Table of contents for June 2018 in Classics World

I always enjoy getting out and about on Drive It Day and this year was no exception. There was, however, just one small snag and that was because I didn’t turn up to an event behind the wheel of a classic. This shocking state of affairs was down to our project Jaguar XJ6 being to smoky to drive and I didn’t want to further pollute the atmosphere or get any points on my licence for driving what has now turned into an embarrassing mobile smog generator. Mind you, driving a car burning copious amounts of 20/50 like our seriously ill Jaguar does have one small advantage – you don’t get any tailgaters, which makes a nice change when driving an older car. The Jaguar is now off the road awaiting…

A 1967 Mini 850 ‘barn find’ is H&H Auctions’ star vehicle in its upcoming Buxton sale on Wednesday, July 18. Having lain in storage since 1983, after clocking up 36,000 miles, the car is billed as ‘totally original and has never been welded and this very original Mini’s interior is said to be ‘like new’. Bought new 51 years ago with part of a retirement fund, the Mini was primarily a holiday vehicle, used for touring North Yorkshire and Scotland for the best part of a decade. At that point, life sadly intervened and after a happy decade travelling the length and breadth of the country, its owner (the vendor’s father) was diagnosed with ME in the early ‘Eighties. The Mini passed from father to son – and the younger…

At a quick glance, the Volvo badge appears to represent the internationally recognisable symbol for the male gender but this is definitely not the case. The company’s famous silver circle emblem with an almost vertical diagonal arrow pointing out to one side is actually the ancient Swedish symbol for iron and is meant to reinforce Volvo’s reputation for producing strong and reliable cars. Volvo’s first international bestselling car was the 120 series, a model better known on its home turf as the Amazon. Introduced in 1957, the 120 went on to become the first car in the world to be fitted with life preserving three-point front seat belts as standard. This, along with the 120’s other carefully thought out safety features, such as wrap round front and rear light clusters…

WHAT DO I LOOK OUT FOR WHEN BUYING? If a car looks a bit rough on the outside, there’s a good chance that the monocoque to which the panels are bolted will need substantial (and expensive) repairs. Although panels are readily available, costs can soon mount up. Woodwork on the Traveller is structural, so make sure there are no discoloured areas. New wood will cost around £4000 to purchase and have professionally fitted. The rear spring hangers are the Minor’s Achilles’ heel and are a time consuming repair. Other spots to look out for are the bottom edges of the sills and doors. Rust can also take hold in the rear chassis extension and the front chassis legs. To identify a genuine Tourer model, check the plate on the offside…

The temperature inside the E-Type’s cabin can rise to an uncomfortable level during the summer here in Brisbane, so with sections of interior trim already removed it seemed an ideal time to upgrade the insulation. The Jaguar’s interior was upgraded 20 years ago when the new carpets were laid over standard felt underlay. Although this arrangement doesn’t provide much thermal insulation properties, I’d also lined the underside of the transmission tunnel with a thin reflective glass fibre insulation material, but obviously there are more efficient products available now. When my Stag was being restored I used Dynamat Xtreme, so decided to use this material as the first stage in the Jaguar before covering it with additional insulation. I‘ve now ordered sufficient Dynamat to completely cover the floors, transmission tunnel and…

Some good news at last, as the Davrian, which was last on the road in 2007, has sailed through its MoT. To say that I’m chuffed is something of an understatement. No advisories either. However, I did have one heart-stopping moment. On my way to the MoT station, I pulled in to check all the lights and to my horror discovered the headlamps weren’t working. Fortunately, I spotted a lead had come off the light switch that must have been knocked off when re-fitting the dash. It was an easy fix (including giving the spade terminal a quick crimp to improve its grip) and I soon had the lights back in action. In fact, I’m pleased to report that every electrical item on the Davrian is currently working, including the…

The BMW E36 is now an old car, with the very last convertible and estate versions being built in 1999 and the final compacts in 2000. The oldest ones were built in 1991 and they’re all old enough to cause headaches at MoT time. However, parts are cheap and they are still quite easy to work on, often easier than the previous E30 model, as well as the E46 that replaced it. Rust, brakes pulling to one side or the other, emissions, corroded brake pipes and worn suspension components are all common to older cars like these, but listed below are the ten most common MoT dramas for the E36. 1 EMISSIONS: Virtually all E36’s are now subject to an emissions test, although pre-August 1992 cars (H and J plate)…

Many modern cars have become simple to service and often survive for years with an oil and filter renewal and annual inspection. It’s not quite so straightforward with an older car, but it’s often not too complicated and it does help you to get to know every inch of your pride and joy and hopefully fix problems before they get the better of you. The main areas of servicing a classic car involve the engine (ignition components, oil and filters) and checks include the brakes, suspension, lighting and anything else that needs an inspection. The list can easily grow, so to many people routine servicing a classic car can feel like painting the Forth Road Bridge – once you’ve finished, it’s time to start again. Hopefully, our general guide will…

The Silver Seraph and Bentley Arnage were the first all-new cars from Pyms Lane in nearly four decades and were also the final models to be conceived under Roll-Royce’s British owners. Just five months after the Seraph appeared on the scene, parent firm Vickers sold these two world famous brands off before an increasingly complicated ownership battle ended up splitting the Rolls-Royce and Bentley marques between BMW and Volkswagen – but not before BMW designed two different engines to slot into the Rolls and Bentley body shells, preserving their respective identities. The former, powered by a heavily developed 5.4-litre BMW V12, would be launched as the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph; the latter Arnage, in its early years at least, made do with a 4.4-litre twin-turbo BMW V8. Within a year, the…

Wednesday, April 18, saw an impressive selection of Jaguar E-Types gathered in the Cotswolds to celebrate the official launch of this year’s Round Britain Coastal Drive. Organised by the E-Type Club and now in its third year, the event aims to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK and was started by well-known E-Type aficionado and author Philip Porter – himself a survivor of the disease. The launch saw a fine selection of E-Types of all eras lined up on the lawns of a hotel near Cheltenham, set off perfectly by the sight of both the oldest and youngest E-Types parked side by side. The event itself is an 18-day marathon, taking in 3400 miles around the coast of Britain and attracts competitors ranging from those just doing a single day…

Figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) suggest that although the average price paid for comprehensive car insurance fell during the first quarter of 2018 compare to the end of last year, the average premium paid during the first three months of the year was the highest it has ever been. At £478, the average premium was up £14 on the same period last year, but was also £13 down on the final quarter of 2017. The fall is attributed to seasonal trends alongside the announcement of the personal injury law reforms in September and the Civil Liability Bill, which is currently proceeding through Parliament. This should reduce the proportion of compensation payments going to the legal profession: “For every £1 in compensation paid to whiplash claimants, an…

WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT THIS CAR? It takes me back to my rallying youth. WHAT REACTION DOES IT GET? It gets a huge amount of positive attention and lovely comments. Everybody wants to look at it. And lots of people seem to have their very own Imp story to tell! WHAT WAS THE BEST MOMENT OF THE RESTORATION? Probably when the shell came back and I could see how good the car was looking. And that I’d made the right colour choice. TIME AND COST Three and a half years and the thick end of £55,000. WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? That it looks like ALN 650H, the last works Imp. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO DRIVE? It’s drives and handles really well, especially on the tarmac tyres. The engine’s…

The origin of the name Volvo is credited to Bjrn Prytz, managing director of the Swedish ball bearing manufacture Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF) and the brand was trademarked in 1915. With no ‘R’ or ‘S' in it, the name VOLVO (it was originally only used in capital letters) was considered easy to spell and could be pronounced anywhere in the world without being misinterpreted. Volvo is taken from the conjugation of the Latin verb volver and when used in the first person singular present indicative becomes ‘I Roll’, a very apt name for the vehicle division of a ball bearing manufacturer.…

This month has been one of breaking some classics out of their winter hibernation, checking them over and getting on and using them. First off was the VW Camper for a weekend camping trip to the VolksWorld show. I’ve been going there for years and took the Camper down the M40 for a weekend of drooling over some lovely ‘dubs’ with a few mates – well anyway that was the plan. I was planning to leave straight from work on the Friday and had already accomplished a list of jobs before leaving. These involved the obligatory wash and polish but also a quick cosmetic fix by swapping out a rusty twin mount aerial I had fitted 10 years ago. More essential works included fitting a new fuel pressure regulator to…

Regular readers will know how my fleet shares storage space with several lovely old motors owned by friends and family. One of the more unusual is a mate’s Model A Ford Hot Rod, which is very much a period correct car. Although it runs without wings and running boards, most of the mechanicals are as it left the factory at the end of the ‘Twenties. In fact, the state of some of the more perishable components has lead me to believe they may well have been the exact ones fitted to the car when it was built. It had been noticed that the Model A was losing a bit of coolant. As the car hasn’t been with us that long, we wondered whether this was a normal state of affairs…

The saying ‘it never rains but pours’ is often very apt when applied to maintaining a classic car and just lately this old adage has rung true when it comes to our project Jaguar XJ6. Sadly, we have to report how the car is currently off the road for the foreseeable future due to what looks like worn piston rings and I’m casting around for either a replacement 4.2 litre engine or a specialist to rebuild the original unit. Regular readers will recall how the head gasket on our XJ6 blew in spectacular fashion a few months ago and we covered how Dave Bye and his team at Mirefield based West Riding Race & Restoration overhauled the Jaguar’s cylinder head before fitting a new gasket. When I picked the Jaguar…

The MacPherson strut and the coilover are a compact assembly that can make suspension repairs such as a broken coil spring, or a worn top-bearing mount straightforward to put right. This is because the complete assembly can usually be removed from the car then dismantled and the necessary parts renewed. Earle MacPherson designed the strut that took his name in 1949. It consists of a damper inside a housing with a coil spring around it. The assembly is secured to the suspension upright at the base and the bodywork or chassis at the top. A front strut rotates with the steering, so it uses a bearing at the top to prevent the coil spring from winding up. A coilover is simpler than a MacPherson strut, but still consists of a…

ENGINE: 997/1198cc, 4cyl TRANSMISSION: 4-speed manual SUSPENSION: Front MacPherson struts, rear live axle with leaf springs BRAKES: Hydraulic, drums-all-round WHEELS & TYRES: 13-inch rims, 5.20-section crossply or 115/80 radial tyres TOP SPEED: 73/82mph 0-60MPH: 30/21.5 seconds ECONOMY: 29/31 mpg The 105E superseded the 100E Anglia/Prefect twins which, while sturdy and economical, were becoming very old-fashioned in nature with their sidevalve engines, three-speed gearboxes and boxy styling. Drivers, even those on the smallest of budgets, wanted something with more style, better refinement and greater performance for a world on the cusp of the motorway age. That which was good about the 100E, such as its MacPherson strut front suspension, hydraulic drum brakes and box-based centre-link steering, was retained but otherwise the 105E broke a lot of new ground. Stylistically the new…

The 37th Peter James Insurance Bromley Pageant of Motoring, long regarded as the UK’s biggest one-day car show, returns to its home at Norman Park, Bromley, on Sunday, June 17. More than 3000 vehicles are expected to be in attendance, travelling from all over Europe. Aside from classic cars, classic commercials and military vehicles will be in attendance. A popular Pageant feature, One Make Parking, will once again open its bays to marque fans; expect large gatherings of classics, from Vauxhalls and Fords to MGs and Triumphs. 2018 sees Bromley Pageant welcome some special guests to the event with the presenters of the popular Quest TV show Goblin Works Garage, who set out each week to build custom classic cars and motorcycles in their house style. Presenters, Jimmy, Ant and…

Saturday, July 14, sees the fifth Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional (Concours d’Ordinaire ) return to Stowe House in Buckingham – and winners from the past four years’ events have been invited back to display their cars. Originally staged by Hagerty in 2014, the light-hearted Festival of The Unexceptional (FOTU) celebrated the ordinary run of the mill cars that were once on every street corner. Marinas, Metros, Chevettes, Hunters, Allegros, Corollas and their ilk were the stars of the last shows and this year any mundane motor with a backstory built between 1966 and 1990 is eligible for entry. Hagerty has already confirmed several scarce models for FOTU: a Volkswagen 412 (and base three-door MkI Golf), a Volvo 66 DL, Citroën GS X1 and Fiat Strada. Prior winners of the…

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT THE VOLVO 144? It was a very advanced car for its day and featured a lot of safety features that weren’t fitted as standard to many other cars until much later. WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THIS RESTORATION? Everything went quite smoothly but an annoying problem with the engine turned out to be due to a faulty head gasket. ARE SPARES PLENTIFUL FOR THIS CAR? Surprising yes. Specialist suppliers stock a lot of new parts and there’s a reasonable supply of second-hand parts out there. WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER SELLING THE 144? Not really, but I may be tempted if a decent PV turned up, especially if was a van. WHY A VOLVO PV VAN? I saw one at an event on the Isle…

When the Morris Minor was first introduced at the 1948 Earls Court Motor Show in London, this exciting new car caught the public’s imagination at a time when Britain’s population was still coming to terms with post-war austerity. The Minor went on to become a motoring legend and the brainchild behind the design was Nuffield’s brilliant young designer Alec Issigonis. To say the Minor was a success could be regarded as an understatement, as by the end of the model’s 24-year production run more than 1.3 million variants had left the assembly line. Dubbed the Minor MM, Morris Motors’ new car was initially available as a two-door saloon or two-door convertible Tourer. In 1950 the range was expanded to include a four-door saloon and by the time the Minor Series…

As I said in my last column in the bumper Spring issue, the Allard M’s engine was running well with the air cleaner off and all the running rich problem finally been cured, but I still needed to fit an air cleaner over the Stromberg 97 carburettor. I spoke to Ford flathead specialists Royal Kustom – a Flathead Emporium in Hampshire – where they told me the Allards’ Strombergs need lots of air and, as there is less than three inches from the carburettor outlet to the top of the bonnet, the lack of space limits what can be fitted. I wish I had known about this when I started on this project, as I really need a flat Burgess metal filter like on the P1, which has a higher…

There’s always a temptation when approaching the end of a restoration to get the car back on the road before some of the smaller jobs are finished with the intention of sorting them out later. I made this mistake with Lily, my current daily driver. There are still a few jobs that I haven’t got round to completing and probably won’t until the car is taken off the road for a refresh. With this in mind, I’m determined to completely finish this restoration before taking the car out the garage. The trouble is that the finishing touches are taking a real age to sort out and this can be very frustrating, but it’s these little jobs that really make a difference to the overall appearance of the car. For example,…

Even though it’s been far too cold to drive in a car without any weather protection, the MoT became due on the Gentry and as I like it to legally usable at any time of the year, it was booked in for the test. The Gentry’s spark plugs had not been changed for some time, so I ordered a fresh set from SNG Barratts and swapped them over before driving off. Even wearing a well-insulated anorak and a thick woollen bobble hat it was still ruddy freezing. Of course, I could have waited until May and applied for the car to be excluded from the MoT system due to its age, but I don’t want to do that. I much prefer to have the car tested once a year so…

Last time, we left ‘Project P6’ with a new MoT – its first in six years – and in running order, albeit still less than happy when going backwards. However a few jobs still needed sorting before it was sensible to tackle the 45-mile drive home to Simpson Towers. Though the sluggish reverse is potentially the most serious fault remaining, we decided to leave it for now. Our thinking here was twofold; first there was a chance that use would clear it. After all, the car had been virtually unused for over ten years and the fault might well be something sticking which would sort itself with a decent run and the autobox fully warmed up. But even if the fault remained, an automatic gearbox really needs to be diagnosed…

Since we introduced Lancaster Insurance’s prize MkI 1.6 litre Golf GTI in last month’s issue, the car has recently had an MoT test and we’re delighted to report how this 37-year old sporting VW passed with only a couple of very minor advisories. The easiest way to rectify problem was to replace the headlamps, as the reflectors had deteriorated badly and the second advisory mentioned a very small amount of surface corrosion along a small part of the left-hand sill. The corrosion will be sorted in a couple of weeks when the GTI is professionally rustproofed by Krown Rustproofing in Tipton (0121 557 3874) but the first jobs after the MoT were to replace the Golf’s defective headlights and have the beams professionally checked and reset. Dave Youngs, who is…

When a seven-litre, silver painted 40/50hp Rolls-Royce successfully clocked up almost 1400 miles tackling 27 consecutive runs between London and Glasgow in 1908, the car was quickly dubbed the Silver Ghost by the press and this record breaking Rolls-Royce went on to be regarded as ‘The Best Car in the World’ due to its outstanding comfort and unrivalled reliability. Rolls-Royce’s reputation for refinement, superb craftsmanship and excellent engineering stretches back to 1904 when Fulham-based car dealer Charles Stewart Rolls joined engineer Fredrick Henry Royce for lunch at the Midland Hotel in Manchester to discuss building a car the pair would go on and sell as the Rolls-Royce 10. The revised 10hp Royce became a huge success and in 1906 Rolls-Royce Limited was incorporated when C.S. Rolls and F.H. Royce formalised…