Morris J Commercial Van Restoration (Ep1)

In this episode we introduce you to our new mascot. A van from 1949. The Morris J commercial used to be shipped to Australia from the UK & assembled there for use as commercial vehicles, including milk trucks. Given we make grooming gear under the brand "Milkman" we figure this would be the perfect vehicle for a restoration project. 

Once it has been restored & looking respectable we will use it for trade shows, events, markets & fetes. It will be the perfect "vehicle" (get it?) to display our beard products, shave gear & moustache accoutrements. The only hitch is we have a small budget, no car restoration experience & very little time before the Spring/Summer event season begins in Sydney. 

For the first stage of the restoration we give the whole van a light sand blasting inside and out to remove decades of grime & rust. The transformation from doing this alone is already amazing. The beautiful lines of the van start to show & we can see the potential. But it also reveals the full extent of the rust that took hold of its body. Many of the panels have sections where rust has completely eaten through. What's more, now the panels are naked, without any paint to protect them, the rust will slowly start to return to complete the job of turning this car into dust. 

We aren't about to wait for that to happen. In the next episode we will start work on hand finishing each panel, one by one. The goal will be to clean them up as much as possible and then hit them with clear coat. This will give an industrial looking "rat rod" finish. With this look (and maybe some nice mag wheels), the van will be ready for branding & some shows. As we save money & spend more time, we can then take the restoration up notch by notch. Where will it go? We still haven't decided. But in a world with custom LED lighting, carbon fibre & electric drive trains there is plenty to think about.

In the meantime, we'll get it looking nice enough to put a barber chair in front of it & do beard trims & shaves at events. We hope it will make for a great attraction. It's like a museum piece to look at. Seventy year old cars don't have windscreen wipers let alone power windows & airbags. It's fascinating to picture how life must have been back then.

In the next episode, we'll get the front grill & rear doors up & ready for paint. Until then.

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