Bulleidboy100 Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 (edited) After having the Escort Mexico for a couple of years - the family grew, and I needed more space - so puchased this 1975 Ford Cortina 2000E Estate - when this picture was taken, the car had been fitted with a 3-litre Essex engine and a five spped box, new diff, Bilstein shockers and uprated coil springs - it went like s*** off a shovel. I owned it for very many years. Last I heard - some years ago it was in Blandford Forum - whether it still exists I have no idea - NAA805P. Edited February 7, 2021 by Bulleidboy100 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 It's always a damn shame when you have to let a car like that go. But at least it lives on and is back on the road. BTW, if I ever see a restored Mini that hasn't had the bling treatment, Eg, looks like it just rolled off the carrier on its ten inch steel wheels, then I will probably have to go and lie down for a while.... again I think it's a case of the car I wanted / thought I had when I was seventeen. I did get to own a shed green and white Wolseley Hornet, it was £150 because of a steering rack that was rapidly getting worse, but the rest of it looked like new Having listened to all the doom sayers about how difficult it was to change a rack, I went looking for another one. I found one for £90 that had been someone's first car. It sat on four salt munched wolfrace wheels. The roof was sprayed (original?) black, but everything else had been painted in gold hammerite, about half an inch thick. There was also a huge dent in the front wing with a clod of barely rubbed down filler that also had runny gold paint all over it. A test drive revealed that the rack on this one was if anything, worse. Although the tiny sports wheel was a little loose so who knew? As it turned out, replacing the rack on mine wasn't too bad with three of us on the job! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted February 7, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2021 16 minutes ago, MrWolf said: As it turned out, replacing the rack on mine wasn't too bad with three of us on the job! I seem to remember it was easier (or you had to) just drop the rear of the front subframe a bit to change the rack, although the exhaust downpipe was in the way and made it awkward..........mind you this is all nearly fifty years ago so it could have been a Sopwith Camel I was thinking about 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 It's over thirty years ago for me, but you're right. What actually put most people off doing that was the possibility of the car breaking in half due to rust when you disturbed those bolts holding the subframe. It was rather like that much simpler job of un-seizing the handbrake quadrants on the rear subframe often meant that you got to see just how rotten the back end was, which then turned into a full restoration. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northmoor Posted February 7, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2021 1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said: Good posts David, enjoyed reading those! Something a little more sedate this time.... This reminds me of a story from the late 60s/early 70s my Dad told me. There was this lady who set aside her Moggie Traveller (or was it a Van?) that she delivered the milk from, when it hit about 120,000 miles. Not getting on with the replacement, after a few months she got the Moggie repaired and continued to use it....... until about 300,000 miles. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jol Wilkinson Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, MrWolf said: It's over thirty years ago for me, but you're right. What actually put most people off doing that was the possibility of the car breaking in half due to rust when you disturbed those bolts holding the subframe. It was rather like that much simpler job of un-seizing the handbrake quadrants on the rear subframe often meant that you got to see just how rotten the back end was, which then turned into a full restoration. Reminds me of the Mini 850 owned by a fellow lodger and Ford Service Division employee in the very early 70s.We lifted up the carpet one day (I can't remember why) to find a neat weld joint across the floor. Further investigation showed that the front and rear didn't come off the production line as one piece. Edited February 7, 2021 by Jol Wilkinson Spelling 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 Came across this whilst looking for pics of old Jags - Solihull in the '70s with a rather tasty looking Series 1 Daimler Sovereign cutting a dash.... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted February 7, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 7, 2021 On 06/02/2021 at 13:44, MrWolf said: Another friend bought a Mk1 Escort Mexico from a dealer, but thought that it wasn't handling very well. We took it to my uncle's garage and he did a mock MOT test. It failed on no less than forty six counts. So when someone boasts of having just spent £20000 plus on a classic car "Just like the one that they had when they were seventeen" they haven't, or at least, they better hope that they haven't! Still happens, I watched a YouTube video the other day from a young couple who'd just bought a T5 camper from a dealer in Bristol with a brand new MOT, then took it to another garage who immediately pronounced it a deathtrap and showed them several grand worth of repairs needed just to make it roadworthy. Given how quickly the dealer refunded them, it was pretty obvious that they must have known just how bad it was... 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 I remember an old chap buying an A60 van from a dealer, that was supposedly fresh from the paint shop having had all the metalwork professionally restored and was an easy project that needed the interior redoing and an MOT. Except it had no inner sills, the body mounts were rotten as was pretty much everything else. I suspect that they had bought a lemon and were trying to get rid. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium spamcan61 Posted February 7, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2021 5 hours ago, Bulleidboy100 said: I owned it for very many years. Last I heard - some years ago it was in Blandford Forum - whether it still exists I have no idea - NAA805P. Not looking good :-/ last taxed in 1990 https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/VehicleFound?locale=en 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 5 minutes ago, spamcan61 said: Not looking good :-/ last taxed in 1990 https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/VehicleFound?locale=en I remember a few years later when the Blair government put a stop to the rolling 25 year tax exemption (because everyone who likes classic cars is a millionaire Tory Lord Montague type ) the scrapyards around where I was living suddenly filled up with seventies cars on L M N P R registration that really only needed a bit of work, but at the time there was an awful lot of talk about legislating old cars off the road altogether, backed up by an unlikely alliance of the Green lobby and the SMMT. A well maintained car that is kept going for fifty years or more is still 'greener' than 'recycling' every 6-8 years. 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted February 7, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2021 2 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said: Reminds me of the Mini 850 owned by a fellow lodger and Ford Service Division employee in the very early 70s.We lifted up the carpet one day (I can't remember why) to find a neat weld joint across the floor. Further investigation showed that the front and rear didn't come off the production line as one piece. That first Mini I posted about I needed for my job, my first (and only) “prosecution” was the day after it had passed its MoT, I had a call in the office to say there was something going on along the Brentwood by pass, so off I whizz to find..............an MoT spot check, you guessed it my Mini which had passed with flying colours the day before failed on seized handbrake quadrants, the handbrake still worked fine as the cable still slid around them but they miserable inspector said the were seized and I got a fine for an unroadworthy vehicle, I still had the brand new fresh cert in the car, made no difference at all (as of course it shouldn’t but hey I was working!) I asked if the garage would get a call from the DoT......not a jot interested were they. Frankly I was amazed they didn’t find more 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulleidboy100 Posted February 7, 2021 Share Posted February 7, 2021 (edited) On 07/02/2021 at 17:47, spamcan61 said: Not looking good :-/ last taxed in 1990 https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/VehicleFound?locale=en The car was stolen from Basingstoke Station car park - on a Wednesday. The police told me they lost a Ford every Wenesday, and the car would be in Reading over the weekend! I got the call on Friday afternoon to say it was down a lane just south of Reading, but it had no wheels, and was sitting in one of those lay-byes the council use to dump road chippings. There had also been a fire inside the car. I managed to find a local recovery firm who had a spare set of Cortina wheels. So we managed to ge the car home. The fire was just the passenger seat -why? I managed to get a number of parts from a place called Cortinaland at Woolwich - and luckily the insurance company could see that the car was a "labour of love" and paid for all the spare parts - seat, wheels, dashboard and few other damaged parts. I used to keep all of the "service" paperwork in the car, and it was scattered around the site where the car was found - together with a disability pension book!!! I checked the address, which was in my town, and took it to the police - who just said "somebody has been careless" - I never heard any more about that. I eventually sold the car to a neighbour for his wife to drive (!) - but sadly she died a few months later, and it was sold. About a year later it was advertised in AutoTrader as a Ford Cortina Savage - which is was not (it was built by Superspeed in Ilford). I went to see it, they wanted £150 for it - unfortunately I took my wife with me who said "don't even think about it" - that was the last time I saw it - but did receive the said phone call from a guy in Blandford Forum who was restoring it. The car had the Ziebart (remember that?) rustproofing treatment, and I had it resprayed twice(!) It was originally fitted with Ford RallySport alloys, picked out in Arizona Gold and Black - it really was a tremendous car. I really should have bought it back for £150. I had a problem with the first picture of it - so I have repeated it below. IMG_0307 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr Edited February 11, 2021 by Bulleidboy100 9 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted February 10, 2021 Share Posted February 10, 2021 Interesting Motorway road safety film from 1975, the Series 1 XJ6 looks the business and a few of the actors faces might be familiar.... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted February 12, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 12, 2021 Sorting throughsome old files on a laptop and some old car pictures popped up, the Sprint I rebuilt from an almost wreck, well certainly unroadworthy bought from Bell & Colvill.....Lotus main dealer! Totally restored, then sold it less than a year later....what a mistake to make And my 2002tii up in Scotland on my 21st birthday tour..... And this one wasn't mine but I didn't fit in it anyway....so didn't want it 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted February 13, 2021 Share Posted February 13, 2021 Some nice period advert and ephemera.... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted February 13, 2021 Share Posted February 13, 2021 I do remember a school friend having one of those Polistil XJ6 police cars. Don't think that I have ever seen another. It was a huge bookshelf model rather than a toy. It was very well detailed for the time. I wonder if any have survived? At least if they have they won't need complicated and expensive welding repairs. In my experience, Jaguars are lovely to drive or to look at. Absolutely horrible to work on. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2021 4 hours ago, Rugd1022 said: Some nice period advert and ephemera.... As well as Streamline? 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrWolf Posted February 13, 2021 Share Posted February 13, 2021 You might well laugh about PECO exhausts @MJI, but someone who I knew way back in 1987 had a PECO exhausts sticker in the back window of his beige 4 door MK2 Escort and he said it knocked 5 seconds off the 0-60 time.... 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2021 42 minutes ago, MrWolf said: You might well laugh about PECO exhausts @MJI, but someone who I knew way back in 1987 had a PECO exhausts sticker in the back window of his beige 4 door MK2 Escort and he said it knocked 5 seconds off the 0-60 time.... Sounded like it did on my 850 Mini...... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MJI Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2021 I have had a number of sprts exhausts Micron on a bike 3 to 4 bhp more from 12 2 box straight through large bore system on a Sunbeam 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2021 2 minutes ago, MJI said: I have had a number of sprts exhausts Micron on a bike 3 to 4 bhp more from 12 2 box straight through large bore system on a Sunbeam Yes but with the PECO Exhaust system you only needed the sticker...... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2021 The last car I had a peco back box on was a ford focus in 2002, I think they went bust in 2008 (along with magnex) Of course I had one on my Austin mini too! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2021 38 minutes ago, boxbrownie said: Yes but with the PECO Exhaust system you only needed the sticker...... similar concept to the white stripes on a mini bonnet 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium boxbrownie Posted February 13, 2021 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2021 30 minutes ago, big jim said: similar concept to the white stripes on a mini bonnet We won’t say a dicky bird 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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