For those interested in old cars.

[BernardTPM]

3 hours ago, RJS1977 said:

 

What's the black car in the centre of the photo that looks like an overgrown Morris 1000?

Basically that's what it is. In the film version of 'The Borrowers' there's one too - subtly larger than all the Minors around it.

[jwealleans]

Wasn't it sold as the Oxford?

[Hobby]

23 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

Wasn't it sold as the Oxford?

 

See the last post on previous page by Mike (including link to Wikki page!)

[Rugd1022]

Somewhere in British Columbia, a humble Mk2 Mini 850 or 1000 with some tasteful period mods...

 

 

[great central]

Since my son picked up an 07 plate Jeep patriot for £650 from these people I keep looking at their website.

This appeared today. I've got a soft spot for Rover R8s, had four of them over the years.

Hope the link works, it's last MOT was in 2011 so probably needs some work but looks superb and engine sounds pretty sweet as well.

 

 

[big jim]

thats the scrappy in spondon that had a couple of MK1 coaches on site for years, you could see them from the MML, they have gone now though 

[big jim]

3 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Somewhere in British Columbia, a humble Mk2 Mini 850 or 1000 with some tasteful period mods...

 

i've never likes mini grilles with built in spotlights

[great central]

5 hours ago, big jim said:

thats the scrappy in spondon that had a couple of MK1 coaches on site for years, you could see them from the MML, they have gone now though 

 

Yep, a good many steam locos met their end there as well. Remember passing them fairly regularly, old established firm.

[Rugd1022]

10 hours ago, big jim said:

 

i've never likes mini grilles with built in spotlights

 

Each to their own Jim, the Benelite grille with integral lamps is a sought after item these days, my Mk2 S still has one on which gives it a bit of a 'Radford' look. Two bolts and it comes off the car easily enough. They were popular (but not cheap) back in the day partly because of fashion but mostly because the original Lucas headlamps were pretty dismal!

Edited March 12, 2019 by Rugd1022

[boxbrownie]

12 hours ago, big jim said:

 

i've never likes mini grilles with built in spotlights

 

The “real” ones look OK (Radford/benelite) but that one looks to have been hacked and smaller fog lamps put too far back, makes it look very odd.

 

of course nowadays you can fit VERY decent 7” LED type round headlamps (as supplied for LR Defenders) which still look fairly normal on a classic vehicle.

[The Stationmaster]

Hmm, on the way to collect my car from the garage this morning I passed a Riley Elf (Mini version) looking in fairly good nick.  I almost hate to say this but it's a few weeks short of the anniversary of the only time I drove one, 54 years ago 

[big jim]

6 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

of course nowadays you can fit VERY decent 7” LED type round headlamps (as supplied for LR Defenders) which still look fairly normal on a classic vehicle.

 

Ive got 4 of those LED spots to go on the BMW cooper S when I get it back 

[Rugd1022]

8 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

 

The “real” ones look OK (Radford/benelite) but that one looks to have been hacked and smaller fog lamps put too far back, makes it look very odd.

 

of course nowadays you can fit VERY decent 7” LED type round headlamps (as supplied for LR Defenders) which still look fairly normal on a classic vehicle.

 

The one in the photo is a genuine Benelite grille David, but I agree, the smaller spotlamps make it look a bit odd. Benelite made about ten different versions of those grilles in Mk1 and Mk2 form, not all of them had holes for lamps either. Some had eleven slats while some had thirteen. Some had a curved bit on the slat immediately below the bonnet latch opening and some didn't, some had the Benelite badge in the opening and some didn't. Mine has the curved bit on the third slat from the top (you can just make it out in this photo) and doesn't have a badge...

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Rugd1022

[Rugd1022]

Another genuine Benelite grille but with rectangular lamps, no doubt from a Radford or possibly a Stewart & Ardern converted Minsprint… they even did a 'cyclops' version with a single lamp hole, I've never seen one before... and I'm not sure I want to...!

 

 

Edited March 12, 2019 by Rugd1022

[boxbrownie]

19 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Hmm, on the way to collect my car from the garage this morning I passed a Riley Elf (Mini version) looking in fairly good nick.  I almost hate to say this but it's a few weeks short of the anniversary of the only time I drove one, 54 years ago 

 

We chose a Riley Elf as our race car in Special Saloons back in the 70’s........handy because by replacing the rear side panels with alloy sheets the wheel arches could be moved back about an inch and a half enabling the beam axle (all the racing rage back then with Minis) to give a longer wheelbase making for better handling, and because of the boot on the Elf no scrutiniser ever noticed or bothered to measure  naughty but no more so than a certain major team running a certain foreign car which had a windscreen washer knob on the dash which was actually a brake balance valve to enable rear brake adjustment while racing.....naughty boys we all were then 

[boxbrownie]

14 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

The one in the photo is a genuine Benelite grille David, but I agree, the smaller spotlamps make it look a bit odd. Benelite made about ten different versions of those grilles in Mk1 and Mk2 form, not all of them had holes for lamps either. Some had eleven slats while some had thirteen. Some had a curved bit on the slat immediately below the bonnet latch opening and some didn't, some had the Benelite badge in the opening and some didn't. Mine has the curved bit on the third slat from the top (you can just make it out in this photo) and doesn't have a badge...

 

 

It’s the second one I remember with the “quick release” knobs........

[The Stationmaster]

Saw the Riley Elf again this morning so I presume it lives somewhere in the vicinity.  F reg and doesn't look to be in too bad an external condition - all I need now is to find it in a suitable photspot in Tesco's car park one day.

[Rugd1022]

On ‎13‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 09:57, boxbrownie said:

It’s the second one I remember with the “quick release” knobs........

 

The quick release knobs aren't actually part of the grille David and never came from Benelite, they're separately bought aftermarket items fitted by me. Paddy Hopkirk (amongst others) sold thousands of them in the '60s and '70s. Very handy for those times when you find yourself faffing about with the starter motor, dynamo or alternator!

[Rugd1022]

Going through some old photo files just now I came across this one of a Mk1 Morris Cooper 1275 S which I took almost ten years ago en route to the annual Mini day at Stanford Hall, the reg' number looked familiar and I realised the car appears in the Brooklands road test book on Coopers, it was upgraded with a Taurus stage 1 tuning kit and featured in an article in 'Car & Car Conversions' in July 1965...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[faulcon1]

On YouTube there are various people showing cars being restored. But they show a slide show and not the nitty gritty of car restoration. In Victoria Australia there is one bloke who shows cars he's working on from start to finish like a 1969 Ford XW Falcon which he bought as a running car but rather tired from old age. The car had a 3.6 six cylinder engine but that was removed and a 351 V8 was put in it's place. The restoration was done in the blokes garage as are all his other car restorations. He's a high school teacher but has worked for car dealers in the past. Oddly enough he hated working on cars for a living but loves doing it for a hobby.

In the first of thirty one videos he takes his youngest daughter for a ride in the Falcon in it's "as bought" condition. She being of a different generation is none to pleased with dad's latest acquisition.

He lives on the local railway line that terminates at Belgrave or the start of a journey on Puffing Billy. Here's that video of the Falcon:    

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by faulcon1
Add video URL

[faulcon1]

Here's another Falcon with an interesting history but the owner didn't have the skills to restore the car. So he paid others to do all the work for him. Here's the video

 

[Northmoor]

7 hours ago, faulcon1 said:

 

He lives on the local railway line that terminates at Belgrave or the start of a journey on Puffing Billy. Here's that video of the Falcon:    

In one of those weird coincidences I read this just after finding a Timetable for the Puffing Billy Railway from November 1979 to April 1980, which just fell out of some old magazines I was sorting through.....

[alastairq]

That Falcon 6 engine is similar to mine [mine's a 200 cu in, I'd say that one is a 250 cu in...]....very nice sloggin' engine,  good for a daily driver, very strong [but has design foibles]...Australian Ford sixes were improved over their US counterparts...[detachable inlet manifolds for starters]....These Ford inline sixes were the workhorse of the Ford production line-up..they went into everything....cars, vans, trucks, 4x4s, everything. Plus, whilst the V8 engine range produced more horsepower [at the expense of fuel consumption]...these sixes, when tuned, were superior to the V8's in torque. The Ford inline sixes [post-'67, at least] had stronger bottom ends than the equivalent V8's....but lacked the V8 street credibility thing. I'd sooner have the six than a V8, anyway...smoother, sounding less like a Harley Davidson.

The upside of the six is, the cars are valued at a lot [well, something like] less than the equivalent V8....which is handy to know if it's the car one desires, rather than the engine?

[Rugd1022]

Photo c/o Paul Miller, Laira in September 1976...

 

 

[faulcon1]

4 hours ago, alastairq said:

That Falcon 6 engine is similar to mine [mine's a 200 cu in, I'd say that one is a 250 cu in...]....very nice sloggin' engine,  good for a daily driver, very strong [but has design foibles]...Australian Ford sixes were improved over their US counterparts...[detachable inlet manifolds for starters]....These Ford inline sixes were the workhorse of the Ford production line-up..they went into everything....cars, vans, trucks, 4x4s, everything. Plus, whilst the V8 engine range produced more horsepower [at the expense of fuel consumption]...these sixes, when tuned, were superior to the V8's in torque. The Ford inline sixes [post-'67, at least] had stronger bottom ends than the equivalent V8's....but lacked the V8 street credibility thing. I'd sooner have the six than a V8, anyway...smoother, sounding less like a Harley Davidson.

The upside of the six is, the cars are valued at a lot [well, something like] less than the equivalent V8....which is handy to know if it's the car one desires, rather than the engine?

Yes well Peter Anderson at one stage had four V8's the 351 in the XW and another 351 in an XC Fairmont GXL which he's restoring plus a 302 in a 1996 Fairlane Ghia which he sold and another 302 in his dad's XD Falcon. His dad died many years ago but Peter ended up with his car. He's not a Ford fanatic as his daily drive is a Holden Commodore. He's also restored a Wolesley and an MG. He also has a pre war Wolesley as well that's awaiting restoration. He's recently been doing a quick restoration on a Mitsubishi Sigma. Well quick is not quite the right term as the car was stripped back to almost a body shell. He would love his son to be interested in car restoration but he shows little interest yet.

He has many parts plated from nuts and bolts to brackets and door opening and locking assemblies. He said that the plater charges $65.00 whether you have one part to be plated of one hundred parts. Peter is also rarely without a cuppa tea. He was working under the XW and it must have been wintertime for he said that he should drink less tea as he'd been pissing like one of the concrete babies in fountains.

I love his daughters comment in the video when Peter says 'You wait until I have this done up' and his daughter Rosie says 'What it will still be crap' she has a lot of faith in her dad's abilities.