Table of contents for January 2021 in Practical Classics

Back in March, the nationwide lockdown gave us all more time in our sheds. I used the time to push forth on my supercharged Morris Minor, which saw the road shortly afterwards. As my newly-built shed has evolved from storage to workspace, however, things were starting to get messy. Any car in pieces has the ability to spread itself five-fold and fill every little crevice of available space and, before long, you find yourself with nowhere to work. So, I spent the first weekend of Lockdown 2.0 creating a pile of parts and tools from both sheds in the garden, before I broke out the trusty label maker… A brand new brake master cylinder, two boxed SU fuel pumps, a wiper motor presumed lost and countless other parts showed themselves…

Plans for major 60th birthday celebrations are being revealed as the Jaguar E-type reaches its landmark anniversary next year. Shropshire classic car restoration specialist, Classic Motor Cars, will turn its annual public open day over to the E-type, with the hope of having as many as possible on display over the August bank holiday weekend. CMC’s Managing Director, Nigel Woodward, says it won’t just be any old car show. ‘There’ll be practical demonstrations and our technicians will be on hand to answer questions.’ The Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust’s E-type 60th Anniversary Tour to Geneva has been postponed by about eight weeks. The plan is that it will now start on April 23, finishing in Geneva on April 29. Plans for a big E-type 60 celebration at Shelsley Walsh on June…

If Toyota’s entry into the Espace market looks a little cooler than most, that could well be because this first-generation Previa was styled and engineered in California. Current throughout the Nineties, they all come with a 2.4-litre four-pot and, with any luck, benefit from Toyota’s well-regarded quality control. But at over 20 years-old they are of course getting rare now. But find a good one and you probably won’t have to venture too far into four figures to bag it.…

What if a man could have all the economy, space and comfort of a 2CV, but with a 90bhp 2-litre HDi, air-con, cruise control and spare parts available for peanuts at every car spares supplier on the planet? Simple to keep and fix, the clever, best-selling Berlingo is 25 years-old next year. OK, this MOT failure needs some sills, but it’s a keeper and my new daily. I’ll cherish it, sleep in it, conquer Europe from the Arctic to Gibraltar, and keep it forever. And yes, I’ve named the old donkey. He is called Eeyore. ASKING PRICE £350 PAID £300 VERDICT Clarkson’s favourite MPV is now James’s.…

1 When did you buy your Escort? ‘My dad bought it for me as my first car back when I was 18, back in 1998. I’d wanted a 100E Estate, but I was more than happy with my 1300 XL, quickly nicknamed the Bronze Bullet by my friends! We went all over the place in it, including one memorable trip to see The Strokes at the Birmingham Academy.’ 2 Where did the car come from? ‘We had looked at a few Escorts, but most were a bit shabby and more than a few were suffering from rust issues, most noticeably in the A-pillar area. Then one day, we spotted my car for sale in King’s Lynn for £600. It was owned by an elderly gent who’d bought it new in…

British Touring Car Racing makes superstars of the cars we have on our driveways. With clever engineering tweakery (and a roll cage) our family favourites graduate to race winning supercars. It is an intoxicating recipe – especially when you think of the names of the drivers who have manhandled them around the UK’s circuits. So we have brought together five legendary Sixties track weapons, based on cars that you could buy in the showroom. We have chosen one each and then gone on a competitive jaunt of our own, to see who can find the best bargain out there. Could we own one of our racing heroes? Read on. TEAM VERDICT... From the exotic fizz of the Alfa and Mustang’s macho punch to the people’s racers, Cortina, Jag and Mini,…

After weeks of stripping every nut, bolt and cotter pin from my Austin Seven’s rolling chassis, I’d made the decision to send a number of key components away for blasting and/or powder coating. Having carefully boxed and labelled everything leaving the shed, my friend Matt Rathbone came across to shuttle the bits to the blasters. Only the rear axle – already stripped, cleaned and painted – remained, so it was that which filled my time to begin with. A careful inspection of the crown wheel and pinion revealed witness marks perfectly central to each, meaning there was no need to mess around with the number of shims in place between the torque tube and axle casing. Mine being the later ‘heavy’ axle means that no off-the-shelf gasket is available to…

Those two magic words –‘barn’ and ‘find’ – never fail to fire up the imagination of any classic car nut. Describe any old motor that’s been resting in a garage or lean-to for a few years as a ‘barn find’ and suddenly it becomes a lot more enticing, like buried treasure. Well, I don’t want to brag, but I really did find my latest classic purchase hiding at the back of a barn! As you can see from the pictures, it’s a Morris Minor four-door saloon. Yes, I already own one, so there was absolutely no reason for me to buy a second. But when I spotted this one, waiting patiently for somebody to put it back on the road, I just couldn’t resist. What’s more, it has a really…

1 Before treatment The Z3’s original black mohair hood was faded in patches, and also had some white marks plus the beginnings of green algal growth. 2 Start by vacuuming The hood must be thoroughly cleaned before starting the treatment process. 3 Cleaning solution Use a clean paint brush to apply the specially formulated detergent cleaner. 4 Masking The next step is to mask windows and paintwork around the hood. 5 Colour coats Brush onto the fabric starting at the centre and maintaining an even coating. 6 Apply waterproofing solution Once the colour coat has dried, brush on the ‘Ultraproofer’, applying an even coat working outwards from the centre of the hood. When the coat has dried, peel the masking tape off and the job is done!…

PART 5 START 1 Front sealing block Apply sealant to the small gaskets under each end of the block and press into place. Align the block with the front face of the engine then tighten its two securing screws. 2 Fit the wooden wedge seals The ends of the sealing block are fitted with wooden wedge seals. Trim with a knife so they are slightly oversize, smother them in sealant, then hammer into the slots on either end of the sealing block. 3 Finishing the sealing block Trim the ends of the wooden seals flush with the face of the block using a razor blade. Recheck that the front of the sealing block aligns perfectly with the front of the cylinder block. Wipe excess sealant. 4 Fit the oil pump…

On November 12, 1970, the last Morris Minor saloon rolled off the line at Cowley’s T-block, where production had been moved as the main plant geared up for the Marina. That last saloon has just reached the end of a four year restoration, undertaken by the Morris Minor Owners Club, and was officially unveiled at Cowley on November 4, 2020. FMT 265J’s completion signalled the end of Morris Minor production at Cowley, with the last LCVs and Travellers being built at Adderley Park in Birmingham. The Trafalgar Blue two-door saloon was discovered on eBay by MMOC member John Ashmore in 2016. It was in a very sorry state, but John purchased the car and confirmed its provenance, before passing the restoration baton to the Morris Minor Owners Club later that…

machinemart.co.uk An invaluable tool in any restoration workshop, this 8in bench grinder with lamp and wire wheel is perfect for cleaning up small components and fixings for your restoration, as well as sharpening drill bits, chisels and punches. The integral 10W lamp provides useful illumination of the work piece while the combined eye shields/spark arrestors protect against flying particles. The 370W, 230V motor gives the grinder an impressive 2850rpm no load speed and the included wheel dresser is a useful device for keeping grinding wheels in shape.…

Cordless collection BRUSHLESS TOOL COMBO £455.95 Offered with a three year warranty, this four piece 20v brushless tool combo from Sealey brings together the most useful cordless tools you could need in your workshop. The cordless angle grinder, drill, impact wrench and driver are joined by two batteries and a charger in a stackable click-together tool box. As part of Sealey’s Christmas promotion, the set also comes with a 20V cordless wet/dry vacuum cleaner free! sealey.co.uk Perfect shine PRO POLISHING AND COMPOUNDING KIT £155.94 (OFFER PRICE) This kit comes with everything you’ll need to start machine polishing your classic. Be it to revive tired paint or remove a scratch, you’ll need to get your hands on a machine polisher. This 600w dual action offering features a variable speed switch to…

GAYDON GATHERING, OCTOBER 13 The British Motor Museum’s second attempt at a Gaydon Gathering went ahead and was a roaring success. It was exactly our kind of event, with all classics welcome whether new or old. An undoubted high spot was the chance to get close to the Metro 6R4 prototype that was driven out from the museum for all to see. Sadly, this was the one and only such event of the year, but the venue is aiming to restart the monthly Gatherings from April 2021. britishmotor museum.co.uk…

Each year at the Beaulieu Autojumble, as sure as the birdsong of a New Forest dawn mixes with a chorus of vintage engines, while rain falls on rows of rusty engine parts in soggy cardboard boxes scattered across the field, the PC team is guaranteed to hear the distant rumble of a trolley full of sweet treats. It signals the arrival of a gent known simply to all as ‘Swiss Chocolate Man’. This international motoring man of mystery is a regular, travelling from his home in Switzerland to Hampshire in order to trade numerous car parts but, without fail, he also brings an enormous stash of chocolate that every year, is gleefully thrust into our hands. However, only now do we find ourselves in the world of this enigmatic character.…

1 My favourite tool My Snap-On 3/8in ratchet. Because you know it is the best, you up your game to match it. When I pick it up, it feels right. I treasure it and as a result, I work carefully with it. Even if that does mean that I sometimes put it down and pick up the torque wrench instead to finish the job. 2 My best bodge The whole project has pretty much been overcoming past ‘bodges’. I hardly want to introduce any more although there are still some bits that I haven’t got to yet. 3 My biggest fail That’ll be mis-routing the bonnet release cable, which wrapped itself around the headlight mechanism and pulled all the connectors out of the fuse box the day before the MOT!…

Crossing the high sill threshold and sinking yourself behind the wheel of an E-type Jaguar can never be anything but a boy’s own dream. It always brings out the inner child in me, a fact that I am careful to conceal when in the company fellow motoring journalists. Because all I want to do, as I turn the key, adjust the choke and press the starter is grin like an idiot and punch the air. The view down the bonnet tells me I am in the hands of automotive angels, and that life doesn’t get much better than this – I try to keep it together. I am at E-type UK in Hadlow, Kent, to indulge the fantasy. I am going to drive an E-type through the Garden of England.…

Thruxton’s relationship with the MGF goes back to the beginning, as the circuit had been the home of Austin Rover’s track driving events since 1986 (the relationship ending when MG Rover went bust in 2005). Andy Franklin is former manager of the Ian Taylor Motor Racing School. ‘We’d do fifty events a year, with the whole range out doing fast laps of the track. Driving the SD1 Vitesse on the limit was always great!’ He remembers the MGF and MG TF, especially. ‘They were great cars to drive, so chuckable! I had a company car for a year or so – the VVC engine was seriously brilliant.’…

WHAT TO PAY PROJECT £1500 RUNNER £2500-£4750 GOOD £4750-£7000 TECH SPEC Escort Mexico 1600 Engine 1599cc/4-cyl/OHV Power 85bhp@5500rpm Torque 92lb ft@4000rpm Gearbox 4-speed manual 0-60mph 10.5sec Top speed 100mph Fuel economy 27mpg Length 3.97m Width 1.56m LIVING WITH AN ESCORT MKI How easy to work on: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Parts availability: ■ ■ ■□ □ Running cost: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ Performance: ■ ■ ■ ■ □ Usability: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ Why you want one Many a Ford fan will have read the classic auction reports, cried into their cuppas and realised that any dream they had to buy an Escort Mexico zoomed away quicker than Hannu Mikkola in his RS1600. But in this crazy world of ups and downs, is Escort MkI ownership still…

Danny Hopkins If my Saab 9-5 is the cheapest way to go faster than anything else on the road, then this purchase has to be the cheapest way to go larger. Or maybe it isn’t. I gave £600 for it, and it came with a whole year’s MOT, but I have discovered why so many of these big French diesels are being binned… or have been binned already. More of that in a second. First the fun stuff. I bought it from an old mate who lives in Bishop’s Stortford. Adrian had owned it since September 30, 2000 – 20 years ago almost to the day I picked it up, so it has a solid history and an emotional one as well. Adrian was the third owner and had used…

It might lack the visual drama of some roadster rivals but don’t let that fool you. The S2000 is a performance car that packs the most extraordinary punch – more than enough to put a Porsche Boxster in its place very neatly both on the road and track. It is an engineering tour de force and is one of the most brilliant balances of driving exhilaration and a pain-free ownership experience. The S2000 story began at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show, where the Sports Study Model made its debut. That concept – with its five-cylinder VTEC engine and semi-automatic gearbox – inspired a production car sharing its styling traits, from the long bonnet to the blistered arches. Although admittedly less dramatic than the show concept and with one fewer cylinder,…

My 9-5 lived under a tree for a long time. I bought it for £250 and then sorted the running issue that had stranded it. A new fuel filter helped, a new breather pipe - ditto. But there were still issues and I knew that I would need a specialist to sort them out. These issues made themselves obvious three times on my way to that specialist, 2-stroke to Turbo, as the 9-5 went into limp, usually at the worst possible moment. I hate it when the older car under me misbehaves. You can feel all the modern drivers nodding smugly to themselves about the right decision being made to buy a new car. I eventually arrived at 2-Stroke and immediately had the GM Tech 2 reader plumbed into the…

1985 Citroën CX GTi Turbo Engine 2500cc/4-cyl/OHV Power 168bhp@5000 Top speed 137mph Work done Electrics tested and found to be rather wanting. It’s almost two years since I rescued my CX from a Scottish garage, so with my diary now well and truly in the bin and no chance of a holiday this year, I have decided to dedicate all of my weekends to getting the job finally done. The car was running nicely so it was all about reinstalling the front end - headlights, grille, fog lamp brackets and lights and the rest of the bumper and undertray. Then I’d need to focus on the rest of the interior and exterior trim. However, as we went to press, I discovered numerous electrical aspects of the big Citroën to be……

1 Drill the rivet After blasting, Matt centre punched then drilled out the solid steel rivet that holds the rear spring together then separated the leaves. 2 Clean and linish He could then clean up each leaf in turn, using a flap wheel to remove any wear lips present. 3 Cut and shut As Matt is lowering the Seven and fitting a lighter body, he removed the second leaf in the stack and cut it down to act as a spacer. 4 Countersink The chopped leaf was then countersunk to take the taper of a new rivet. This offcut will sit above the eyed top leaf. 5 Grease and stack After a lick of paint, the spring was re-stacked over a 3/8in UNF temporary bolt, with grease smeared between each…

1955 Morris Minor Engine 1098cc/4-cyl/OHV Power 48bhp@5500rpm Gearbox 4-speed manual Work done Reconditioned engine fitted - twice! It’s been a challenging few months for my poor old split-screen. Fitting a later 1098cc engine last autumn had given a handy performance boost, but while I knew that it was a little smoky, its thirst for oil was frankly disturbing. With no time to tackle a home rebuild, I bought a recon engine from a specialist. Alas, it oozed coolant and oil from a failed cylinder head gasket the moment I tried to start it. It was returned to me once its uneven cylinder head and block mating faces had been skimmed flat and while I missed PC’s autojumble road trip (November 2020), I just made it to Beaulieu’s Simply British Classics…

GEARCHANGE WOES Why’s my gearchange tough? QI often have trouble getting gears easily in my MGF. The lever seems to need a lot of force and sometimes the changes are ‘crunched’. Could the gearbox be failing? Marcus Hughes, Aylesbury Ed says A Here’s a generalised faultfinder, broadened to cover most classics. Make sure the gearchange linkage or gearshift ‘turret’ of the ‘box is properly lubricated and not excessively sloppy or worn - also check engine and gearbox mounts are not sagging or broken. Check the gearbox oil level. Unless the linkage is worn, the gearchange has been abused or the ‘box has had substandard repairs, it’s probably fine. Some gearboxes c improved by filling with a certain grade or type of oil - or replacing old or incorrect oil with…

As found: Having been poorly stored since it was most recently sold in 1995, the car was at the brink of being saveable when the club took it on. Stripped and dipped: The car was stripped bare and the shell acid dipped to reveal any hidden horrors… …before a considerable amount of welding work to the body could be undertaken. All together now: After it was painted, the car was completely reassembled in time for its 50th birthday. Unveiled! The official unveiling was a few days early, before the second lockdown, at Cowley’s T-block where BMW currently produces the MINI.…

The best possible Christmas present came the way of 15-year old reader Andrew Randall, in the form of his first ever classic. Walking around his village in Wales, he spotted a Volvo 340 in a garage and decided to enquire about it. ‘I was out for a stroll when I spotted the car. I asked about it, and the lady said: ‘It’s for sale.’ So then I asked how much and after a chat with her husband she said “guess the price.” I said between £1 and £2k. She said, “It’s only £600!’”’ At this point Andrew asked if the elderly couple who owned the 340 could wait for a couple of months for him to earn and raise the money – they agreed. ‘They waited for me, it was…

The November national lockdown saw a number of shows and road runs postponed or cancelled completely, while others continued online or run along different lines. The ‘Virtual’ Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery, brought the community together, celebrating the cars, the people, the clubs and companies online on November 14 - the day-long event included a half-hour slot from the team at Practical Classics. The London to Brighton run was also run in a different way. Rather than the usual road run from Hyde Park to Madeira Drive in Brighton, veteran cars around the country were asked to do their own 50-mile jaunts on local routes to qualify for the L2B medals. Practical Classics editor Danny Hopkins took the tiller in is hand as he joined the three oldest…

With a growing trend for electrifying classic cars, Swindon Powertrain’s latest product simplifies the process even further. The classic Mini bolt-in replaces the A-series engine with an 80kW continuous (120kW peak) electric motor kit which can be used in isolation or with the company’s 12 kWhr battery pack, motor controller, onboard charger and DC-DC converter. Most importantly the kit is suitable for conversion by spanner friendly classic car enthusiasts, who want to electrify a classic Mini. Swindon Powertrain’s Gérry Hughes told PC: ‘We’ve registered over 500 requests for more information on the HPD E system since it launched, many of which are classic Mini owners who are looking to convert their cars to run on electric power.’ Prices start from £8850+VAT for an HPD E Powertrain system mounted to an…

BMW 2000Ti ‘The most treasured vehicle in my collection is the BMW 2000ti. It’s a low mileage example, which I bought instead of the BMW 2002 I had been chasing. Prices of those had become too much. The 2000ti is quick, loves to be revved and great on the motorway. It was my first classic so I will never sell this car. If I had to get rid of all my cars except one, this is the one I would keep. It’s my baby!’ Volkswagen Beetle ‘When I was a child, I really liked the Beetle. I think children find the styling very appealing, so maybe it isn’t so surprising. It is a great shape and these cars still attract my attention. I have a 1955 model, which needs some…

Across 1 Effectively an Austin-Healey Sprite with a different badge (2,6) 7 Asconas, Admirals, etc (5) 9 Bedford estate cars produced between 1964 and 1973 (7) 10 Classic sports series from Nissan (1,3) 11 The 135 was a noted model from this French marque (8) 13 Forerunner to the Cobra (2,3) 14 Failed American Ford brand from the late Fifties (5) 17 Convertible versions of the Rochdale GT (8) 19 Manoeuvre facilitated by power steering (4) 21 BMW bubblecars with Italian origins (7) 22 SEAT model named after a Spanish island (5) 23 GT-R versions of these Nissans were launched in 1989 (8) Down 2 Ford model made from 1972 until 1994 (7) 3 How inactive engines tick over? (4) 4 Head___failure, potential engine problem (6) 5 He penned the…

£50 STAR FIND Can you do better! Send your high-res images to practical.classics@bauermedia.co.uk Enfield 8000 Here is a scoop from Christopher Wilson, it’s the very first time an Enfield 8000 has featured in the Rust in Peace pages! Just 120 of these battery-powered cars were made during the Seventies, it’s unlikely the Enfield would worry Elon Musk. Daimler Conquest Fred Hillier was unsure what he had found on a farm in Glastonbury, but it appears to be the remains of a Fifties Daimler Conquest, albeit partly dismantled. Yak Yeoman Shaun Linegar remembers seeing this Yak Yeoman in 1980 when it was brand new and driving around Liphook in Hampshire. They were made from 1979 to 1984 by Manchester Garages Ltd and had 1.3-litre Ford engines. This one has been off…

SAAB 96/95 V4 Obviously, all Saabs are cool, and these cute yet tough little rally stars are no longer the bargains they once were. However, with the best still available for as little as £8000, they still don’t look over-valued yet. Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS Too exotic or - hang on - now around the same value as an Escort Twin Cam or Capri RS3100? Buy privately and you can now pick up nice examples of Ferrari’s V8 ‘middy’ with price tags that begin with a four.…

After Alvis stopped making cars in 1967, the company moved its vast stock of spare parts, 22,000 car records and over 60,000 works drawings, data sheets and files to new premises in Kenilworth. Now, more than 50 years later, these unique assets still form the foundations of Red Triangle. PC was given a behind-the-scenes look round the main workshop and maze-like stores by Alan Stote, who took over at Red Triangle in the Nineties. The ground floor is divided into various areas including workshop bays (packed, as usual, with Alvises from the Twenties to the Sixties) and specialist trim, panel-beating and engine-building rooms. Together they cover the full range of work from an annual service to a total rebuild. As we head up the stairs to the upper floors, the…

Joe Cahill-Briley As a lifetime member of the Bangernomics club, a fair number of cheap runarounds have graced my driveway. After some small success finding new homes for cars I’d bought cheaply, I had a brain wave… can I turn an old banger into a Porsche? My wife wasn’t keen on gambling real money, but agreed I could finance the project if I sold my canoe! A £378 eBay auction and six cars later, here we are… my mighty BMW 7 Series. Bought for just £1100 from Facebook, I’ve been everywhere in it. It’s the go-to car for the school run and any event we’re invited to (although not many of those these days), and why not? It’s a 2.8-litre, so ‘fairly’ cheap to run, it’s superbly comfortable and proved…

1971 Morris Marina Super Coupe 1.3 Engine 1275cc/4-cyl/OHV Power 60bhp@5500rpm Top speed 84mph 0-60mph 14sec Work since last report Started: Bought many bits I promised I would give you the lowdown on the health of the engine and so, here it is. Josh Ward and Chris Weedon from the Marina Club supplied a spare Marina with a running engine and healthy battery, with which we could attempt to start my early 1.3 barn find. First I removed the fanbelt. The seized water pump would hinder things and there was no water present in any case. After changing the oil and filter and establishing that the engine would turn over and that the starter was working we removed the king lead and turned the engine over to check for oil pressure.…

With the unpleasantness of a summer spent solving a drawn-out head gasket issue on the TR now thankfully behind me, the past few months have been much more enjoyable. The ability to get in your classic and go for a drive without worrying about whether it will get you home again is easily taken for granted - suffice to say, I’ve really appreciated the simple pleasures of a top-down TR trip of late. I’ve also finally been able to address a couple of smaller jobs that had to wait until now. The first of these was simple enough - changing the jet needles in the HS6 carburettors. When the TR first went back on the road in April 2019, it was fitted with a pair of BDM needles as a…

Before lockdown we managed a few days on Bluebell, our VW Type 2 project, at the PC workshop. With no NEC show we allowed ourselves the luxury of taking things at a slower pace, taking our time to solve problems and find solutions methodically. This was good news for the underside of the van. It meant we could carefully unpick and resolve a couple of previous repairs that looked a bit ugly and also dig into one or two areas that looked like they might be suffering from tin worm. It’s a pretty sound base, but I am glad we did investigate, particularly under the driver’s floor. The underseal covered a nasty seam of corrosion, which Danny dug into for the best part of an hour. On the other side…

Many classic roadsters have fabric soft tops, made of canvas or mohair. These look great when new but, over the years, stains develop, the fabric fades and water can start to seep through. Often as not, the underlying fabric is still in good condition, even though it looks shabby. My recently acquired BMW Z3’s hood was showing pretty well all the usual problems, letting down an otherwise smart car. Fortunately, the plastic rear window had been replaced quite recently, and the frame was still sound. It really was just the fabric that needed attention. Renovo has long been the leading name in restorative soft top treatments. The products aren’t cheap, with a full kit of cleaning solution, colour reviver and waterproofer coming in at almost £60, but their quality and…

►Unless I charge my battery overnight, I get about 10 seconds’ cranking before everything starts to slow down and stop. A second hand battery quickly went the same way. Can you help? David Cummings, Tring CHARGING FAULTS 1 Measure battery voltage Before starting the engine, measure the battery voltage. It should be in the range 12.2 to 12.7V. If it’s below this, recharge it or swap it for a good one to avoid confusion. 2 Ailing battery? A sulphated battery appears fully-charged, but has little stamina; one with a faulty cell quickly loses voltage if charged, then left for a few hours. Replace in each case. Don’t neglect topping-up, if needed. 3 Check charging voltage Start the engine. Run it at fast idle for a few minutes. Measure the voltage…