Classics Worldの June 2016 の目次

I’ve enjoyed a spot of self-indulgent nostalgia with our new project car – or rather, project bus – this month. Back when they were new vehicles, the then-recently introduced VW ‘T25’ Transporter was the first vehicle I remember properly driving. As I recall, the example in question was a press demonstrator which, aged 15, I kangaroo’d round some local fields. It was also the rare double-cab pick-up in Syncro 4x4 form, a vehicle which is now highly prized by the VW buffs. I’m the first to admit that the angular VW is a world away from the more traditional classic cars we feature but one thing I’ve always found appealing about the classic car scene is its sheer diversity and the seven-seater VW with its curious ‘water boxer’ engine was…

Were you not around in 1948 to purchase a new Series 1 Land Rover? Thanks to a new scheme from Jaguar Land Rover Classic (JLRC), you can now buy one – restored to the exact specification in which it left Solihull nearly seven decades ago. Under JLRC’s new Reborn programme, 25 Series 1s are to be offered to the public in ‘as new’ condition, costing between £60,000 and £80,000. The ‘new’ Series 1s do without modern emissions and safety equipment, although the original colour range – Light Green, Bronze Green, RAF Blue, Dove Grey and Poppy Red – will all be available. A worldwide search is underway for suitable vehicles; right and left-hand drive Series 1s will be available. Work will commence in Land Rover’s Lode Lane plant in the…

It was an editorial column in this very magazine where I mentioned that I’m not usually one to get bothered by the whole business of birthdays and getting older... but just sometimes you come across something which makes you stop and take stock of the passage of time. In this case, it was the sudden realisation that this year marks the 40th anniversary of the original Ford Fiesta, a car which many would still consider to be a modern design and which was still a common sight not so long ago. Launched in 1976, the Fiesta owes its existence in a roundabout kind of way to both Volkswagen and Ferrari. The Ferrari connection relates to the rebuttal by Enzo Ferrari of Henry Ford II’s attempt to buy the Italian car…

The Lucas interior light in my Landcrab employs a festoon bulb and these are one of my pet hates I’d promised myself all I was going to do this month was drive the cars rather than fix them. The weather had picked up and after suffering a series of niggling faults, I thought it would be good to get out on the road and clock up a few miles. After getting the Landcrab freshly MoT’d, I’d even readied myself for what I thought would be the challenge to change its tax status to historic. I carefully read the blurb on the DVLA website and with documents in hand, went to the local Post Office ready to argue my way to a virtually free tax disc. As it turned out, the…

“Whilst the bulbs were obviously much brighter, the alignment was awry” One of the emails I recently received was from Lee Barnes who contacted me to say that he’d just purchased a Davrian Mk7a, a car I used to jointly own with two friends. Sadly, as a result of a massive road accident, the birth of my daughter Becky, a mortgage and all the rest it had to be sold. This was back in 1992. Incredibly, it’s not been used since. I look forward to hearing what progress Lee makes and his plans for the car. Davrians aside, I have been doing some ‘improvements’ to the Porsche, but was soon rueing my decision to change all of the bulbs... and debating whether I should have left things alone. I also…

With the body repairs to Lancaster Insurance’s 1969 Mini 1000 finally completed, the next stage was to mask off the door, bonnet and boot openings prior to the stripped-out shell receiving its first coat of etch primer. All the work to return this one-family owned Mini to its former glory is being carried out by the technicians at the MG Owners’ Club’s Swavesey headquarters where this remarkable little survivor is now affectionately known by everyone connected to the project as Margo the Mini. Once the Mini’s ground-up restoration is finished, Lancaster Insurance will be auctioning Margo later this year at the Classic Motor Show, with all the proceeds from the sale going to Prostate Cancer UK. However, before Margo is handed over to her lucky new owner at the NEC…

Workgauge BL’s decision to fit what many enthusiasts still consider to be a pair of ungainly looking low impact, rubber covered bumpers to the MG Midget from 1974 onwards was definitely a controversial one. Not only did the new bumpers drastically change this little gem’s appearance, the car’s ride height was also raised to allow the revised model to fully confirm with ever-stricter US Federal Regulations on crash protection. A few enthusiasts immediately warmed to the rubber bumper-clad Midget, while others still hate the sight of the darned thing and consider the plastic coverings an aberration. However, if you hover between these two extremes and fancy snapping up a bargain basement rubber-clad Midget and converting it to chrome, then read on. Converting a rubber clad Midget to chrome bumpers gives…

The Porsche company has a proud history of engineering innovation and has been responsible for some highly regarded consultancy efforts, which makes it perhaps rather strange that its car-making history is irretrievably bound up with a single, rather old-fashioned model: the 911. It was that reliance on a single model largely based on outmoded technology which was very nearly the ruin of the Porsche company and in fact over the years the firm explored several different ways of escaping the rear-engined, air-cooled format. These were broadly split into two prongs: front engined cars and mid-engined. First of these was the 924, profiled a couple of months back in CM which began life as a Porsche contract design to provide a new coupe model for Audi. VW subsequently got cold feet…

RAINBOW WARRIOR While sorting bodywork on Volkswagen’s evergreen MkII Golf is unlikely to create much agro, getting hold of trim may be more problematic. Now though, made exclusively for VW Heritage, you can get hold of the classic ‘Rainbow’ fabric, as found on post 1988 GTI models. It’s supplied on a 1.6m wide roll and sold in multiples of 1m lengths as required. Also available from VW Heritage (01273 444 000, www.vwheritage.com) is the matching grey striped bolster material, making an OEM interior makeover entirely possible. The rainbow cloth is £45.95 per metre and the bolster material is £40.95. A metre of each should be enough for a pair of standard front pews GAZ FOR XK120 Jaguar’s sensational two-seater always handled well but inevitably suspension technology has moved on a…

“In between the paint related sagas, I had the misfortune of breaking down in Lily” Finally, after hours and hours of work I’ve rolled the Lowlight out into the sunshine and taken it to the paint shop. This in itself was a rather time-consuming job. It’s amazing just how quickly bits and pieces pile up around a car when you don’t move it, blocking off the entrance to the shed. I had to spend a day just clearing a route to the outside world! The Lowlight is the first car I’ve ever got professionally re-painted. Some of you may remember when I restored Lily, Dad and I repainted it at home in cellulose paint. Whilst it looked pretty good, it hasn’t lasted amazingly well and so this time I’ve decided…

“The problem was that the dynamo pulley didn’t line up with the water pump or main pulley” Last month I left off having completed fuel and brake pipe runs and now we are edging ever closer to engine start. To accomplish this I needed to fit the engine ancillaries as well as finish off installing the cooling system, ignition and wiring – just a small list left to complete! Starting with the ancillaries, the starter dropped in the hole like a dream, shame the same could not be said for access to the bolts. I’m working with the car up axle stands to help when I need to dive underneath but dreaming of a platform lift to help lift and lower the car to a desired height! I then fitted…

With the overhaul of our MGB GT’s suspension now ticked off the list, the next job was to replace the annoying static driver’s seatbelt with a brand new inertia reel belt. The problem with wearing the static belt was that I couldn’t lean forward enough to see properly at road junctions and I lost count of the number of times I had to undo the belt to reach the ignition key. Although there was an inertia reel belt of unknown vintage on the passenger’s side, it seemed prudent to replace that one too while renewing the mismatched static driver’s belt. Next job was to investigate why no heat was getting into the MG’s cabin. This has been a real pain over the winter, as the windscreen fogged up at the…

Workgauge The popular rack and pinion steering system on many classic cars consists of a long toothed metal bar (the rack) that’s attached to the track rod ends, and a smaller toothed pinion gear that connects the end of the steering column to the rack. This mechanical system of controlling the steering is found on anything from an MGA and Morris Minor to a Mazda MX-5 and MGF. Later steering racks are often power assisted, whether it’s hydraulically or electronic. However, the main components of the steering rack remain the same, but there are lots of differences concerning seals, bearings and other fittings, especially around the pinion gear. Some steering rack related repairs can be completed on a DIY level, but make sure you know what you are letting yourself…

SOFT99 FUSSO COAT, £14.99 (400ML) WWW.NIPPONSHINE.COM Launched way back in 1954 as the manufacturer of Japan’s first domestically produced car wax, the Soft99 Corporation now shifts more detailing kit in the Orient than anyone else. The epitome of ‘big business’, they manufacture many of the most famous Japanese products including Fukupika, Triz and Fusso, selling around £75-million worth every year… and that’s just the cleaning stuff! Nowadays it’s also the parent company of a whole load of subsidiaries dealing with everything from commercial chemicals and new technology to driving schools and even real estate… all from shifting a few tins of soft wax. Still, from a European point of view, what’s pretty special is that none of their products were available here until UK firm Nippon Shine started…

As the Defender production lines fell silent earlier this year, not only did Britain wave a fond farewell to one of its most enduring automotive icons the end also witnessed the final severing of any links with the former Rover company and all that it symbolises. While the Defender was alive, the current Jaguar Land Rover company could still trace its ancestry back to the earliest days of the Land Rover brand as a postwar stopgap product for a cash-strapped Rover, but as the final example left Solihull, the transformation of Land Rover from a farmer’s tool to a premium lifestyle accessory was complete. And indeed, if you’re one of the many people in the West Midlands benefiting from the company’s growth then that is of course a very good…

A unique MG prototype will go under the hammer at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed sale on Friday, June 24 and is expected to fetch between £35,000 and £45,000. Known by MG’s engineers – led by MGA and MGB designer Syd Enever – as EX234, the Pininfarina-bodied roadster covered just 371 miles between its build date in the mid-1960s and the present day. With a V5 and current MoT, a Bonhams spokesperson described the car as ‘a must have for the serious MG collector’. EX234 was at one time slated to replace the Midget and 'B; had the project succeeded, open-topped and GT versions would have been made available. The one-off car was meant to put right some of the barn-door engineering forced upon the 1963 'B as a result…

In this day and age, where insurance premiums for the youngest of drivers can easily run into four figures, the option of a well-supported and reliable classic is a very tempting prospect as a first car especially when dad is a bit handy in the workshop and can keep things working smoothly. So when Jon Male, who you see here standing by his restored 13/60 Herald, started to have the ‘learning to drive’ conversations with his son James it was his suggestion that they source a usable classic to restore as James’ first car. “We bought it as a 15th birthday present for James back in 2011,” explains Jon when we meet at his home in Surrey. “I wanted something that would be tax-free, simple and easy to work on…

“The only issue on the first two laps of the estate was that the Stag’s speedometer stopped reading” It may not seem like it, but I’m really pushing to complete the restoration and get the Stag registered. I spoke to Heritage, the trimmers working on the car, and was advised they were sorting out the last outstanding item (the back for the passenger’s seat) and that it would be ready for collection in a couple of days time. In the meantime, the Stag’s road wheels were removed to allow the installation of the centre discs retained by spring clips. There’s also time to start the final buffing of the paint prior to polishing and I also have a small defect to correct. Trimmer Michael had advised that during the hood…

With a Morris, Land Rover, Jaguar and now an MG having passed through the CM car park over the past year, we felt it was time to broaden our horizons away from the traditional British-made classics for our next project. Anyone with even a passing interest in the classic scene will be well aware that it’s the cars of the ’80s which are currently gaining fast in popularity and it was a fascinating time for car design as electronics became more popular and the engineering of even the most basic vehicle became ever more complex. A lengthy and at times rather heated office discussion saw us settle on a German brand and of these it was BMW and Mercedes which looked favourite, with either the W124 Mercedes E-class coupe or…

The intense rivalry between the first generation of the Opel Manta and the Ford Capri can be traced back to the late 1960s and GM’s decision to produce a low-cost, European-built four-seat coupé to compete with the Blue Oval’s Mustang lookalike. As General Motors was already pitching the Vauxhall Firenza, a model based on the then aging Viva against the MkI Capri on this side of the Channel, GM unveiled Opel’s Project 1450 as the attractive Manta A in 1970 and decided not to badge the new model as a Vauxhall. Whether GM missed a marketing opportunity with this decision doesn’t really matter, as shrewd UK buyers keen to get behind the wheel of an attractive coupè opted for the better looking and more refined Opel-badged Manta A over the…

In some ways the second-generation Range Rover was doomed before it even appeared, due largely to one rather fundamental problem: the market had caught up during the original car’s long lifespan and its replacement could never hope to make the same kind of impact no matter how good it was. Land Rover also faced rather more competition than it had back in 1970 when the Range Rover had been very much a unique product. The Japanese brands were producing equally capable multi-purpose 4x4s like the Shogun and Land Cruiser which blended mud-plugging ability with family duties, while those just wanting 4x4 for the occasional bad winter could now also choose from the increasing number of all-wheel drive cars from the Ford Scorpio to the entire Audi range. Oh and for…

Hello, my name is Ted Connolly and has been for a very long time. A very, very long time and much of it has been spent driving, fixing, bodging, writing about and generally tinkering with cars. Most of the stuff I grew up with, you young whippersnappers would regard as classics. Mk2 Jags, the first of the Cortinas, Austin A35s, Morris Minors, early-1960s Minis, Hillman Minxes and myriad other old clunkers were everyday runarounds. Yes, even the Jaguars. Use them, abuse them and watch the metal literally disappear before your very eyes. Ah, those were the days. Well, actually, they weren’t always that great. At my age, I have to rely on spectacles, but the lenses are pretty clear and not dressed up with the tint of roses. Anyhow, enough…