1 minute ago, Graham Butcher said:

Arh yes the Corsair, remember it well with the toggle indicator switches and it also had some of the best dashboard warning lights I ever saw, like the indicator warning lights in the car were IIRC arcs of green in the top of the temperature and fuel gauges and was powered by a V4 engine.

I wished I had the v4 at the time but they weren’t that reliable some said and so I settled for my refurb 1500cc from the Corsair with under 5000 miles to the cortina.

11 minutes ago, Sad555 said:

Been there. Engine went in the Corsair(piston rings went causing crank case compression) px for a full refurb £25 and later transferred to the cortina,had it for years,didn’t use any oil and was very reliable (but a bit rusty underneath) happy days, when I sold it nobody wanted a mk1 so the person buying I gave a 6 months guarantee on the engine,he never came back😇

I don't think the V engines had a good reputation. I know I had to rebuild a V6 in Zodiac and also in a Zephyr as well for friends because of problems with the inlet manifold which if IIRC used to suffer from coolant leaking into the inlets as the manifold would deform slightly?

Edited 6 September, 20232 yr by Graham Butcher

But we had to DIY then but it was doable not like now😀

2 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

Pull handle start, it was an older model then, mine had electric start, 4 speed box with reverse, positive luxury. I got 4 in mine at times, me, the wife and 2 young kids, plus my dog who used to lay on the engine cover. It was a good job the gear lever was protruding from the left side of the cabin though.

 

 

Ooh you definitely had luxury.  Dad regularly used it for 4 adults...   Him mum and Thier two best friends who were a couple with the girls sat on the boys laps apparently.

 

After that he got a car with work and finished up with a Triumph Herald from memory.

1 minute ago, Sad555 said:

But we had to DIY then but it was doable not like now😀

Yes, but it was all good fun as well, I spent a weekend tinkering with all kinds of cars etc both for myself and less mechanically minded friends. It started with my first car, a 1957 Hillman minx, then the Vanden Plas 3Litre (Ex Peak & Freans directors car, which had been chauffeur driven all its life till I acquired it), then the Isetta, Cortina and the last vehicle I personally owned until I retired was Ford Transit van, then I progressed onto having various company cars so never needed to own one for over 40 years.

 

I did also have the use of V4 Ford Zephyr from a neighbour for bird pulling (transit not good for that job). I did co-own for a while with my parents a Rover 3Litre, then a Rover 2000SC. Then a few years later I found a derelict Vauxhall Victor which needed loads of TLC with tin worm, broken springs etc, which I got for a song and set about restoring in my garage over a few months and I completely resprayed in the same colour as the one here, and gave it to my parents when their Rover 2000sc got written off.

 

Wish was still able to get and get under and get on with some repairs, but I'm not as young or fit as I was and also cars are not DIY much these days, but it comes to us all sooner or later. 

 

 

1 minute ago, skomaz said:

 

 

Ooh you definitely had luxury.  Dad regularly used it for 4 adults...   Him mum and Thier two best friends who were a couple with the girls sat on the boys laps apparently.

 

After that he got a car with work and finished up with a Triumph Herald from memory.

Arh yes the car that claimed it had a tighter turning circle than a London Taxi.

Best ever car for maintenance (Spitfire equally) flip up bonnet giving full access to everything on engine and also steering and suspension, you could also sit on the front wheel while servicing it!

 

Gearbox removed from within the vehicle also.

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

Ford Pubic

OK, someone has to ask so I guess that's me

Why was it call the "Pubic"?

 

Yeah, back in the day they did sometimes get things right. I wish that vehicle designers were also made to do work on their creations and then I'm sure we get cars were quicker and easier to work on, especially get at things that do need to be accessed at times, like headlights, oil filters etc.

It was a joke years back, "have you heard about the new Ford Pubic? - It's made out of old Corsairs! (course hairs).

3 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

OK, someone has to ask so I guess that's me

Why was it call the "Pubic"?

 

Dont go there.

2 hours ago, Graham Butcher said:

they had those awful vacuum windscreen wipers

I initially learned to drive at a slightly non-legal age in my Dad's 1934 Riley 9 Kestrel.  I remember it had column change preselector gears (useful as I had to slide off the seat to hit the clutch) and those awful wipers - although there was also a handy lever on the wiper motor so one's 'assistant' could help the poor things along.  Also thinking about it the wiper motor was electric, not vacuum driven, but it was the slowing down as the revs dropped that made me think of it.

 

The Kestrel was a classic car but it never did much for me in battleship grey.  The piccy isn't my Dad's - his was LV 7667.

 

Edited 6 September, 20232 yr by MikeTheThinker

1 hour ago, Graham Butcher said:

 

Is that the model with built-in fire escape?  There appears to be no glass in the rear windscreen ...

 

A Michael Moore TV episode (might have been one of his films) had him doorstepping the CEO's of multi-national companies to see if they were actually familiar with their products, some were a joke like asking the CEO of Phillip Morris to smoke a Marlboro, the more serious was challenging the CEO's of car companies to do an oil change on one of their vehicles.

 

The CEO of Ford who I believe had risen through the ranks from an Engineering apprentice took it completely in his stride and set to straight away with a Ford Explorer I think on a 4 poster ramp, it was clear that he knew exactly what he was doing, had done it all his life and could have done it blindfold, you could in tell an instant from the way he held a spanner that he was the real deal.

 

You know the legend about Harrison Ford being a carpenter on set when he was discovered ? Total BS, there was a scene in a film where he and 2 other homesteaders were nailing up joists to the ridge pole on a barn, it was clear that not one of them had ever held a hammer before in their life and nobody on the set either or they would have told them how to hold the bloomin things!

5 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

Is that the model with built-in fire escape?  There appears to be no glass in the rear windscreen ...

 

 

Thats what I thought as well but the others look so sparkly perhaps it is there. The seal has the filler strip in place.

 

Neither the Anglia 105E's or the Consul Classics needed the rear windows defrosting on icy mornings, if you were late you could drive to work in reverse until the front screen cleared.

12 minutes ago, MikeTheThinker said:

I initially learned to drive at a slightly non-legal age in my Dad's 1934 Riley 9 Kestrel.  I remember it had column change preselector gears (useful as I had to slide off the seat to hit the clutch) and those awful wipers - although there was also a handy lever on the wiper motor so one's 'assistant' could help thepoor things along.  Also thinking about it the wiper motor was electric, not vacuum driven, but it was the slowing down as the revs dropped that made me think of it.

 

The Kestrel was a classic car but it never did much for me in battleship grey.  The piccy isn't my Dad's - his was LV 7667.

 

Well to be perfectly honest, I was only really getting practise of driving on the road in the 100E, I actually taught myself how to drive while working at the bus garage as every Thursday the entire garage floor had to be washed with caustic soda crystals to clear up any oil drips etc so every bus and coach in there had be moved out of way while the floor was washed, and I just jumped in the driver's seat and started to move them and then put them back again, that could involve up to 100 buses and coaches depending on the time of day. It was all OK as it was on private property, but when I was able to drive them on the road for road tests after they had been serviced (for some reason very few of the mechanics could drive), so I was drafted in to that job. But before I was covered by their insurance I had to go through their driving centre and I went and drove about 6 miles and was told to return to the garage, where my boss was told that I was good a driver as any they had seen, so then I got sent each day to drive the buses and coaches that been serviced during the day on test with the mechanic on board. 

 

My favourite to drive were these beauties, rear engined, riding on airbags and were so comfortable and quiet and fast to boot. Not for this company, but I can't find any photos of them in the livery of my company.

21 minutes ago, J.R. said:

You know the legend about Harrison Ford being a carpenter on set when he was discovered ? Total BS, there was a scene in a film where he and 2 other homesteaders were nailing up joists to the ridge pole on a barn, it was clear that not one of them had ever held a hammer before in their life and nobody on the set either or they would have told them how to hold the bloomin things!

 

That was 'Witness' co-starring Kelly McGillis (Charlie in Top Gun). It was about a young Amish boy who witnessed a murder in the city. Ford's character was a city detective who went to the Amish community to try and find out what the boy had seen.

The scene you describe is where the community were raising a new barn. A fine film from the mid 80's.

 

No Amish were harmed in the making of this film.

Nor were any actual Amish in it.

52 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

Well to be perfectly honest, I was only really getting practise of driving on the road in the 100E, I actually taught myself how to drive while working at the bus garage as every Thursday the entire garage floor had to be washed with caustic soda crystals to clear up any oil drips etc so every bus and coach in there had be moved out of way while the floor was washed, and I just jumped in the driver's seat and started to move them and then put them back again, that could involve up to 100 buses and coaches depending on the time of day. It was all OK as it was on private property, but when I was able to drive them on the road for road tests after they had been serviced (for some reason very few of the mechanics could drive), so I was drafted in to that job. But before I was covered by their insurance I had to go through their driving centre and I went and drove about 6 miles and was told to return to the garage, where my boss was told that I was good a driver as any they had seen, so then I got sent each day to drive the buses and coaches that been serviced during the day on test with the mechanic on board. 

 

My favourite to drive were these beauties, rear engined, riding on airbags and were so comfortable and quiet and fast to boot. Not for this company, but I can't find any photos of them in the livery of my company.

Bristol RE chassied ECW? 

58 minutes ago, Graham Butcher said:

I actually taught myself how to drive while working at the bus garage

What a great way to learn to drive (well, as long as one doesn't bend the motors, that is).  I had some fun driving tractors on my uncle's farm - learning to reverse a grain trailer loaded with 20 tons of grain under a time cosh (harvester was non-stop so i had to be back before the other trailer was full) was errm 'interesting'.  I survived but was seriously knackered after a week of that.  Follow-up to that was a Summer job working on the local (posh) golf course, where you drove whatever needed driving.  First encounter with one of those triple-gang power mowers was something to remember, and then going from one extreme to the other as I was shown how and then supervised whilst close-cutting putting greens.  The head greenskeeper used to get down on his hands and knees to inspect the evenness of the cut and heaven help you if you managed a dent in the turf!  Corners were NOT allowed on the greens.  All maneouvering had to be done off the greens so as not to cause dints.

1 hour ago, skomaz said:

Bristol RE chassied ECW? 

Correct, ECW bodies were well built.