HELP WITH SUSSING OUT THE CORRECT YEAR PLEASE...

[alexb]

Hi All.

I was wondering if anyone could help me out with trying to suss out the approx year of this Moggy soft top.??

Ebay item: 151152000045

Ive only been looking for a few weeks and have seen this one which im very interested in.
Its a converted saloon, that much i do know but is it a 1970 ?

The speedo is the thing that jumps out at me as NOT being 70's...

Could anyone confirm this ?

Many thanks.
Alex

[theminorsite]

The dashboard switches do look earlier - not the best pictures to see from but it looks like a pull-start, and that definitely isn't right on a 1970 registered car. Ask the vendor for its id number from the bulkhead plate?

[Vernon]

Clap hands wipers are wrong for 1970 - they changed to tandem about 1964.

[alexb]

Perfect..
Thank you for the info.

I'll break the news..

[busguy]

VIN number apparently is M/A255D1284043M. A 1970 saloon VIN? So doesn't look like a factory built convertible, and shell has early 60's features, not 1970? Body number would be useful confirmation if it is a 1970.

[bmcecosse]

As above - clap hands wipers and pull switches make this much earlier than 1970. If anyone is looking at the car - could they report the number stamped in the body?

[POMMReg]

Hmmm....interesting![frame][/frame]

[bmcecosse]

I sent a question about the car's age - and now it has been withdrawn from ebay, while they 'verify' .........which tells it's own story I think.

[MarkyB]

This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151152000045; ... 26_rdc%3D1

[alexb]

To be honest i think they were honestly confused by their 1970 plate.
After i sent a few questions before posting it on here it got them thinking.
After a few viewings they decided to get the facts right first.
Ide say they were being honest.

[MarkyB]

Not like the person who sold them the car I suspect

[drivewasher]

Hmmm....interesting![frame][/frame]

??
Is it just me? How does this relate to a 1970 convertable query!
Can you please explain when the drink wears off

[1098]

Hmmm....interesting![frame][/frame]

So good to see a genuine Royal Mail van,with the correct issued number plate. Sell me the engineers van,white stripe an all.... What ever happened to BVB 493D ? Had to sell the lovely beast. Always regretted it,but,the cash got me out of a tight spot.

[Ever Ready Man]

Hi,

Just letting you know I'm now the owner of BVB 493D, and it now looks a little different.

Regards
Martin Vincent

PS I also own a Panda car, see my website morrispanda.co.uk, but I plan to sell the Panda car soon...[frame][/frame]

[1098]

Hi,

Just letting you know I'm now the owner of BVB 493D, and it now looks a little different.

Regards
Martin Vincent

PS I also own a Panda car, see my website morrispanda.co.uk, but I plan to sell the Panda car soon...[frame][/frame]

Great to see that. I remember buying that van from somewhere near shrewsbury,years ago. It had been parked in a barn for years. The chassis was A1. I have photos of it when I dragged it out of the barn. Ex Telephones,side mounted ladder rack. Great to see it again.

[Ever Ready Man]

Interestingly, this was not a 1966 van despite the number plate. It was built in 1969 and the registration mark allocated came from an old batch held on file at Croydon Council when it was registered. A request to the DVLA for it's history has revealed the error and the DVLA have now altered the registration mark, issuing a new log book to show it from now on as being OCK 339H. You won't find any records for this registration mark as it has just been generated by the DVLA for this van.

There are 8 leaf springs under the van to depict it as an 8cwt which began production in 1968, the wiring loom has the inline fuse for sidelights and sealed beam headlamps which were also introduced in 1968, and the winscreen and quarterlight glasses are also Triplex marked with a 1968 code, all which make the 1966 registration most unlikely.

DVLA centralised records only date back to 1976 and I have spoken to the owner who used the van from 1976 to 1999. He says he bought it from somebody in London but couldn't remember who, but thinks that person bought the ex GPO Telephones van at an auction. Our list of owners since him is complete, but the ownership history before him is vague.

The VIN plate is missing and the engine was changed last year, but old log books gave the chassis number as OJE1 / 208944.

Originally yellow, and the first log book we have gives first registration as 1 Oct 1969. This was altered to 1966 in December 1979 when the owner sent the log book off to show his change of address. The person at DVLA who altered the year by mistake also spelled the owner's name wrong. The DVLA also failed to act on a subsequent request for correction of the chassis number (they still incorrectly showed it as starting OTE).

Any future pictures of this van will show it as being blue with the H registration, but historically it was yellow, then green (painted to look as it would have been if it was around in 1966) then painted as a blue builder's van in 2005. The wheels and tyres have also been changed to the narrower tyres used for the 6cwt vans in 1966.

If anybody has any further info about this van - particularly before 1976 - could they email me martin@morrispanda.co.uk

Thank you

Martin

[Ever Ready Man]

Much has happened since my last post.

The information I gave before was mainly based on false information supplied by the DVLA. When I filled out their form for ownership history information and paid the £5 fee they did not reply for a very long time. When we telephoned them about the application they told us there was some confusion and an enquiry was being carried out.

Later they sent us a new log book showing the H registration, so we telephoned them to ask why. It was then they told us that it was a 1969 van and should have been an H, inventing the story of the allocation of old number plates when local offices ran out of correct year numbers to justify the error. Being the DVLA we had no reason to doubt them and accepted their story.

However, this conflicted greatly with the view of all the experts in the field who maintained the van was a 1966 model and was part of a batch of BVB vans first used by the Wimbledon depot of Post Office Telephones. Headlamps and wiring were easily replaceable and it is entirely conceivable these were changed during it's service with the GPO. A friend who now works for the Post Office servicing their current vans told me it's an easy operation and was common practice when there was a fault which proved difficult to rectify. Also some of the windows could have been replaced (the offside rear door window is a nearside door window inverted) and this would explain the date difference. The windscreen dated from the 1970s but it is no surprise as a front screen is likely to become broken during use. I also replaced the front screen this year as it was scratched and I wanted a modern laminated screen for safety.

The van was also featured in the March 2018 edition of 'Classic Van and Pick Up' while it bore the H registration and I made mention of the confusion relating to the original date of registration.

This year I completely stripped the van down to have it repainted (again in blue for the Ever Ready livery) and found in the most inaccessible areas only dark green paint (black behind the aluminium trim surrounding the speedo) as well as other more readily accessible areas which were blue on top of green on top of yellow on top of dark green.

This confirms the vehicle was originally dark green before the GPO repainted it yellow (probably around 1969 to match their new yellow vans introduced in 1968). We know when it was auctioned off it was still yellow and remained a yellow ex GPO van up until Eddie sold it after his restoration. The next owner painted it green to reflect its original colour (and changed the van wheels for car wheels) before selling it on. The next owner was a builder who painted it blue to match his fleet of modern vans.

Having contacted the DVLA again with news of the original colour confirming it must pre date 1968, and as part of the BVB batch which experts insist is definitely a 1966 plate I pointed out they are breaking their own rules by applying a registration mark which makes a vehicle look younger. Finally they have agreed with everybody else that the error was theirs, originating from the hand written log books and the registration mark BVB 493D has been reinstated on the van.

Look out for us at car rallies in the South East, at the National, and at Minors On Tour in Europe.

[Ever Ready Man]

Could I also add that further to my post in 2015 my email address has changed. I am now everreadyvan@yahoo.co.uk in case you'd like to contact me. I sold my Morris Minor Panda car in late 2015 so my old email address became irrelevant and I closed down my morrispanda website.

I now belong to the East Kent branch of The Morris Minor Owners Club and run their website www.ekmmoc.co.uk - why not take a look?

Martin

[ManyMinors]

What an interesting story! Well done for your perseverance. One small point. I imagine that by "van wheels" you are referring to the wider 4.1/2" wheels? These were only fitted to the optional 8cwt version of the van, which was available from 1968. However the Post Office did not purchase these vehicles, opting for the less expensive 6cwt version which used the same wheel as the saloon version albeit painted black if I remember correctly. So, "car" wheels fitted to your van would be correct

[POMMReg]

Civvy lcv's rivetted/PO spot welded i think?

Anyone confirm this, not 100% myself!