How about a 'period' classics pictures thread
Discussion
Well not quite ALL Mini's fell apart with rust! My 1961 Austin Se7en Deluxe was five years old and my first car in September 1966. I owned it without a garage until 1971 and by then the only rust was a small patch on the drivers door below the bottom hinge. However...my father had connections in Bristol Docks so was able to get the real bright orange "red lead" and this was painted all over the underside as soon as we collected the car and then resprayed Speedwell blue so that it looked factory original. Then, I also used to spray Castrol DWF into every seam one a month and always trickled a few drops of 3 in 1 oil along the rain gutters once a week..and with that lot it was a sound as a bell!
Similarly our 1953 Vauxhall Velox pictured on this forum a few pages back, was also completely free of rust but that had been sprayed underneath with Redex every month and the cills injected with used engine oil every year so again, with care they COULD last but as built they never had any effective rust proofing so fell to bits. The worst case was a family friend who bought a brand new Austin A 40 van in 1951 and after getting it home, he looked under it to find it was completely unpainted bare steel! No wonder cars of the 1950's were afflicted by rust and earned a deserved reputation. It was actually Saab, Volvo and Volkswagen that started to use rust prevention as an advertising feature and modern cars have something to thank them for. By the mid 1970's things had improved here but then came the Japanese "invasion" bringing superb mechanical quality, high specifications and..catastrophic rust! When did you last see a Datsun Cherry 100A then..an original, untouched, unrestored one???
Similarly our 1953 Vauxhall Velox pictured on this forum a few pages back, was also completely free of rust but that had been sprayed underneath with Redex every month and the cills injected with used engine oil every year so again, with care they COULD last but as built they never had any effective rust proofing so fell to bits. The worst case was a family friend who bought a brand new Austin A 40 van in 1951 and after getting it home, he looked under it to find it was completely unpainted bare steel! No wonder cars of the 1950's were afflicted by rust and earned a deserved reputation. It was actually Saab, Volvo and Volkswagen that started to use rust prevention as an advertising feature and modern cars have something to thank them for. By the mid 1970's things had improved here but then came the Japanese "invasion" bringing superb mechanical quality, high specifications and..catastrophic rust! When did you last see a Datsun Cherry 100A then..an original, untouched, unrestored one???
Pat H said:
But then again, cars were simple and were easy to fix, unlike today's electronic horrors.
I've often wondered about this. Do the desirable cars of today become too expensive to maintain because of their complexity, does an industry spring up with the capability of maintaining the electronics or do the preserved cars get simpler over the years with the clever stuff being stripped off?In the last case I can imagine a car of today, originally built with electronic everything, going to shows in forty years time with coil and distributor ignition and wind-up windows.
Why not? At least it has been preserved.
Pat H said:
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.
How true, my dad used to swap cars every 2-3 years as a matter of course, one particular example was his 1978 citroen GS, which he sold in 1981 by which time it has rust bubbling through in a number of placesthe GS replaced a 1976 VW polo which again was in the sort of state you might expect from a 12 year old car today
I learnt to drive in a '73 beetle, which by 1983 had a couple of new wings due to rot, and signs of rust at the bottom of the doors.
Last week I sold a 2002 subaru which had only one blemish on its bodywork (stonechip on bonnet) and was mechanically 100% solid
A right shed: forever breaking down, gear stick came off every time I selected reverse. Car wouldn't run with air filter attached, radiator was out of another car & tied in with electrical cable.
No heater (matrix knacked & bypassed. If I hit a bump passenger glass disappeared into door.
At the end I could see the road wheel going round through a hole by the accelerator. Wore plastic bag over shoe when raining.
No heater (matrix knacked & bypassed. If I hit a bump passenger glass disappeared into door.
At the end I could see the road wheel going round through a hole by the accelerator. Wore plastic bag over shoe when raining.
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
A right shed: forever breaking down, gear stick came off every time I selected reverse. Car wouldn't run with air filter attached, radiator was out of another car & tied in with electrical cable.
No heater (matrix knacked & bypassed. If I hit a bump passenger glass disappeared into door.
At the end I could see the road wheel going round through a hole by the accelerator. Wore plastic bag over shoe when raining.
I learned to drive in one of those - it helped that my dad had one as a company car, so I had two available for instruction.Mind you, they were new at the time. you don't see many about now, they're probably all rusted away.When the first hatchbacks came along, like the Fiesta and the Chevette, these traditional family cars were suddenly obsolescent.No heater (matrix knacked & bypassed. If I hit a bump passenger glass disappeared into door.
At the end I could see the road wheel going round through a hole by the accelerator. Wore plastic bag over shoe when raining.
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 
I've now found the link to the full Phyllis Nicklin collection this shot was taken in 1968 and around 9000 worked on the GEC site at the time.Heres another with plenty classics on view,wonder if thats a gaffers Vanden Plas 3litre?
http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/view/series/Birmingham=2...
Edited by W124Bob on Sunday 6th May 18:04
Drifting O/T a little, on the subject of rust and longevity. I first got into the motor trade in 1983, and we would have second hand cars on the pitch at three to five years old that were not only cosmetically rusty, many would be rotten right through. The things wouldn't start easily if they had been stood for a few days, let alone a week or two, in which case you had no hope without jump leads and a mechanic called out of the workshop. Different marques required different techniques to get started and running, and you soon picked up the 'knack' for individual cars on the pitch. I remember that Fords were the worst of the lot for flat batteries and non starting issues. We had a 1980 'V' reg Granada 2.0GL in white with rust streaked paint on the pitch, it was rotten and a pig to start, when sold it failed it's very first MOT at three years old on so many things.
Look at a ten to fifteen year old cars now, and they will be sound, have loads of life left in them, be perfectly good cars, and no rust.
Look at a ten to fifteen year old cars now, and they will be sound, have loads of life left in them, be perfectly good cars, and no rust.
Lots of "period classics" here. I thought those of you unable to attend this weekend's Donington Historic Festival might like to see some of what you missed. Here's some video taken yesterday (Saturday):
Donington Classic 2012
Donington Classic 2012
Edited by XJ13 on Sunday 6th May 20:41
XJ13 said:
Lots of "period classics" here. I thought those of you unable to attend this weekend's Donington Historic Festival might like to see some of what you missed. Here's some video taken yesterday (Saturday):
Donington Classic 2012
Good video thanks for postingDonington Classic 2012
Edited by XJ13 on Sunday 6th May 20:41
W124Bob 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
I've now found the link to the full Phyllis Nicklin collection this shot was taken in 1968 and around 9000 worked on the GEC site at the time.Heres another with plenty classics on view,wonder if thats a gaffers Vanden Plas 3litre?http://epapers.bham.ac.uk/view/series/Birmingham=2...
Edited by W124Bob on Sunday 6th May 18:04
dartissimus said:
Here's my Grandfather's Rover outside t'mill.
Early 1950's Dewsbury.
It might look gloomy, but it was probably a sunny day
Do you have anymore pictures of the area at time? I would love to have seen Dewsbury, Bradford, Huddersfield etc at the time. I believe they were massively wealthy parts of the country at the time. Things have changed somewhat now...Early 1950's Dewsbury.
It might look gloomy, but it was probably a sunny day
nicanary said:
The radiator shell screams 3-litre Bentley, maybe on a short-chassis special, but the grille is very far forward. And for some reason I keep thinking Marendaz Special.
People with keener eyesight may be able to decipher the registration.
Thanks nicanary for the reply, the radiator shell just seems not quite butch enough for a Bentley! I think the reg number ends in E588, any identification would be greatly appreciated.People with keener eyesight may be able to decipher the registration.
piper said:
nicanary said:
The radiator shell screams 3-litre Bentley, maybe on a short-chassis special, but the grille is very far forward. And for some reason I keep thinking Marendaz Special.
People with keener eyesight may be able to decipher the registration.
Thanks nicanary for the reply, the radiator shell just seems not quite butch enough for a Bentley! I think the reg number ends in E588, any identification would be greatly appreciated.People with keener eyesight may be able to decipher the registration.
My money on a Bentley 3ltr with Corsica body, there's sticking my neck out!
Reckon that's a job for prewarcar.com
In fact the radiator is too far forward for pretty well ever pre-war car. It's certainly not a Marendaz (I know them well, I nearly bought one a couple of years ago) and while there are certain Lagonda elements, the radiator shell and the stylised moulding linking the rad line to the doors and up to where the windscreen should be but... the proportions are all wrong for any Lagonda I know (and being an Aston chap I see quite a lot at shows). The radiator sitting right in line with the front chassis rail ends is just wrong. Oh and the exhaust hardly screams big meaty 4.5 litre engine does it? I reckon it's a bit'sa
Typical Lagonda
Typical Lagonda
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff