Taxi! Stop one and buy it. I bought an old London taxi to use as everyday transport and to restore.A LTI fairway driver with disk brakes.So far I've been introduced to Nissan diesel engines,door locks that go on as you drive off,a body design thats nearly as old as I am and other eccentricities.This is the story of its restoration,what its like to drive one of these and links to spares suppliers clubs and other taxi pages etc etc. This page is under construction and will be updated as I get time. Repairing doors and sills...The windscreen...Driving a taxi...Spares for Taxis . .  

The doors had rust bubbles along the bottoms.This seems to be a common problem,the sealing arrangement around the windows is rather poor and lets water in to rust out the door bottoms.  A bit of squeezing with the fingers and parts of the doorbottoms started to crumble away to nothing. Force of habit seemed to be have been keeping the bottom of the door skins in place for some time.
The doors are easy enough to take off,two bolts four nuts and a handfull of screws. Turning them upside down revealed more horrors.This was the drivers side,some sort of sealer   had been plastered along the bottom over the  rust sealing it in and making the situation worse.
The passengers side had fared (taxi -fared get it?) no better,both the bottom of the door .and skin had rotted through.The windows on taxi front passenger doors are electric,the rest slide up and down on coiled springs inside the doors.
This is part of the way through repairing the drivers door with a piece of new steel tacked in position. The steel had a flange on the outside edge about 3/4 inch deep.This was tucked under the outside skin which was carefully peeled back. One door ended up with slight distortion at the  bottom which filler covered,the other was OK.
Taking off the stainless steel covers revealed what was probably the reason they'd been fitted in the first place.The sills which bolt on underneath were as rotten as a pear throughout the whole length of the car.In the event of a side impact this must weaken the taxi considerably.Bolt on panels might ease repairs in some ways but when the captive nuts break lose of bolt heads twist off it's sometimes as easy to drill through or grind off welds.Quoted over £100 plus VAT per side for what is after all only a bit of bent tin I'm making my own.

	A common fault on these is the bottom of the windscreen surround rusting and lettting water in straight into the footwells.This one wasnt too bad but water was still getting in,the winscreen rubber had perished and wasn't sealing well.Cleaning with a rotary wire brush revealed a few pin holes but the important section welded inside which holds the surround flat was pretty much intact.
	Some lengths of steel were shaped and welded in where the surround had rotted out.The surround is formed from the outer section which houses the air vent and a inner which gives rigidity and strength.This was rusted near one wiper drive and a new piece was let in behind the dashboard and the two pieces plug welded along the top.
	I bought a new screen rubber and took the dash out to fit the screen back in.Despite that it cracked and I decided to call out a local company to fit a new one.Flat laminated glass cracks easily and this really is one job that should be left to professionals.
	The team from windscreen direct in Lowestoft who fitted the screen making my efforts look rather sad.I used them on the old motorhome and as before they did a super job,quickly and at a very good price. Thanks Lads!

Front suspension.
 

The front suspension on these is a conventional double wishbone arrangement.This is a 1993 Carbodies taxi so it has disc front brakes,earlier versions had drums. The top wishbone bushes were shot and the brake pads almost down to the metal.The pads on the nearside have a wire for a low pad warning light.

Another view of the Off side front suspension showing the two flexible brake pipes and the power steering box.Just visible behind the pipes is the top wishbone pivot bolt partially drawn out during replacement of the top swivels.I was suprised that replacing badly worn joints and swivels seemed to make little difference to the ride or handling.I suspect the fairway is one of those vehicles that drives well even with worn out componenets,all the more reason to check carefully.

Driving a taxi
Driving one of these as private transport is fun.The design is donkeys years old,its a bit agricultural but once you're rolling its reasonably light to drive with the power steering.automatic box and servo brakes.The 'overdrive' drops the revs down and they are reasonably quiet The passengers have loads of room and are fascinated by the flashing lights and clicking of the door locks.

People often smile at what must be one of the most recognised cars in the world and contrary to the warnings I was given,I've never had anyone try and climb aboard.After years of messing about with old cars I can normally source spares cheaply,and these are rather like a glorified kit car or meccano set,everything from the wings to sills are bolted on and they are suprisingly easy to work on.Taxis are full of odd design features like floors in the rear that are removable to check the condition of the chassis.  .

The Cab
To the right of the steering wheel are three lights.Red for charging (and if it comes on when driving stop as soon as you can,as the fan belt drives various servos via a pump) orange for the glow plugs. The green light is off for normal driving but press a switch by the gear lever (on an automatic) and the light goes off and you use a higher range of gears,an advantage on motorways

.  On top of the dash is an old taximeter I fitted,underneath are various light switches and a pretty dismal heater.Under that is a radio.The speedo binnacle is I believe the same as a Sherpa or Maestro and the mileometer itself keeps jamming (a common fault apparently) Everything is screwed together and absurdly easy to take apart.As with most small manufacturers Carbodies or LTI as they are now known raid the parts bins of other makers for all sorts of stuff on their vehicles.

Spare parts
After a lifetime of messing about with old cars and trucks I've many contacts in the spare parts and remanufacture trade.I can supply some spares for the older fairway taxis (2.7 D).
Please click here For ball joints,swivels,track rod ends etc.