MOTOR-BLOG from Coventry

..you’ll be sure to find an old car or two! Or so it seems. I was out of the office on Wednesday (yay!) to visit the Polybush factory in Wrexham. On the way there we shot past an old army base near Whitchurch in Shropshire.

I know this place well as I used to pass it on the way to Rhyl when my grandad had a couple of caravans there (oo, the glamour of my childhood). I spotted an old car in one of the sheds as we sped past, and made a note to stop on the way back - which is exactly what I did.

And this is what I found…

It would have been a pretty nice car once. I think its a Sunbeam Talbot dating from around 1954-55. I love the feeling of discovering an old car - especially one that’s so far gone and so far away I can’t feel sorry for it and bring it home with me!

Yes folks, happy new year. I hope you all had a lovely festive holiday, or Christmas as it used to be known in less politically correct times.

I’ve made a few bold New Years Resolutions which I would like to share with you as I sit here writing this, drinking gin and watching the Darts. Who says blokes can’t multi task?

Okay, so here we go - some resolutions in no particular order:

Finish some of my damn cars this year - especially the 2000 estate and the Austin Cambridge (stop sniggering at the back there - the awful Austin could be finished this year, possibly)

Don’t get anymore damned cars, in fact get rid of some: the Lancia and Suzuki I’m looking at you both, and the Peugeot 106. Yes it’s economical but really - does it suit me? An LPG conversion on the Saab is the way to go.

Especially as it costs me more to isure the little Pug third party as it it does the Saab fully comp with all the trimmings - ’tis weird but true. When I think about how much I spend on car insurance each year it’s really scary - if you think way beyond the naughty side of a grand you’d be about there.  

Buy that Panther Rio and own a pre-war car (Austin Seven?) by the end of the year.

Yes I know I’ve contradicted myself, but such is life.

Get married.

Move house.

The last two are already in motion and that’s how I’ve spent my Christmas break - sorting out the flat and organising weddingy things. It’s amazing how much junk you can collect over five years and we’ve had everything out, and chucked a lot of it away. I believe we’re now into bin bag double figures and there is still more to come.

This has meant that I have found several items previously thought lost - including the front of the Saab’s radio. Oh the joy to have something to listen to on my 3 hour daily commute apart from the crashing of the worn ball joint and the grinding whine of the failing power steering pump.

Now I can drown out both of these noises with a combination of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire for local chat, Brummie and Leicesterion (or whatever they’re called) bashing and of course, most importantly local traffic news. To Catthorpe or not to Catthorpe - that is the daily morning question. Then I switch to radio four for news and chat before switching to radio two for the Wogan show - Janet and john stories, that’s all I need to say. 

The way home is Chris Evans drivetime all the way. The joy of having a radio in the car again - now I can’t hear the Saab’s mechanical woes anymore I don’t have to fix them for a bit. Genius.

Speaking of the Saab, it’s been doing sterling work shifting tonnes of books and other crap from my flat to its temporary storage facility at my long suffering mum and dad’s. So now they not only have to put up with two of my cars, loads of spares and other rubbish, they also have hundreds of books and magazines cluttering up their spare room.

The reason for mving is simple - our flat is great, but the area is not. Now that the local kids have grown from quite sweet yet naughty children into trainee teenage criminals, we’ve grown fed up of the constant hassle, noise, breaking glass and damage to our cars.  

Plus the kids in question seem to discovered a little thing called fire, and we’ve had the fire brigade around yesterday to put out some of their handy work. They set small fires then load them with aerosol cans producing some quite alarming explosions. They also light aerosols and spray fire at the cars parked in our car park, which is nice of them…

The last time one of our neighbours remonstrated with them, five minutes later the back window of her Ford Focus mysteriously shattered by itself. Hmm. Time to leave dodge methinks, I can’t be doing with this hassle.

Our cars have been targeted too - Helen’s Volvo in particular. It’s had its bonnet dented and scratched down to the metal by a projectile fired at it (they were targeting the windscreen but missed). It has many and various dents caused by stones, bottles and footballs, and ditto with scratches too. It also sports a fine collection of footprints over the bonnet and roof where the kids have been climbing on it.

I went out this morning to find footprints all over the spoiler and boot of my Saab too. Admittedly, it’s a tough old bird but call me old fashioned if you like, but I still believe that cars are for driving not for makeshift climbing frames…

Not a climbing frame kids.

Trainer prints give the game away

I also noticed a new dent too, but this was picked up this morning while we were in Sainsburys. It looks as if someone has swung into the parking space next to me and clipped the rear of the Saab on the way in. Very annoying. Mind you, if it hadn’t been for fresh removal of the layer of dirt that perpetually covers this car, I wouldn’t have noticed the damage.  

Another dent to add to the collection...

When will people learn to park properly?

Oh, and one more new years resolution - I promise to blog more regulary this year, although I seem to remember saying something very similar around this time in 2008…

Oh, and we’ve got another new car over Christmas. I won’t say what it is just yet as I haven’t picked it up, but suffice to say it’s not my usual sort of thing at all - it has a current MoT and is in great condition. Cheerio for now!

I started to lose heart a bit to be honest, which is a bad thing especially at the start of a project! However, my dad (in his garage lives this particular car) has been very supportive. He wasn’t much of a fan of my Vitesse and has told me so on many occasions (I love it of course!)  His dislike to my Triumph was for several reasons.

Firstly, to him it is a modern car. He told me that he remembered the Herald being launched in 1959 and he didn’t like it then as he thought its styling to be ‘too modern’ for his tastes.

Secondly, he was less than impressed on the first and only time he drove it - especially as the passenger door kept flying open when he turned corners. (This was fixed with a NOS door catch about three years ago, but I found it to be quite endearing)

But the Austin it appears, is a different proposition altogether - in short, he likes it. This is good, especially as it appears it will be living in his garage for some considerable time yet…

I’ve also managed to get the boot open too. It was completely seized shut, and in the end I had to pry it open. The cause? Well the rubber seal had welded the boot and the rest of the car closed. Decomposing rubber can be a considerable foe. On the plus side, we’ve named the car - which is always a good sign it will be around for a while. We’ve called her Audrey.

A55 Boot - open at last!

Inside the boot I found more spares, including many bulbs and several speedo units. According to a note written on one of them, the original unit had become faulty and been swapped for another one. So the indicated 102,000 odd miles could be more, or less - who knows?

Fab boxed Stanpart bulbs will be finding their way into the Vitesse methinks...

Lots of lovely parts

Mintex fanbelt would be no good after all this time - but it looks great!

BL boxed bulbs would make great eBay fodder, but of course - i'll be keeping them...

Lots of period boxed bulbs

More alarmingly, I also found several old mice nests and bizarrely, a pressure cooker. There was also no inner wing on the nearside, and the offside one appears to be made of canvas - suspicious…

Holy wing, Batman...

Is it meant to be like that?

Pressure cooker in original box has also housed a family of rodents...

So what’s next? Well I’ve already started to make a list of what needs doing, I’ve sourced NOS master ands slave cylinders and managed to blow the electrics. Aren’t old cars fun?

Yep, the new project car is now saved and back at motor-blog HQ. Admittedly it’s a teensy-weensy little bit worse than I thought, but that’s what a project should be - a little bit of challenge.

All I have to do now is buy myself a welder…