1962 Morris Mini Minor

[rich@minispares.com]

I hope you got the wheels in line when you drove onto the ramp......................

[minitravellerman]

Happy days Martin. She's still going well for you then?

[java gt]

Looking good and just to clarify,it would have been Brittains that would have assembled Morris in the Republic,not Pooles who would have assembled Wolseley.I suppose Alec Poole was getting a good deal on shells.

[Daz1968]

Glad it got through ok, looks great

[Chewie Baker]

Cheers all
I've done nothing yet with the oil leaks yet Ian, but she's still going well indeed

[minitravellerman]

Hi Martin
Just been looking at old photos of my past Minis - do you still have Auld Smokie?

[Chewie Baker]

Hello Ian and yes Auld Smokie is still in my hands.
She’s been SORN for the past year or so as I was going to take out engine and get engine bay painted but haven’t had the time.
So the plan is to get back on the road and use for the 60th celebrations this year.
Picked up a nice nos exhaust for her, with correct ‘kink’ in the pipe to sit correctly round the underside of the floor starter solenoid and also a nos 5-stud bumper

[Chewie Baker]

Hi Martin.
That's very interesting - I had never actually looked at the dating of the parts during the rebuild.

Was the dealer RJ Tinsley like we had suspected? The other alternative that it could have been was Banbridge Motor Works (now long closed and demolished) as they would have been the other local Morris dealership. I am friends with the grandson of the Banbridge Motor Works dealership and he checked through old documentation and couldn't find anything about BZ, hence our assumption that RJ Tinsley in Dromore supplied her.

hello Ian
after reading the below from Alan, i'm now wondering if BZ was actually from RJ Tinsley as you originally suspected?

[minitravellerman]

Hi Martin
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you as I haven't been on the forum in ages!
That always confused me as to why Norman would have gone all the way to Belfast to get a new car as he rarely was known to have been any more than a few miles from home. It's doubtful he was ever even in Belfast in his life as he was a very quiet rural man.
It is most likely to have been from RJ Tinsley in Dromore, or failing that from Banbridge Motor Works as both were Morris dealers.

[Chewie Baker]

i'm reckoning Tinsleys, as thats also the place where he had the photo taken 30 years ago when he was still around

So i've had this made up with their address

[minitravellerman]

i'm reckoning Tinsleys, as thats also the place where he had the photo taken 30 years ago when he was still around

So i've had this made up with their address

Very nice

That wasn't him in that photo by the way. The man in the newspaper article was a local Dromore man who apparently bought the first Mini Tinsley's sold in 1959. BZ we assume was bought by Tinsley's after Norman died and they kept it in their showroom until the local garage in Banbridge bought it to restore it when my barber bought it and then I did.