Old cars and other things I've messed about with (and sometimes messed up) over the years.
I've had all sorts of cars,bikes and other things over the years but not took many pictures of them.Here are a few I have found.


A Rover 14.

Found in a scrap yard in pretty awfull condition.The interior was rotten and damp and the bodywork shot to pieces.The engine was seized solid,the clutch was shot,the brakes seized and it had no wheels.
Apart from that it was fine.
This is it after I'd painted it and before the headlights went back on.

 

Cars can be rebuilt and restored but people can't.
I used to be that slim looking hippy leaning on the window.This was taken (I think) some time in the 70's that Corsair 2000E was my mates and was pretty new at the time.
The collie dog used to go everywhere with me.

This is the Rover put back together again.I found another picture that gave the registration number.
From the DVLA site I found that this car is still with use,but is now a hot rod.
I almost remember selling it but I also had a similar car,I think that one was known as the doctors or maybe sports,it had a lower roof line.I remember putting it in a shed for storage,after that,I just can't remember.

1958 Mk2 Consul
Look at this smart looking young lad in the buddy holly glasses posing proudly beside his 1958 ford consul.He'd already treated it to a respray in Aquatic Jade and a fancy grill made from alloy strips.The padded spot lamp covers and badge bar are very 60's..Later the tops of a couple of scrap wings provided mounts for another pair of headlights on the top of the bonnet and some fancy stripes went on the side in olde english white to match the roof.
Sadly none of the modifications helped avoid the rust breaking through the 'chassis' sections underneath. Despite manfully struggling for a few weeks to make good the damage laying on his back by the side of the road the lad couldn't repair it to MOT standards and the poor old consul ended up in a Norwich scrap yard.

Vanden Plas 3 litre
After a brief flirtation with a Rover 90 I bought this Vanden Plas 3 litre.The colour was chamagne beige over rust.Lovely inside with white leather seats,wooden dash and real carpets.
My first automatic,I forgot the dealers advice to not use my left foot and at the first set of traffic lights stood the old girl on end pressing down hard on an imaginary clutch pedal which was of course the brakes.The guy behind nearly wrote off his new rover and his shopping joined him in the front.Oh,how he laughed.
One job I used the car for was to pick up a heavy 'Oxford' oil cooled welder.It was placed in the back with a forklift and dropped right through the boot floor.
Not to worry with a big bit of plywood and plenty of underseal,it still served as a run about untill the MOT or more importantly the tax expired.I then bought a Jaguar Mk7 but sadly I have no pictures of it.

For some reason that now escapes me I went through a period of buying old SWB landrovers,rebuilding them and then finding them so uncomfortable to drive that I sold them straight away.Only to forget and buy another to do the same thing all over again.
This is one from the middle of my land rover period.
I bought another for spares,cutting up the left over chassis and burying it in the chicken run.Some years later a guy called round asking if I had any land rover spares for sale.I told him all I had was a cut up chassis buried n the garden.He got all excited offering to buy it.I told him if he wanted to dig it up and leave it tidy he could have it.
He arrived the next day with a pal and a couple of shovels and went away happy as larry.

Jaguar XJS
12 cylinders,250 plus horse power and 5.3 litres.
Yet,one of the worst cars I've ever owned.After finding out that it couldn't leave my Mk1 3 litre capri that far behind and that it rotted as fast as I could keep welding it,a thirst for fuel that could cause global warming all on its own was the last straw.
I remember taking it up to an indicated 150mph one night on a deserted road and after that could no longer think of a good enough reason to keep it.
I think the XJ6 was a better car in lots of ways. (I had four).

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