Douglass Hallawell | August 21, 2015 

Special thanks to author Douglas Hallawell and Frank Wnek, editor of The Morganeer, the Journal of the 3/4 Morgan Group, Ltd. for allowing us to reproduce this article.

I’m sure many of you have undertaken a partial restoration of a Mog at one point or another, but how many have started from scratch? In the early eighties, Frenchman Patrick Rousseau proved it can be done, and in doing so, brought back to life a 1967 Competition 4/4 Roadster which, as he was later to discover, had made a rather glamorous debut after its arrival in Paris.

Shortly after Mog Touraine in September of 1983, Patrick, who as a mechanic ran his own garage business near Tours, came across an ad in a car magazine for the remains of a Morgan roadster that had been salvaged in a Provence scrap yard by two young lads. After making contact, Patrick was told they had purchased the Mog’s French title along with the wreckage. It turned out the red 4/4 had been involved in a head-on collision and such was the damage that even the solid Salisbury axle was twisted out of shape! A later assessment revealed there were only six main salvageable items. A sorry sight, and it was indeed dramatic, as the outcome was later to reveal. Luckily, Patrick intervened before the two ‘owners’ had been able to dispose of the parts, as they had absolutely no intention of rebuilding the 4/4.

The next step was to make an inventory of what needed replacing; in other words, everything except for the two rear wings, Wooler gear change, dashboard, its wiring loom, bench seat, and rear panel for the number plate. By this stage, I had met Patrick and discovered his recent acquisition. Incidentally, the Mog would have been seventeen years old then, and little did we know the adventure lying ahead of us would result in a long-term friendship that lasts to this day. My daily transport was a small Renault 5, and it was later to play a major role in transporting new body parts from Malvern Link. On behalf of Patrick, I took care of ordering them plus a complete wooden frame and plenty of other parts, including the whole front assembly from MMC. Patrick and I then set about stripping the R5 of all its seating with the exception of the driver’s seat. With the spare wheel conveniently located above the engine, we were able to take precise measurements of the R5’s interior as well as the front wings on my 1965 Plus 4. We came to the conclusion that my R5 could theoretically hold not only the front wings, but also the bulkhead, inner wings, cowl, and cross-frame—with room to spare! With two roof bars in place, we reasoned that the wooden frame could easily be transported on top.

When it was all ready for collection, I turned up at the factory in my Renault monoplace. First order of business was to greet Peter Morgan in his office that faced the spares department, and then heading off to the woodshop. After checking his records, Graham Hall, the woodshop foreman, informed me that he personally had also assembled the original frame on Patrick’s 4/4 back in 1967! I then proceeded to take delivery of the body parts and mechanical bits and pieces like kingpins. By the time the ash frame was secured to the roof, the operation had attracted some attention, including some visiting moggers from Germany who took photos. All who witnessed the sight of a pint-sized R5 loaded to the brim with virtually 40% of a Mog were gobsmacked to say the least.

I had to dash off to catch the night crossing to Dieppe, and on arrival an intrigued customs officer held me up for thirty minutes. Shortly afterwards, disaster struck the R5. Well, more precisely, a stone completely shattered the windscreen, considerably reducing forward visibility. Somehow, the Renault monoplace made it to Patrick’s garage approximately five hours and 300 kilometers later—in one piece. And fortunately, Patrick had his camera at hand to immortalize the scene. For the next few months, Patrick continued his search for a second-hand replacement Ford GT engine, gearbox, axle, wheels, and other ancillaries. Those of you who’ve visited the factory know that you need a running chassis before starting any major rebuild of a Mog. Luckily, he was able to unearth a sixties chassis from Savoye’s bin of spare parts in Paris. In those days—even in France—you could still source a Salisbury axle and a solid steering column unit relatively easily. I would regularly pay visits to Patrick’s garage during the following sixteen months it took him to bring his 4/4 back to life. Meanwhile, he had managed to establish contact with the previous owner of his car. When he told her he was rebuilding the Mog, she replied that she didn’t wish to talk about the crash in which she said her companion had lost his life.

Not one to be deterred, Patrick pursued the rebuild, and by the time it came to re-upholstering the 4/4, I had purchased a lovely reproduction Brooklands steering wheel and chromed boss from Melvyn Rutter. It was later to provide the finishing touch to Patrick’s resuscitated 1967 Mog. A very unusual and interesting item still on the car today, is the period after-market gear lever/housing made by Wooler, which did away with the flimsy gear stick that was standard equipment on a series V 4/4. This remote-control gear change was specially ordered for his 4/4 with a personalized ‘Morgan’ script cast in the Wooler housing. As for the color scheme, Patrick opted for a dark shade of blue that contrasts well with the cream leather interior. By 1986, the Mog was up and running. I was keen to test drive it, but as Patrick and his family were about to move south to St Raphael, I suggested we meet up at a later date on the Côte d’Azur. In 1988, the Morgan Club de France was organizing Mog Avignon-Ventoux, so we signed up together and I served as his co-pilot. Needless to say, during the ensuing years, the 4/4 rewarded Patrick with lots of fun. As far as I was concerned, I thought that was the happy ending to the Mog’s rebuild. But unawares to me, there was more in store…

Along came 2007, and through the grapevine, I heard that brothers Xavier and Enric Romeu intended to sell the family’s 1967 Plus 4 Super Sports. On visiting Barcelona’s car show in May of 1967, their dad Pedro came across the Mog which the Spanish dealer, Alton, had ordered from MMC for displaying on his stand. Alton specifically ordered every possible option for the show car except Selectaride rear dampers, and requested a color scheme to pay tribute to Spain’s national flag, which explains the deep red upholstery and “vivid yellow” paintwork. Concerning Pedro Romeu, it was love at first sight, so he returned the next day with his wife and purchased the Plus 4 SS right then and there. When I arrived to view the Mog forty years later, Xavier and I discovered that the battery hadn’t held the overnight charge. He borrowed the one on his wife’s Plus 8, allowing us to fire up the Mog, which apparently hadn’t run in ages. In fact, by the time we succeeded in freeing the clutch, I realized I wasn’t going to make the last flight back to Paris. Thankfully though, Xavier managed to fit in a short test drive for us. The speedo displayed a mere 27,343 kms—peanuts for a forty-year-old Mog! Xavier then took me to his dad’s stable of classics where some twenty cars were stocked. No wonder the Plus 4 SS had clocked up so few kilometers.

When I returned to pick up the Mog a month later, I had decided to drive it all the way home. Near Orange, and after stopping for a pause beside a motorway toll, I was approached by a lady who apparently was the manager on duty at the toll. What followed was the customary chit-chat like “what yr is your Morgan?” etc. Surprised, she nonchalantly mentioned having once owned a red 1967 Morgan, but unfortunately had written it off in the early eighties. Then it suddenly dawned on me that I was most probably chatting with the same lady who had previously owned Patrick’s 1967 Competition 4/4. Next thing I knew, I had decided to detour towards St Raphael to—you guessed it—look up Patrick. Taken aback by what I told him regarding my fluke encounter on the autoroute, he confirmed that she lived in a town in the region of the said toll! What a pity he hadn’t been there instead of me. Before setting off from his home the next day, we aligned both of our 1967 Mogs in his driveway for a souvenir photo. On my way back to Paris, I decided to pay Maurice Louche a quick visit to show him my Plus 4 SS. To this day, we own the only two low-line Plus 4 SS Mogs in France, so it was a rare opportunity for a photo of our two cars together—which I didn’t want to miss!

Three years later, while exchanging e-mails with Gerry Willburn in California, I casually mentioned B1445—Patrick’s 4/4. Referring to his database, he informed me Patrick’s car was the red 4/4 displayed by Savoye at the 1967 Paris Motor Show. Talk about coincidences! This inevitably led me to phone Patrick and spill the beans on this interesting episode of his car’s history. My advice of course was that he request a factory chassis record of the Mog’s specs, which he did. It also confirmed that his 4/4 had been specifically ordered for the Parisian Motor Show, in likewise manner to the Plus 4 SS displayed by Alton in Barcelona.

The end line to this story is that my very first Morgan was also a 1967 Series V 4/4 (B1403), which explains the soft spot I have for Patrick’s 4/4. In 2010, Lorne Goldman contacted me about a request for info on a 1967 4/4 that a certain Enric Pineyro in Barcelona had purchased from a French dealer at a classic car show there. Well, believe it or not, on exchanging e-mails with Enric, I discovered he was the current owner of B1403—my first Morgan!