1963 Singer Vogue, another door almost completed

The story thus far, I have stripped this down to a bare shell and started poking around. There are a lot of patches over patches, I have cut a lot of bits out but not without bracing the shell first. According to the site, how many are left, there are only 14 of these surviving which I am not surprised about as they seem to rust for fun. A body repair shop guy I was speaking to said he was welding these when they were five years old. I will attach some more pics to whet your appetite.

The plans for this is to make it strong and functional. I an not trying to make a show car, it will also be done on a budget and I will try to paint it myself.
When I first saw the car I could see many problems, loads of filler in the wheel arches (all of them) and someone had fitted a plate from the sill step to the far side of the chassis leg underneath. I knew there would be horrors under there but this was way worse. The plate was made of stainless steel which doesn’t really weld to mild steel, this was apparent when I lifted a corner and pulled the whole thing off.
I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I hadn’t travelled so far to get it. The first time I drove it I nearly put it in a field as the brakes were virtually none existent. I asked the seller if there was any reason I couldn’t drive it home and he said no it drives fine. So me my wife and son set off 150 miles to get it, it broke down within 10 miles because of a broken fan belt. I managed to get one from a small garage who let me rummage amongst their old stock. We travelled a few more miles before it stated to cut out, this was due to curse word in the fuel tank. Plan B was brought into action, towing it home with non-existent brakes. To cut a long story short we managed to get it home although we were stressed. I will leave it there for now and add some more pictures later today. Norman

OK for the next chapter, I removed the engine as you can see with a frame made from junk I had laying around. I cut the frame up when finished as I had no room for it. The interior dash etc is in poor shape and I will probably make a bespoke dash when I get to that stage. The wiring has also been burning in various places, something else to add to the to do list. The seats I may replace with something else as they aren’t in good condition either. Here are some pics, please feel free to comment. A few of my friends have told me to scrap it and that I am too old to do it. I said if everyone had that attitude there would be no old cars on the road and no classic car shows. Norman

Some real interesting work there, I assume you didn't know how bad it was going to be when you bought it? I have found if you pay good money for a 'roadworthy' old car it still usually needs the same amount of work as the much cheaper projects! Let me know if you either have a spare 1600 engine you want to sell or if you need a good head off the same - I have a super minx here with a knackered block.

Always liked this series of Rootes cars, especially this earlier type with the wrap around rear window. From what I can make out, they are very underated and under appreciated compared to their contemporaries. Looking forward to reading more of your progress on this!

Cool. Brave man. I’m in. 👍👍

When I worked at Crabtree-Vickers, Gateshead, in the late 70's we had a guy in the drawing office drove one...

However there was an older guy, in the 'time office' ( looked after clock-on cards and the time stamp machine) he had a Series 3A (curly pointy rear wings) and the guy in the drawing office nagged him to death to sell.

He got it *eventually when the old guy retired....

IIRC he welded in a *new floor. lol


Keep it up, m8



OVIMOR

My wife just reminded me to tell you that this car is a TV star, it was in an episode of “The Royal” filmed in and around Scarborough. It was in its original colour of two tone green. Norman

Now at the rear of the passenger floor it goes upward to the rear seat area. This is double skinned and has been patched before but it’s rotten. I cut that out and treated the inside with hydrate 80 and zinc primer and made a patch and fitted. You will have noticed I haven’t dressed the welds anywhere yet, I will be saving this for a grinding marathon preferably when it’s raining and none of the neighbours are out in their garden.. I also found the rear spring mounts were rotten. I have cut one out and made a new pair. I will replace one at a time to maintain datum points.