The Morgan Rides Again… (Randy Johnson)
It began with the 1961 Plus Four Roadster I purchased from my father in 1966.
This was my everyday car while I was attending Georgia State University where I had the good fortune to meet Dale, my wife of now fifty plus years.
We dated in that car for almost a year until it was sold and replaced with a yellow 1961 VW convertible (but that is another story).
Fast forward twenty years, we were raising three children, both working and dealing with all that goes along with a dual income, hardworking, busy family.
In celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary Dale said she wanted to give me another Morgan.
The search for a car began the Sunday after Thanksgiving of 1988.
Amy and Adam and I journeyed to a small British Car event in downtown Atlanta where we met Lance Lipscomb as well as Bob and Wynell Bruce and Maidie and Charlie Williams, all members of MOGSouth. I told them of my quest for another Morgan and by Monday afternoon, Lance, called and said he had found a car.
The car was in a basement in a home in Marietta and was being sold because the owner had begun a rebuild but had by then given up on the project.
I purchased the car on sight and all of the various pieces and brought it home.
It needed painting as well as an interior and reassembly and with help from Don Simpkins, Fred Sisson and Lance the car came together in early 1989 and made its formal debut at the MCCDC National Meet that summer after traveling in caravan from Atlanta along with Fred and Roni Sisson and their three year old daughter Sam.
The car was frequently driven to many meets and Morgan events over the next thirty years where we made long lasting friendships with the many members of the Morgan community.
After the MOGSouth Christmas Party of 2016, Dale and I made the decision that it was time to “freshen” the Morgan as it was showing its age and the wear and tear of 30 years of enjoyment. This car is not a “garage queen”. It was driven and enjoyed weekly for almost thirty years.
After several fits and starts, I reached out to Mitch Bressler of MSA Classics in Carrollton, Georgia to handle the project.
I had met Mitch just after the car was first on the road when he worked with Jon Stamps of Jon Stamps Racing and they had performed several major repairs to the car.
Mitch had begun full time vintage race car preparation and car restoration as well as general maintenance with his company MSA Classics in a large facility in Carrollton.
As it turns out, what was to be a “freshening” became a full body off frame up restoration and now it sports a completely rebuilt engine and transmission, new brake and electrical systems, rebuilt transmission, aluminum radiator and fuel tank, new floorboards, complete respray and complete new custom fit leather interior.
In effect, it is a new 1967 Plus Four and in my opinion, the result is stunning.
Thanks to Mitch Bressler and his company MSA Classics and his local suppliers and craftsmen as well as Morgan Spares, Lonnie Bailey, who painted the car and Northpoint Auto Upholstery, and especially to Dale, my wife of now fifty plus years, the Morgan Rides Again!
Hope to see it at the spring gathering.
Love these stories!
Congratulations on the “new” +4. It looks great.
Randy
It really does look great. I use Mitch to work on my 1959 Morgan 4/4 race car and so I’ve been at his shop as your Morgan cam together, fun to watch as he did it right. Hope you and Dale will enjoy it and join us for some MOGSouth gatherings this year
Got my first viewing of the “new car” at Caffeine and Octane today. Beautiful!
I love the comment ” she is not a garage queen ”
That’s the way it should be – on the road is where Morgan is at home.
The color is spectacular. Hope to see it at the spring meet.