I first saw my Model A looking a bit sorry for itself in Matt Nixon's garage when I was working in Fort William (see picture above). A couple of years later I heard that it was up for sale so I took a run up from my home in Hamilton to Matt's new house in Inverness and bought it (the car not the house). By then it was up and running, and could just about be driven on to the trailer so most of the groundwork had been done, but there was still a lot of tidying up to be done, with all the glass either cracked or scratched, the doors not quite fitting correctly with the inner and outer mouldings de-laminating, rear door hardware to be fitted, the bodywork very flimsy in most areas and a lot of other bits and pieces. Knowing Matt's work, at least I knew that he would have done a good job on all the important things like brakes and steering.
But it sat outside my house for two years until I could get shot of the Mark II Escort that I had been restoring, then my wife was offered the chance of a promotion to Inverness by her employers, with them footing the bill for the move as well. So the Model A came back up to the Highlands again!
My personal preference for a rod is shiny, but definitely with independent front suspension, rack and pinion steering, radial tyres and a smooth ride. The A came with Cortina III front suspension and a Volvo 240 rear axle , mounted on Cortina III triangulated four bar suspension. Master cylinder (leaking, but Matt had told me about it) and servo were Fiesta XR2, Fuel tank was Minivan, mounted lengthwise underfloor on the nearside. The Model A came with a pinto engine and 5-speed but that would be replaced with a Rover V8 and autobox instead. I knew that it would also require a lot of time spent on beefing up the flimsy shell with lots of extra layers of GRP and the only way to do all that was to strip it all down and start again!
Inverness rodders David Robertson, Gregor Cooper and Matt Nixon give me a hand to lift off the main bodyshell moulding followed by the one piece floorpan and wings. The mouldings will weigh quite a lot more when they go back on again!