Me and Lucy: Our Story So Far...

As some of you may know, I own a Morris Minor Traveller called Lucy. Firstly let me tell you a little bit about her. She is 45 years old and was rescued from my Great Uncle's barn in September after being sat unused for 14 years. She was only owned by 2 other people before me. The village estate stonemason and the local farmer, being my uncle. The stonemason used her as a builders van and my uncle used Lucy as a posh car for when he wasn't driving sheep around in the back of his series 3 Land Rover. 

She has had her ups and downs since she arrived in my care, but over the past 9 months she has been amazing! She has taken me to school pretty much every day, and got me home again on most of them, she has even taken me as far as North Yorkshire to the farm she first came from, and then back again from that. 3 times! 

She has been to 2 Rallies with me. One of those being the Morris Minor Owners Club Young Member's Rally and the other one of those being the International Morris Centenary Rally where she was joined by over 600 of her brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews, and grandparents, and probably great grandparents too! 

The reason why I got a Morris Minor is quite simple. Insurance. The most expensive thing you can actually buy is Insurance for a teenage boy in the UK. On the ford fiesta that I learnt to drive in the insurance would have been 3 times what the car was actually worth in money. I had spoken to a friend about Morris Minors and he said that is was so so so much cheaper for the insurance, and no doubt it was, a quarter of the price! So that is why Lucy is Lucy... well sort of. The real reason why Lucy is called Lucy is because she has the best number plate in the world. LSD 496G. Naturally, for a teenage lad, that is quite amazing to say the least. And as a Beatles fan, that makes it even more perfect-er-erer.

Many of my friends and family have asked my what is going to happen to Tom and Lucy when I go to university in not too many days time. Well Lucy cannot be expected to travel with me all the way to Liverpool, and it is far to big a city for her to be comfortable (and not get her wheels nicked) so I am going to have to leave her at home. However, given the history that the car has to me, I am going to have to keep her forever. We are going to try and make something work long distance until I have finished university until she can join me where ever I reside and we can live happily (and bumpily) ever after.

The End.

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

The Yorkshire Rose

As some of you may know, I am from Yorkshire. Well actually when I say I am from Yorkshire  I am really lying a little bit. I don't really know where I am from, however I do know that my family are from Yorkshire. Is that enough to be a Yorkshireman? I am going to say yes.

And the reason for this is I find myself picking up all the little phrases and sayings and philosophies. Things like "that'll do" is something which I have now become more and more in touch with, pretty much applying it to anything and everything.

Alongside this the usual "You don't get nothing for nothing" has become a big part of my way of thinking, which is not all together a bad thing. Basically it has stopped me spending so much money on stuff that I don't really need!

Not only these things though, but having spent a large amount of time driving up and down the M1 in my Yorkshire born-and-bred morris minor, I have had a lot of time to reflect that I actually prefer the northern end of that road to the southern. Not only are the Yorkshire dales really quite a nice place to be, but also I really enjoy the way of life. Things sort of happen when they need to happen, and wandering around the farm up there is a really inspiring and relaxing thing to do, whether it be making tile cutters out of washing machine motors, getting tractors from 1951 to start again, or cutting down trees so we can actually get these tractors out of the barn that once covered them from the rain, is something I really enjoy.

And for that reason, Yorkshire feels like where I come from. And so I am going to say it is where I come from.

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Moggy Update 3/6/13: Some rusty troubles...

I thought I would update you again with progress of Lucy's life and restoration. Unfortunately, after all my excitement on starting work on the woodwork... it never happened. Bloomin' English weather is all I can say! However I have been keeping a keen eye on the weather forecast and have noticed a significant improvement towards and into the weekend which I am looking forward to finally getting stuck in.

This doesn't mean I haven't been busy though. I seem to have had a few issues, maybe brought on by the winter, others that just used the winter as a catalyst to break stuff. I have been plagued by the unfortunately inevitable rust trouble. This is something non-avoidable on a classic car, so it's a case of if not when. I have been very lucky though as I seem to just get corroded parts, as apposed to the bodywork. As soon as the bodywork starts getting rusty, it travels through it like a virus, attacking everything and leaving nothing but rusty flakes on your drive when you go out the next morning...

I have had 2 things to sort out over the past week. The first, I noticed that my tyres were wearing slightly unevenly, with the worst wear on the inside. So I took it down to the local tyre pace to ask them to balance my tyres. Turns out it wasn't the balancing, it was the tracking. Ahhhh...

So I went back to my local mechanic, who booked Lucy in for the next day and gladly fixed the tracking for all of £15 (how he can do work for the little is beyond me). Turns out she was an absolute mile out, so no wonder the tyres were wearing unevenly!

Anyway, I have also had a bit of a boost in the sound my car makes due to a slightly rusted and broken... So I kind of need to get a new one I think. So my gran, bless her, dutifully went and got a couple of quotes from her favourite mechanics and came back to me, both of whichw ere cheaper than I could buy the part on the internet and fit it myself. So upon this revelation, I went down to my local mechanic and spoke to him. I am currently toying between going for a stainless steel one or just a normal galvanised one. The thing is, seeing as this is a car which I will have for a very long time, no question, I want things to last me a long time, so that means it is a bit of a no-brainer on going for a stainless steel one, as it will last more than twice as long as the bog-standard model. So for an extra £15 (which it seems I have already spent on the tracking so might as well spend it again on an exhaust) I wouldn't mind betting that the stainless steel one is a better option.

So that is where I am up to with dear Lucy. In the process of sorting out the exhaust and a beautifully aligned tracking, I am good to go! And with the prospect of the weather improving enough to actually get down to do some woodwork on her, I am excited! All is well with the world.

Apart from the fact I will have to splash out the best part of £100 at some point in the near future for a new exhaust... Bad times...

Thanks for reading.
Follow me on twitter: @peachy146