Innehållsförteckning för October 2017 från Classics World

It’s not very often you come across a mint ‘cooking’ MkI Escort like the one featured in this issue. It’s always the Twin-Cam, Mexico, RS1600 or barnstorming RS2000 that grab the limelight rather than the more humble 1.1- and 1.3 litre XL or L models. With prices for performance MkI Escorts continuing to rocket, quite a few of the lower ranking two-door models will have been pimped up to well above their station and, as we’ve said many times, it’s always a case of buyer beware when viewing a performance Escort, as imposters are sometimes very hard to detect. So when I had a call from a friend saying a pal of his owned an immaculate MkI 1300XL with an interesting history, I was all ears. It turned out that…

Two-time world rally champion Walter Röhrl has joined the campaign to persuade car manufacturers to support their classic models – by producing new spares to original equipment manufacture (OEM) specification: “A bit of pressure on the car industry to take care that we get proper, good-quality, original spare parts. That is the main thing,” Röhrl argued in a recent interview. Popular British classics, it could be argued, are well catered for, as the British Motor Heritage Limited (BMHL) has been stockpiling parts and tooling since 1975. Backed by international historic vehicle pressure group Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA), more and more marques are following suit. More recently, Jaguar Land Rover Classic’s 'Reborn' programme has begun reproducing parts for certain models. Last year, the former AP/ Lockheed back catalogue –…

In these days of over-zealous political correctness, it’s a brave soul who dares to comment on the abilities of women drivers, but back in the early Seventies it was a very different matter. Female drivers in those days came in for a lot of stick from their male counterparts and in an attempt to dispel the age-old myth that men were more competent behind the wheel than the fairer sex the Daily Mail ran a series of annual competitions to find the nation’s most proficient women drivers. A typical headline in the paper during the period these car craft competitions were taking place claimed the contestants all had 'nerves of steel but still drove like angels'. One of the angels who took part in this gruelling driving competition three years…

“I knew the electrics were okay. But when the indicators were tested, the nearside repeater failed to illuminate” At the beginning of August I was in Denmark attending the 2017 Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix and as usual this was a brilliant event. Watching racing on the city streets was most exciting and there was a terrific variety of classic cars to look at too. This year, however, the area previously used for classic parking was unavailable. Over the previous months three ancient Stone Age grave sites have been discovered and these were being excavated, making the usual car park area unavailable. For 2018 a separate area is to be set aside for people attending the event in classic cars, but for this year people had to grab what ever spaces…

“Rather than having one curved screen to push in from the outside, my Minor has two screens which tend to flop around” The last few weeks have been taken up with fettling the Minor’s wipers, as the motor was running too hot, despite smoothing the bends in the outer and replacing the grease with EP90 oil. This led me to question just how hot a wiper motor becomes during normal operation, as it seemed better to establish this now rather than on a dark, rainy night at the side of the road. Using my other Morris Minor as a test bed, I whipped the wiper arms off and left the motor running for about an hour. As the motor got reasonably hot, I decided that the troublesome one would probably…

“Replacing the fuse had the fan running continuously and turning the temperature set point adjuster failed to stop it” One should never tempt fate, as any hope that I could start to enjoy a spell of trouble-free use of the Stag turned out to be nothing more than wishful thinking. Within a few days of declaring all was well with the car, I was diagnosing yet another issue with the electric fan. The Stag had been confined to the workshop for a couple of weeks while I fitted the chin spoiler we featured last month. Then the contractors arrived to bitumen the driveway, which should have been a two-day task but the rain that interrupted the spoiler painting also halted the work on the drive. Over 100mm of rain resulted…

#TEAM MIKE Last month saw the painted bodyshell reunited with the oily bits of Mike Brewer’s XR3i... or rather, at least in the same county again. When we last saw the car, Cross Street Garage’s Ford supremo Blokie was getting the car prepared to reinstall the running gear and since then it’s all started coming together nicely. Since our last visit, Blokie has been burning the midnight oil and when we arrived, the freshly rebuilt CVH engine and its shiny powder-coated gearbox had been bolted up, together with the gear linkage and the suspension. Speaking of which, the springs and dampers are all brand new parts and the suspension has been fitted using uprated bushes, which should make the car drive better than it did when it was new. With…

The Rootes group seems to always be the forgotten part of the British motor industry. British Leyland, its predecessors and its successors hog the bulk of the spotlight. Ford has its own lengthy history and the benefit of still being very much around, as does Vauxhall. Lotus, Morgan, TVR, London Taxis International, Ginetta and Reliant have their respective bands of enthusiasts to keep their history alive. But the Rootes Group simply doesn’t get the same look-in. Which is surprising because it was briefly the second largest motor manufacturer in the country and for a large chunk of the 20th century it occupied the number three spot. As for why Rootes so often gets overlooked, it is probably for two reasons. The first is that the group’s independence ended in the…

AUTOMATIC CHOKE CARBURETTOR KIT FOR OPEL MANTA As a direct response to customer demand, Webcon now offers an automatic choke version of its manual choke Weber 32/36 DGV, using the supremely reliable Weber 32/36 DGAV carburettor. Both kits feature genuine Spanish Weber carburettors along with a custom-made air filter adaptor to allow retention of the original air box. For further details visit: www.webcon.co.uk 123 IGNITION ELECTRONIC DISTRIBUTORS SNG Barratt Group has a new range of 123IGN electronic distributors available for many engines. The units offer 16 different advanced curves that can be easily selected to your requirements, while preserving the classic appearance under the bonnet. The core technology makes your ignition system and engine perform better than ever. Visit: www.sngbarratt.com for more information. JET PRESSURE WASHERS The new Clarke high…

I had better start from the beginning, I suppose. My family had their own automotive body-building business near Paddock Wood in Kent and built bodies for various Ford Model Ts, TT vans and trucks. However, they were not exclusively Fords, as Albion, Kelly Springfield, Leyland, Trojan, Tillings-Stevens and Vulcan (to name a few) chassis arrived at the works over the years. The business did very well for over 80 years and also made various trailers and carts for commercial use on farms, of which a handful still survive. By the time I was born in 1952 the company was slowing down. My late father and his brother didn’t go into the business, but spent most of their working lives in the motor trade. I was mad keen on transport of…

This month I’ve been trying to bring a bit more focus to the Healey 3000 project. I left off last time having dropped off the shroud for alloy welding work and the doors and wings for dipping. Well as usual, these parts are all work in progress, but as both these areas are a bit fundamental to rebuilding the body I was almost getting to a bit of a loss as to what to do. I get a bit grumpy when the situation gets like this, so after a bit more garage tidying and shelf re-organising, I decided to have a nose at would I could achieve. The Healey’s back axle had been blasted and primed a long time ago, the only thing holding this back was a lack of…

I’ve been making a big push on sorting out the Davrian and it’s been fighting me all the way. However, I do have to admit to a few ‘own goals’. Because of the difficulties I had in fitting the new distributor cap and plug leads, I’d ‘accidentally’ fitted the leads in the wrong order. Using a ‘digital’ compression tester (i.e.my thumb) and watching the timing marks, I ascertained where top dead centre was and then did a quick swap around. However, the engine still wouldn’t fire. Bemused (I could use another term but it wouldn’t be suitable for publication), I had a look at the myriad of wires that emanate from the rear bulkhead and I spotted that one of the rev limiter wires was attached to the wrong terminal.…

For a car that was Britain’s best seller for most of its 12-year production run, the BMC 1100 and 1300 are remarkably scarce with survivors being just a tiny fraction of the two million plus cars that were produced between 1962 and 1974. Built in both Cowley and Longbridge, demand for the 1100 was so great that even after Longbridge started building the Austin version in late 1963, the Cowley plant had double shifts working to build enough cars. 1 Alec Issigonis – undoubtedly a talented engineer – insisted on designing the 1100 bodyshell himself despite misgivings from Pressed Steel engineers. Had the 1100 been built today with modern rust proofing techniques it would have been better – but sadly it became an absolute rust bucket. 2 Where does the…

Carburettors are worth holding onto and rebuilding, so if you have one or two old units tucked away in the garage it may be time to blow the dust off them. Repair kits and spare parts are generally still available, especially for the more popular side draught models. Weber calls this type the DCOE, whereas Dell’Orto refers to it as a DHLA. In both cases, these are a twin barrel carburettors so there are two outlets, which can feed two separate ports on an inlet manifold. Each barrel has its own set of components and controls for maintenance and adjustment. The size of a side draught carburettor is denoted by the diameter in millimetres of the body where it bolts onto the inlet manifold (next to the throttle spindle and…

In production for just 17 years – and therefore far less than the A- and B-Series engines that it is closely related to – the C Series was a well-respected engine that came to an inglorious end and is largely forgotten about these days. Whilst the A- and B-Series engines were Austin designs, the C-Series was the product of the Morris Engines division at Coventry under Eddie Maher. The B-Series was, of course, the first, derived as it was from the 1947 1200 Austin overhead valve inline-four, and in 1951 the A-Series also arrived for the 1952 model year. The A-Series was a pretty poor effort at first – the 803cc engine suffered a number of problems and was redeveloped by Morris Engines for a 1956 launch in the Morris…

Love it or loath it, the Chrysler PT Cruiser is a modern classic that certainly stands out from the crowd. When it went on sale for the 2001 model year, nearly-new PTs were changing hands in the US for almost twice the car’s original selling price. The PT Cruiser was going to be sold under the Plymouth brand but as this well-known marque was withdrawn around the time Chrysler merged with Daimler Benz, the Cruiser ended up being sold as a Chrysler. What eventually ended up as the PT Cruiser started off as a concept that took its design cues from the Plymouth Prowler Fifties styled ‘hot rod’. An initial concept was shown off in 1997 badged as the Plymouth Pronto and the design was later refined and displayed as…

Ford is the latest car firm to jump on the manufacturer-endorsed Scrappage bandwagon that’s supposedly 'aimed at improving air quality'. Subject to conditions, cars built as late as 2009 can be traded in under Scrappage against a new Ford and any car taken in will be destroyed. As more car makers try to convince the government to revive its Scrappage incentive, and with Ford giving no concessions towards historic vehicles, are we about to see another classic car cull? Ford’s scheme is destined to run from 1 September to 31 December and will apply to all cars registered on or before 31 December 2009 – in other words Euro 4 and older. Anyone trading in a car will be given a £2000 discount off the price of a new Ford…

50 years of Rover’s iconic V8 engine was remembered in style at Roverfest during its three-day stay at Wroxhall Abbey in Warwickshire. Over the course of the event, which took place between Friday 11 August and Sunday 13 August, more than 700 cars turned up, many of them V8 variants of the P5, P6, SD1 and an interesting selection of Land Rovers and Range Rovers. Non-Rover classics were extremely varied and also included a number of other cars which used the Rover V8 engine including MGs, TVRs, Marcoses and Freight Rover and Leyland DAF vans. Appearing at a British show for the first time in many years were two examples of the Australian Leyland P76 using an enlarged 4.4-litre version of the Rover V8 engine. Rover’s full manufacturing heritage was…

When buying a cherished car that’s already in A1 condition, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to negotiate a fair deal after comparing the price with those quoted for identical models currently on sale. Problem solved! However, establishing the value of a car that needs lots of attention before it’s fit for purpose is usually a totally different proposition. The chances of comparing like with like are remote and the cost of any repairs or refurbishment will also need to be factored in before a deal that’s agreeable to both parties is reached. When Rodney Thompson first heard about a 1933 Vauxhall Stratford four-seater tourer for sale with a coach-built body by Whittingham and Mitchel (formerly of New King's Road, London), he wasn’t put off by these considerations. Even…

“Experience has taught me the internals of old rev counters are far too easy to fry. But we checked the connections once again and still no sign of life” It’s a rare thing. Actually finding yourself in the garage with a spare afternoon, and actually finishing the jobs you start without a hitch. My friend Will had been very keen to make sure the 1100 was finished mechanically – that is, as far as his plans for the car go – before he started to make a few cosmetic tweaks. After our recent trip to the rolling road, the Austin is running very well especially after fitting the new air filters that Dale at Bailey Performance had recommended. First on the list was to fit the Minilite alloy wheels that…

It’s funny how things go in life. I have to be honest, as in the ‘Fifties and ’Sixties I was not the greatest fan of Fords. My uncle ran the local Ford dealership stores department, so naturally he bought Fords. I remember one Christmas Day when he came over to collect us in his 1950s Ford Prefect, which would not start and we had to push it down the road to get it going. I was never very impressed with Fords from then on and much preferred the BMC equivalent, being a Mini nut at the time. However, I changed my mind with the Escort, Sierra and Mondeo and thought the Sierra was far superior to the Vauxhall Cavalier MkII; having each as company cars at one time. Now that…

Last month saw us going right through the MGF’s cooling system and since then I’m happy to report that the garage floor seems to have remained bone dry. Thanks to a recent visit to Ikea I’d ended up with some big sheets of cardboard packaging which were intercepted on their journey to the recycling centre and laid out under the MGF on the basis that even the slightest drop would show up immediately but even after a 250-mile blast to our Peterborough office and back the coolant seems to be staying inside the pipework. With the suspension raised and the engine cooling made reliable, I had newfound confidence in the MGF to tackle longer trips, but one thing which really grated was the wonky steering wheel, which was sitting about…

Modern unleaded fuel is made up from a complex blend of refined hydrocarbons mixed with a small percentage (usually five percent in the UK) of ethanol. Fuel is sold by its octane rating and the Research Octane Numbers (RON) for commercially available petrol in this country is a minimum of 95 RON for ordinary unleaded and 97 RON for premium fuels such as BP Ultimate or Shell V-Power. Unleaded fuel, or 98 RON four star, was withdrawn from UK forecourts on 1 January 2000. Owners of older cars were then left with a serious dilemma of either having to have harder valve seats fitted to their car’s cylinder head or dosing every tank of fuel with a lead-replacement additive such as Castrol Valvemaster. Although refineries add MMT (methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl)…

Back in 1976 the Mercedes car range was much simpler than the bonanza of letters and numbers that is available now. In fact, there were only three models: a standard mid-size saloon (which was part of a long line of cars going back to the very first Mercedes models and so needed no further designation), a large luxury saloon, designated the ‘Sonderklasse’ (‘Special Class’) or merely ‘S Class’ and the ‘Sportlich-Leicht’ or ‘Sport Lightweight’ range of sleek convertibles and coupés which were anything but being prestigious and comfortable tourers based on the standard saloon car platform. So, W123 was purely an internal designation – to those not familiar with the inner workings of Mercedes, the new model was simply the latest form of ‘the Mercedes’, a modern but conventionally engineered…