Ulf Soderback has been restoring a Left Hand Drive Series 1 Eight two seater and this is his story of the car and its restoration.

Chassis no. S I/E 130816; Motor no. 131003 was exported to Sweden in 1937 and the two pictures show it in April 1938 when it at last had found an owner in Sweden. Although it came to this country the year before Ulf thinks that the approaching winter season made it difficult to sell. The blanket over the radiator in April suggests that this is a likely explanation. The spare wheel is missing on the Eight and the arrangement of the cars was to give a comparison of the size of the two cars. The picture below shows the car with its interim number plate (red with white figures). Because the "Difusa" frosted type headlamp glasses were never approved in Sweden clear Lucas glasses were fitted.

The three pictures below shows some pictures of later owners. Before Ulf bought it the car had 13 owners and was reported as scrapped in 1956.

Somehow it survived and popped up 20 years later, when its new owner, a 84 years old, made the car driveable without restoration.

When Ulf saw the car for the first time, he thought it looked very decent and had not the slightest idea how things should be. At least from the front the Eight looked not so bad when I first saw it. The worse then from the back - slanting and wry.

It had been fitted with a lot of Bosch items and the carburetor came from a moped and none of the ancillaries were correct. There was a curious American ignition coil with a lamp inside, the lamp could be easily removed which was an effective way to prevent the car from being stolen.

This led to the years of research to get the correct specification including every single bolthead marking, how many (23) holes in the firewall to plug with welding because of earlier owners´ inclination to mount a lot of accessions and so on...

When dismantling the car, Ulf found the original dark maroon colour, which, he thinks is much better than the fire-engine red in these pictures.

Ulf bought the Morris in 1982 and kept it in its as found condition until 1988. During this time, it was used as few as 5 times; The photo shows one of those exclusive opportunities ("beautiful house - not mine" says Ulf!).

Next page