alastairq

Volvo 445?

It appears these were produced on limited basis as a chassis with  PV444/544 running gear.

Thus Volvo  could supply the more limited specialist vehicle market...and a few were made into cabriolets, but not by Volvo themselves.

Rare indeed,as I think fewer than 40 examples were ever made, by a few specialist coachbuilders in Sweden??

It also allowed for a Volvo estate called the Duette, I think?

Plus, hearses, etc.e tc...

VW Karmann Ghia

40 minutes ago, black and decker boy said:

the only variance in the fixed rates comes about if you have more / less bedrooms and / or are a single occupier.

 Indeed, my water company won't even reduce their charges for sole occupancy, where a water meter isn't feasible to fit....

I have applied for a meter, but owing to covid, and a backlog, that doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.

No reduced rate  for single occupancy either...

A Reliant Kitten would have been my choice as well...Light in weight, 850cc lightweight engine...loads of tuning potential, and loads of tuning expertise since these were raced...However, I might prefer the older Rebel?  Mainly because..............000............... of the road wheel size? The Kitten ran a similar size wheel to the earlier Minis, and their tyres are not exactly cheap or easily available, I've noticed.

The Rebel ran larger diameter wheels...and can accept the later engines -& gearboxes [and rear axles too?]

Important if making use of older vehicles, having a  later mechanical chain to fall back on.

Currently in the process of finding, and eventually, buying, a replacement modern car for my last Ex-missus.  Mum to my son [who is on the autistic spectrum] and with whom I share day-to-day care and taxiing responsibilities. We do get on still....despite being divorced...[I get on with all my Ex's very well...],,,,,,,,,Anyway, she recently changed her old car [ A well used Puma]...for what turned out to be the lemon of the century.! Yup, a Citroen [what else?]..one of the C3 Picasso type....a 1.4 petrol, which essentially had been run out of oil too many times by the previous [first] owner, who relied too heavily on the desktop screen, rather than a dipstick regime.  This lemon expired just out of guarantee...needing essentially a replacement engine.

Not an issue regarding labour as I have the gear and the space to do it...but I lack the will.  I mean, the entire front end bodywork has to come off first!!! WTF???

It has been scrapped...[simplest solution]....but I hadn't been involved in it beforehand, aside from the occasional lift, in which I noted it ran like a bag o rusty nuts.

Also, I was 'diagnosed' with AF very recently, which explained my shortness of breath at the slightest exertion, and palpitations....now sorted by three pills a day, on top of the others...Doesn't help in the lack of enthusiasm front...

Anyhow, I sold my '67 Mustang [which was happening  anyway]...for more than I paid for it....and having sorted out Son & Heir's Uni year, left me with enough to offer to fund the Ex's next 'new' car...

So, we've all been out 'looking!'

I had a rough idea of the amount I could afford to donate....which turned out to be not a lot in today's marketplace. [When I first got the Mustang, that figure would have purchased a brand new Dacia Sandero!!]

So the current marketplace was quite an eye opener for me.

We worked out that the best bets for her usage would be one of the Dacia range, up to ten years old.

Less to actually 'go wrong' with them, when compared to the mainstream dross. [For I consider all mainstream offerings to be dross....when one gets under the skins and does one's 'research?']

Looked at Dusters. Nice cars, fitted the bill for needs perfectly..no real need for 4wd,so they can be had without. But they still benefit from the design features of a potential off-highway vehicle [ignore 4wd for now] with waterproofing, ground clearance, etc....More Important that driveline gizmos in my book...and what separates proper off-highway-designed vehicles, from ordinary cars...Cannot get water in the fuel tank, for one..unlike ordinary 'cars'...

Anyway, i noted that nearly all Dusters post 2013 [what I deemed essential to look for..pre-2013 they were made in India, and had quality control issues, AKA early onset corrosion in the bodyshells] were diesels.....and with quite high mileages. [Fears of clogged DPFs raised warning bells too]..

But, she liked the way they drove!

Practical and built to work too.

But most round here were originally purchased to do long daily mileages, economically, and reliably.

So we looked at Sanderos.....almost the same bodyshell, but hatchbacks instead.

These had a choice of small petrol engines..old school, and more 'modern'....

The petrols tended to be lower mileages, bought originally for very different tasks...

Also could be had with lower mileages.

All very well built for the price, little in the way of what we both considered to be non-essential bling [like buttons on steering wheels, aircon, satnag, and all the other non essential tripe that we are convinced by sales people we all need in our cars]

Big enough too, to be practical.

I also researched, and hilited, a car that had completely different criteria, which she liked too..the Suzuki Celerio. Ths was aimed at being very cheap to actually run.

Pre-2017 [when the VED rules changed].....they were zero rated VED, very cheap to insure, made for the cheaper end of the marketplace, so not over endowed with non-essential Kwapp, very reliable, guaranteed at least 60-plus mpgs  [or 70-plus mpgs with the dual jet engine]...All very desirable for those on very limited incomes [Full time carers allowances not very much at all]...

I found a local big Renno dealership  that had an example of one for sale..priced roughly in the middle of the choices from the likes of Autotrader.

So, having trolled around in my 500-quid suzuki grand{!} vitara daily...currently the only working car in my entire extended family, owing to my daughter's car  getting rear-ended the other night, Ex had a go in several of our final short list of 'models' to look for. Involving my driving everyone round half of Yorkshire in the process.   Currently on 143000 miles!

She liked the Dusters, to drive.  But she found too many 'faults' in those we saw....[upset one dealer by pointing out rust and gumbo in one of the sills..he hadn't spotted it!!]     But Ex is like that...well trained by me over the years, no doubt?  

But, at that local dealers, the Suzuki was quite the opposite to what we had seen..clean, smelt nice [no signs of previous smokers, for example]...much lower mileage [but not too low], sold originally by the same dealer, and used for a very local commute during its life...Drove well enough to suit the Ex [now just in her 60's, but is only reminded of that when she sees me!!]...  However, i declined to go out on the test drives with her...I know , as an ex-specialist driver instructor, I could unintentionally be intimidating... During her Suzuki drive, I pottered around the forecourt of the dealership [a big one, with all the facilities, including prang repairs]...and spotted a 2016 Dacia Sandero Stepway for almost the same price as the Suzuki.....

So, when she returned, very impressed by the way it drove...I pointed her to the Stepway....[basically a Sandero with extra ground clearance...an important factor round these parts, being rural]...

I t happened to be the top spec Dacia sold, so had buttons...but heck, I wouldn't be driving it anyway...so, off  she went on another test drive, with No.1 son.

It had the 1 litre petrol engine of Renno's...a reliable enough unit, if old tech [which w what was needed really,latest tech being in my view, totally pointless.]

She returned well impressed...pokey enough for traffic,and with space enough just short of the Dusters..She also realised that the likes of the Suzuki might not be 'tough' enough to carry out what she realised was, a lot of her 'normal' driving, with & without our son.

Strong enough to handle a reasonable amount of off-tarmac driving...Without the rask of ripping lower bodywork apart, etc..

Neither of us do any real 'city' driving, or urban driving....if it can be avoided.

So it now boils down to Sandero Stepways....

At least with these cars, choice wasn't an option...which can be a good thing really.

So the Suzuki celery stick got consigned to the bin, along with Duster,and anything French really...VAG also consigned to the bin, for reliability reasons..[in our price range, cars are part ex-ed for a reason..usually just when they were about to become expensive, as modern tech spares & repairs tend to be?}

Now, my issue is, I cannot 'bargain' for the life of me [probably why, as a new car, I would gravitate towards Dacia?}...and Ex isn't much better.

But I liked the extended guarantee thrown in [they are actually Dacia dealers as well]...plus the bits knocked off...the saleslad offered to throw in the tax for the suzuki...until I pointed out it was zero rated, so free anyway... The Dacia wll be 13 quid a month tax...[My suzuki is over 30 quid a month..More Than my bigger, but older , Daihatsu 4Trak!!]   and cheap enough to insure for the Ex to cope with.

I dare not ask what she shelled out for that 'orrible Citroen??  There Are certain things I have earnt over the years, not to ask! 

She'll get a couple of hundred back for the scrap...

But bang went my ideas of hunting the adverts for a decent very old motor to spend my munny on!  

I guess it'll be 'welder out' time, to get yet another year's usage out of the Suzuki GV?

Sorry about length of this epistle...

Just a tale of recent happenings, and how things can change, and what steers the way we end up going?

8 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

I know of a very nice Traveller that looks almost stock but I'm told has a 1275 Sprite lump, a 5-speed box, fuel injection and front disc brakes, which makes it a sensible daily driver for the 2020

Hmmm....

My Dellow with its Ford sidevalve engine, 3 gears [not counting reverse..or 'backwards' to the millennials out there?}....certainly manages to find a lot of today's traffic actually gets in my way.

Not only speed-wise, but fat-wise as well.

I am simply amazed that, back in the last century I could whizz along in traffic as fast [if not faster?] than traffic today, and only needed a bare 45 -50 bhp to do so. Whereas today, it appears even the smallest of weeenymotors needs at least 100 bhp?

Given the prevailing speed limits, and the prevalence of goods vehicles [with a laden weight over 2 tonnes]...on lower speed limits, I struggle to see where 50 bhp can be fully used, let alone 100 bhp????

I've noticed something over the years....that 60 mph in a Morris Minor is actually faster than 60 mph in the very latest of hydro-electric blobbies...So I don't see how old cars struggle to keep up?

Minors that look half decent [not ten-footers, as Mathewsons have called it?]...seem to be acquiring an indecent increase in asking prices [from dealers]...?

Is there going to be a surge of Minor buying amongst those unfortunate enough to be living in the South East [or, inside the barrier that is the M25?]., what with Useless ULEZ, etc??

Personally I am forced to admit I may have to go down the OAP route of buying myself a Minor to see out my motoring days.

Down to no other more pertinent reason than I am finding it a struggle to enter & exit motorcars these days.....so the good old Massey Ferguson of old [zero  VED, no MoT, important on a limited income as a pensioner]...cars, the MGB GT, once the ideal, reliable, sloggin' old car of choice, becomes a no-no due to the inevitable loss of dignity once one has crawled out of the thing on one's hands and knees in Lidl's car park, crawling around retrieving the plastic carrier bags, not ideal............

On choice of which Minor? Well, in today's motoring world [I don't think I can call driving around in cars made this century as ''motoring?''] I now believe the 4 door version might prove to be the most useful?

If for no other reason than the driver's doors are actually a tad shorter than those found in the 2 door version, I believe? Handy in the supermarket car park, for not clouting the incredibly thin metal skins of  the fat millennial cars found today? 

{Has anybody actually   checked the thickness of what passes for steel in today's cars?  Cars in which folk feel ever so much safer in???  }

On the other hand, there's the extra weight of additional door handles and window winders to consider?

I think the 1098cc engine of the Minor is actually more than adequate for rapid progress when compared to today's other traffic.

Even the 948cc engine has enough torque to annoy Audi drivers....

Both can be made a lot more 'efficient' [ie, tuned?]  , with even modern technology [well, ex-Rover technology, to be honest...hardly 'modern' I know, but hey ho?}  pinched from the likes of the last iterations of the old-style Mini...or , better still, the later Metros?

I'm of two minds about the changing of the Minor seats, however.

I am a tad leery about fitting things like Mazda [Neatabulb? Remember those?] seats for 'comfort' and plushness....mainly due to those headrests, which I find 'orrible in an old car.

I am also equally leery about having a Minor that really looks nice and shiny?

As  a user rather than a show queen, I think it would be more useful to go the oily-rag route...  

 A scruffy looking old car is more likely to be given a wide berth in today's traffic than a shiny looking , ''don't scratch me, please''  appearance.

Given my tendency to drive in an 'assertive' manner, rather than a 'submissive' manner,  fear of scratching and denting needs to be alleviated.

[ In reality, I lack the patience more & more with today's incompetent drivers...Or what pass for drivers?]

Let's hope one's phone doesn't have a similar ringtone??  :)

https://www.facebook.com/1322895251/videos/1106220350391276/

Sorry to all those folks who don't do Facebook..I cannot find a way of isolating the video links..

I do think the Sunbeam Alpine [& Tiger, of course] was one of the prettier looking of the ''sport cars'' of the 60's...

On 13/09/2023 at 11:21, jcredfer said:

 

If you have to think about what you pay for one of those beasties.....   you can't afford it.  😄

 

Hah..

A big big problem for the enthusiast who bought one as a banger 60 years ago or more, got it running well enough, and kept it because they liked the way it drove?

Yup, I do know of such folk.....and the problems they had keeping such things running, when their incomes didn't keep anywhere near the  pace of values, and the associated costs of repairs and spares.

For some years before I became a not-work, my main daily was an old Daihatsu 4Trak [which had belonged to a farmer...or at least, his wife]..

it was quite disreputable in appearance..and when commented on, I laid the blame firmly on the government of the day, who had essentially 'frozen' public sector pay for the foreseeable.[I was a non-desk-bound Civil servant, of the disreputable kind, IE the sort that spoke their mind, regardless of who to]...

I had purchased it simply because of its lawful towing abilities....a full 3.5 tonnes [5 3/4 tonne GTW}...which is why farmers loved them.

It was old school technology [so beloved of Daihatsus]...so on frozen days it needed the head cooking for a minute or two before one click of the starter and it fired...usually on two cylinders, chosen at random by Jack Frost....Much smoke to begin with...but once the head was hot enough, the smoke cleared away.

However, the Establishment I called my workplace was rather exposed to the  weather, and mid winter, when the staff car park was full of much newer apologies for cars, which for some reason wouldn't start, or had flat batteries, or whatever, my services would be called upon to conduct many many tow starts....

Nobody ever called me out for having a disreputable vehicle after that!

Neither did I wear a tie...[since obligatory dress codes had been demolished by then]

Big bank balances on show as well?

Interesting Marauder in the first tranche...Rare indeed.

Bangers have to be looked after...after all.

But for me, even E type jags were bangers in the 1970's....Still are, in reality[for me]

I run bangers...even 50 or 70 year old bangers.

I had a daily banger hit whilst parked outside, [by a driver who claimed they didn;t see the car, from 400 yards away]...I was stood in my front room window looking out at the time... Around 12 or so years ago now....

The tow bar took the brunt of the shunt...and a lightly applied hand brake [it was in gear anyway] ensured the thing simply moved a bit, like a shunted wagon.

The VW Uppitything that hit it ended up with its headlights looking at each other. The drive was still intent on continuing on their way to the seaside....so I left them be, simply hosing down the road of their coolant after they had driven off.  {!!!!}

Took a load of piccies, got details, etc.

My banger was largely showing no signs of damage [although it was from the late 90's.....so over 20 years old]...a crack in a rear light lens, etc. So I carried on using it.

The insurance [mine....via theirs]...wanted the banger inspected at a local crash repairers.....They checked alignments, and found one rear door shut was different down one edge to the others....it had always been like that, in my ownership. As such, the lad who assessed it told me, given the car's age, putting it onto a jig would do more damage than leaving it alone...but, ''reports are reports''....so the thing was 'written off'' and a sum agreed, with the insurer. My insurance was only involved in as much as I asked them to negotiate my claim for me....Hence the NCD letter from their legal department..just in case of admin errors further down the line.  

I had just renewed various sensors on the engine, and got a new battery for it....so firstly, I removed all the newly fitted stuff before the thing was collected.

Luckily I hadn't yet disposed of the old battey...

It was collected by a fella with a transporter....I was sorry I couldn't stay to help him load it, as I was 'late for work'.....

It appeared it wouldn't start, suddenly, so had to be 'winched' on...

The big mistake I made was then rushing out and buying a Ford fiesta , made this century.....with the proceeds!

Which I gladly sold for more than I paid for it....just.

Horrible thing!

17 hours ago, Pannier Tank said:

 

The 'No Claims Bonus' may well not be affected, BUT, that won't stop the insurer from putting the premium up, even on a 'no fault' claim! 

Indeed they can do!

However, I kept in mind  the fact that I stooze around for lower premiums every year.....and the written proof of NCD from the lawyers serves well when arguing the odds.

I also demanded written proof of how long I had been free from fault claims....The Coop went back to the pre-digital days and wrote to guarantee well over 40-odd years fault-free claims record.....as far back as their records could show.

Now, I simply don't bother...I just look for the cheapest per month....[handy, cos at my age, kharking it could be just around the corner...and by paying monthly .....due to a limited income....I can be sure of not paying the tw@tts a penny more than their shareholders deserve.]

Nearly all my claims in recent times have been for glass repairs....

I would recommend demanding from your insurer written proof that your No Claims bonus will not be affected. [It is amazing the lengths insurers' admin will go to , in order to make their life easier, by browbeating customers]

Their legal department should also be able to insist on repaying any excess that was on your policy.This they can reclaim off the other party.

I think it is preferable to demand your insurer claims off the other party for 'uninsured losses' too {I did...Good old Coop.....

Earlier, I mentioned Morgan undergoing the German crash testing, and passing. 

Despite having an ash-framed body tub.  {Plus a steel chassis]

IIRC, the main observation by the German authorities was that the Morgan suffered little or no interior intrusion, when compared to the modern vehicles.

On the subject of steering columns?

I agree [if I were truly bovered about it] that on an old car with a straight column,there is the danger of it becoming an assegai in a head-on collision...But, using modern technology [AKA the scrap yard]..it isn't beyond the capabilities of a reasonably competent enthusiast to substitute the essential components to turn a rigid column into one which has a mechanical 'weak link' inserted. A U/J, for example? Or like Land Rover Defenders, a wobbly joint?  [Note, to those in the other driving thread, Defender isn't name suitable for all land rovers ever made...only those with coily sprungs and ruddy gert location bars for the axles]

A venerable Dellow fellow who had a need for more power in his Dellow..also had an issue with a worn out  steering box. these were subtly unique to Dellows, in that they had a quite low ratio[mne is less than one turn, lock to lock]...and his was ker-nakered....So, in true enthusiast fashion, he substituted a more modern, split steering column, and a single ended rack [from a FIAT, I believe?]...onto the remainder of the slightly modified Dellow steering linkage [quite like that of a Ford Pop, seeing as the Dellow front axles were Ford Poop items]]...Thus netting two bodz with one stone, more or less....He got  a more relaxing steering column, and a more ''positive' steering rack instead of the vaguely accurate , worn out steering box.

His engine was , IIRC, a Rover 1.8 unit.....rear axle was,I think, Anglia 105E-based, with a 4 star diff conversion.

Mine' original [probably not,as it happens] Ford Pop rear axle and 3 speed gearbox, 100E sidevalve engine...

Thus I can roar around London without it costing me a bean, so to speak, choking all the yuppies over their gucci coffees...It does consume oil rather nicely if I take right hand corners in the time honoured  ''ear 'ole'' fashion...something  a Dellow is remarkably good at.....I can corner tight bends faster than my old mates on their fancy big motorcycles....They catch me obviously on the straight bits, but cannot take sharp narrow bends as quick as I could.....The top road twixt Richmond & Barnard Castle proved that, on a 'mates' holiday...Something we used to do regularly when I worked...they would be  on the motorcycles, me in the Dellow...[I didn't have a motorcycle....couldn't get my right leg over one easily...]

I do have a physical 'weakness' in that I suffered a compound tib & Fib when riding a motorcycle, and having a near head on with an old type mini, on a very narrow bendy country lane, ant 11PM one night. [I was a shift working bus driver]

My right leg hit his right side front wing, destroying the wing, as it happened....The left side of my bike, and me, were totally 'untouched'...

Now over 40 years later, the right leg swells up enormously, due to old age, hypertension [treated], and  lessening of blood circulation...I was warned this would happen, 40 years ago...Left leg doesn't swell much at all.  Gives me a 'trouser' problem..I can get them on in the morning, but struggle to get them off at night.

Also, I find it difficult to 'cock my leg' over a bike saddle....

Yet, I can get in  my Dellow fine...more or less.  Thus far, I have never fallen over with the Dellow ....If I fell off a motorcycle, I guess t my age I wouldn't brush off the bruising and ignominy quite as easily as I used to?

One day I will replace the valve guides to cut the oil consumption somewhat...20/50 oil with high ZDDP content isn't getting any cheaper these days.

I have no trains within a 6 mile radius...and couldn't afford the fare any way.

I have no buses within a now-2 mile distance from home....and the walk to the nearest bus stop is very cross-country, without any sort of footpath or lighting.

So, I use my cars to get about. Cheaper at the point of usage.

On the subject of car safety, I agree it is a useful asset.

But in the 55 years I have been driving, mostly for a living, I haven't had to rely on any form of 'safety' feature whatsoever.  Not even a seatbelt. 

Which isn't to say I have never had a so-called 'accident'....Far from it...But, whatever I have been driving, no-one has ever brought a successful claim against me...

A lot of the above is down to driver abilities....If I worried about being side-swiped in my Dellow, I'd never ever leave home...and even 'home' wouldnt be 'safe!'

It's all about minimising the risks...lowering the risk factor...

I'm not a 'perfect' driver by any means...sometimes I'm even 'naughty'...I can, and do, make 'mistakes'....But hopefully, I will continue to not make an ''impact'' of any sort on other road users...

I cannot recall the last time I had to take any sort of evasive action..[OK, during the past 7 years I haven't been as 'exposed' to the roads as much as I was when 'working' for a living.]  My 72 year old Dellow, with its mechanical brakes, would cope, no doubt...Although it could get quite squashed should I lose the plot...

But I'd go anywhere in it [within reason, and a plentiful supply of oil]...

I'm not even sure the windbags in my daily 500 quid Suzuki even work now...it's 21 years since it left the main dealer...

An awfully high percentage of the incidents involving cars & bikes round here seem to be of the 'single vehicle' variety...so perhaps we need protecting  more from ourselves?

An awful lot of the fatalities round here also involve new {-ish, perhaps?] cars...?  Which suggests to me that modern technology doesn't prevent us from kharking it.

But, as I get older & older, I become aware of the fact that my body is nowhere near as robust as it used to be. So perhaps a lot of the fatalities might involve older people, who simply do not survive the considerable shaking up?

4 minutes ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

Largely because they have built in safety features required by law. Perhaps the size (width) of the average  person has also increased.

 

You could always go back to the day of the sliding window Mini where the only thing between you and a side collision was the door panel and its layer of vinyl trim

 Don't forget the contents of the door pocket?

The Hustler kit car series was quite the 'thing' back in those days.

Using BMC mini mechanical components, the design really was a multi-tasking one.

[Wasn't it Towns who designed it? Famous I believe for the Aston MArtin LAgonda?}

At the time, the angular body shapes were all the rage..[look at the Triumph TR7, for example?]

The Hustler could be had in 4 or 6 wheel form....[one 6 wheeler used to frequent the Driffield school  as an ice cream van]..

It was also designed for construction in very 3rd world countries who had limited industrial capacity...hence the 'wood' construction, for example?

All very 1970's/1980's indeed!

I haven't done any research, so am relying purely on memory here.

Wood is a the favoured body frame material right up until recent times...ask any of the coachbuilders?

Then don't forget the Marcos sports car...with its chassis made from plywood?

Quite why we all feel 'steel is strongest' is quite beyond me.

2 hours ago, melmerby said:

AFAIK Morgan's still have ash frames.

A reason why Morgan did so well in Germany's crash testing program.

1 minute ago, PhilJ W said:

It looks rather small compared to the modern cars around it.

 Indeed, the difference is most marked.

My '67 Ford Mustang coupe....considered by many i the UK to be a 'large' car [perhaps an illusion based on the knowledge it is American?]

Yet, its overall 'footprint' is slightly smaller than the last iteration of Ford UK's Mondeo.

Whilst, inside, it is nearly 11 inches wider at shoulder height.

Indeed, most spacious for a 'small', cheap, American car..

5 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

nd such 'replacement reconstructions' have bedevilled the classic car world for decades. At which point does a vehicle become "authentic"? Chassis rails? Engine? Oil pressure gauge?

For a Morgan 3 wheeler [F2 F4 etc] the gearbox is the numbered key component. Unique to Morgans.

Morgan chassis, even up to today, can be had new [or, used?] quite freely. Indeed, for older Morgans it can be cheaper than going through the whole renovation business, to buy a new chassis [from GeeDees, for example?]  After all, what is a 'chassis' frame if not simply a bunch of steel shapes, stuck together?

Morgans traditionally have required a new body tub [just the rear bit really] every decade or so, as the ash frames 'work' and become unusable.

For the Morgan F types, the engines started out as Ford 8 HP sidevalves....Easily swapped or uprated, as any half decent sports car should be if the owner 'developed' it properly. 

Given that Ford themselves recommended overhaul [or replacement] of their engines at around the 20000 mile mark..and sold quite cheaply, rebuilt engines...much like BMCs Gold Seal engines...

It is rare indeed to find a 70 or 80 year old car that still has its original engine. Or gearbox. Or, indeed, has not had some damage repairs conducted.

Then, what about interiors? Do we shun the old car that has had a re-trim? Better still, shun the old car for not sporting original type of paint, why not? [That would stop all the 2 pack jobbies for starters]

The Morgan F2 has but two chassis rails. Plus, the head frame, which often needed renewing anyway [it carried the front, sliding pillar suspension]

The Radiator was a difficult bit, as I recall, but they are available...even new, apparently.  [Mine, luckily, had been nickel plated by a long dead previous owner....the 'shell' is part of the radiator itself, so gets hot too....much to my amusement in car parks. I once owned a '39 Morgan 4/4 4 seater]

Seats? Well, just how or what did Morgan use?   

The F2/F4 body tub is exactly that...a tub....and can be replaced as wear & tear take their toll.

For the F2, the gearbox number gave it the all important identity.  [I contributed a refurbished Ford `100E engine for my sins...a definite upgrade over the orignal 8 HP engine]

Mind one intrepid Morgan F2 enthusiast developed his car to the extent it finally sported a Ford crossflow 1600 motor..which could see off any MGB around, in its time.

No old vehicle will be 'authentic'....[and therefore likely unusable anyway?]

Vehicle consumables see to that!

As for 'oil pressure gauges?'

Well, when a vehicle was around 5 or 10 years old, and the original [but likely not very good?] oil pressure gauge gave up...would it not be fine for the owner to replace it with a newer one...perhaps from a BMC sports car or somesuch? Or, whatever they could find in the local scrap yard?

Well, all fine n dandy if one is intent on creating an almost-mobile museum piece.

But if one is intent on actually using ones handywork for the purpose for which it was intended.....for personal reasons....[instead of succumbing to buying, at vast expense all round, a new hair dryer electric car }  then, rather than leaving the chassis rail & gearbox sadly lying on the junk heap [for, junk is what they truthfully were]...better to add the few other bits to produce the original car ...??

Reminds me of when I collected my Dellow from Southampton docks on repatriation to the UK...?

A couple of really ancient gents were having a Jaguar XK 140 {?} ''shell'' forked onto their trailer. Not much was left below the waistline of the shell.

Few, if any mechanical bits present.....

When I enquired as to the reasoning, one gent told me....they had a shell [or what was left of it] which still carried it's ID plates from the factory....The chassis number, effectively.

As for all the rest?

Well, he said, everything mechanical was available via the trade [at a price, I suppose?].

Engnes, gearboxes, axles, suspensions, trim, seats, interiors, etc are[were?] all replaceable items...The 'originality ' of the vehicle ...it's original identity, came from that all important chassis plate thingy. [Sorry, I know little of old Jagwars]

By now, if the gents have survived, they would have returned yet another Jag XK 140{?} to the land of the living, I hope.

Reminds me of an old chum, who re-built a Morgan F2 [orF4?]

His starting point was the unique Morgan gearbox, and one chassis rail.