Bush Find

[Matt]

Hi all, I'm Matt and I am new on here.

I was recently asked to clear some land which also contained a car and over this weekend just gone i had a chance to get started.

This is was greeted me after a bit of "pruning" a 1960 Sunbeam Rapier



So I cut back a bit more



And a bit more



Turns out there was another car in there



A 69 Morris Minor convertible

After cutting back more of the thick bramble you could finally see the whole cars







And after a quick inflation session and a quick tug with a Hi Lux its out







that was it for Saturday as my 4yr old was tired and it had started to rain.

On Sunday we went back to carry on pulling the rapier out and ran a hose over it













Its a bit rotten, but has a respectable interior, a twin carb engine and over drive.

It seems to have been rallied at some point



And we did find the morris too which checks out as genuine and has been a local car all its life (to Peterborough)



I'm not really that knowledgeable about British Steel and have come here from a aircooled VW site and in all honesty these will be going on ebay in the near future as I have no time in my life for more projects
But.... its fun digging these old cars out and I myself like reading about rescues so its nice to be able to contribute back for once.

hope you all enjoy the pics.

This one sums it all up to me....Happy



Matt

[zipgun]

How cool is that ?Terry and Kevin just flipped...

[rich.]

any idea how long thay had been there.

[TerryG]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh, convertible mog. much drooling!
Lucky man finding some new toys. Is the land owner putting them up for sale or have you been asked to do it?

[Matt]

any idea how long thay had been there.

The tax on the Rapier ran out in 01'

I would say the same applied to the Morris as well

[Matt]

ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh, convertible mog. much drooling!
Lucky man finding some new toys. Is the land owner putting them up for sale or have you been asked to do it?

I have been asked if I could sell them, but there is no rush to do this.

This thread is not a For Sale ad btw, but they will be for sale if that makes sense...

[Matt]

Having an unproductive morning at work today I have been doing a bit of research into this car as I know nothing of Sunbeam. Rapiers or in fact Classic Rallying lol

I have found a link to the Classic Rally Association Results Archive and for the The 7th Monte Carlo Challenge on the dates of 3 - 9 February 1996 there were in fact 2 1960 Sunbeam Rapiers entered and both finished.

I will have to dig further into this as I don't have the info on what number it ran under but its quite interesting stuff

[TerryG]

I can tell you it was sold at auction back in 2000:
http://www.motorbase.com/auctionlot/by-id/1629792342
from the tax date it looks like the winner just parked it up. Shame there is no mileage in the auction listing or you could verify it.

[Matt]

I can tell you it was sold at auction back in 2000:
http://www.motorbase.com/auctionlot/by-id/1629792342
from the tax date it looks like the winner just parked it up. Shame there is no mileage in the auction listing or you could verify it.

Bargain... £700

[JPB]

Awww, when you said Bush find, I thought....



Still, better a couple of cars than an undiscovered colony of really angry insects in that thicket, good work!