Way, way back in a galaxy far away...well the 60s really & armed with a shiney new driving licence & £40, I bought my first car, a Standard Vanguard PH1a in black with leather interior (note the decals in the back window!).
Then followed a period known as the "doldrums" during which nothing much passed my way to speak of car-wise until in 1978 during what was to be my last year of working at Santa Pod, I stumbled across this unfinished project behind Streatham Ice Rink. A Rays Rods 33 Plymouth coupe with a Daimler Hemi engine, manual box, Triumph ifs & Jag live rear axle. Sadly, reality set in shortly afterwards & it was sold on, still unfinished.
After this, I drifted into the "dark side" again, buying first this....
....which I transformed into this......
.... followed by a 3 door version which I could not (at the time this was originally written) find any specific pics of but appears in the backdground of a few more further on. However, I have now found them & here it is. It was a basic 3 door shell, fitted with a 2.9 V6 4-wheel drive running gear that had been stolen & had all the body kit & interior stripped off. In the boot was part of what looked like some of the running gear transfer case, but in fact was nothing to do with this car, so I lucked in, bought it & rebuilt it.
It was the best-handling car I've ever had & in some ways wish I'd never sold it.
Then came a MK2 Capri, again a damaged repairable which I converted into a MK3.
Next up was a Consul Capri with a 2.0 Pinto (fitted rather badly, so was replaced witha more period rebuilt 1500 crossflow).
After the Capri came the Consul, the first of several feature cars I was to own. This one had a 302 SBF, C4 & Jaguar rear end & was a whole lot of fun.
It's now enjoying a nice retirement in sunny Jersey, here it is at Southampton docks on it's way across the water..It's now nearing the end of an extensive rebuiild & will be back pounding the streets of Jersey very soon! (Just in front of it is my 3 door Sierra Cosworth look-alike mentioned earlier.)
Around the late 80s/early 90s I was an independant insurance assessor & during a visit to a classic car dealership in Parsons Green, I happened across this....what was once the Boston Strangler, famously owned by Jeff Beck who imported it in the late 60s & that I actually worked on some time later when he had a moment in it!!! By the time I came across it, it had been changed somewhat & had a blower added, which, together with a very tight rebuilt SBC, made driving it an "experience" to say the least!
I then lost track of it until I was in Coys of Kensington's storage garages, inspecting another classic & there it was again, looking a bit sad & unloved. After a lot of haggling, I came away the proud owner of a real-life, up & running (after a fashion!) Street Rod!
However, my ownership was short-lived as I was made an offer I couldn't refuse & the Anhauser-Busch brewery bought it & put it in one of their themed restaurants.
Also in the late 80s I became, first the part-owner & keeper, then owner of this 1930 Chevy 2 door sedan, with a 283 SBC, Powerglide, 57 Chevy rear axle & stock-ish chassis & suspension. This went through a few owners after this & ended up being re-painted a ghastly white & red scheme in preparation for being used as a wedding car! It never happened & I believe it's now gone abroad.
Although I really liked this car & regret not having it now(!), it was a nightmare to maintain as most of the chassis fixings needed re-fastening every 6 months & there was more wood filler in the door frames & surrounds than in B & Q!!! The wheels here are Genuine Cragar slot mags, which I later replaced with bolt-on chrome wires.
Then came the Ranch Wagon, the first of my large people carriers I now favour(!), which although large, comfortable & relatively economical with a 6 pot, was terminally rusty!
As I am a life-long fan of Model Ts, when the opportunity to buy one I had seen several times before & admired came along, I wasted no time. This is how it came to me, no screen to speak of, crossplies & pretty basic.
I pretty soon began making my own mark on it, adding radials (for driveability), full height screen (ditto) & full folding top with side screens (ditto again).
That's pretty much up to date, just a few more "improvements" over the winter & it's out & on with the FUN!!!!
As you may know, I do like to drive this car.....
Unless, of course, something else comes along!!!!!
NB. I make no apologies for not actually building any of my cars (apart from the late-model salvage ones that is), but I know my limitations &, being an impatient fella, prefer to buy them ready built & modify them to suit my style & then get out there & drive the wheels off them!!!
UPDATE.
Something else did come along, something I'd been after for 9 years, built right here in the good old UK & not Nick Butler's Vitamin T but does closely resemble that car in it's original guise when Nick first built it. This one was built from an original steel body imported over 17 years ago & transformed into the car you see now by Phil May from Scarborough. Once finished, it saw very little use & only ventured down to Billing once & to Belgium for a Euronats trip one year.
XX Update XX I'm now into a 2 year full mechanical rebuild, hopefully to be finished in 2012 & am aiming to live up to the logo on the number plates that Phil had made when he had a blower fitted, although I'm going stroker motor & carb!!
Well, it'll be something for me to enjoy when I retire (supposedly this year!!).
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Originally Posted by WagonMan
tee
1930 chevy
