10x05 - Morris Minor Traveller

[bunniefuu]

This time on Wheeler Dealers, I go on a
hunt for a motor that's half car, half tree.

You'll never really know
how bad the wood is

on a car like this
until you strip it back.

It's a charming Morris Minor with oodles of
history, but Ed makes a shocking discovery.

I bet you if I push this hard enough,
there you go, water actually comes out.

And gets to play car surgeon.

Shop! And I'm left trying to
rescue the soul of our Morris.

Can we repair some of this?
We're in a pretty poor state.

The Traveler is a much loved
motor, but we find one that bites.

This will be going straight in the bin.

I buy classic cars past
their best, Ed fixes them

up and then we sell them
on, hopefully for a profit.

Affectionately known
as the Moggy, the Morris

Minor is a great British
motor and legend.

It's a usable, everyday classic car
with dollops of Englishness and charm.

Designed by the brilliant
Alec Isagonis, the Morris

brought luxury and space to
the post-w*r middle classes.

The ash framed Traveler Estate or Woody is
perhaps the most loved of all the models.

Introduced in 52, the first
Travelers were equipped with

a 30bhp, 800cc engine that
did 40 miles to the gallon.

It was a sales sensation
selling 1.3 million.

Today Morris Minor Travelers are in
short supply and the prices are on the up.

If I'm ever going to grab one at
a decent price, now is the time.

Back in the 60s, the Morris Minor
was a cheap car for the man in the

street and lots of men in the street
went and bought a Morris Minor.

Strange thing is, there
isn't that many left today

and the ones that are
there fall into two categories.

They're either completely mint and
restored cars and worth an absolute fortune

or they're basket cases and they
need a fortune of money spent on them.

A few years ago it was
possible to pick up a Traveler for

£1,000 but nostalgia is in
and those days are long gone.

Some of the tidy Travelers
I'm seeing are £15,000 plus.

I want a sub £3,000 car
which rules out the decent ones.

I'm using local ads to root out someone
who might be desperate for a quick sale.

I have found one actually.
There's one here. What's

attracted me to this
advert is the description.

It's almost like he's written a
book's worth of description on the car.

It's quite incredible. Now
he says it's not in mint

condition but it's quite
reasonably priced at £2,800.

And he seems to love his
car. He knows everything

about it. So what I'm
going to do is give him a call.

Hello? Yes, I'm ringing
about your Morris Traveler.

Still got it. That's great news.

Right, I've got the gen. This
Moggy comes with a massive stack

of service history. The seller
knows and he loves his car.

I look forward to meeting you too.

Yeah, good luck. Thanks. Bye bye.

What a thoroughly interesting
chap. He's owned that car

for 27 years. That shows
really good continual ownership.

I definitely think it's worth a look.

Now there's a massive
variation in the state of Morris

Minors and people's
interpretation of their quality.

So many times in the past
people have said, come

down and see the
motor. It's in lovely Nick.

Only to get there and it's
an absolute basket case.

Now Chris, the owner of the Traveler,
tells me there's no serious issues.

Let's just hope his idea of
serious is the same as mine.

This is the house but let's have a quick
look at the car before I knock on the door.

And there it is. Look at that.
A little slice of England. Fantastic.

This must be the owner. You Chris.
Hello Mike. Tell us all about it.

Well I've had the car for 27
years. It's 100% reliable. Had a lot

of work done to it over the years
and mechanically it's very sound.

Okay, I can see you've
done a lot of mechanical

work but obviously you've
done no work on the body.

Well, the paintwork was last
done in 1987 so it is looking

a bit tired now. Some of the
panels also need replacing.

Okay, yeah. What about this
woodwork? What's that like?

Because that's the big
thing on these Morris Minors.

It's not bad Mike. It was replaced in 1989.

The truth is you'll never really
know how bad the wood is on a car

like this until you strip it back
and really get underneath it.

Now, let's have a look inside
the back. There's plenty of stuff

inside the back. Chris, what's
going on? That lovely noise.

Well, I've got plenty of
spares here to go with

the car. I'll keep you
going for many years.

Look at that headlining.
That's a bit of a mess, isn't it?

I know, yes. It's one of the
jobs I was getting around

to and in the box here I've
got a brand new headlining.

Have you?

Which needs to be fitted, yes.

Okay, plenty of work. Let's
have a look inside the c*ck.

Look at that. Now that is
incredibly nostalgic, isn't it?

And that big pile of paper
over there, what's all that about?

I've kept every receipt
that I've ever had for the car.

Could you do me a favour? Could you
fire her up for me and pop the bonnet?

There you go. Lovely.

Lovely, yes.

Okay, it's a bit of a mess, isn't it?

The mechanics are
sound, the engine's about

60,000 miles old, so
that's pretty reliable.

There's also evidence of
quite a big oil leak down there.

Yes, that needs to be sorted out as well.

But it's ticking over okay.
Can I take you for a test, right?

Please do.

Super.

Well, it's been absolutely years
since I've been behind the wheel of

a little Moorish traveller, and
I've got to tell you, it's fantastic.

The smell in here, the smells of
oil and old age, and I love the way

this cabin is so evocative, that
lovely, great big central speedo.

Up front is that little A-series
engine pulling me down

the road as I grab hold of
this Bakelite steering wheel.

Grabbing the gearbox,
hoping for another decade.

The steering's lovely,
the brakes, the clutch,

the gearbox, it really
is quite a nice car.

Now this motor, it's not
the fastest thing in the world.

It's got a shade under 50
brake horsepower, and a

0-60 time of around, well,
let's just say eventually.

So, am I going to make a play
for this little Moorish traveller?

Well, I always say I
like an honest car, and

this one doesn't get
any more honest, does it?

I mean, it's absolutely laid
out better in front of you.

Yeah, it's a bit tatty on the outside,
and some of the inside, but mechanically

it's strong, it's reliable, it's been a
good family member, and it's been cherished.

So yeah, I think I want it. The only
problem is, as always, is that price.

You know me, I do like a bargain, so I'm
going to go back and give Chris a little

gentle tap on his cap, see if I can
knock it off and win myself a few quid.

What do you think?
It drives like the 1960s, doesn't it?

Not bad at all, is it? It's great fun.

I'm going to be pretty hard on you, because
I think the car is only worth £2,000.

Well, I spent about £5,000
on the car in the last five years.

£2,700.

£2,700? It's still too much
money. I'll meet you somewhere

in the middle of those.
£2,400, I'll have a deal with you.

£2,450.

I'll hold out your hand.

Yes, just bought myself a Morris Traveler.
What have I done? I need your hat now.

You can have it.

I've got a car that's dripping with
Britishness, and a little bit of oil too.

But the big risk with this car
is the bodywork. If it costs too

much to put right, I can kiss
goodbye to any dreams of a profit.

I bought a Morris Traveler, a car
that's as British as Apple crumble.

£2,450. Hold out your hand.

It's a cheeky, charming motor,
but crumble is the word. It's crying

out for some serious work on
the body, interior, and that's not all.

There's also evidence of
quite a big oil leak down there.

The time and energy of
Mr Edward China is going

to be needed to get it
on the road to recovery.

Now I paid just £2,450
for this little traveller, and

some of you out there may be
saying that's too much money.

But for a car with
this charm, I think it's

brilliant, and I'm perfectly
satisfied with the deal.

I'm really satisfied as well that this car
has earned a good place in our workshop.

Now this car comes from the 1950s,
and that was a period when we made stuff.

Sixty years later, and
it's still going strong,

and it still feels an
absolute pleasure to drive.

It makes me proud to be British.

Now this car looks like a graceful
old lady who's lost her charm.

And what I want to do with this car
is give it some of that charm back.

And the way to do that is to address
the problems we've got in the engine bay.

Tiny it up, take the
engine out, and paint it.

Also, sort out this
messy interior, smarten

up the woodwork, and
give it a lick of paint.

That way we can make
her look beautiful again, as if

she's ready to go for a
tea dance in the afternoon.

If we get it right, you
know what? We can sell this

little Morris traveller for
about six, seven grand.

If we get her looking really
tasty, we might even get more.

You know, I always wonder
when we're going to get

round to do one of
these, and this is fantastic.

What do you think of that then, son?

A nice traveller, a Woody, I like it.

Have a look at this
little engine underneath.

Get under that bonnet.

Isn't that sweet?

That is very tidy, isn't it?

All the oily bits, they're
all mechanically fine.

Talking of oily bits,
it does seem to have

quite a bit of oil on
one side of the engine.

You found this straight away, didn't you?

Right, it's got a little oil
leak, it's coming from the

front crankcase, and you
can repair that, it's easy.

It might be easier and quicker
just to pop the engine out of the car.

If we get the engine
out, we can tidy up this

engine bay, because
it's a bit of a mess.

Because the car's going
to go off for a lick of paint.

Needs to, definitely.

And while it's having a lick of paint,
we can get that done at the same time.

Right, now let me show you round the back.

I'll let you have the pleasure of opening
these rear doors, they're really nice.

That's good, isn't it?

Ooh, that's lovely.

Isn't it lovely?

That's very retro.

Look at that in there.
Well, I mean, it's quite untidy.

Everything you're
staring in front of you isn't

a result of me cleaning
out my garage at home.

No, this is a load of replacement
parts, including that headlining.

And that is really good news, that means
we can keep the parts bend really low.

Go on.

Shut it up.
A little bit fiddly, aren't they?

I reckon it's got something
to do with this wooden frame.

Well, the thing is, if we are
going to sort out the paint, we really

should sort out the wood as well,
because it's definitely seen better days.

So there's quite a bit to do, Ed, you've
got to pull the engine out, it's got to go

off to paint, got to do the interior, do
the headlining, sort out this wooden frame.

There's a huge amount of work, actually.

Look, we're going to have some
fun, and it's going to be a great little

car, and we are actually going to earn
some money out of it, I'm convinced.

And it is properly British.

It is properly British, I'll give you that.

Let's get it in the workshop.

The Morris Minor has a certain retro charm.

There always seems to be a
warm glow around these cars.

They're from a bygone,
Rose-tinted era, but decades later,

in the cold light of today, the
cracks are starting to show.

And like most old English motors,
there's usually lots of work to do.

Now this car is all about wood, and
that's the first thing I need to look at.

If there's any rot at all,
it'll need to be sorted.

Now, from a distance,
the wood might look okay,

you can see the grain
and the various textures,

but up close, you can see these kind
of rotten areas which are discoloured.

And they're soft, and
they're squidgy, and

they've kind of lost
their structural integrity,

but also, I bet you if I
push this hard enough,

there we go, water
actually comes out as well.

Now it's perfectly okay to
varnish wood to preserve it.

That works fine as long
as the wood is perfectly dry,

but otherwise you end up
just trapping moisture in,

and of course that wood
rots from the inside out.

This is not great news.

The ash frame is a
structural part of the car,

and if the wood frame isn't strong
enough, it'll actually fail on MOT.

Now if the rot was in
just one or two specific

areas, you could replace
just a couple of pieces.

So something else to consider, if
we replace the entire wood frame,

it's going to look fantastic
alongside our fresh paint job.

It's going to make our
refurbished Morris far more sellable.

I don't know yet whether
I'll replace the whole

lot, or some local
fixes are the way to go,

but I do know swapping
the wood frame is tricky

and also expensive, at
more than a thousand pounds.

So before committing
to that, let's strip

the wood off the car
and decide what's best.

I can't just remove the
wooden frame though.

I've got to dismantle the
component panels from

the rear, and then separate
the wood from the body.

At least I only need a
screwdriver and a socket set.

The various parts are coming off
the outside of the car quite easily,

but before I can remove the roof,
I'm going to have to take out the glass,

and of course the dodgy old headlining,

and to do that, I need to
remove a fair few wooden panels.

It's like disassembling a wardrobe with
plenty of hinges and brackets on the way.

The damp frame hasn't
condemned the interior,

and I'm expecting to reuse the door cards
and the seats when they've been cleaned up.

I reckon you could try
this at home, and look to

save about a thousand
pounds in labour charges.

Now there's only one piece of wood
holding our headlining in position,

and because we already have the replacement,
this will be going straight in the bin.

The back is pretty much stripped,

and to get the wood
frame off the car, I

need to separate the
morgue into two halves,

and the next stage in this
process is removing the roof.

Removing our roof is a big commitment.

It's held onto the wood
frame by a series of nails,

which are concealed inside
this special folded section.

Now the interesting thing
is, although the front of our

Woody is lifted straight from
the saloon and made of steel,

the metal used on the
rear half of our traveller

is almost entirely
made from aluminium.

So after unbolting the beam that holds
the steel front against the aluminium rear,

I prise off the guttering,
which I'll have to replace later.

Once this is done,
we can lift off the roof.

Now I unbolt and then
prise away the wood that's

been glued to the car for
more than four decades.

The frame is finally ready to be separated.

Once the body panels are
removed, we have a wooden skeleton.

Well it's certainly been a bit of a mare,

but now finally we've
separated the rear of the car

from the front, so we now
have a Morris chassis cap.

Now obviously eventually that's
going to be going off to the paint chop,

along with whichever of
these panels are salvageable.

This hasn't been the
easiest job I've ever tackled,

but it's pleasingly unusual.

The big question, can this wood be saved?

I'm in the beautiful Welsh valleys
to meet a specialist carpenter

who knows his way around the
ash wood frame of a Morris traveller.

Will he be able to help?

Now Ed has entrusted
me with sorting out

the ash wood frame
for our Morris traveller,

and that's quite a
responsibility because not only

is it the heart and soul
of a Morris traveller,

it also forms part of the structural
integrity, so we have to get it right.

Wow, look at this place,
a proper wood shop.

Look, got all the big machines, got a jig.

Shop! Hello?

Hiya.

You Michael? Michael, how you doing?

What a place you've
got here, this is fantastic.

Yeah, it's not bad.

Well I spoke to you on the phone
regarding my Morris minor wooden frame.

Me and Ed, we think it's
shot, it's probably too far gone,

but we'd like your opinion,
what do you reckon?

Yeah, they're in a pretty poor state.

So what can we do?

Can we repair some of this?

You could do, but
I'm given the state of it,

it's probably just easier and a better
job all round just to have new ones.

Michael has been fixing and fabricating
wooden Morris frames for donkey's years.

For £1200 he'll make a new one for me,
and we're going to get cracking right away.

Grab the lump of ash.

Oh that's nice, isn't it?

Then we grab a template.

This is a template of the
rear wheel arch, which

has been made to the
exact size from the originals.

We then put it on the piece of ash.

You line it up so you get the most
out of the piece of wood as well.

Grab a pencil and draw round it.

I can use a pencil, yeah I think
I can do that, that's fantastic.

Okay, so nice and carefully transfer
that shape down onto this piece of wood.

How many of these do
you reckon you do a year?

We do at least a hundred a year.

A hundred a year?

I've done it, that's good.
Ready for bandsawing.

Right, so where's that?

Take it over to the bandsaw.

This is one small part
of a rear wheel arch.

It will actually take five
pieces to make it up.

Once the panel is cut down, it's
moved off with an automatic planer,

then offered into the jig, or moulding,
and then it's routed into the exact shape.

Move that off.

And there you go, there it is.

That's fantastic.

The edges are trimmed and I get an
idea how the finished wheel arch will look.

Now we're going to put it into
this jig to complete the wheel arch.

That goes in there, goes down
there, that gets pushed round there.

Put a wedge in there,
keep everything tight.

Once it goes in this jig
and screwed together,

that's it, because this
jig is the actual template.

Shall I screw it together?
Put those two screws in.

There you go.

So now, take this wedge out, and
you've got a complete wheel arch.

That's fantastic. That's one completed wheel
arch for a fantastic Moorish traveller.

That's brilliant.

And there's just another one,
plus the other bits of frame to do.

Yeah, it's going to
be a long day, isn't it?

To get that far takes quite a
bit of craftsmanship, doesn't it?

It is, yeah.

I leave Michael to work his
magic and make up more than

50 individual parts to complete
the entire wooden frame.

It's made of European ash
and it's sustainably forested.

Look at that! Michael is a real craftsman.

That job is just fantastic.

And he's done not only the
frame to original standards,

in fact I think it's better and I can't
wait to get it back to the workshop

because this is going to breathe
life and soul back into our old Morris.

The wood frame of the traveller
is well on the way to being sorted.

We've scrimped on nothing,
but that's the problem.

If we can't keep a lid on the spending,

we simply won't be able to earn
enough crust come sale time.

Our only chance is to
make the results absolutely

perfect and then we can
seriously hike the price.

Our Morris traveller is a car that's
brimming with goodwill and nostalgia.

I think it's brilliant.

Ours also has a rotten
wooden frame, a leaky engine

and a body shell that's
so rusty it's not funny.

It's quite untidy.

The wood is being
sorted and now it's the

engine's turn to get a
bit of the head treatment.

Well, we've got half a
car but no less work to do

because there are two
more things that need to be

sorted before our Morris
can go off to the paint shop.

Both the leaky engine and the
grotty engine bay need attention.

The previous owner was
apparently well on the case

for making sure the maintenance
schedule was kept up,

but he clearly wasn't concerned
about the way the engine bay looks.

Now, the dirt and dust
isn't such a problem,

but it's the surface rust
that really lets the side down.

Now, you might get away with this
kind of quality on a two grand Morris,

but to get top money for this car, all
of this is going to have to look like new,

so I'd best get cracking.

It's not worth trying to prepare
the engine bay with the engine in it.

Luckily for me, the A-Series
is tiny and removing it

isn't the headache it would
be in a more modern car.

I drain the cooling system,
whip off the bumper,

take out the rad,

disconnect the prop shaft.

and the engine should be ready to lift out.

When you're trying to
lift an engine out of a bay,

you can use chains,
straps, you could even use a

modified seatbelt if the
engine is light enough.

In this case, I've gone for the chains,

and in fact with the A-Series
engine, you could even

use the top bolts there
that hold the rocker cover on,

but just to be safe, I've
gone a little bit further

down onto the exhaust
manifold and the side of the head.

The engine and box are
coming out in one piece

and it's actually possible to handle
the job on my own using the hoist.

And these are only £20 a day to hire.

Brilliant, so the engine and
gearbox is now out of the way,

which means the next stop for our
Morris is going to be the paint shop,

but I can't really send
it over there without

all this gubbins
being tidied up first.

I'm removing the electrics
and the heating system parts.

In fact, anything you
can do yourself will save

prep and therefore
money in the paint shop.

I'm more worried about
the leaks from the engine,

as having serious work to do now is going
to eat into our fast diminishing kitty.

Now Mike says that this engine
has been looked after well and

runs beautifully, but as you
can see, it's covered in oil,

and I've got no real easy
way of telling whether

it's one oil leak spreading over the
whole engine or lots of little oil leaks,

so I need to give it a bit of a
clean to give me a better idea.

A bit of a degreaser and
a jet wash is all I need

to get rid of years and
years of dirt and grime.

Of course, I have waterproofed
the points and leads,

as they have a habit of failing in the wet.

Quite a bit more room
in the workshop now as

the Moggie has gone
off to the paint shop,

which leads me to sort out this engine.

I need to get rid of the oil leak,
but also need to dress it up a bit

so it looks nicer when it goes
back into our shiny new engine bay.

Now the thing is, having
cleaned off all the oil,

I can't still see where it's coming from,

because of course the
oil isn't under pressure.

and the oil is leaking
out, so the next thing

I have to do is to
fire this little chap up.

Starting an engine on the bench is a
bit Heath Robinson, but it can be done.

So getting an engine to run outside of
the car isn't as hard as you might think.

We've connected up
the radiator, popped some

water in there so the
engine is going to cool,

we have fuel, courtesy
of an old petrol tank,

and then down here we
actually have a battery

which is going to run
the electrical systems,

so I need to connect up the coil,

and then fire over the starter
motor with the same lead.

Now the idea is once the engine is running,

oil is going to be pumped
around the engine under pressure,

so wherever there is a leak,
the oil should then come out.

The engine reaches temperature after a
few minutes, so where are those leaks?

Now the good news I guess
is that there's no serious

oil leaks, certainly from
the high pressure oil side,

there's like nothing coming out of
the oil filter or any of the senders,

maybe a little bit of moisture
on the rocker cover gasket.

Let's have a look on this side.

It's actually much worse on this side,

so I think we'll change
that gasket for sure.

Looking closely I can
see a tiny bit of moisture

just on the bottom edge
of these two cover plates,

which is a classic place for oil
to leak from an A-Series engine,

and because this is the low pressure size,

it would normally take
ages for that oil to build up,

so clearly the state the
engine was in when we first

started to clean it hadn't been
looked at for ages and ages.

So I think just to be safe I'm going to
change the gaskets on these as well,

and hopefully our engine is good to go.

I remove the manifold to gain better
access to the inspection plates below.

Right, let's pull off the rocker cover.

Now for the rocker cover gasket.

I need to clean all of the
old gasket from both the

head and the rocker cover
before fitting the new one.

I've got the old gaskets
off these metal covers,

but they do need a bit of
a clean, and then perhaps

a lick of paint, so over
to the parts washer.

Even after a clean, these
parts are not presentable,

so a basic aerosol paint job
will bring them up to scratch.

And here's the new cork gasket.

The sealer does what it says
on the tin and sticks it into place.

Now I can reassemble the rocker cover,

not forgetting the sealing washers
that sit below the retaining bolts.

I also reseal the inspection covers
which were the original source of the leak.

With the gaskets changed, we've
now sorted out our oil leak problem

and these freshly painted
parts are making the engine look

much smarter, but I think
even more paint is required.

This paint is heavier
duty than the spray can

and will stick to the block
despite higher temperatures.

I'm using the classic
BMC green engine paint

that would have come out of
the factory nearly 50 years ago.

Ed, how you doing mate, you alright?

I'm good sir, you good?

Well, I'm sorting out the back half
of the car, but where's the rest of it?

Well, as you'd expect, it was
a real mission taking it apart,

but of course the front half
had to go to the body shop.

and I needed a really good lick of paint.

Well, it's an old car and the more you
dig down, the more you're going to find.

It's an honest car and it would
never hide anything from you.

So what are we left with then?

Well, as you can see,
I've sorted out those oil leak

problems we had, but also
given a bit of a spruce up,

so it looks a lot better than
it did when we first got it.

It certainly does, yeah,
it looks really good.

It looked great back in the car.

Well, you know the wooden panels
you'd give me to go and get refurbished?

They said it'd be much
cheaper to just replace

them, so I've got
you these new frames.

Aren't they very nice?

I thought they'd make you nice and excited

because I know you like
screwing things together.

They are a lovely, beautiful workmanship
and they're going to look so good

with those lovely freshly
painted panels up against them,

so in fact the whole car's
going to look fantastic.

It's going to look mega.

The only problem I've got with it is
the amount of money we're spending.

I was hoping we wouldn't
be chasing a minor profit,

we'd be travelling all the way to the bank.

Indeed.

Our little Morris
traveller is still at the paint

shop, so while the
workshop is nice and empty,

it gives us the perfect opportunity
to prepare our wood frame.

I'd like to anticipate
as to whether you

should oil or varnish
your wood to preserve it.

Now, as our wood is brand
new, there's no rot anywhere,

it would make sense to do
exactly what they do at the factory

and actually give it a
really good coat of varnish,

especially as that
means you can get into all

the nooks and crannies
while the frame is apart.

I use metal wool to prepare
the surface of the wood.

It's like a very fine and gentle sandpaper.

Now, each part of the frame
doesn't really take that long to varnish,

but you do need three coats, and
each coat takes about five hours to dry,

so overall it is quite time consuming.

After each coat of yacht varnish,
you'll need to rub it down before the next.

Well, that's the last door
that needed varnishing,

so now everything's had three coats,
of course this lot's going to have to dry,

but essentially our new
wood frame is now ready.

All I need now is a freshly
painted car to put it on.

We spent £2,000 painting
the Moggy in the original colour,

and the new shiny paint looks amazing.

Well, our freshly painted Morris
is now back from the body shop,

and this lovely new
green paint looks fantastic,

a vast improvement
from what we had before,

especially now we've got all the chrome
and the lights and the screen in place.

So the front end looks wonderful, but
unfortunately the back end not so much,

and that's because I need to
build it up using this big kit of parts.

So what I have to do first, of course,

is actually put our freshly painted
panels into our freshly varnished wood,

and as always, it's not
quite as simple as it sounds.

The smaller panels on
our car did look rough,

but once cleaned up and painted in
the same almond green, they look great.

I'm just checking that the
panels actually fit in position,

which they seem to
do nicely, which is good,

and they're going to be held in
position using some self-tapping screws,

but before those screws
can be put in place,

what you're going to have
to do is put on some sealant,

and that's going to make sure that
this is completely waterproof, of course,

so I'm just going to put this sealant
that comes in this nice little packet here,

I'm just going to run it all the
way down the centre of the wood

to make sure that no water can
actually get inside the car should it rain.

The Morris has a great spares network,

and sealant for two sides can
be sourced online for around £30.

And now I can screw them in place.

Well, that is looking pretty good.

So now I think maybe a door.

I do the same with the two side
panels and the two rear doors.

I'm really getting the hang of this.

Right, all the panels are in
the wood frame, which is great,

but I thought while they were still
off the car and had easy access,

it made sense to put
the wings into position.

Now, I've got this one
on, just a couple of screws,

just to hold it just about in the right
place, and I'm going to put the beading on,

because it's going to be quite
hard to get that into the right place.

These are not the original rear wings.

They were too far gone.

I've had to spend £400
on a replacement pair.

Unfortunately, more money spent.

Sorry, Mike.

Once the beading is done,

I offer up the completed
panels to the rear of the car

and use the roof beam
to hold things together.

Now, this looks much more
like the widow we know and love,

but clearly there's loads
more work to be done,

and I think the next
thing I'll tackle is the roof.

The roof has three joists, onto
which I place the aluminium roof panel.

Then I reseal it,

but the guttering fit is a specialist
job and it needs to be sprayed in situ.

This is a blow.

It cost me £200.

But we've come this far and we're
not going to start scrimping now.

At last, I can rebuild all the
bits and pieces I removed before.

My aim was to make
the Morris look like new,

and with the addition of all the chrome
trim, I think we're definitely getting there.

Replacing the wood on
our Morris was no easy task,

but the timber frame is the soul of the
traveller, so something had to be done.

Now we've got a brand new
wood frame and some fresh paint.

The exterior of our car looks fantastic,

so now I need to turn
my attention to the interior.

The Morris has new paint,
new wood and an engine bay

that's a world away from
its shoddy starting point.

But we've spent more
than £3,000 on the car,

and the higher the
spend, the lower the profit,

unless our car is literally
one of the best out there.

I love this original Morris traveller,

but boy does it need some TLC.

Ooh, that's lovely.

Isn't it lovely? That's very retro.

It cost me a low price,

and we've got a car that
could fetch four times that.

This is going to breathe life
and soul back into our old Morris.

Ed's dived in with the spanners,

but it's time for him to get that
shabby interior up to scratch.

At the moment, the interior of
our Woody is not looking at its best.

But the good news is our Morris
came with a whole host of parts,

including a brand new headlining.

But before I can tackle
its installation though,

I need to remove the tatty
remains of the old fabric.

Because it's a Morris,

there's no vacuum-form
plastic panels to unclip.

I unbolt the runners that hold
the tensioning cable in place,

and then try and free the headlining.

Well, that was quite tricky.

We've got these little clips,

just two of them.

The hold is a bit of plywood,

which normally, as you can see,

forces the headlining into position,

and they clip behind
this little bit of body here.

And obviously, if you
don't know they're there,

they're out the way.

I'm going to replace the front

and rear headlining at the same time.

I measure how far the fabric will
need to stretch from the central point,

and then crimp and temporarily tack

one beam section at a
time across the roof rafters.

Thing is though, I can't
fix it permanently into place

until I know I've got
the tension just right.

If you don't want to try this yourself,

a mobile fitting service will take
care of it for around 200 pounds.

Well, that actually is looking pretty good.

Maybe a bit more tension wouldn't hurt,

but it means that essentially

most of the nails I've put
in are in the right position.

Well, I think this is actually
going to look really good.

Once the tension is finally sorted,

I can nail it into place and
then add the finishing touches.

Well, it's certainly been
a fair amount of hassle,

but it's been worth it
because look at the result.

Now, there are a few
little creases either side,

but they will go once the
battening is put in place,

but I can't do that yet

because I still have to do
the headlining in the front.

Because the front headlining
is held in place with a panel,

I must unclip the ancient staples,

expose the plywood,

and use a light spray on
adhesive to fix it to the new fabric.

I then insert the original steel rail

which holds the shape.

Once that's in place, I
have to get the correct

tension by using a needle
and thread at both ends.

Now, here's a little useful top tip.

These metal cables
here actually help tension

the headlining to
just the right amount.

The thing is though, they've got to be
threaded down through the A pillar here.

So when I took the old one
out, I actually just attached a

little bit of spare wire and
then drew it all the way through.

So now, all I have to do is just attach.

my new bit of wire onto that and then I can
draw it back through without any hassle.

I thread the tensioning
wire into the B pillar and will

tighten that when the seat
belt mount is back in place.

Now, this was never going to be
an easy job but it shouldn't have

been quite that hard but now
it's done, it does look fantastic,

much better than it did before.

So all I have to do now
is the rest of the interior.

I picked up a complete carpet
set to smarten up the interior.

I've kept the old door cards and seats
but everything has been thoroughly cleaned.

It's all been a bit of a mission but
our old faded Moggie has been reborn.

When our little Morris first
trundled into the workshop,

it looked like its next destination
was going to be scrap heap on the wall.

But after a difficult journey,

our Moggie has now been rejuvenated.

with its fresh coat of paint,

a lovely new wood frame
and a spruced up interior.

So now our intrepid little
traveller can once again

experience many more
trips to far away places.

The traveller never fails to win a smile.

It's a car that embodies a nostalgic,

uncomplicated and reassuring
period of British industry.

But a simple smile won't
do it for this car anymore.

It deserves better because it actually
looks like a brand new 60 year old car

and when you remember what we started
out with, it's even more of an achievement.

This Morris wasn't
lacking someone to love it.

The mechanicals were great
but the love was in short supply

on the body and interior.

Well, that was quite tricky.

But I got it for a snip.

Two thousand four hundred and fifty.

Ed needed to know whether
the wood was good so he broke

the car down into two halves
and stripped the wooden frame.

I discovered it was not for saving.

Yeah, they're in a pretty poor state.

And traded the old frame for firewood
and commissioned a brand new set.

The engine was leaky and that was sorted
and the engine bay won a makeover too.

The interior needed a new
headlining and a lot of cleaning.

And combined with new paint,

we finally had a Woody that wowed.

But how much has the
Moggy clawed from the kitty?

Replacing a new wood came
in at twelve hundred pounds.

Other repairs and replacements plus
the paint cost us just under three grand.

All in, we spent a cool six
and a half thousand pounds.

Ed! Oh wow!

Look at the Moggy I can't
get the smile on me face.

It's a miracle.

It's a miracle Moggy.

Or it's a Moggy that owes us
hundreds and hundreds of man hours.

But don't worry because
you get me for free.

I know you do. You do it for tea,
biscuits and for the love of me.

But listen, when I bought
this pile of rust and dirt,

I never thought it'd look
anywhere near as good as this.

It's exceptional.

Do I detect a tiny compliment now?

Oh, it's a big compliment, Ed.
You've done it again.

And although this car looks good in here,

let's see what it looks like out there.

Well, Ed, this has a
bit an easy one, has it?

What do you mean fixing up the Boris?

The fact that I had to
actually break it in half,

strip it all down and had
to sort out that wood frame,

sort out all the interior,
take out the engine,

sort that out, paint it,
put it all back together

again and then paint
the whole thing as well.

No, it hasn't exactly been easy.

You put it like that, though
it couldn't have been.

But listen, there is an old adage, if
you want to make a good omelette,

you have to break a bit of China.

But, mate, you can be immensely
proud of the work that you've done

because the craftsmanship that's
gone into this car is exceptional.

That wood ash frame is brilliant.

And the way this car's now finished off,

I reckon it's one of
the best in the country.

It's a top job and you should
be really proud of yourself.

Well, thank you.
It obviously wasn't all down to me

for having taken the car
down to the few nuts and bolts

where there were some
dark times, I have to say.

But now it's all back together again and
it's definitely well worth all that effort.

Yeah, all those dark times.

And behind us, Ed, we can now
just look forward and enjoy this drive.

Where are we going, anyway?

Well, I thought we'd have
a little bit of packed lunch.

Hopefully you've got yours.

We're going to go out into
the Cotswold countryside

for what could be more
quintessentially British

than the little Moorish traveller
in the English countryside.

Fair enough.

We've certainly got the same old
classic English weather, though.

Cold, brave, horrible.

Here we go, Ed.
Do you want one of my nice sandwich...

I'm actually all right
for sandwiches, I think.

I can see you've done
this properly, haven't you?

Oh, that hurt!

Well, there's nothing more
British than a nice picnic

at the back of a Moorish traveller
in the middle of the countryside.

No, you're right.
This car does look absolutely fantastic.

Well, thank you.
So, I guess the question is,

are we going to make a nice,
honest crust out of this motor?

I'll see what you've done there.

Yeah, well, we've
spent quite a bit of bread

on it to get it looking
as good as this so far.

Listen, I think the car
looks absolutely fantastic.

It's probably one of the best
Moorish travellers out there.

But I think we should
just be really honest

with the car and sell
it for, say, £8,500.

That way, we're going
to make a little profit

and we're almost
guaranteed a quick sale.

All right, fair enough.
If that's what you fancy,

see what you've done there.
It's another pun.

Yeah.

Now, it's always nice to earn
a big profit and I don't often

undersell the cars, but this
time I should have asked for more

because as soon as I
put a traveller out there.

on the Internet, it almost
started a bidding w*r.

I said to people, the
first one who stands in

front of it wins and this
fellow, Tim, behind me,

he wants to buy the car for his
dad, but has he got the cash?

So then, Tim, what do you think of it?

I think it's fantastic.

The woodwork, the paint really sets it off.

It's got proper curb appeal.

I understand you're not
buying this car for yourself.

No, that's right. It's for my dad.

My mum's buying it as a present for him.

I've always wanted one.

This could be the one if the money's right.

Hopefully, that's the price you want to pay

and you can take it away and
make your mum and dad very happy.

It would make my mum happy
if I could take it away for eight.

I love a story and I love your mum
and dad's story, but it's such a good car.

I know it's worth £8,500.

Come and have a deal with me.

I tell you what, you fill it up with fuel.

We'll have a deal.

Hold out your hand.
You just bought yourself a traveller.

Well done.

Thank you very much.

Ed and I have scored a
£2,000 profit on what must be

one of the best Morris
travellers in the country.

Now, driving this car
around recently has reminded

me just how engaging
these old travellers are

and I'm really chuffed
that this car is going to live

a new life with somebody
who's going to Cherish it.

If you want to see more
classic cars being turned around,

join me and Ed soon on Wheel of Dealers.

Ta-ra.