Morris Commercial Only Way To Travel

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 5, Issue 11, 11 August 1987, Page 1 (Supplement)

Morris Commercial Only Way To Travel

Starting from humble beginnings, with just a chassis rail laying on the floor, Des Lundquist has built a complete 1952 Morris Commercial.

It is not the first vehicle of it's kind he has built from scratch - but the second and plans are underway to start a third Morris soon. Des' love for the Morris Commercial goes back to 1949 when he purchased a 1937 model for £75. It was formally a school bus from Putaruru and says he's always regretted selling it. Workhorse Des Lundquist's fully restored green truck is a familiar sight around town. His 'workhorse' as he describes it, is used to transport Des to and from work, to cart wood, take rubbish to the dump and he's also travelled to Auckland in it three times. He has numerous sheds full of parts for this particular type of vehicle. He swears that all the parts on his green truck are original except the added extras of a radio and heater! The only foreign parts are the blinkers, which are on for his own safety - people are not familiar with handsignals today he says. Des enjoys rebuilding and restoring the vehicles. He has gathered original parts from all over the country, including the Raetihi and Owhango areas. He says a major fault in the vehicles in the early

days was that clay would eat the chassis away after farmers had driven them around in paddocks. When he built his first Morris twenty years ago, there were only eleven still remaining on the road. Sadly his first completed truck was in a collision with a Capri and was written off. He began work on his second Morris Commercial two years ago and had it completed in nine months. All his spare time was spent working on the vehicle, weekends, before work in the mornings and some evenings during daylight saving, /Des would still be working on it at midnight! He says sometimes he couldn't sleep at night planning it, "You put them together like jigsaws". Restoration Hobby Patience and parts are the key to building the vehicles according to Des. He has enough parts to complete another Morris Commercial in full and almost enough parts to build a further three - except for the cabs and chassis. Des started his restoration hobby early. By the age of twenty, Des had restored two motorbikes. He says it grows on you and admits, "I'm bent

toward it." His greatest thrill is completing the job. "It's the ultimate to bring it out when it's at its best and take it for a drive." He says the only way he would part with his green truck is to sell the lot - truck, parts and all.

"Whoever brought this lot would have to bring a ten ton truck to cart it all away," he says. Since Des' truck has been on the road, he has clocked up 1,800 miles and says he gets about thirty miles to the gallon around town!