This all started when I got an email from the captain of the Dai Hard 24 Hours Of LeMons team, who will be bringing the first-ever LeMons Daihatsu Charade to Thunderhill in a couple of months. He'd just bought a '69 Morris Minor woody wagon and had it shipped over here, and he lives a few blocks from me. Did I want to come check it out?
It's not really supposed to be on the street quite yet, what with the utter lack of California-legal paperwork, but what the hell- we put it on the street for this photo session. He's already into the Kafkaesque ordeal of the California DMV Experience, but feels confident that it should be fully legit in the near future. The car is very solid, with hardly any rust (though some of the rotted woodwork will need replacing). And hey, check out the Lucas battery!

Yesterday, an impressive 98% of you took a grim view of the grim reaper Malibu. Today, we're going transatlantic by way of Canada, so don't forget to bring your passport.

Hoping to avoid the mistakes made following WWI, the United States and her allies created the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in order to administer the Marshall Plan at the end of the Second World War. The Plan was intended to provide war-shocked European nations with the capital and means to jump start their economies, as well as to stave off the encroaching commies.

One of the objectives was to get Europeans back on into manufacturing cars, engendering travel, trade, and tourism. For this to have happened, factories were rebuilt, and new car designs spilled from drafting tables across the continent. Due to post-war material and resource shortages, most of the new car designs were small, frugal and, in many ways, very innovative. In Germany there were the Messerschmitts and Isettas, in Italy the Fiat 500, in France the 2CV, and in England, the subject of today's quandary; the Morris Minor.

The Alec Issigonis-designed family car debuted at the 1948 Earls Court Motor Show in several guises: 2 and 4-door saloons, a convertible, the lovely ash-framed Traveller wagon, as well as panel van and pick up models. It was truly the car for the British everyman, and came in a version that would appeal to anyone.

The Minor 1000 arrived in 1956 and took its name from the updated 948 A-series motor under its prominent bonnet. This engine, backed up by the sturdy BMC 4-speed manual provided a top speed of nearly 70 miles per hour, and a zed to 60 time of- well, let's just say Minor drivers should plan to never be in a hurry.

Today we have a fully restored Canadian Minor from 1965 in a lovely shade of English white, with a complementing red interior to jazz things up. It is powered, modestly, by the 5-main 1275 A-series, a simple and bullet-proof engine if there ever was one. The Weber carb should rightfully be replaced by a proper pair of inch and a quarter SUs, but other than that, this car appears sound as a pound.

As the car is located in Calgary, it is expected that the thirteen-five asking price is in those dollars with the fancy lady on them, rather than those with the gents in lady's hairdos. That being said, $13,500 Canadian works out to about $12,300 Obamabucks. That's not too bad, and a lot less than what it would cost to do a restoration on a Minor yourself. But still, this is but the lowly coupe, not the more desirable convertible or Traveller, so you'll have to think whether this was the right model for the seller to restore.

So, for that price, is this '65 Minor your cup of tea? Or do do you think that price is too major for this minor?

You decide!

Kijiji Calgary or go here, if the ad disappears. Thanks to Boosted Lego Wagon for the tip

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You know, these newfangled cars just don't have the style of the postwar stuff... and we're not talking post-World War II here! Nope, we mean the Great War! Ah, 1919, a year when tens of millions dropped dead of influenza and Red Summer raged across America, with lynchings aplenty. Plenty to be nostalgic about! And you'll conjure up the spirit of that wonderful year as you drive this 1919 Dodge T on a Chevy Luv chassis (go here if the ad disappears), which can be yours for the 24 Hours of LeMons-friendly price of just $400. In fact, anyone who enters this car in LeMons is 100% certain to win the coveted People's Choice award, no arguments... but we figure it would be just as much fun as a daily driver. It's got Isuzu running gear, so you figure you might be able to get drivetrain parts, and you've already enraged the Dodge purists at that point... so you might as well go all the way with a huge 1919 Influenza Epidemic-themed mural airbrushed onto the thing. There's no way to tell what kind of condition it's in from the photos, and the description is sketchy to put it mildly, but we're guessing it needs more than a bit of TLC.

The problem with that Dodge is that you can kinda see what you're buying in the photo, plus the Isuzu chassis might actually be capable of moving under its own power. You can avoid those problems by simply taking the plunge on this 1948 Morris Minor truck (go here if the ad disappears). There seems to be an engine in that photo, and what might be some body parts, but otherwise we're stumped. The seller's description may have to be enshrined as the Official Poem of Project Car Hell:

1948 Morris Minor
good parts truck
rear end
stearing,
motor
trans
springs
Make OFFER

So there you have it! Imagine heaving these rusty Morris-themed parts into your garage and staring blankly at them, wondering if there's any combination of blood, sweat, and cash that might cause them to resemble a running motor vehicle.

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This car has lived on the island for quite a while, and it runs fine. Its owner also has the '69 Olds Cutlass convertible we saw not long ago, plus a '69 Dodge Dart we haven't seen yet. And that's not all the cool old iron on this block- just across the street from this stable of street-parked classics is the home of the '47 Plymouth and the '54 Ford. Yes, Alameda truly is the Island That Time Forgot!


The interior is in excellent condition, and looks all original (except for the aftermarket gauge cluster and door speakers).


A no-rust British 50s British convertible is a rare sight in most places, but this is just another day down on the Alameda street!

It goes without saying that we love station wagons, and what could be better than a woody station wagon? Why, this pair of Morris Minor Woody Travellers! There's a Buy It Now of just $4500 for this package deal, which is comprised of a '70 from Blighty and a '64 from New Zealand. The '64 runs and drives (well enough to limp onto a trailer, at any rate) and is allegedly 100% complete; the '70 supposedly drove when it got off the boat from the UK, but the seller describes it as a parts car. The '64 is allegedly rust free, and you get three engines and three transmissions with the deal, too. Remember, even though the initial $4500 cost seems like a lot, as the seller puts it: "If you restore one of these woodys, you will have a classic worth thousands of dollars."

Naturally, we have to match one 2-for-1 British car deal with another, but what do you do when there's a big price disparity between them? Well, when you're starting with this pair of MGB-GTs, including one with a Toyota 20R engine swap for only $1500 (go here if the ad disappears), you budget extra money for a big power upgrade! Like, say, this bolt-on supercharger kit, available for just $2695 new! Yes, it's for a 22R, but you'll want to ditch the 20R for the common-as-hell-in-junkyard 22R, anyway- hey, if the car is already set up for the Toyota R, it'll be a bolt-in (unfortunately, a stronger differential that won't vaporize when faced with three times the intended power likely won't be a bolt-in affair). Of course, we can't guarantee a blower kit meant for a Toyota truck is going to fit under the hood of an MGB, but you'll sort that out. What you get with these cars is one sorta complete Toyota-powered '68 and one '73 that's missing some stuff; in the words of the seller, the previous owner "did metal sculpture for a hobby and every time he needed a piece of sheet metal he went out and cut it off this car so it needs a nose." But so what? Build one good car out of the pair, add a blown 22R, and you'll have Ferrari-esque acceleration to go with that Pininfarina-designed body!

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