jgtr
Part of things
Posts: 270
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May 22, 2021 21:39:11 GMT
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For me it all started when I came home from primary school to see a black mk1 Astre GTE on the drive. My dad, although a mechanic, wasn’t really a car nut which is why the GTE was such a surprise. Moving forward a few years, after school I did an apprenticeship in a Vauxhall main dealer body shop - que a bit of a love affair with Vauxhalls.
My first ever car was a mk1 4dr Astra, followed by a 1.3 Nova SR - working at a Vauxhall body shop I had access to everything I needed to turn it from a bog standard white SR into an Apache orange (one of the first Corsa colours), GSi kitted boy racer mobile. The interior was fully colour coded, including the speedo which was taken apart, sprayed and then fitted together. Had that Nova for a while, followed by a mk2 Astra CDi (1.8 8v proper quick in the day), mk2 Astra SRi and finally a Cavalier GSi 2000 - dropped on a set of Konig (?) 5 spoke 17s. Quick as f.....150mph....so I’m told.
As I mentioned my dad was a mechanic, he ran a very successful garage which I used to work at (in fact had just retired and sold the business aged 70). This meant I had a workshop so had quite a few cars over the years, usually part exes or mot failures that I rebuilt, highlights include...
Pug 205 Mi16 and Nove 2.0XE (self built) Pulsar GTiR and R33 GTR 2 x mk1 and mk2 Escorts (abandoned projects which ended up being scrapped - would be worth f’n fortunes now!!) Mk1 Renault 19 16v, metallic grey - rear as hen’s teeth now VWT25 Holdsworth camper van, mint condition , bought for £1800, sold 6 months later for £5500, prob worth £15k+ now
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Last Edit: May 22, 2021 21:39:57 GMT by jgtr
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May 23, 2021 15:18:15 GMT
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My dad liked cars but didn’t have enough money to have cool ones so he always drove cast off Dodge products. I’m early 40’s so mid eighties he had a string of Omni’s and their brethren and ended up with a GLHS and then a Lancer Pacifica which I could not believe was SOOO fast. No pictures of that but as the 80’s ended the Dodge police cars started coming out of use so he started buying those at auction. At one point between he and I there were seven at our house. Cheap, decent power, parts availability was high and EVERYONE got out of your way when you were driving. I drove Dodge trucks and whatever $400 beater struck my fancy until a guy who worked in our space offered me his old 3000GT VR4 for $1000. It wasn’t old, this was 98 maybe do 7 years? About that time I had a sign shop and was doing a lot of graphics on race cars and a guy traded me his 83 GTI for a job on his American Iron mustang. That’s where I got into Euros and haven’t really looked back. Have had 44 Rabbits, ten or twelve w126, four w124, three E39 and a bunch of other miscellaneous. Something like 200 cars. Currently a 69 beetle convertible, 88 300ce, 78 power wagon, 89 Dakota Convertible, 04 RX8, 94 E36 Vert, and an 18 F150.
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May 24, 2021 15:31:24 GMT
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I can't say it had a start point for me, it was just the way life pointed me over time. I was born in 1954 and my parents were, like a lot then, dirt poor. My dad had motorbikes so when I turned up he just stuck a sidecar on and carried on. Fast forward five years and my parents had saved a deposit for a house (£900 ) and also my brother arrived. My dad still didn't have money to throw about so took it upon himself to build a new sidecar fit for two kids. This is my earliest memory of motoring DIY and over the next few years my dad continually rebuilt the engines and gearboxes of ropey old British bikes. This did not go unnoticed and I tried to help as best I could although I suspect it was more hinderance. Finally my dad bought a car but as he only had a bike licence it was a Reliant Regal 375. More old shonk . And so began the car years. Finally my dad passed his car test after five attempts and he splashed out on a rotten old Austin A30 van with half a floor. I'm still young at this point but the tone has been set for my future motoring requirements-old tat . The A30 got side windows and rear seats added and took us all over, sometimes in one go. After this finally expired he came home with a 1953 MG YB. Now we're talking! I loved that car, just so, well, old. Walnut and leather, running boards, brilliant. This also went the usual way with terminal corrosion, the body slowly collapsing over the chassis at the rear. Sold for £12 !!!. It was just an old banger then. Next came a moggy traveller and after that the memory gets a bit hazy for a few years. When I got to secondary school I encountered metalwork for the first time and found I was actually quite good at it. We had lathes and did casting and forge work along with bench fitting. By the time I left school I had a good range of new skills and enjoyed using them. I'm now a teenager with an apprenticeship in fabrication and sheet metal work. I've bought my first car, a 1960 moggy saloon with more rot than metal (my dad taught me well ). One day a couple of mates came around and said "do you want to come drag racing?" "what's that?" says I, little knowing where this was going to lead. So off we go to Santa Pod. BAM! That's it, it all came together, the build it yourself attitude, the "different" cars, my rapidly improving skills with welding and fabrication. This led to me deciding that I wanted to be involved and set too to build my own drag car. Of course I was young and green so the end result reflected this but I had a great time over four years. My dad was there helping along the way with caravan towing, cooking and just enjoying the weekends. I'm the idiot with the knotted hanky on his head , my brother is sitting on the Super Minx estate wing (my dad still running older stuff although we did jam an ally headed Rapier engine in it with a Weber and four branch) and partially hidden is my future wife . But that's getting ahead of the story. Before the fateful day I had a 1968 Fiat 1100 flame paint, jack up and banded rear wheels (this is the 70's man), another moggy (van) and a 1959 Austin Cambridge which got a ported head and twin SU's from the Riley version. Then I got married. This is where rot set in with my hobby, she wanted to do something we could both participate in. So I went hovercraft racing. Yes, you read that right, hovercraft racing. She could do that ok. I however was not a happy bunny. Within a year I bought a Cortina Mk2 gt and spent quite a lot of time going to Cosworth (20 miles away) and coming home with bits. This gave 119 bhp on Aldons dyno. Did I mention that it was also very rotten? That was two weeks of solid welding at work. The pattern continues. I swapped this for an Australian Ford Fairlane with 351 power. Now we're cooking. Then I bought a Ford Pop from out in the Fens for £40. Three years later the 351 was a 7500 rpm screamer and stuffed in a Pop!. Oh, and the marriage was toast. So I've just carried on in similar vein, cars and marriages having had sleepers, yanks, old british stuff and hotrods (and three wives). Yes I know that the answer goes a long way past the question but as I said, it's been the way life pointed me. And I wouldn't change it.
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Proton Jumbuck-deceased :-( 2005 Kia Sorento the parts hauling heap V8 Humber Hawk 1948 Standard12 pickup SOLD 1953 Pop build (wifey's BIVA build).
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May 24, 2021 15:36:48 GMT
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If you bought stuff from Nick, you must have been in or very near the the same Manor as me (sunny Lewisham) , ProSt Cortina was probably Steve Bradshaws, Worked at Streatham Crash Repairs, and that site also housed Eddie Wimble for a while and his array of Fad Ts, BTW Nick is fine and well, I was out with him and another SELondon rodder ,Dave Lowe last Thursday, Yeah, Steve Bradshaw was the bloke with the Cortina. Found these pics of Nick's Standard I think. Must have been Chelsea or Ace Cafe around 1999.
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May 24, 2021 16:00:31 GMT
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For me it was finding a copy of this book in the local library, as a child in the early 80s. I didn't really understand what they were all about but i was fascinated by these multi coloured, chrome laden machines. From then on Ford Pops, 55 Chevys and Morris Minors would always be more interesting to me than any of the mega-buck super cars or newest models off the dealer's lot (though I have become more broad minded in recent years). It took me ages to track down my own copy of the book but if if you're interested in old British custom cars then look out for it as it has some great photos - Andromeda, Speed Freak, Small Fry etc. A few years later I discovered CC and SM magazines, then started to go to car shows and the beginning of a life's obsession.
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May 24, 2021 16:47:20 GMT
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I've been into cars since before I can remember but I have two particular memories linked to modified cars. As a kid in the mid 80s I walked past our local Ford garage Bond of Pocklington on my way to school. They had a pale blue mk 2 Escort estate (I think a 1975) which was always kicking around there and one day it appeared in the workshop having bubble arches grafted on and then, when finished, was resprayed in white with red and grey graphics. I seem to think it was used as a promotional vehicle advertising their Mabor General tyres (they are now Bond International so I guess it worked!). It looked something like this I have a half suppressed memory of seeing it abandoned behind their yard or even in a local scrapyard a few years later. Then, in May 1992 (it turns out), I picked up this in a newsagent.
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v8ian
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,758
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May 24, 2021 17:21:52 GMT
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If you bought stuff from Nick, you must have been in or very near the the same Manor as me (sunny Lewisham) , ProSt Cortina was probably Steve Bradshaws, Worked at Streatham Crash Repairs, and that site also housed Eddie Wimble for a while and his array of Fad Ts, BTW Nick is fine and well, I was out with him and another SELondon rodder ,Dave Lowe last Thursday, Yeah, Steve Bradshaw was the bloke with the Cortina. Found these pics of Nick's Standard I think. Must have been Chelsea or Ace Cafe around 1999. Thats not Nicks Standard, I know the the fella who built it, but this is/was Nicks, now sold to another well known SE rodder
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Atmo V8 Power . No slicks , No gas + No bits missing . Doing it in style. Austin A35van, very different------- but still doing it in style, going to be a funmoble
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May 24, 2021 21:37:55 GMT
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If I am being honest, although I really liked cars from about the age of 3, when it came to modified vehicles, it was all Big Raymond's fault. I should point out that Raymond wasn't particularly big - it's just that I knew 2 Raymonds at school, and Little Raymond was very small, so the other one, naturally, became known as "Big" Raymond. We loved The Dukes of Hazzard, The Professionals, Cannonball Run etc and even our wooden box-cart was called The General! When he was first able to drive, Raymond went through cars like nobody's business, and almost always had something different on his drive by doing services and brake jobs for friends of friends. He got his first car in 1989, a little red Mini 850, which was once white (door shuts weren't painted!). This was instantly modified with Weller 8-spoke 10" wheels, a tiny steering wheel, a cut down gear lever, Fiat 132 seats, a Peco back box and a furry dashboard (not too sure about that one to be honest...). I loved that car. It probably didn't help that Raymond drove it like a lunatic but we had SO much fun in it. It was slow being an 850, but it sounded lovely and cornered like it was on rails. Eventually he sold it after giving me first refusal (I hadn't passed my test so had to decline). The guy he sold it to rolled it within 2 weeks of buying it trying to do a J-turn and clipping a kerb. They then cut the roof off and welded up the doors to make a Speedster, which looked kind of cool but in all honesty probably wasn't. Raymond went through many other cars including a VW Caddy pick-up with a 1.8 litre engine on twin Webers (I cannot confirm or deny being in the pick up bed hanging on to the roll bar at 60+ mph at one point), a Rover SD1 with a blowing exhaust and a dodgy choke (went through a fiver's worth of petrol in 5 minutes back in 1990) and a BMW 528i. I had also started reading Street Machine in about 1988, and was constantly loving all the articles about the Rover V8 Championships with Steve Green, Trevor Langfield and our very own flyingphil of this parish featuring as well as the numerous feature cars of all shapes, sizes and various states of bonkers-ness. Raymond found me my first car through a bloke he worked with - a 1979 Mini I called Huey, which had a rear exhaust box made from a reversed front pipe from a flat-four Subaru. This then gained a different speedo from a Cooper, Cooper S Disc brakes, 3 different types of wide wheels and better shocks. Tinworm killed it. I was into my Minis by this time though, and I replaced Huey with Bruce, my 1275GT. This was bought from a mate and had a 1330cc engine with a 286 Kent Cam that was apparently built by a bloke known as "Iffy" It was no surprise it wasn't the most reliable, but it had lowered suspension and Huntmaster Bucket seats that were really comfortable once you were in. It was just difficult to get back out again... Bruce was sold after I blew up the diff - it' remains the only car I wish I had never sold. I've always wanted to have numerous interesting cars but never been in the position to afford them - even my Midas was VERY cheap! But I still have a like for almost anything interesting or unusual. Huey in 1994 (you can just about see the unusual exhaust) And Bruce the GT.
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May 25, 2021 18:26:45 GMT
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My first car was an alfa 33 quadrofoglio in '99. Lowered and fat 15" wheels were soon added. all the money went to the car(in the tank..)at that time. Crashed it and put the engine in another 33 base model. That was the start of my hobby. Putting bigger engines in cars, mostly alfa's.
I've put the 3.0v6 in a 75, an alfetta and a giulietta. Loved it.
I found a mate with a similar preference and we started a long range of engine conversions and sleeper and drift cars. It has been 20 years and still doing it and loving it.
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I always had something for cars and the way they work, having got books about engines and so on from the kids section of the library when I was small. My parents liked cars, but it was never really a 'thing' for them. When my dad was younger, he had slightly modded MK1 Cortina's and helped a friend of his as a privateer rally entry, but by the time I came along this was all way in the past and most things that graced the driveway were just 'metal boxes' - certainly once they had chopped the 1976 Mitsi Galant in for an '85 Montego 1.6L anyway. Some spark returned a couple of years later when the constant issues drove them to change it for an '83 Sierra 2.3 Ghia, but that was it.
By that point, despite still liking cars, all I wanted was a motorbike. I spent all my early teens planning to get one once I turned 16, but I failed. The main driver behind this was my parents, but not for the reasons you might think. My old man was a biker, and always had been. They had no worries about me getting one. Their concerns were about me heading out on the open roads at only 30mph on a moped. They suggested waiting til I was 17 and getting something 'a bit faster' - so I waited....and waited and waited. I never had the money for the Aprilia RS125 that I really wanted, so it just never happened. Shortly after my 17th birthday, my sister decided to change her car and donate her old one to me, so I became the 'proud' owner of a 1983 Talbot Samba LS - 954cc of metallic brown happiness. It was, quite frankly, a deathtrap to a 17 year old. After a short 'motorway lesson' with my dad, and finding that it used more oil and water than it did petrol when sitting at anything over 60mph, a plan was hatched and I became the owner of a NCB-building Rover 213SE. I was GOD! I had central locking!
One trip to the Custom and Classic Car Show held at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern (as part of another hobby of mine - RC car racing), landed me with something that everyone needed back in the late 90's - a full width Quiksilver sticker for my back window. That was the turning point. The Rover was never much more than a hack to build my NCB, but over the preceding 3 years it travelled over 70k miles, had various audio changes and rust repairs, and gained many more stickers! Once i'd decided enough was enough, I flicked through so many Auto Trader pages, tried a few different cars, and ended up with my first MK2 Golf GTI. That dropped me well and truly into the modified car scene - and it's stuck since then!
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,104
Club RR Member Number: 64
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May 27, 2021 13:17:51 GMT
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My dad was a big influence on me, not so much that he was into modifying stuff, but because he could fix pretty much anything mechanical. This meant I grew up surrounded by his projects, and immersed in an ethos of repair and recycle. Probably the first modified vehicle to appear on my radar was my dad’s mate Mick’s Land-Rover. A mid-sixties Series 2A with a 3.5 V8. Totally stock looking, the modifications only coming to light when it rumbled into life... or left you for dead at the lights. 🤣🤣 Maybe because of that, or maybe because my teenage contemporaries with visibly modified cars were always getting unwelcome (but not necessarily unwarranted) attention from the constabulary, my focus has always been on subtle, hidden modification. Q-cars, sleepers, call them what you will. The first car I had on the road was a very tidy 1973 1300 Beetle. I never had any of the grief that my mates had getting constantly stopped in their primer daubed Escorts, Chevettes etc, with their loud exhausts and bits hanging off, despite driving exactly like all other teenagers and having my fair share of scrapes. It was completely and utterly stock when I got it, but a couple of years of thrashing the living daylights out of it saw a melted piston and cracked heads, so a rebuild with a 1600 top end and then a swap to a 1500 gearbox gave me a little car that would put just over the 100 on the clock yet seemed invisible to the authorities. 😃
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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May 27, 2021 21:35:13 GMT
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I had spectated at Santa Pod since 1967 when I had gone on my scooter (Vespa 125cc) with two friends into the unknown depths of Northamptonshire having seen an advert in the “Leicester Mercury” for “Drag Racing”. This interest had arisen from the Beach Boys as I had bought their “Little Deuce Coupe” LP. I couldn’t understand the lyrics and had bought 3 American “Hot Rod” magazines to provide a glossary of terminology…...they had articles on dragsters and drag racing. My Vespa soon acquired a Flame paint job and custom exhaust pipes. I then spectated in the Summer months whilst at University in the Winter (– It was a 4 year “Thin Sandwich” course). I was hooked on drag racing and decided to race my Sprite when I had graduated. My first drag race with my road Sprite WCR 699 was in Aug 1973 and my racing number was GM 11, I decided to name my car “Muscle Sprout”. It had/has a 1098cc engine and twin 1 1/2” SU carbs with a 731 cam. Removal of the windscreen and spare wheel was the extent of race preparation. I did already have a roll over bar behind the seats and a diagonal brace to the front floor, in the centre. This had been fabricated by a friend when I worked in the BUSMCo Charnwood sheet metal shop in 1971. The times were in the high teens 0-70 mph and I soon realised that driving to the strip, racing and driving home was not always going to happen if I broke the car. I attended about 4 meetings in 1973. A further factor were the preparations for getting married (Dec 1973) and setting up our own home in Leicester. Despite this, when my friend Howard Biddle’s old frogeye (VNR 448) was crashed by its new owner, I bought it (Oct 1973) for spare parts and took it to my parent’s house in Newton Linford. I stripped it down, sold the whole rear upper bodywork and various other parts. Then I straightened the bent front offside chassis with a “porta-power” hired hydraulic ram, welded in some steel box section, swapped my rusted scuttle section from WCR into VNR and built aluminium door pillars. Fibre glass rear and light weight bonnet sections were purchased new (from DJ Sportscars – who became Dax) and fitted. This took place in the back garden of our new house in Whetstone. Another 1098 engine went in and JM26 was ready to race. The first meeting (April 1974? ) was all very rushed with a borrowed trailer and my father’s Rover 2000 as tow car A change of career at the BUSM from the engineering (Works) to the commercial division, meant that we were to move house to Irchester (Northants 4 miles from Santa Pod!) before 1974 was out. I soon discovered KMB Autosport in Finedon and its owner, Mike Smith. He rapidly became very familiar with me and my requirements for BMC Special Tuning parts! Over the winter 1974/75 a new “A” Series engine was built for the Sprout. It had a full race 970cc engine. This used Powermax Pistons + 040 and aluminium “Buttons” on the gudgeon pins with Cooper “S” rods, 648 Cam with Duplex drive chain. The crank was reground and tuftrided, The centre main bearing was strapped. The block was drilled and tapped for 11 studs with valve pockets ground out so that a ported 1275 head could be fitted. The inlet system was a Weber 45DCOE carb with long inlet manifold and short ram pipes. A tubular Long Centre Branch exhaust manifold with a 1 3/4” tail pipe took the gasses away. Stripped out and with fibreglass front and rear panels, it weighed 1170 lbs and achieved a best time and speed of 15.1 seconds 0 - 90 mph. Racing at Santa Pod, Snetterton and Blackbushe, it was the RAC Junior Modified Champion in 1975. I then continued to race in the Competion Altered class and the Rover V8 class
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,815
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May 29, 2021 12:08:54 GMT
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My first forays into modifying were around 1960, building this type of vehicle
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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