Table of contents for December 2020 in Practical Classics

New project for a new year. Let’s hope 2021 gives us back our shows and our mojo as well. I suppose we are lucky with our passion because self isolation is actually part of it, whether restoring or driving (on your own that is). But I am really feeling it now. A couple of high points. I’ve done loads of work on my projects, the Bicester Gathering was great, as was the Leyland Show at Gaydon, but the postponement of Beaulieu, Goodwood and now the NEC have left huge holes. Shows are the front window of our hobby and, for many, the lifeblood of what we do. It’s where we meet, get inspired, make friends, socialise and show the world what we have. So let’s look forward to next year…

BDX Bulldog £12.99 lubricantsuppliers.com Promising to ‘work where others fail’, this new spray lubricant and penetrant has really impressed us in the PC workshop. Boasting a finely tuned blend of the latest anti-friction/ anti-wear additives with ceramic-reinforced PTFE, it’s great for squeaks as well as being able to release the most stubborn of fixings. BDX Bulldog rapidly combats moisture and corrosion and promises to lay down a protective molecular layer to keep corrosion at bay. A top product that really works. Matt says ‘I’ve been using this while stripping down my Austin Seven (see p94) and can confirm that it’s superb. Not a single fixing has defeated it so far!’…

Classic car enthusiasts are being given the chance to have their vehicles worked on by engineers at the National Motor Museum’s very own maintenance facilities. Owners of vintage cars all the way up to pre-Seventies classics are to be offered servicing and repairs by the museum team, which can draw on decades of experience in restoring and maintaining its collection of 280 vehicles. Beaulieu’s expert workshop engineers have, in fact, been keeping the collection in shape for more than half a century. National Motor Museum Manager and Chief Engineer, Doug Hill, says that he’s glad to be officially offering the service: ‘Between us, we have built up a collective experience of more than 100 years, working on some of the finest motor vehicles in the world. We are delighted to…

A group of Triumph enthusiasts spent a day in early October pulling this Works Triumph 2.5 PI from a collapsing garage in Scotland. This was World Cup Rally Car 98 – XJB 302H – driven by Paddy Hopkirk with Tony Nash and Neville Johnson. Micke Petersson, one of the extraction team said: ‘There were a lot of new panels and three spare engines plus other parts. The problem has been finding them – they have been hidden all over the property and in six workshops and lofts. We just keep finding parts.’ The Abingdon prepared car was found in as-parked-up condition having been hidden away since 1977. The team discovered several maps inside it from the last Scottish event it competed in. It is intended that this, the last of…

London to Brighton Veteran Car Run Joy, adrenaline and wobbly travails at 20mph It would be easy to think that cars built in the earliest years of the 20th century and late 19th century would be slow and rather dull to watch, but nothing could be further from the truth, as Danny found out when he took part in the London to Brighton run a few years ago. Every mile clocked up by these ancient machines is a triumph, as they battle the odds to cover the 60-mile route without conking out. Held almost every year since 1896, the RAC’s Veteran Car Run is a spectacle like no other and well worth following in person if you’re able to get to this year’s bash on November 1. With so many…

We all love certain classic cars for a reason, usually deeply rooted in some past formative experience. My passion for these turbocharged Volvo saloons from the Nineties began when I ran maintenance operations for British Midland Airways. I was based next to Donington Park race circuit and, in 1995, the Volvo team would occasionally use a corner of our workshop when preparing their T5-Rs for the British Touring Car Championship. I got to know the guys and was able to have a few circuit laps with them. Predictably, when my company car was due for renewal later the same year, I chose Volvo’s five-cylinder turbocharged rocketship, and the die was cast. Fast forward to 2017, and I was semi-retired, looking for a project where I could bring my aerospace engineering…

Across 1 Romanian car firm that teamed up with Citroën to produce the Axel (6) 8 Singer models – part of the Rootes Arrow range (6) 10 CO2 output (9) 11 Modern-day Mercedes McLaren model inspired by its legendary sports racer namesake of 1955 (3) 12___ Cooper, the man of Mini Cooper acclaim (4) 14 These Nissans began life as Prince models back in 1957 (8) 16 Semi-convertible car such as the Lotus Elise (5,3) 17 See 2 down 20 Spritely character in a badge-engineered Riley? (3) 21 Land Rover model originally released in 1989 (9) 23 Coupé variant of the Alfa Romeo 2600 (6) 24 A Haynes guide to transmission type? (6) Down 1 Famous Duesenberg car (5,1) 2 & 17 across When it comes to transmissions, it’s primary…

It is highly likely that the completion of a car restoration has never before depended upon the successful fabrication of a set of custom ski racks. An Esprit rebuild is challenging enough without the addition of unique secret service-spec appendages, but I can declare with some confidence that Fabian Steele’s car is probably the most accurate replication of a Q Branch Lotus Esprit Turbo in the world. The attention to detail is precise, brave and completely beyond the realms of rational behaviour. How very… Bond. Fabian’s project car hit the road just in time for us to champion the release of James Bond’s 25th outing, No Time To Die, but despite its postponement to 2021, it’s an excellent time to give ourselves a much-needed dose of 007. It also marks…

Mazda is the Alfa Romeo of Japan. That’s not a glib statement, it is the plain truth. Every time I jump into one of Hiroshima’s finest, I immediately feel completely welcome… like the design team were working with me in mind. The famous call sign ‘zoom, zoom!’ and a back catalogue of brave, cleverly engineering and driver-focussed decisions reinforce the fact that Mazda, for many years, built great cars that were to be driven for the sheer balls-out fun of it. It’s no surprise that so many petrolheads have a Mazda in their back catalogue. My current fleet includes an MX-5 MkII and a 1988 626 GT 2.0i-16 Coupé… a car that’s taken me four years to get back on the road. It is the coupé that inspired us…

Nice meal with lots of wine, followed by some late night eBay- the perfect evening. This bid seemed like a really good idea at the time. I’d always wanted one of the fast Mondeos and my claret goggles made this one look like a bargain. I picked it up and took it to the workshop for an MOT. Up it went on the ramp, down it came again because, put simply, it had no floor. I sold it on at a loss of £134. Lesson learned, always check before you buy. A proper Bangernomics fail – see, it can work both ways. BOUGHT FOR £434 SOLD FOR £300 VERDICT I must stop this. Don’t drink and bid!…

With the release of No Time To Die postponed again (to April 2021), we thought it we would try to make up for it with a game of Bond Car Bingo… with a twist. Rather than choosing which of the many excellent 007 cars we would have on our drive, we decided to ‘stroke the white cat’ and ruminate over which bad guy car we would choose given the chance (and money). So here they are. If we were the baddest villain of them all, which classic ‘exotic’ would we drive? It must have presence, style, power and speed along with room for a female accomplice (later to be seduced by 007). Most of all, though, it would be the car that everyone would be careful not to scratch outside…

As you’ll have gathered from this month’s Bangernomics escapade (p78), I’ve bagged myself a teeny tiny off-roader. I was seeking something modern-ish and interesting but, crucially, practical. The back seat of the CX doesn’t fold down, my Smart isn’t good for anything more than some squashy bags and a hairbrush and although the 2CV is great for carting awkward loads around though the big canvas roof, when one of those tasks involves a long-distance load-lugging trip, it is advantageous to have more than 29bhp at your disposal. I’ve been seeking a late Nineties/early Noughties Citroën Berlingo for ages but, as yet, I’ve been unable to find a half decent one. Meanwhile, these 2003-2012 Pandas are plentiful and cheap at the moment – a sure sign that vast swathes of them…

First filler coats The first coat of filler disguised the seam and gave us something to work to. Three-year-old filler made the job a little harder though. Top tip: only buy what you need, when you need it. It has a shelf life! Smoothing things out P80 on a rubber block made quick work of the first batch of filler. A second application and P120 finished things off. Into prime position A dusting of U-POL aerosol grey primer sealed the filler and allowed us to spot where final stopper was required. Top coats French masked to a swage line, Matt T then used a small touch up gun to lay on five coats of cellulose Saffron Yellow. Not looking too shabby at all Spraying low pressure to avoid overspray in…

When I fitted a 2.5-litre Triumph saloon engine to my GT6 over a year ago, fuelling the beast threw up a few challenges. Naturally, the bigger engine needed bigger carbs, but there isn’t much space under the bonnet for anything more than the original Strombergs. My answer was to get a pair of short dash pot SU HS6 carbs from a Dolomite Sprint and graft them to the GT6 inlet manifold with homemade adaptors. This solution has been a partial success. The carbs are big enough to feed an engine built to produce almost 140bhp and there’s enough clearance for the bonnet close. But despite having overhauled the carbs, I just can’t get them tuned accurately, leaving a roughness at idle and slightly hesitant pick up. As a further irritation,…

The call came from Danny back in July, when Practical Classics took possession of this rare Reliant Rebel van project. ‘Would you be willing to come and help put the rolling chassis together?’ Knowing that this was a Rebel with an extremely good cause, I could hardly say no, so packed my van with a selection of tools and parts before heading to Barnack to meet the team and see what we’d let ourselves in for. My day job is selling and commissioning the reproduction of Reliant parts through my company CHG Classics, and I’ve been an active member of the Reliant club for 10 years. I’ve also previously helped PC on stage at the NEC with the restoration of the Trotter Regal from the Only Fools and Horses TV…

You can’t have failed to notice that the 2020 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show with Discovery has been postponed. The COVID-19 situation meant that there were too many uncertainties and variables to make the event viable. After the postponement of the Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration Show in March and both Beaulieu Autojumbles, it has also meant that PC will not be able to hold a 40th birthday party in 2020. Editor Danny Hopkins commented: ‘We brought the magazine’s first restoration, the Pat Moss rally A40 ‘Zoey’ over from Ireland to share with our readers at live events, it can’t happen now. And we can’t even say think you, face to face. That is particularly sad in our 40th year.’ Show Director Lee Masters explained, ‘We have done everything…

Don Hayter, MG’s last Chief Engineer and the hugely influential designer of the MGB, passed away on Friday, October 9. He trained as a design engineer before joining the RAF at the start of the war. His time training as a bomb aimer and navigator was cut short as his services as an engineer were deemed more valuable to the war effort. A short stint at Cowley after the war was followed by a move to Aston Martin before he eventually joined MG at Abingdon, were he worked on the MGA Twin Cam and MGA Coupe. Hayter worked on EX205/1, a fastback versión of the MGA, before tackling the monocoque EX214/1, the basis of the production MGB. He saw the MGB through to production, liased with Pininfarina to create the…

Pump you can Reliant upon RELIANT 850 WATER PUMP £54.99 New to market and made to meet the exacting standards of Relaint guru James Holland, this premium quality water pump as fitted to all 850cc Reliants including the Robin, Rialto, Fox and Kitten is beautifully made and comes supplied with gasket and new bolts to hold the fan on. Part no: 92828P. chgclassics.co.uk Spring time! MINI SPARES PERFORMANCE CONE SPRING £50.39 This latest Performance Cone Spring from Mini Spares is the result of twenty years experience of racing with the ‘Innocenti shaped’ cone springs and experimenting with materials and hysteresis plus rebound rates. The spring is a standard height, original shaped cone spring with an accurate spring rate and hardness designed to provide consistency and eradicate the dangers associated with…

1 JUNE 2017 Body separation A mate with a garden business supplied wooden stakes so Fabian could make a frame in order to lift the shell from chassis. 2 AUGUST 2017 Brush strokes Body prepped and then sent 300 miles away to Devon, where Fabian’s friend applied the paint. 3 SEPT 2017 Back to basics Weeks are spent cleaning decades of muck from chassis, which is then treated with high quality rust preventative paint. 4 APRIL 2018 Assembly time The shell having returned, Fabian slowly begins the rebuilding of the car between work duties. 5 OCT 2019 On the rack Ski rack was made from scratch and took Fabian three attempts to perfect. 6 SPRING 2020 Disaster Fabian discovered that three previous engine rebuilds had been caused by a sticking…

Why you want one Uniquely charming with an appropriate nickname, too. Drive ‘the Peanut’ anywhere these days and its diddy dimensions and cute looks make everyone smile. But it’s more than that – the A30 brought a host of new features when it was launched back in 1951. When the wraps came off at the Earl’s Court Motor Show of that year, much was made of Austin’s answer to the Morris Minor, being the firm’s first mass-production car without a separate chassis. In practise, it may not have steered quite as well as the Minor but the A30 was lighter, more compact and arguably handier around town. Bridging the gap between the original Seven and the Mini, it’s very easy to make an argument that the A30 was just as…

The call came out of the blue; I was hiring the trailer by the time I put the phone down. I’d always promised myself a Marina again and this was the perfect opportunity. I care not one jot about the snobbery surrounding the vehicle. The ‘hilarious’ trashing of cars on national TV with the aid of various pianos has only served to make them more valuable. Besides, my love of the make is overwhelmingly nostalgic. My first three cars were Marinas, my fourth an Ital. They all served me well. Back in the Eighties and early Nineties you could pick them up for £100, and they were my ticket to freedom. Undeniably they were basic transport, but that is all they ever set out to be. I loved ’em, and…

1985 Citroen CX GTi Turbo Engine 2500cc/4-cyl/OHV Power 168bhp@5000rpm Top speed 137mph Work done Doors fitted, more trim attached, electrics fixed. Progress on my project CX has been painfully slow again lately, due mostly to the effects of the pandemic on retrieving missing parts from France. Time has been in short supply as a result, thanks to a busy summer for the whole PC team - playing catch-up when it comes to all the research, planning, photoshoots and writing necessary to produce this magazine. I had hoped to be driving around in the car by now, giving it a good shakedown ahead of a now cancelled holiday to France, Spain and Portugal. Still, I’ve no right to grumble. Having received all the bits needed to finish the job at last,…

1997 BMW Z3 1.9 Engine 1895/4-cyl/DOHC Power 138bhp@6000rpm Gearbox 5-speed manual Work done New toy sought out, snapped up and enjoyed. For some time, I’ve fancied sampling a Nineties roadster. Our BMW 318i coupé having recently sold, cash and driveway space were available. The plan was to break our BMW habit and look for a Mazda MX-5 Series 2. I searched diligently, but drew a blank, as every car in my price bracket had at least some structural rot. Then a clean, 80,000-mile BMW Z3 popped up at a local dealer. The Z3’s spec was exactly right for us, with the near 140bhp 1.9-litre twin cam engine offering decent performance, without the bruising acceleration or thirst of the bigger six-pot versions. Cash and keys were duly exchanged. Any newcomer to…

STORAGE How should I prepare my car for winter storage? Q I want to garage my newly-bought 1967 Morris Minor over the winter. Do you have any advice? Hugh Jones, Caerphilly Ed says: A Change the engine oil and filter - plus the gear and axle oils if you don’t know when they were last done. Do these after a run, so all the sludge and sediment runs freely out. Change the coolant: old antifreeze may have been diluted to the point of uselessness, or have turned acidic as corrosion inhibitors have broken down. Refill the system with a 1:1 mixture of ethylene glycol (IAT) antifreeze and distilled water or soft tap water. Also change the brake fluid. This absorbs water and causes cylinders to seize. Clean the bodywork and…

PART 4 START 1 Prepare the block An engine stand makes the job of turning the block between stages of assembly easier and safer. Mount the block on a suitably rated stand, using four 5/16in UNF high tensile bolts screwed into the tappings for the engine backplate. TIP Use a good quality assembly lube, either graphite-based or high viscosity oilbased, throughout the engine build. 2 Final check components Lay out all the parts for the engine rebuild on a clean, preferably steel-topped, workbench. Check every component is present and visually inspect to ensure that everything is in good condition. If any parts are missing or damaged, it’s better to find out now. 3 Prepare the piston rings The piston rings need to be fitted in the bores to check their…

GREASE IS THE WORD Remove the cups of the new trunnion. You should see the needle rollers lightly lubricated and a reserve of grease in the middle of the trunnion. If not, then add wheel bearing grease. CHECK Trial-fit a new bearing cup before driving the new trunnion home. Ours were wrongly-toleranced and impossible to install. NEW! Always use new circlips. Occasionally they’re available in different thicknesses; your manual will advise on this. GET GOING DISMANTLE UNIVERSAL JOINTS 1 Mark sections The propeller shaft is a balanced assembly. Therefore it’s vital that it’s re-assembled with all the joints in their original orientation. Mark the joints – be careful not to erase them while you’re working. TIP Mark with a centre punch if you intend on painting the shaft while it’s…

The Winchester MG club put on a moving motor show in the town. It allowed the club to showcase its classics while observing social distancing guidelines. A new exhibition by the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust will run from October 10 until the end of January 2021 at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon. 10-17 year-olds can now drive a Vauxhall VX4/90, Morris Minor or Austin 7 with Young Driver. Find more details about driving experiences at youngdriver.com. We have almost sold out of our new special edition: The A to Z of Amazing Engines 2. Go to greatmagazines.co.uk to grab your copy, which features dozens of classic engines including the B-series and Chevy V8 laid bare. Our own Craig Cheetham has written a book - celebrating 40 years of the Metro.…

Anovice restorer has finished his wedding car project in time to tie the knot - thanks to his father-in-law. Tom Stanyard enlisted the help of his father-in-law, Cliff Matthews, who offered to complete the 1971 Traveller so that it could be used for his wedding last month in Derbyshire. Tom had been working on the car as a learning project and with the experienced Cliff taking on the role of teacher, the Traveller received a number of big fixes ahead of the big day: ‘I replaced the clutch, radiator and differential and refurbished the gearbox and the cylinder head, complete with new valves lapped in, springs and a gasket.’ With only weeks to go, Tom says that it was a huge relief to have Cliff close by to help solve…

We had such a good day out that we think you should have a go as well. And when you have done so, send us the results. If you can find a brochure location for your classic, have ago at recreating it and send it in. Tell us how you researched the location and a bit about your classic and we will print the results. Send your brochure recreation to danny.hopkins@practicalclassics.co.uk make sure you send the original brochure shot in, too.…

We’ve always had a soft spot for these five-door coupé-like hatchbacks, not least because of those pop-up headlamps that make them look so sleek and sporty. Built from 1989-94, they surely now deserve classic status, and perhaps even inclusion in our Price Guide. What do you think? Values of the now rare survivors are creeping up, with recent prices varying from £400 for a project to £5000 for a very smart and tempting low miler spotted in the classifieds. Injected 137bhp 1.8 is the hot one.…

Nestled at the bottom of a secluded industrial estate near Bicester sits a remarkable workshop full to the brim with Austin Sevens. Ten years ago, Ian Tillman helped a friend work through his Seven, getting it to run and drive properly. The hobby turned competitive when Ian built a little Austin Seven racing car which in turn led to him picking up work on other people’s cars. Conversations in the paddock led to a string of Sevens being invited over to for tinkering and, seeing a demand for his services, Ian rented a small workshop from which to work out of the cold and so began Oxfordshire Sevens. Three years ago, the business moved to it’s current location on Field Farm Business Centre in Launton and today 75 per cent…

1 You’ve had your A35 quite a while then! ‘Yes, 63 years! My A35 was built in May 1957 and bought by my father-in-law James, who was an employee at the Austin factory. The car later ended up with my husband Jim and we used it regularly, while keeping it safe at night in our garage at home here in Longbridge. When Jim passed away in 2001, I didn’t know what to do with the car but luckily, a friend of ours suggested that I join the Austin A30 & A35 Club. I then started to get interested in cars and have met some lovely people.’ 2 Has it been restored? ‘It has never needed any welding at all and has only done 35,000 miles. However, having attended the Austin…

It’s hard to believe this swoopy, sumptuously styled supercar killer is almost 30 years-old, but time has been extremely kind to Mazda’s sports sensation. Effectively the only car maker to persevere with the Wankel rotary engine for mass production, Mazda recognised that its compact dimensions and smooth-spinning nature made it perfect for a performance car. And boy, what a thing it is. Building on the good reputation of its pointy predecessors, the ‘FD’ series RX-7 set pulses racing from the start and continues to do so today. Owners love its blistering performance and the quality of engineering – the car is rightfully prized by enthusiasts and with values looking extremely buoyant in 2020, it could well be time to buy one before they become out of reach. Why do you…

Number 1 As bought for £100, Danny’s first car. He learned to drive in it and it moved him to university in Birmingham. He even changed his first head gasket on it. ‘Ada’ was special. But then… 2 The end Dad diagnoses a big end bearing failure after ‘spirited’ use on the M1. Even thicker oil couldn’t disguise the knock. 3 Number 2 Spotlights, ‘Custom’ wheel trims and an idiot on the bonnet. Marina 2 gave two years of service until being written off. 4 Ital man Before this there was a ‘spares’ Marina purchased to donate an engine to a blue Ital that Danny had ruined (again on the M1). The blue car went to Danny’s sister and this was his reward: an Exotic 1.3 SL which he bought…

The satisfaction one enjoys by carrying out a service on one’s classic car far surpasses the drudgery involved in servicing modern tin-cannery. I was reminded of this as I ministered to the Matiz. Years ago, when cars had distributors and carburettors, I worked as a mechanic at a village garage: customers would grumpily dump off their wheezy old bangers and after a tenner’s worth of bits, some adjustment and tuning, they would leave happy in a car that started and ran joyously. We were heroes. Well, possibly. Nowadays, owners of moderns grudgingly surrender a car that runs perfectly and, save for making the bank account wince, everything’s the same on its return. Thank goodness for coffee, a soft-play area and pine-fresh tyre-shine or it’d feel like money thrust down the…

The very excellent band of partners who are contributing to this project are all worthy of praise, and Newton Commercial is no exception. Our aim, to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK, cannot be achieved unless we have a VW van with an interior to die for, and Newton’s is acknowledged as one of the top firms supplying bespoke trim for the iconic camper. So we are honoured to have the Suffolk based specialist onboard, particularly because it has been at the heart of efforts to help local business react effectively to the COVID-19 crisis. Back in March it was obvious that the Suffolk area, in particular, required a vast amount of PPE in a very short space of time, so boss Jonny Newton (yes it’s a family…