Franks Phillips - Van Resurrection

Frank Phillips will be known to many of you, if not personally then at least by reputation, as one of the two men who had the foresight to set up the Morris Marina Owners Club in 1985.  If the year doesn't seem particularly important, remember BL only stopped making Morris Itals in 1984 - that's some foresight.

Frank has probably owned just about every model of the marque at one time or another, except an early van.  In 2000 a chap in Telford offered him a tax exempt van in a swap for a later roadworthy pickup, so he did the deal sight unseen, the first three pictures gives you some idea of what arrived on a trailer.  Maybe some sills, drivers door, couple of wings - no problem?  I'll let Frank tell the full story from here on.

"It looked reasonably sound on first inspection. It started and ran — just about. So, into the garage it went and there it stayed.  A couple of weeks later, I thought I'd better give the van a good look over to see how much work was going to be needed to bring her up to scratch, so on a nice sunny day, I dragged her out and started her up.

To say that I was horrified would be an understatement.  It was so rotten, I just dropped her back on her wheels and pushed her back into the garage, where she stayed for the next four years.  It took me that long to gather up the courage to tackle the rot, plus I needed loads of panels that were not in the back of the van when it arrived.  So a couple of years trawling the autojumbles and pestering my friends in the Marina Owners' Club were necessary before I had all the bits that I needed.

In 2003, around Christmas, I made some space in my workshop and stripped the shell of all useful bits, of which there weren't many. The rubbish was thrown in the scrap pile and what was left of the shell was sent for grit-blasting, so when it came back, it looked more like a sieve than a van, but at least what was left was clean and primed in zinc. In January, 2004, I set to work. As I restore classic cars for a living, the work was not too daunting, but there was just too much of it.  I had to brace the door apertures because I cut away both floor, inner and outer sills at once to sort out each side, not to mention both inner and outer front wings and flitch panels. 

Everything In front of the bulkhead was cut away and replaced with new panels. As the photos show, it was a very comprehensive rebuild and in all, I replaced 32 panels, as well as the dozens of patch panels I had to make to repair the A-posts. After six months of welding, the shell was in as-new condition, so I prepared it for primer and paint. The underside was protected with spray-sealer.  I decided to stick with the vans original colour which was green mallard, a typical early-70s classy colour.  I repainted her in ICI 2 pack inside, underneath and on top and I was very pleased with the end result. 

I spent the next year's spare time fitting all those new parts I'd sourced and while I was at it, I decided to update the spec to that of a 72 car. Instead of the standard "tin" dashboard, I fitted a near-perfect Mk I car dash, wiring loom and centre console, along with new navy carpets.  The seats were reupholstered in original-style navy vinyl.  The advantage of fitting the car dash is two-fold — not only does it look better, it has the added bonus of electric wash/wiper switch, glove box, radio console and speaker panel. A 1300 GT steering wheel finished it off nicely.

On the mechanical side, I found by fitting new, later-style front chassis rails and flitch panels, I could also fit a front anti-roll bar.  All running gear was overhauled or replaced and discs fitted to the front instead of drums.  The engine is more or less a standard 1300 A-series as original, but I've had the head updated to run on unleaded and a stage one camshaft fitted to give it a bit more go.  The finished van was intended as an advert for my company, and I'm sure she'll do me proud. I'm looking forward to the 2006 show season.  I think I'm pretty safe in stating that this is probably the best Marina van left in the world, unless you know different?"

A great story of skill and perseverance, Frank.   The van is so good that it warranted it's own article in 'Classic Van & Pick Up' magazine in 2006.  The van is believed to have been originally owned by a market gardener in Wolverhampton for most of its life and Frank would be interested to hear from anyone who knows more about its history. Any takers? We'll pass on details. By the way, Frank's business is Austin Morris Service - classic car body repairs and restoration.  There are a good few cars in the club that have been restored by Frank and I can't think of anyone else with his depth of knowledge on the bodywork of Marinas and Itals.  Each year at the National Show - Frank awards a cup for the best car at the show - if your bodywork is as good as Franks - you could be a future winner.