Total Rebuild — the Liersch family’s 1949 Morris Commercial

Many hands and 14 years of work bring a 1949 LC3 Morris Commercial back to life.

Words by Chris Smith. Photography by Chris Smith.

Steven Liersch was just eight when his dad started restoring this 1949 LC3 Morris Commercial.

Now 30, Steven was with his partner Kirra at the Castlemaine Truck Show when we caught up.

Steven works on all sorts machinery but cut his teeth fixing heavy vehicles.

He is also a keen attendee of many of the Victorian truck shows.

He had brought this restored British Racing Green truck to Castlemaine on the back of a truck from his home town of Donald, and just drove it from the hotel to the truck show. He reckons it would have been a much longer trip because the LC3 is flat out doing 50 kilometres an hour.

He recalls that originally the truck was at the tip when a few entrepreneurs decided to remove it from the unmanned tip and take it to their own house to sell.

His words weren’t so eloquent describing the act of the vendors who towed it back to their home and had it on their front lawn with a for sale sign for $300.

“My dad said if you can drive that truck out to my farm 20 kms down the road, I’ll give you the $300,” Steven tells ACT.

“One Sunday we heard this rattling come up the driveway and it’s the old truck, my dad is saying no way!”

They had the truck working and managed the trip, his dad gave them the $300 and their battery back and they went home a little richer.

That was about 22 years ago and so began a restoration of the 1949 LC3 Morris Commercial.

It took 14 years to restore with the expertise of lots of different tradesman and there hasn’t been a nut or bolt that hasn’t been touched.

“A lot of people had a lot to do with this project,” Steven explains as he investigates a substantial file of everything that has been documented about the build and who did what.

Looking at the LC3, it’s how you would imagine it would be when new. From under the hood to the cabin, the tray back and even the lights. Extensive work was needed to bring it back to this standard.

The customisation is in the detail and Steven uses the example of the headlamps to show this point.

“Even the original headlights have been changed to house H4 globes, so we can have better lighting while still retaining the look and feel of the original truck,” he says.

To add to this, the LC3 had all new glass cut and received a new loom.

As you can see from the images the inside of the cabin is neat and tidy and the gauges look in tremendous shape for the age of the truck.

The gauges were all rebuilt by Frank Benney from Ballarat, F.J. & A.M.

Benney. He rebuilt the speedo, the tacho and the oil pressure gauge.

The engine was also completely re-built.

The paint was done by Hoffmeier’s from Rosebery, they did all the paint on it. It is all 2pac and it is all in British Racing Green.

The trailer was built by Murray Broughton in Donald and then the sign writing was done by Jamie Cashin Signs, from Charlton.

The truck is registered in the Odds and Sods Car Club.

Steven says it has been on the road seven years. I am sure in that time it has been admired everywhere it goes.

Rear Vision: where are they now?

Do you know where this truck is today, or have an update on its story? Tell ACT what happened next. We will verify current updates before adding them to the archive.