Featuring a tailpipe more often assciated with a blunderbus, which was only exceeded by the reach of the towbar, the car was still in exceptional order on inspection. Mechanically, I wasn't too worried, but to have had this amount of money spent on it, it seemed likely that it would drive ok too. It didn't really. First impression was that the gearlever had an enormous degree of travel in all directions, to the point that it had dislodged the floor mounted console in which it was housed. The steering pulled strongly to the right - a bit unnerving as it wanted to veer into the oncoming traffic the instant you looked elsewhere. After reaching the open road, the car still felt as if it had a very lean mixture, and ran better with choke on. I checked the temperature gauge, but it wasn't working. I turned on the heater to check we had water. No heat. Damn. Stopped and raised the bonnet. Water was fortunately present and correct - and quite hot - so some items wrong there. A few other things, like the oil light, were not working on the dash. Those things aside, it drove happily enough, and a check of the tyre pressures made no difference to the steering. The trip was completed safely and without drama.
Seat upholstery - brilliant. Fitting - bad. Rear seat squab was located by some weird fabricated brackets that allowed it to migrate at will. New carpets were fitted in a shocking fashion - with large unnecessary cuts wherever there were fittings on the floor. No real problems for me - but shame for whoever spent all the dollars it must have cost. I was in possession of the previous owners address, and there were over $12,500 worth of receipts for work done to the car - mostly by the same outfit. As the list of defects grew, I felt obliged to write to the chap and advise him that his money was not being well spent. Some of the mechanical bodges and cockups were baffling - some outright dangerous. The handbrake cable - instead of being routed beneath the rear axle housing, had been draped over the top, where it had neatly worn half way through the brake fluid pipe. Not the sort of work one would expect from a mechanic. I had to remove the dashboard as it had been assembled incorrectly, and was loose and squeaking badly. In doing so, discovered that the car had originally been brown (copper fire). The bootlid appeared to be from a 1.8HL, and some other bits seemed mismatched - probably a donor car was used to complete the rebuild.
I replaced the water pump, radiator hose, repaired fuel tank sender, replaced instruments, replaced head gasket, suspension bushes, rebushed the steering rack, refitted handbrake cable, replaced disc pads, reapired drivers door lock and numerous other things that were fiddly but essential. If there were one criticism that could be aimed at whoever rebuilt the car, it would be total lack of attention to detail. The failure of the head gasket probably stemmed from a failure to retighten the head after initial settling in. Apart from the gearlever problem, which will entail dropping the box out, I now have it running pretty well, and the tuning is also hugely improved.
Besides lowering it, I fitted some wide steels from a Triumph - either Spitfire or GT6 I gather, but I managed to find a set of Spitfire centre caps for it, and the original Marina nuts and caps worked perfectly.
1981 Morris 1700