SV 2277

Post by **Ian Grace** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 9:40 pm

Chassis number SV 2277, not registration number, which is unknown. And this is not my car, but that of new VMR members Debbie and Tim Borman - or more accurately, Debbie's 80-year old father.

I visited the Bormans' workshop this weekend. The story of this 1931 Hundred Pound 2-seater is fascinating. Mr. Borman senior bought the car something like 30 years ago, dismantled it and stored it in pieces in a loft above a spray booth in the car bodywork workshop which was his business. When his daughter and son-in-law took over the busiess, it lurked in the loft entirely unknown to them for years. Mr. Borman senior also had a post-war Minor pick-up which the family secretly restored as an 80th Birthday to him. It was only then that he mentioned the other Minor, but they were sure that it was nowhere in the workshop. He told them to look on top of the spray booth - and there it was!

I managed to climb up on the spray booth this weekend to check it out. Sure enough, it all seems to be there and is in remarkably original condition, although the body is in two pieces and the floor is rotten. The plan is to get it down and restore it relatively quickly for Debbie's father who is suffering from cancer.

I'll have a much better idea of what will be involved when it is all down at ground level and years of spary dust are removed - it currently looks like the ghost of a car! However, I was able to find the chassis number on the frame and a couple of other oddities.

First, the car has a standard 1932 season spare wheel carrier bracket inside the tail. Second, the top channel of the windscreen (and maybe the rest of the frame) is chromed. I suspect therefore that these two items may have been fitted at some point in the past. It does retain its original black enameled radiator shell.

I couldn't get any photos of the car in its current location, but should have some to post here in afew weeks.

Incidentally, there is a 'British pub' just down the road from the workshop, so, once this car is restored, and my Semi-sports is back over here, we may be able to organize our very own VMR pub meet here in Seattle!