All Morgan’s have a story, B3767 is no different in this regard but it has quite a story. The car’s history is fully documented (with I suspect every receipt), from the initial Morgan documentation onwards and it is a well-travelled Morgan despite having less than 44,000 miles on the clock. The car came with over an inch of paperwork. The following is based upon the paperwork and call with the last owner when I was researching the car prior to buying it.
B3767 was first registered in the UK on 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] July 1976 and assigned UK licence plate RUY 22P. The car came installed with its current 1600cc Ford Crossflow Kent engine. Various factory fitted extras including wire wheels, leather trim, luggage carrier, reclining folding seats, Plus 8 type spotlights, undersealing by car seal, a bonnet belt and special body colour personalised the car upon delivery.
In
1979 the car appears to have changed hands and moved from its London home (where it was cared for by Morris Stapleton Motors – Morgan Distributors). By September 1981 it had completed some 28,918 miles and one year later had added another 1,000 miles based on its annual M.O.T. paperwork (seemingly it passed both tests first times). Again in 1982 it appears to have changed hands and has garage receipts (all Morgan specialists) for Reading, Hampshire and Surrey. The new owner had the car re-sprayed and various cosmetic work undertaken in addition to the normal care a Morgan requires.
In 1983 the car changed owners once more, this time to a Doctor, and made the move to Australia with its new owner from Leicestershire. The UK Government export papers are dated April 1983, some 29 years ago. The car was shipped on P&O’s container vessel “Morton Bay” from Tilbury to Fremantle, WA on the 13[SUP]th[/SUP] September 1983. The container’s custom note listed the container’s contents as “132 items – household effects” and “1 used Morgan motor vehicle”. The vessel arrived into Fremantle four weeks later in October 1983 and then the car’s next chapter began in Australia.
The car was registered in WA with the Police Department in December 1983 and assigned plate number 6PY 271 and registered to an address in Kalgoorlie (I suspect one of the few if only Morgans to have made it to Kalgoorlie). The cost of registry, stamp duty and third party insurance was a very reasonable A$97.32 (some twenty-five times more in 2012!). In the notes section is the comment “UK plates kept as souvenirs”. I wonder if these still exist somewhere?
At some point between 1983 and 1986 the owner moved to Mandurah, WA and in July 1986 sold the car for A$20,000 to a lady in Sydney. There is a handwritten note (on the Doctor’s headed paper and very much in Doctor’s writing) listing various spare parts that came with the car “that would be difficult to acquire in Australia”. The seller kindly provided a Melvin Rutter catalogue and recommendation for his ability to supply “any” parts. Somethings never change. The catalouge was included with the paperwork that came with the car.
The car was then transported to Sydney by TNT Car Carrying for half the price that it cost in 2012 to get it back to WA. There is documentation from NSW Department of Motor Transport about the new owner requesting approval to register the car with a compliance plate. The letter notes that the car was not registered in WA before 31[SUP]st[/SUP] December 1982, so looking at the remaining options listed in the letter (and documentation attached to the letter) the owner had some hoops to jump through to get a NSW plate. This was achieved and the car assigned NSW plate SJB 013. However for reasons that are not clear the car became a 1969 model with the chassis number 2169 (last four digits of the engine number that is also stamped on bonnet’s underside).
The car appears to have remained with the same owner until 1995 when it changed to her daughter (I believe based on a conversation with a previous owner). The car remained in Sydney.
In late 1996 and early 1997 the car underwent major restoration. This included new timber throughout, full bare metal re-spray (using Holden back – so it is a part Australian car now), new leather throughout and various engine repairs etc. Looking at the invoices quite some expense was incurred. There is an interesting note from the garage undertaking the work when the car was at the motor trimmers. The garage arranged for another Morgan to be present to act as a template for the leather work, I wonder if anybody knows that car? The restoration work took over four months to complete and is all fully documented, including timesheets and daily logs. The car was valued upon completion of the restoration as A$60,000.
In late 2010 the mileage had reached 43,000 miles and had little use since the extensive rebuilding and was kept garaged; this very much is consistent with the car’s current condition.
The car was sold at auction in mid-2011 and purchased by a dealer in Sydney, from whom I purchased the car in January this year (with the car unregistered). Whilst the car was in Sydney I had the car fully serviced as it was suffering from little more than the lack of use. The opportunity was taken to also fix the odd minor leak and to have the differential rebuilt.
In March [2012] the car was shipped back to WA some 26 years after it left. The journey back took longer than it should as the “car would not start”, or rather the transportation company did not know about chokes!
When back in WA I had to put the car “over the pits” and get it registered. This was the first time I had driven the car (after 4 months of sunshine it rained so it was hood up).
I explained to the government examiner about NSW having the wrong chassis number and year. I explained that the chassis number was probably a mistake and that the last four digits of the engine number had been used, this was accepted (and the location of the actual chassis number pointed out). The car pasted first time. However the inspector could not change the year back to 1976 as “he had no evidence”. This was until I produced the WA Police Department paperwork from 1983, he looked up the old WA plate number and it came up in the WA system as a 1976 Morgan. So I left the inspection centre, somewhat worse off financially but with WA registered, 1976 Morgan with paperwork to match its chassis number.
Two theories have been given to me as to why the chassis number and year may have changed, the first is about stamp duty thresholds and the second around compliance with Australian design rules. It could of course have been an admin error.
Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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smilie in place of the real @
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