Wear out a Morgan gracefully

Preferring not to allow the Morgan to gather dust in the garage. Weather permitting, it's driven with enthusiasm at every opportunity, and with the hood down.

From acquisition day with less than 7,000 miles on the clock in 2011, it is now approaching 70,000 miles, but with little or no change to good performance or cosmetic good looks.

The bodywork and underlying mechanics are sound and the M.O.T. regularly passed with hardly a comment. The majority of maintenance is done by myself and I have only once suffered a breakdown when the radiator failed. The common weakness here was rectified later by fitting an all aluminium radiator.  All the fluids are regularly monitored and changed.

Particularly impressive is the way the ECU keeps the engine in tune. Starting is instantaneous and the engine has always run perfectly. This includes several trips abroad using all kinds of terrain and types of road. To get a flavour of these ventures, see elsewhere on this Blog.
As well as the radiator change I have renewed the rear brake shoes, replaced disk pads, replaced sliding pillars with hard chromed ones, sheathed the pillars in leather to keep out dirt/grit. Replaced a master cylinder, added spotlights, added triple horns, replaced washer fluid tube, added a clock and voltmeter, renewed the auxiliary ribbed belt (very simple to do), adjusted tracking, tied down all loose wiring, renewed perished parts of the cooling tubing. adjusted the handbrake cable, greased the spider universal joints to the transmission and steering. Oiled the leaf springs and hangers from time to time. Bled the brake system several times. Made a dashboard of wood and more recently a wood steering wheel and matching gear knob. Kept a log of all work carried out, together with mileage and dates on which this was done.

I have a decent hydraulic jack and axle stands for getting safely underneath.

In the garage, I normally drape a softcover dust sheet over the top.

A planned trip to Cadiz had to be postponed this year  (2019) because of a minor medical issue and lack of free time through childminding duties. However, there have been some lovely ventures and newly discovered venues closer to home in the south-west UK, including Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo.