in London. The tyres I bought in Germany and are Pirelli P6 The body is mostly made from 16mm marine ply bracketed together and then all the joins were fibreglassed so it is very rigid, no scuttle shake at all. The bonnet and doors are aluminum stretched over a wooden frame and the nose cowl is also aluminium and completely fashioned by hand as well as the grille. The dashboard roll was padded with a pool noodle!!!