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For those interested in old cars.


DDolfelin

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Always kept this clipping of a Ford Brezza Ghia, a concept car, taken from a mag' article in about 1980 as i loved it so much back then and still do, shame they never made it.

attachicon.gif2011-06-04 15.48.37.jpg

 

Sierra doors & mirrors? 

 

Shows it's a good thing we all have different tastes - I think it looks completely & utterly naff!!

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Subaru owners tend to get upset when you offer the opinion that their cars sound exactly like a knackered VW Beetle with a cheapo made-in-Brazil aftermarket exhaust :D.

 

Well they are boxer engines. The distinctive Subaru rumble comes from the unequal length exhaust manifold on the turbo engines to provide the up pipe to the turbo on the drivers side of the engine, not as efficient as an equal length but somehow that's not the point....

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Must be just the way the picture looks. How did it end up with mk4 lights?

 

One of the previous owners fitted them, it was quite common on Mk1s once they'd become old bangers in the '70s and '80s, if of course they managed to last that long! I'm sure I posted a scan of an article in this thread a while back showing Mini owners how to upgrade their Mk1 with Mk2 lights. When I first saw 'Mackie' parked up in town I didn't even notice the MkIV lights until after I'd left a note on the windscreen asking the owner if it was for sale - once I'd bought it (for £300 if memory serves) I always intended to fit the Mk1 type but I never got round to it.

 

Off to see the new Mini chap in Market Harborough tomorrow afternoon to sort something out with the Jap 1275  ;)

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A climate that's quite kind to steel helps. Depending on which state you were in, so does the lack of an annual roadworthiness inspection. I haven't noticed any recently, but Perth had quite a few Alfas and Fiat 124 Coupes in use as daily drivers not so very long ago.

We were in Melbourne, Victoria. Not really a harsh climate but possibly one of the less favourable ones for steel in Aus.

 

Katy

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One thing which happens now is the disapearance of base models.

 

Rover SD1, if you see one most likely V8

 

Old Talbot Sunbeam hatches, almost all now 1600 or 2.2 as basic became shell donors or new homes for big engined rust bucket internals.

 

Escort - are there are 1100 now or have all got 1600 XFlow or the Pinto?

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Escort - are there are 1100 now or have all got 1600 XFlow or the Pinto?

If you see one it'll likely be a four door - the vast majority of the two doors will either be rally cars or Mex/RS2 'replica's'. Although I did see a lovely original purple velvet 1300E two door a few months back - although that wasn't exactly a base model when new!

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If you see one it'll likely be a four door - the vast majority of the two doors will either be rally cars or Mex/RS2 'replica's'. Although I did see a lovely original purple velvet 1300E two door a few months back - although that wasn't exactly a base model when new!

I've actually seen mk2 4 doors as rallycars which kooks a bit odd but as the price of decent 2 door shells as got stupid you can see why.

Incidentally there were mk2 four door sports

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One of the previous owners fitted them, it was quite common on Mk1s once they'd become old bangers in the '70s and '80s, if of course they managed to last that long! I'm sure I posted a scan of an article in this thread a while back showing Mini owners how to upgrade their Mk1 with Mk2 lights. When I first saw 'Mackie' parked up in town I didn't even notice the MkIV lights until after I'd left a note on the windscreen asking the owner if it was for sale - once I'd bought it (for £300 if memory serves) I always intended to fit the Mk1 type but I never got round to it.

 

Off to see the new Mini chap in Market Harborough tomorrow afternoon to sort something out with the Jap 1275  ;)

I'd have thought its quite a big job to fit mk4 lights to a mk1

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I've actually seen mk2 4 doors as rallycars which kooks a bit odd but as the price of decent 2 door shells as got stupid you can see why.

Incidentally there were mk2 four door sports

 

There are quite a few Mk2 'more doors' being used/built as rally cars - and now decent basic 4 doors are getting rarer - & hence ever more expensive! Personally I think the Mk2 looks OK, but the Mk1 4 door was certainly never a design classic, & I don't think I've ever seen one rally prepared. I do have a bit of a soft spot for them as I passed my test in one. Doesn't mean I'd ever buy one though!

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The price of early Escorts seems crazy now, a friend had a book in the 90s which showed you how to create a Caterham look alike for pocket money, it advocated going to the local scrap yard and buying a MK2 escort for £15 I recall!

The price of early Escorts seems crazy now, a friend had a book in the 90s which showed you how to create a Caterham look alike for pocket money, it advocated going to the local scrap yard and buying a MK2 escort for £15 I recall!

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I had a MK1 1100 Escort in Red, bought for £100 from a bloke in the pub after my mini got wrote off. Kept it 3 years whilst I saved up and bought a nearly new Mk3 1.6 Used to thrash that little engine until the valves bounced LOL

 

and it was a 2 door ...

Edited by RedgateModels
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Not sure if my cheapo-purchase was an Escort or what. It had a backward sloping rear window (100E???) and the guy I bought it off had fitted new rear springs off a van I think. Whatever, it was back-high and treacherous in wet weather and the damn thing spun round on me on St.Asaph roundabout. Facing on-coming traffic, I never felt so daft but it was laff a day in Pilkington Optical. A foot on an exhaust pipe while someone was starting up his car would leave a blown silencer, and anyone known to have fitted an early form of car alarm would have his car shaken as we walked past to that the horn was going until the car settled down!  My car wouldnt start one morning after a night shift and 'security' came over to assist, which was the last thing I needed. Luckily he didn't notice the heat-resistant stuff from inside the factory that I had wrapped near the exhaust manifold (sacking offence).

Edited by coachmann
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Not sure if my cheapo-purchase was an Escort or what. It had a backward sloping rear window (100E???) and the guy I bought it off had fitted new rear springs off a van I think. Whatever, it was back-high and treacherous in wet weather and the damn thing spun round on me on St.Asaph roundabout. Facing on-coming traffic, I never felt so daft but it was laff a day in Pilkington Optical. A foot on an exhaust pipe while someone was starting up his car would leave a blown silencer, and anyone known to have fitted an early form of car alarm would have his car shaken as we walked past to that the horn was going until the car settled down!  My car wouldnt start one morning after a night shift and 'security' came over to assist, which was the last thing I needed. Luckily he didn't notice the heat-resistant stuff from inside the factory that I had wrapped near the exhaust manifold (sacking offence).

The car with the backward sloping rear window would have been an Anglia (105E). When I visited Malta for the first time over 40 years ago the hire car was a four door Mk. I Escort, converted locally to a cabriolet. Due to flexing the rear doors wouldn't open and to access the rear seats you had to climb over the boot (the cabriolet top was stuck in the open position).

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I'd have thought its quite a big job to fit mk4 lights to a mk1

 

From what I remember about the article most owners just cut a bigger hole in the rear panel and folded some of the metal in to mount the new light clusters in! It was often a real botch job. Radfords were just as bad in many cases, behind all the shiny paint and plush leather interior there were all kinds of bodges  ;)

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IIRC...the 4-door Escort [mk1] shell was preferred when building an Escort for rallying, as the 4 -door floorpan was reinforced by Ford.

 

I inherited a mk 1 escort when I got married [eventually] to wife #2.

 

It was a brown [bronze??] heap.....with an asthmatic 1100 engine in it.    However, suspension & wheels looked nothing like a base 1100 escort...so I did a bit of digging at the time...turned out it was a quite rare F-plate [which i knew] '67 Escort 1300 GT originally.....on its 3rd or 4th set of strut tops. It was a banger [early 1980's at the time], but served well enough.....Even had the 1300 GT carb and manifolding..which explained why, as an 1100, it never ran too well?

 

I sold it to a work colleague at Scarborough [buses]...for a reasonable sum [i thought?].....canny lad drove it into his garage, shut the doors and locked them.  Found a 1300 engine too....With the money, we [wife #2, mainly, I was back on  motorcycles by then] bought an S-reg Renault 5 GTL....& when that got 'written-off'' by a tractor [tractor lost its 4wd front axle in the process.....car wasn't so badly damaged..just old]....& we got the payout-plus [uninsured losses was  a scream]......we [she?] found a Nissan Cherry..[the euro-shape]....which was a 'nice' car, if a trifle bland.......broke down every time we went out onto the North York Moors....found it had a weak fuel pump.....First time I drove it..[when we went to pick it up after buying]...it was getting dark....I turned the lights on, and the dashboard display gave me such a shock...it was bright orange!!

 

After that, wifey#2 started climbing the 'career' ladder.....and wanted a car that had a bit of umph!  Via a Peugeot 309 Gti..or rather, the posher version, a bit more plush, but with GTi mechanicals...and a dent in the driver's door.....which wasn't a 'nice' car [belt snapped twice].......I got her onto Alfa Romeos....and nearly 30 years [and 2 more husbands] later, she's still well into her Alfas.

As for me? I got myself a Skoda Estelle........

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IIRC...the 4-door Escort [mk1] shell was preferred when building an Escort for rallying, as the 4 -door floorpan was reinforced by Ford.

 

These days the three door is desirable for making into a Mexico/RS1600-alike.

 

The price they go on eBay for is crazy.

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....we [she?] found a Nissan Cherry..[the euro-shape]....which was a 'nice' car, if a trifle bland.......broke down every time we went out onto the North York Moors....found it had a weak fuel pump.....First time I drove it..[when we went to pick it up after buying]...it was getting dark....I turned the lights on, and the dashboard display gave me such a shock...it was bright orange!!….

 

Er….was it a Nissan Cherry Europe? If so, it was built by the Italians....

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This is what happens when you kit bash an Airfix 1/12th scale Bentley Blower and a Tamiya 1/32nd scale German Halftrack...  ;)

OK so I dropped the boxes with the lids off....I’m saying nothing of the other one of the pair, that’s just too embarrassing...

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