My one greatest regret is that I sold this.... (on the right)
I bought this car as a stock Victor 1600 base model which was a one owner car from new. They old boy had died and a local guy had bought it to pass it on really. So I got it off him.
I got it MOTd and running good and razzed it about while I went slightly insane buying new panels and parts for it to do a nut & bolt body job on it.
In the end I bought the following all N.O.S. Vauxhall stuff too...
pair front wings
pair inner wings
one door (front passenger I think)
2 door skins (both rears I think)
2 rear wings
1 front pannel
1 bonnet
2 bumpers
1 grill
door handles (int and ext)
mirror
and
2 pattern sills
2 used front chassis rails cut out of a mint donor.
The car was pretty good to start with but anything even showing a little rust got replaced.
As I say, I went a bit mad.
See, how often do you see original Vauxhall floors from the 1960s as good as these....
This was the old front panel.
I have lost almost all the WIP photos which is a shame because theres loads of photos (somewhere) of me striping and painting all the bits for the suspension and axles and all that.
but she got a nut & bolt strip and rebuild on a jig, bare metal 2 pack and bake respray....
The actually pannel and paint was done by a guy who restores Aston Martins for a living. Yeah, it cost me....
There was a slightly odd moment where Practical Classics wanted a (stock) FD for a feature and I tried to get iot back on the road quickly using a slant 4 lump, but that ended in nowhere... But you can see how the slant 4 leaves a bit of space which its only natural to want to fill...
So then it was full steam ahead with a V8 conversion using a Chevy 350. I got a guy called George who runs a '37 blown alky coupe and has an engineering firm to do most of the fancy fabrication work, too much to list (and too much to pay for) but it was awesome quality work.
Trial fit first...
and remake the trans tunnel for the Chevy box....
Fabricate the custom headers
I struggle to remember the full spec but it had a Comp Cams NX284 cam, Rhodes lifters, Crane pushrods, Holley 650, Edelbrock filter, 1 3/4" primary stainless headers with 3" collectors, dual exhauts with side exits. It was a high compression (10:1 or there abouts IIRC) with no EGR, PCV or any of that stuff. It sounded like world war three breaking out when you started it up. Looked stealth but sounded like hell.
Trans was a TH350 B&M equipped. Rear end was a Ventora axle with either a 4.1 or 3.9 diff (I forget now) and cds square tube arms making a sort of 5 link similar to the stock one and using poly bushes.
Brakes were Ventora discs and I used the beefier Ventora stub axles, ball joints and all that. Cooling was a Sierra Cosworth rad and a pair of Kenlowe fans.
It took several years and thousands of pounds to do it. It needed a few teething issues sorting out really when I got it on the road. I never did these and sold the car in a fit of a mard one day (I did need the cash TBH, but selling this was the dumbest way of getting it)
As it was an auto, if you took the hand brake off with it in Drive it would wheel spin the rear wheels without you even having your foot on the accelerator! Total animal!
It was a real sleeper to look at, I had Venotra steelies on it and when they did the BlackPrince that ran 175/70x13s so I thought I'd be OK with 185s on the front and 205s on the back. I think I had to step down to 195s, but I forget now. It certainly went like hell and drove pretty well at that.
When I got it on the road I ceremonially destroyed a set of rear tyres in a morning....
And hardly a day or certainly not a week goes by without me thinking of this old beasty.
Meh.
I bought this car as a stock Victor 1600 base model which was a one owner car from new. They old boy had died and a local guy had bought it to pass it on really. So I got it off him.
I got it MOTd and running good and razzed it about while I went slightly insane buying new panels and parts for it to do a nut & bolt body job on it.
In the end I bought the following all N.O.S. Vauxhall stuff too...
pair front wings
pair inner wings
one door (front passenger I think)
2 door skins (both rears I think)
2 rear wings
1 front pannel
1 bonnet
2 bumpers
1 grill
door handles (int and ext)
mirror
and
2 pattern sills
2 used front chassis rails cut out of a mint donor.
The car was pretty good to start with but anything even showing a little rust got replaced.
As I say, I went a bit mad.
See, how often do you see original Vauxhall floors from the 1960s as good as these....
This was the old front panel.
I have lost almost all the WIP photos which is a shame because theres loads of photos (somewhere) of me striping and painting all the bits for the suspension and axles and all that.
but she got a nut & bolt strip and rebuild on a jig, bare metal 2 pack and bake respray....
The actually pannel and paint was done by a guy who restores Aston Martins for a living. Yeah, it cost me....
There was a slightly odd moment where Practical Classics wanted a (stock) FD for a feature and I tried to get iot back on the road quickly using a slant 4 lump, but that ended in nowhere... But you can see how the slant 4 leaves a bit of space which its only natural to want to fill...
So then it was full steam ahead with a V8 conversion using a Chevy 350. I got a guy called George who runs a '37 blown alky coupe and has an engineering firm to do most of the fancy fabrication work, too much to list (and too much to pay for) but it was awesome quality work.
Trial fit first...
and remake the trans tunnel for the Chevy box....
Fabricate the custom headers
I struggle to remember the full spec but it had a Comp Cams NX284 cam, Rhodes lifters, Crane pushrods, Holley 650, Edelbrock filter, 1 3/4" primary stainless headers with 3" collectors, dual exhauts with side exits. It was a high compression (10:1 or there abouts IIRC) with no EGR, PCV or any of that stuff. It sounded like world war three breaking out when you started it up. Looked stealth but sounded like hell.
Trans was a TH350 B&M equipped. Rear end was a Ventora axle with either a 4.1 or 3.9 diff (I forget now) and cds square tube arms making a sort of 5 link similar to the stock one and using poly bushes.
Brakes were Ventora discs and I used the beefier Ventora stub axles, ball joints and all that. Cooling was a Sierra Cosworth rad and a pair of Kenlowe fans.
It took several years and thousands of pounds to do it. It needed a few teething issues sorting out really when I got it on the road. I never did these and sold the car in a fit of a mard one day (I did need the cash TBH, but selling this was the dumbest way of getting it)
As it was an auto, if you took the hand brake off with it in Drive it would wheel spin the rear wheels without you even having your foot on the accelerator! Total animal!
It was a real sleeper to look at, I had Venotra steelies on it and when they did the BlackPrince that ran 175/70x13s so I thought I'd be OK with 185s on the front and 205s on the back. I think I had to step down to 195s, but I forget now. It certainly went like hell and drove pretty well at that.
When I got it on the road I ceremonially destroyed a set of rear tyres in a morning....
And hardly a day or certainly not a week goes by without me thinking of this old beasty.
Meh.
Awesome.