Morris Minor Gown Van Oddity

Here's something you don't see every day, or indeed, in my case, ever at all.  Its a Gown Van based on a Morris Minor LCV.  In this case it appears to be the rare and short lived Austin version as well for extra weird points.

As the name suggests, a gown van was used to deliver fancy ladies dresses back in the day when long gowns were de rigueur for polite society events.

This odd little van has curious proportions and hopefully will be restored by an enthusiast of odd light commercials.  Its certainly started cheap enough on its eBay listing but who knows what the reserve may be?

If the van's a rockin' don't come a knockin'

There is rarely a car on eBay which makes me audibly go "wow" or laugh out loud.  This Marina van did both.  What we have here is a proper old school custom mini van Brit style.

When I were a lad, and all of this were just trees, the local disco lethario would drive a van like this.  Its all there, the draylon, the porthole windows (in the shape of a heart for crying out loud, its perfect) and the curiously inappropriate performance hard-tuned engine.

It all appears in good cosmetic order, the seller claims long term storage and knowing what 1970s British Leyland products are like for rot if exposed to the elements I can only assume this to be the cause of its survival.

The white paint is curiously restrained.  I would imagine when built the van should have been treated to a full custom stripe, candy, flake, eerie des, vreeble and fogged paint job.  Maybe it was built late in the van fad or maybe it was never finished?

Whatever the story this van is a wonderful survivor of an era when enthusiasm was more important than taste.  I miss those days.  I think I might sneak a bid.  It's here for another 2 days...  

Whoever buys it has a wonderful oportunity to either preserve it as it is or perhaps finish what waa started with some nice paint (not matt black puuuuh-lease) and a little detailing.

Retro Throwback Morris Minor hot rod truck

If you've been reading this blog you'll know I am a bit of an enthusiast of the 70s/80s customs and rods.  I especially like it when old cars turn up again. So I was happy to spot the Morris Minor LCV on eBay

This is truly redolent on an era.  That looks like Triumph brown to me, as seen on many T2000s and Dolomites when I was a lad.  The flip front, Daimler Hemi and bias ply tyres are all period delights. Appliance Wire Mags are definitely the winning wheel on a car like this.

Those wheel arches could only have been formed in a time when taking hallucinogenics in the garage was an acceptable pass time.

Needing work to recommission its currently bid to a little over a grand.  No IVA worries here on an old build like this.

Auction is HERE and was still active at time of writing.

Paint yer wagon

Short on words in this update, but just to let the world know I'm repainting the Fleetwood Brougham.  This was one of those things where it had a few stone chips and other little marks on the paint but by the time I'd gotten down to rubbing each one out I had work on every panel so I thought I might as well paint the whole thing.

So I've spent two days rubbing down, filling, stoppering, puttying and yet more rubbing.  Its getting there now, I guess I'm about half done.  The car has one repaint on the factory paint and I'm rubbing most of that right out as it has some bad "orange peel" effect in the finish.

The photo above should show the orange peel in all its gory glory.  Getting back down to perfectly smooth is the big deal here so that when the new paint goes on it will look sharp and shiny.  The new colour is going to be a slightly lighter shade of blue in a slightly pearlescent finish.  This will be topped off with a clear lacquer rather than the paint on there now which is a single stage paint.

The Boston Strangler - Fad T Rod from back in the day

Here's some proper British hot rodding history and like a lot of the really famous early cars this one has a proper American connection as well.  Some of you will know this car already, and for those who don't I'll just copy the information which is provided on the eBay auction for this historic rod.

Originally built in the 1960's by Rick Heinrick of Boston Massachusetts hence the cars sinister moniker.

The metal flake green body,

327 Chevy four speed

62 Chevy live axle

Whilst on Tour in the USA bought by Rock Star Jeff Beck who in 1969 imported it back to the UK.

Soon after this the “T “had an accident and Jeff Beck re-built it adding a full height screen, black top and purple flake paint.

The “T” then was sold to the late John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. It made a brief appearance in the Led Zeppelinn movie “The Song Remains the Same” along with the Brizio C Cab.

In 1980 “The Strangler” was sold to Terry Richards (Birmingham) who totally re-built it adding the 471 blower auto gearbox and orange paint.

October 1981 The “T” was featured in Custom Car Magazine.

Terry sold the “T” to John Cullen who had more work done by Nick Butler hence the addition of the Butler-style fenders.

A few years on the “T” was bought by Alan Bradley who in 1987 put the car into a pop memorabilia auction at Christie's. The “T” was bought from the auction by Mercedes Specialist John Lewis who often parked the “T” in his Parsons Green Showroom.

After his death the “T” was owned by (T enthusiast) Maurice Takoor insurance assessor. He showed the “T” at the 1st NSRA Super-nationalss at Knebworth in 1991, and again at the NASC Nats in Essex.

Maurice was soon approached by a rep from US Brewery Anheuser Busch who were looking to open a new chain of US style restaurants in the UK called “TJ's” and wanted a radical looking T as a centrepiece for their Farnham Branch.

For Health and Safety reasons the fuel tank, battery and some wiring were removed. Also removed was the windscreen never to be seen again.

The Restaurant chain was not a success leading to closure.  The “T” was not heard of again for many years................

Today the “T” is owned by Robert Cumming of Bournemouth Dorset who bought it from the brewery. Robert has had the following works done by Gordon Evans who has bought the “T” back to life.

• Rebuilt Holly Carb
• New:-
• HT leads
• Mallory distributor
• Alternator
• Fuel cell
• Brake master cylinder
• Brakes
• Re- wired
• Battery
• Windscreen
• Gaskets
• Plugs
• Oil
• Etc..........

The car drives and engine runs strong..........

THE CAR HAS DONE NO MILES SINCE 1980 FULL REBUILD

Its on eBay for £7000 start and no bids yet.  Its a fantastic piece of rodding history being such a well known car with rock star heritage to boot.  

Another Corvette with vintage FIA papers

Also not for the small of wallet is this delightful C2 Corvette in a superb gold livery with big block power and FIA papers ready to race.  Its been on eBay as a classified ad at £135,000.

You get a fair package for your semi-detatched-house-in-the-Midlands money.  Its a 396 big block which has just has a fresh rebuild at a cost of some £10K, which is naturally backed with a Muncie 4 speed manual box.  The rear end s a 3.55 posi and it has factory dual pin discs all round.

Those lovely looking wheels are wrapped in proper Dunlop 700L rubber.  They certainly look the part.  The spec also includes chassis sand-blasted , seam welded, gusseted with period trick modifications .SW gauges. Fully working lighting with separated wiring looms for endurance races . Tinted quick lift Perspex door glass in lightened doors. Period-correct interior with side-bolstered 1965 seats and 1967 headrests Foam filled big tank inside car as factory original. Lightweight 1963 grille. Le Mans style Perspex headlight covers. Banana-bunch headers with side-exhausts and adjustable mufflers.

The interior looks very plush for a racer, the racey red is certainly attractive and you have to love the use of a Cadillac tail light as a shift light (I'm assuming thats what its for)

All in all a delightful package and one I would happily find a home for if I didn't have to sell my home to pay to buy it.

What is it with 400E hot rods?

You know when you think you may have fallen asleep and woken up and the last 20 years were all a weird dream, kind of like Bobby Ewing in Dallas?  Some days I look at eBay and its the 80s all over.  I do not say that this is a bad thing at all.  Witness the number of Ford Thames 400E based hot rods which have been popping up

This is the third in as many weeks.  This one features a nice selection of period mods such as a roof chop, nose & deck (or whatever the van equivalent is) and pearly paint.

Whatever else, its certainly prostreet with the de rigeur Micky Thomposons out back on a narrowed Ford 9" axle.  Power comes from a mild 318 small block Mopar which according to the accompanying photos has been painted pink.  One has to wonder if that was intentional, but then this van has survived the 90s...

The interior is functional, but fully spec'd with gauges and so forth.  Over all from the photos the van looks in nice shape and generally ready to cruise or show.

You can check the details out in the eBay listing here.

Austin Devon hot rods "before" and "after" builds

I'm a fan of Austin Devon hot rods.  Well, I'm a fan of pretty much any traditional British tin which is transformed into a hot rod.  But the Devon is a favourite of mine.  I was interested to see two very different but similar examples pop up on eBay pretty much simultaneously.

The first car is a done deal.  Its shiny and its magazine featured and its ready to roll.  Underneath that pedestrian post war sheet metal and the raspberry custom paint you get a mix of traditional English rodding and American.  The running gear is Vauxhall Magnum IFS and Capri rear axle but the motor is a warmed up 355 Chevy small block.

I think from the ad on ebay that its a fairly recent build although those "Pro Modular" wheels and such give a strong 90s feel to the build.  I always liked those rims but right now I'd be rolling this one on slot mags.

I think I'd be tempted to radius those rear arches as well, but colour matching the paint job would be a nightmare.

For £14,999 asking price you are getting a nicely finished leather & shiny paint V8 hot rod, or should I say "street rod".  There are those of us on more modest budgets.

Thats where Austin Devon #2 comes in.

Built as a rod in the 1980s the seller claims, and certainly the evidence in the photos suggests this could well be the case, we have a Devon as a project.  And one needing some effort to complete.  But there are two things to factor in here and the first is the price.  Its on eBay for £750 or best offer which leaves you £14,249 to finish it if you are on the £15K budget as above...

There is another very interesting point at issue though which is that if this car really was rodded in the 1980s then so long as you keep to the YSR IFS, Jaguar IRS and the box chassis then you are legal under the BIVA/IVA or SVA regulations to run this rod without additional inspection, regulation compliance and the Q plate registration...

You even get a V8 with it for your £750 or nearest.  I can't help thinking this is a no-brainer buy.  The body wants some tidying, the mechanical stuff wants refreshing, those wire wheels need some chrome and it will need trimming out but its not rocket science to do.  You'll have a neat traditional Brit Rod which is fully legal.

My  take would be a nice deep gloss black with flake-tipped flames, retain the cruiser wires, trim it out in red tuck n roll vinyl and you are there.

It would make a great father's day gift.  Hint hint.

Ford Thames 400E hot rod van project

It seems I'm getting all of my inspiration on eBay these days but don't let that put you off.  This is still a blog full or ramblings and nonsense.  I was struck by the fact that mere days after that Thames pickup with the mid mounted V8 was here on this very blog than there is a Thames panel van on eBay

This one needs a bit more work.  I remember a yellow one of these back in the day, tall stance and a roof chop. V6 or V8 power and probably big & little Cragars.  No idea if that one is still about in someone's  workshop gathering dust or maybe even out at the shows and such.  If you know the van, let me know...

These are rare vans now so worth seeing the project through to completion and for sure much better to see this get done than yet another VW.

If you feel the urge, its on eBay at £650 no bids right now.

1947 Commer Hot Rod truck. Old but new.

It often surprises me how few British truck based rods we see over here.  With the enthusiasm for shipping Chevy, Ford and GMC trucks as well as the occasional Dodge, Studebaker and International from the USA you would think that the domestic alternatives already on these here shores would also be in high demand.  And you'd be wrong. I can think of a couple of Commers built over the years and a Ford Thames and thats about it.  These HGV cabs though offer similar proportions to the US alternatives and were once common over here.

I really like this '47 Commer truck cab rod.  The American rad scene is starting to have a fair few truck cab based rods and "rig rods" are another fad we are seeing across the pond.  This beast is a delightfully British thing which manages to straddle both these new trends as well as harking back to the days of British rodding ingenuity.

Its also very British in the choice of running gear, that's a Rover V8 motor in there and a Sherpa back axle.  Its nicely finished, I'm not normally a fan of matt black but this one is that exception that proves the rule. 

Its currently on eBay if you find yourself tempted...

Another vintage Brit tin rod survivor surfaces

I remember this one.  Its a 1936 Austin York "6 light saloon" and it really epitomises what the early British resto rod scene was all about.  Its running a 4.2 straight 6 out of a Mk10 Jag backed with a 4 speed manual.  Rear end is a Jag IRS and should be fully chromed and polished, front end we have a Nick Butler chrome tub with Transit spindles.

The Austin in happier days

These 70s built cars usually were in a 2 tone, with the wings (never called fenders back then) painted black and the body in a typical stock colour like maroon, navy blue or park-bench green.  Stance was level and usually low, wheels were often chrome basket wires, star wires or similar or as in this case the ubiquitous slot mag.  There were the days when Truespoke had a full page ad in every issue of Custom Car.

Magazine seen - spec sheet is useful

These were simpler, more creative days.  Back then you built what you could find cheap and local.  You built it with stuff you could find easily in the local bone yards.  This was before everyone seemed to get obsessed with building their rides to be exactly the same as the rods being built in the USA.

As today. Just needs paint...

I'm pleased to say and see that British tin and 70s/80s built heritage of our scene are both being seen with fresh interest in the last couple of years (and there are a few stalwarts who never gave up the faith).  Its sad to see this one given the faux-rat matt blacking and I hope who ever buys it from its eBay ad will return it to its former glory.

1960 Corvette C2 FIA approved historic race car

Its got a Le Mans, Spa, Silverstone, Dijon & Brands Hatch racing history as a pedigree, its got its FIA papers so its ready to race.  What more could you ask for?  Well, its cute as a button too...

Personally I could also be asking for the scratch to pay for it.  Ninety five thousand of your English pounds sterling in fact.  Its stout cash.  But these fully papered race cars are never cheap.  This is no po-boy hobby.

And for that reason alone am I watching from the sidelines, but its a dream, a beautiful dream and this is a beautiful way to dream that dream...

If, unlike me, you have the money you can pick this one up on eBay as we speak.

Old school Brit-rodded V8 Ford Thames Pickup

Stuff just keeps on creeping out of the woodwork doesn't it?  If you wondered what happened to all those feature cars from Street Machine, Rod & Custom UK, Custom Car etc. from the 70s and early 80s it seems that a fair number of them are out there awaiting their moment in the spotlight again.  It seems only a few months back that the famous "Belch Beers" truck was on eBay as a donor vehicle and I see from this month's Custom Car mag that she's out and about in the show circuit again now.

What we have here is another old feature truck built in the very-British style of the time where the V8 engine was installed through the bed as a mid-engine arrangement and the back end would be a chromed and polished Jag IRS.  This one was a feature ride back in about 1983 in Street Machine according to the collective memories of those I asked and threads on Rods N Sods...

The V8 motor was a Daimler Hemi when this was magazine featured, a popular choice for a while but a tricky motor to rebuild and modify now.  From the eBay listing it appears they used the much rarer 4.5 Hemi from the Magestic Major. Unfortunately and perhaps understandably this has been replaced by the far more common Rover V8.

I love the murals and hope that these get retained or replicated in some way by whoever buys it.  Or if not then some paint job suited to its build era rather than the ubiquitous rattle can satin black which too many old show rods seem to have acquired.

At time of writing its on eBay with £1000 starting bid not made yet.

804 rear wheel horse power "rat look" 2010 Camaro

OK, this is one of those "marmite" cars.  You either love it or you hate it.  I Must admit that despite despising most of this fake patina rat look nonsense going around at the moment this beast is hard to argue with when its packing 804 BHP - at the rear wheels...  OK the looks are subjective at best.  In fact I like to think theres an element of tongue in cheek going on here.

 

Its difficult to tell where the tongue is or even should be on this car though.  Its obviously an anathema to the ol' skool rodz mentality of build what you got and build it cheap and nasty and kool.  This is a car with a reputed $150,000 "invested" in it.  And its a showroom new model.  But hasn't the whole "rat" thing got a bit out of hand and needs someone to bring that into clear focus?  Like Rick Dobbertin with his Pontiac J2000 back in '86 marking the moment we realised Pro Street for show had gotten just a bit silly.  So will Bill Rombauts' name go down in hot rodding history (or infamy if you prefer) in the same way?  His 2010 Camaro "rat rod" has certainly started getting him the coverage...

Under the hood runs the 485 cube V8 with its Kenne Bell supercharger, built by Dave Sherer and Anthony Mussulli at DNA Restorations and tuned and dyno'd at Vette Doctors this beast makes over 1000 BHP at the crank and manages to get 804 of those ponies to the ground.  Its drivable and tractible too, having completed the Hot Rod Power Tour.

 

The idea is apparently to simulate 30 years of neglect.  Its an interesting idea and one which is causing not a little comment.  My take has to be that its his car, its his money and he's not ballsed up something rare.  Good luck to him.

You can see a video of the dyno run at Vette Doctors above.