For those interested in old cars.

[Joseph_Pestell]

47 minutes ago, Porkscratching said:

Traction avant is a car I always wanted since I was about 16...

 

I'm greedier than you. I want two, an 11BL saloon and a convertible. The saloons are expensive these days but the convertibles are lottery win territory.

 

I was lucky enough, about 30 years ago to be involved in a bit of business with Tractions. Brought a couple to the UK (a dealer near Canterbury) driving them all the way from Southern France. A great trip and the cars managed very well. So advanced for their time that they are very drivable.

[Joseph_Pestell]

On 16/03/2020 at 15:48, steve1 said:

As I was walking along to the garage to collect my MOT failure Pug 407SW (broken rear coil spring) a Daimler Double-Six Coupe wafted silently past. Looked in great condition but pity about the turd brown colour.

 

steve

 

They were quite cheap at one time. Kick myself for not having bought one at the right time. But it would not have been brown.

[runs as required]

14 hours ago, tom q vaxy said:

excellent link from my "inbox" today:  https://silodrome.com/austin-seven-stanley-edge/

 

 

 

I was always told I got conceived in a Chummy Austin on the Dorset coast in the summer of 1936 (during the reign of Edward VIII !)

My mum always sid she really wanted a Labrador. Both assertions have always done great things for my Ego.

  dh

 

 

[PhilJ W]

21 minutes ago, runs as required said:

I was always told I got conceived in a Chummy Austin on the Dorset coast in the summer of 1936 (during the reign of Edward VIII !)

My mum always sid she really wanted a Labrador. Both assertions have always done great things for my Ego.

  dh

 

 

Your parents were athletes or contortionists then?

[runs as required]

It probably also explains my weird shape.

A little more about dad's A7s. He had two: Mini ! - which was the Chummy. Then when I was well on the way, poor Mini 1 was traded in for Mini 2 a boring early 30s saloon.  

By the time he was called up we had an even stogier 1931 Morris Cowley (reg GH200, called George) left on blocks in the garage -  for me to play on along with my evil mates.

He'd apparently fancied himself driving a red Bullnose 2 seater as a lippy Shell petrol salesman out of a corrugated tin Shell-BP depot on the canal in Bow, London E3. 

dh

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Your parents were athletes or contortionists then?

There are few cars - or situations! - in which a determined young couple will not fulfill their expectations. 

[Kingzance]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

There are few cars - or situations! - in which a determined young couple will not fulfill their expectations. 

A friend (yes, I did have some) and his then current "bit of stuff" were keen to "get down and dirty" on a Sunday afternoon as the rest of us climbed a small Mendip landmark. Looking down on the car park below, his pale green Austin Minivan was seen jerking and with feet sticking out of the (partly open). On another occasion whilst navigating my small motor cruiser into an Isle of Wight harbour, the sideways rocking of a sailing vessel's mast when the water was flat calm clearly indicated the ship-board activity taking place. That somewhat dampened the ardour of the young lady accompanying me at the time. As you say Ian, few situations.

[Northmoor]

7 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

They were quite cheap at one time. Kick myself for not having bought one at the right time. 

This could be the basis of an entire thread on it's own.  My own "Missed Out-ons" are:

- 1992: two Triumph 2000s for about £600, although I'd only just moved to a rented room, knew I'd only be there for the year and would have nowhere to store them;

- 2005-ish; (I know this is outside of the remit of this thread) a colleague was selling his road-legal and VGC Suzuki RGV250 for £900.  A fabulous motorcycle which would be four times that price now.

- 1990: my greatest loss, a Ferguson TE20 tractor.  Growing up in Pembrokeshire, every farm seemed to have one parked up somewhere.  I was still learning to drive but two in a local farm sale went for £120 (complete, non-runner) and a complete runner for £180 I think.  Multiply those prices by ten now. 

 

In all cases it's not that I would have intended to profit on them, it's just that I couldn't justify buying one at the prices they are now.

[PhilJ W]

My missed-out-on was a brace of c. 1937 Austin 10's. One was in fair nick and wouldn't have taken a lot to get it back on the road. The other was the same except it was  the cabriolet version with the roll back roof (same as the FIAT 500), a very rare beast but badly afflicted with tin worm. I had visions of turning the saloon into a cabriolet using the original parts from the rotten one. Problem was I didn't even have a garage or anywhere else to keep them.

[Kingzance]

In 1968 I was offered a Mk1 1/2 E-type Jag for £1K. 

[petethemole]

In 1967 I was working in Southend and my daily commute passed a showroom with a pink 1955 Cadillac convertible on sale for £500.  My Dad wouldn't lend me the money (with hindsight he wouldn't have had that much spare).  I wonder what happened to it. 

[doilum]

8 hours ago, Kingzance said:

In 1968 I was offered a Mk1 1/2 E-type Jag for £1K. 

That was more than a year's salary for a newly qualified teacher. Or a brand new Viva / Escort.

So £22K today?

[New Haven Neil]

My pal Marty rebuilt an E type which cost a couple of grand back in the ate 80's, however it was little more than an engine and a roof when he started.  He's a sheet metal worker....and seriously good.

 

I think I might have posted this before, but he met up with a guy at a local show a couple of years ago, who has the consecutive reg car!  Marty's is the blue one.

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

I knew someone who, when buying a house, was told that the old car in pieces in the garage under sheets would be removed to the scrapyard before they moved in.

Getting closer to moving in day the owner had been ill and in and out of hospital and very apologetically said he had been unable to remove the car, so if my friend would be able to do it for him he would re-imburse him any costs involved.

On the moving weekend, as things usually are, it was a bit hectic and it wasn't until Sunday afternoon that my friend got to the garage, pulled back the sheets and found a complete flat floor E type Jaguar in various stages of dismemberment!

 

Mike.

[Rugd1022]

Coming up for ten years ago I had first dibs on a 1969 Porsche 912 for £10k which only needed the interior tidying and the brakes sorting out, I came within a whisker of buying it but backed down as I had no garage and three other cars at the time.

 

Meanwhile here in 'the world's gone mad' 2020 I picked up a new old stock early Mk3  bootlid badge for the Mini on ebay last week for a tenner - this is the only Mk3 badge that Minispares don't make anymore so good original ones like this are a lucky find.... in 1969 BL took on several ex-Ford designers one of whom was responsible for the upgrades on the new Mk3 Mini range, including the badge designs, the through flow air vent system and the Mk2 Cortina style front end of the Clubman and 1275GT....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pH]

An early-1960s Chevy Impala 2-door coupe at a local paint shop today:

 

 

I think it's a '61, but I'm not sure.

[Richard E]

19 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Coming up for ten years ago I had first dibs on a 1969 Porsche 912 for £10k which only needed the interior tidying and the brakes sorting out, I came within a whisker of buying it but backed down as I had no garage and three other cars at the time.

 

Meanwhile here in 'the world's gone mad' 2020 I picked up a new old stock early Mk3  bootlid badge for the Mini on ebay last week for a tenner - this is the only Mk3 badge that Minispares don't make anymore so good original ones like this are a lucky find.... in 1969 BL took on several ex-Ford designers one of whom was responsible for the upgrades on the new Mk3 Mini range, including the badge designs, the through flow air vent system and the Mk2 Cortina style front end of the Clubman and 1275GT....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remarkably similar to the Mk1 Escort wing badges.

 

[boxbrownie]

46 minutes ago, Richard E said:

 

Remarkably similar to the Mk1 Escort wing badges.

 

Same designer, same supplier more than likely.......the pinnacle of “badge engineering” 

[Rugd1022]

With an hour and a half to kill at Kettering South Junction and almost two hours in the stone terminal at Radlett today I fired up the ipad for a dose of old car magic on youtube - I re-aquainted myself with some very nicely shot pieces on the original '60s Ford GT40s and the officially sanctioned continuation cars from SuperFormance, they really are something else with a large percentage of their components being interchangeable with the real McCoy. The world around us may be crumbling at the edges right now but blimey I don't half still want one...! There's something very visceral about these brutish racers, and even the elongated road going Mk3s have a slightly sinister charm about them from some angles...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Rugd1022

[Stubby47]

I saw this Austin A30 in a yard near my usual mechanic's garage.

Quite rare I thought, until I turned round.

 

Edit:

Except I now don't think the 2nd one is an A30...  Saab?

Edited March 24, 2020 by Stubby47

[Rugd1022]

17 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

I saw this Austin A30 in a yard near my usual mechanic's garage.

Quite rare I thought, until I turned round.

 

Edit:

Except I now don't think the 2nd one is an A30...  Saab?

 

There's a pale blue one sans wheels and doors sitting on top of a container in the yard of an engineering works next to the line at Wigston South Junction.

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by Rugd1022

[steve1]

22 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

I saw this Austin A30 in a yard near my usual mechanic's garage.

Quite rare I thought, until I turned round.

 

Edit:

Except I now don't think the 2nd one is an A30...  Saab?

 

You are right on A30. Ain't no Saab  

 

steve

[stewartingram]

Both of them are actually A35. Large rear window, factory fitted flashers instead of semaphores between the doors, painted grille (with a chrome surround, and the rainstrip went across the top of the windscreen on the A30, or down the windscreen pillars on the A35.

 

Stewart

[Rugd1022]

A bit more stripping out of the Mini with the nice weather this afternoon, the carpet looks ok in the photos but is really past its best, a new one in black with leather bound edges will go in eventually and all of the painted metal visible inside will be covered in vinyl or leather, including the rear storage bins...

 

 

 

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Benidorm, 1971...