How about a 'period' classics pictures thread
Discussion
Picture taken in 1976 I think, again showing my Frogeye but also my much loved Alfasud "L" 1186cc 4 speed (PUR 202 R). This was bought SH from the Bedford Alfa dealer.
The Sud was bought because I had, the year before, acquired a straight six 2.6 litre Alfa engine which we (KMB Autosport - Mike Smith) built a chassis for to go Comp Altered drag racing. This had the fibreglass front and rear panels from my Junior Modified drag racing Sprite as a "flip up" bodyshell. This is the other car in the picture.
Ironically I still have my Mk 1 frogeye, the Fibreglass front and rear are on my V8 Sprite - and I have a six cylinder (But 3 litre 24V V6) in an Alfasud Sprint! Some things have changed very little it seems......
Edited by Flying Phil on Friday 4th May 09:28
W124Bob said:
This is from the Phyllis Nicklin collection,if you knew Birmingham in the 50's&60's this I'm sure will bring back memories.Dulverton Road,Whitton is just one of 100's in the collection,she worked at the uni at the time.http://www.pbase.com/beppuu/pnicklin 
What's so noticable about that picture is that every car is British built, Morris Minors and Minis, Ford Cortinas, Anglia, Popular and what looks like a Zephyr. And, Birmingham was obviously manufacturing stuff. How times change and we wonder why there are no jobs and the economy is s
t! RichB said:
W124Bob said:
This is from the Phyllis Nicklin collection,if you knew Birmingham in the 50's&60's this I'm sure will bring back memories.Dulverton Road,Whitton is just one of 100's in the collection,she worked at the uni at the time.http://www.pbase.com/beppuu/pnicklin
What's so noticable about that picture is that every car is British built, Morris Minors and Minis, Ford Cortinas, Anglia, Popular and what looks like a Zephyr. And, Birmingham was obviously manufacturing stuff. How times change and we wonder why there are no jobs and the economy is st! 
RichB said:
The one with the red roof and red front valence, how old is it? 61-62? One can't tell but with outside hinges it's an early Mini so probably 6 or 7 years old in that picture. Next...
Or it may be only a couple of years old.....Next!Edited by RichB on Saturday 5th May 09:24
Oh dear...fierce words on here but maybe I can help with that Mini. The colour tells me that it is a 1962 model year Morris Mini Minor Deluxe (it would have been Speedwell blue before that and it is certainly not that because the early colour was noticeably more blue rather than the grey based '62 colour). The red roof and front valence are not standard so the owner must have been to Halfords and got a few spray cans. I would not say that (or any other) cars in the picture looked rusty but the Mini doors look to have dirt streaks below the door lock and the two door hinges which may well have been showing through at 7/8 years old. If you were looking for rust though, my guess is that the 1955/6 Minor probably had a few bubbles and the regular door split just below the quarter-light.
Turning to the later picture with the bubbly Zodiac, I can definitely confirm that in those days, a 2/3 year old example of the Ford or a Vauxhall Wyvern, Velox or Cresta would be very capable of bubbling through the door bottoms in that time! My father fixed enough of them in period! In fact very many that had the sort of bored neglect meted out to most cars these days were rolling in to the local scrapyard at 5/6 years old or even less.
You youngsters don't realise just how poor most cars were protected from rust at that time...you may smile with feigned interest at a 1959 Vauxhall Victor but the thing has had a very charmed life to be around now!
Turning to the later picture with the bubbly Zodiac, I can definitely confirm that in those days, a 2/3 year old example of the Ford or a Vauxhall Wyvern, Velox or Cresta would be very capable of bubbling through the door bottoms in that time! My father fixed enough of them in period! In fact very many that had the sort of bored neglect meted out to most cars these days were rolling in to the local scrapyard at 5/6 years old or even less.
You youngsters don't realise just how poor most cars were protected from rust at that time...you may smile with feigned interest at a 1959 Vauxhall Victor but the thing has had a very charmed life to be around now!
HQB said:
may well have been showing through at 7/8 years old.
In my experience most Mini's at 7 or 8 years old were absolutely rotten unless they were kept garaged and polished and only driven on sunny days!I have vivid memories of having to put my feet on the rear seat on wet days so they didn't get wet because of the holes in the floor in a four year old (Mk 1) mini when I was growing up.
Hugo a Gogo said:
I suppose, you can see similar aged E-class Mercs nowadays in similar states
I don't think so. Back in the sixties you were lucky if you average car managed 10 years old before heading for the crusher; remember the mkiv zodiacs - aka the Dagenham Dustbin - the front suspension struts could rot through within 4 years.Take a good look at your typical '52 reg car today.
At 60,000 miles in olden days cars were at end of expected life. 
This was a 1960 Zephyr 6 - my second car owned in 1968 - unusually it had a 6 branch exhaust manifold (aka header) rather than the stock scaffold tube - it did sound rather nice! - so this was 8 years old and although a smart car had significant fibre glass repairs to bottoms of front and rear wings and doors.
Yep.
I've owned eight Minis.
If kept outdoors and used every day, a Mini could be rotten in no time at all. Two or three bad winters would make most of them look pretty scabby.
Oversills, fibreglassed floors and plated subframes were the order of the day.
Fantastic cars, but absurdly prone to rot. But so were Fords, Lancias, Alfas, Citroens and just about any other car you might care to mention.
The prospect of 100,000 miles was just a pipe dream. 50,000 miles would see most cars into the Autumn of their life.
But then again, cars were simple and were easy to fix, unlike today's electronic horrors. It was a pretty fair trade off in my view.
I've owned eight Minis.
If kept outdoors and used every day, a Mini could be rotten in no time at all. Two or three bad winters would make most of them look pretty scabby.
Oversills, fibreglassed floors and plated subframes were the order of the day.
Fantastic cars, but absurdly prone to rot. But so were Fords, Lancias, Alfas, Citroens and just about any other car you might care to mention.
The prospect of 100,000 miles was just a pipe dream. 50,000 miles would see most cars into the Autumn of their life.
But then again, cars were simple and were easy to fix, unlike today's electronic horrors. It was a pretty fair trade off in my view.
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