Jan - Ivar Sørensens' Norwegian Collection

Jan-Ivar is one of our more remote world-wide members, being the only club member in Norway until very recently.  He has been a regular contributor of Marina snippets and pictures since the club website was started and we have previously featured his yellow Big Foot Marina Van.  He has such a wide and interesting collection of Marinas and other BMC & BL cars that we thought that it would be worthy of an article in itself.  The first shot gives you some idea of the breadth and depth of his collection and Jan-Ivar tells me that the barn in the foreground is full of cars as well.  I'll let him tell the story.

The bronze 1.8 automatic was bought from an elderly gentleman (aren’t they all these days) a few years back.  I MOT’d her last year and used her from time to time.  Not attended any shows with her yet.  Ideally one of the front wings should be replaced and then there is a rattling sound which I believe to come from the converter. Well as you know I have my hands full with too many other projects so I guess I just keep on running her gently for small trips locally. If it works don’t fix it!

The Mumford is currently undergoing FULL and I mean FULL restoration. If I known how bad it was I wouldn’t have started on it – but I’m already beyond the “point of no return” with her. She is being taken to pieces – as you all know this is the easy bit. Now the bare shell is in for a grit-blasting (hopefully this summer).  Panels that are to be changed include the front wings, rear wings , windscreen surround, sills, front floor, headlamp panels, bonnet, doors, slam panel  and then I’ll have to see what the blasting reveals. An optimistic plan in my head says finished in 2010 – so maybe there will be some new pics of it then… 

Jan-Ivar bought this Estate in the UK sight unseen from Norway, so that he had transport for when he flew in for the National 05.  As well as touring the country he picked up loads of prearranged spares buys.

Then there is the estate – the pic is with the Clifton suspension bridge in the background. This £150  car got us all through our vacation In UK.  LOADED  and I mean loaded (I filled her up even more after the Nationals).  It took us all around UK – up to Scotland and then back to Norway .  In all a 3500 miles trip – with only a few hiccups. Proving it still can be done with a classic car. (and reminding me that I really ought to use my own fleet more (they deserves it) . Plans for the Estate - I’m a bit uncertain if I should fix her up first and then put here on Norwegian plates or put the plates on first … Anyway it WILL take some years before she’s back to her former glory.

The car below is actually visibly too far gone – before I start tearing her apart.  But as it is a Mk 1 and the only pick-up in Norway, I might be mad enough to start on her. Meanwhile she’s slumbering in my barn awaiting better times. Sorry for the quality of the photo but the barn is dark and packed with cars so there's not much chance taking a good photo.

The last car for this time is the Suntor. It featured in Practical Classics a few years ago when it was exported to Norway - they drove it up.  The pic is from her first show in Norway in 2004. The seats are now being re-trimmed – but it seems that the original 70’s material is impossible to get hold of. So I’ve sourced up the closest match I could get, and delivered it all to a professional trimmer. Plans include mot’ing the car for the summer and taking her to a few shows

I had to put this in as it was too good to miss out.  This takes Marina Mania to a whole new level.  Yup it is a real Tattoo and not Biro!

The man's mad I tell you!

Marina Big Foot

Marina Ice Cream Van - another project

With so many cars off the road, Jan-Ivar has come up with a novel way of shifting them round - no pushing or two wheeled dolly for him, just use the farm forklift!

Well that’s all for now, there’s still a few Marinas in the barn that I haven’t sent pics of, as they are in the category “too good to scrap – too bad to MOT”, maybe someone will get around to restoring them sometime, meanwhile they are just gathering dust for future generations.

I have also included some pics of the parts cars that are stored outside, slowly being reclaimed by mother nature.  Anyway it's freezing 10 below at the moment, so writing emails is more comfy than roaming around in the non heated workshop (must be getting old)".