April 2005 Car renovation update report

The Standard goes for its MOT and a haul of old Ford parts is recovered

Standard 10 MOT
Early in the month I got around to giving the Standard (10) a bit of a service, prior to its imminent date with the MOT man. One fine afternoon was chosen, and the shapely little saloon from Standard-Triumph was jacked up high, and given some attention.

A good greasing and top up of the steering box ensued, and had a very positive effect on the overall driving experience (shame it couldn't quieten the diff a bit though!). Everything structure-wise looks tickety-boo, which can often be the death knell to 1950s monocoque cars as rustproofing was unheard of back then, so I was fairly confident that the MOT would go smoothly. Which, fortunately, it did.

Sadly this wasn't the case with my daily 'modern' driver, the 124 series Mercedes estate, as that tripped over with a worn inner track rod end only a couple of days after the Standard's triumphant clean bill of health. Overall though the tester was happy, and once the garage had replaced the TRE it gained its MOT certificate. It's unfortunate that 2 cars fall in the same week for their roadworthiness check, but there isn't much I can do about it if I still want them to both be on the road. The '57 Standard had done 650 miles in the last 12 months, mostly on short local journeys around the local villages. In fact it gets used a lot more than the Merc, which is as it should be!

Ford pickup work continueth
Work on the little green E83W Ford pickup continued apace in April, spurred on by the desire to actually get one of these things on the road, for the first time since 1994! Re-fitting the front axle took a little time, mainly because I had to improvise a way of spreading the transverse leaf front spring to get the £$%$%£ to fit on to the axle ok. A combination of jacks, bits of wood, and G-clamps got the thing back on finally, enabling the front axle to be bolted into place. At this point I didn't bother re-fitting the front end bodywork as there seemed little point til I knew that all the replaced parts actually worked or not. With the engine and gearbox lifted out, I replaced the clutch assembly, gearbox (for a secondhand example, my original had a cracked casing), flywheel (a bolt stripped its thread when fitting the new clutch, grrr), sump (it had a split in it), engine and gearbox mountings, plus a few other small pieces. With no idea whether the replacement box was any use or not, I was getting anxious to test it all out to see if it actually worked ok.

With the front axle in place, roadwheels fitted, and back on terra firma, it was now time to reconnect all the itty bitty linkages, to establish whether forward momentum could be achieved. The brake and clutch linkages were re-attached, the fuel line connected, and the vacuum take-off pipe from the manifold (used to 'power' the single windscreen wiper) bolted back on. The dynamo was re-connected, and a charged up battery liberated from the Standard 10 temporarily. A few tests, just spinning the little E93A engine on the starter, established that the clutch appeared to work, and that the fresh EP90 I'd poured into the gearbox would soon be put to use. With the ignition turned on, I grabbed at the starter knob, and gave it a pull. The engine span over furiously and soon kicked in to life, this despite the old fuel in the tank being of very questionable vintage.

To say that I was mighty relieved is something of an understatement - the gearbox and clutch all seemed to work fine, and I was soon planning the next stages of the resurrection of this little classic Ford. While pondering the next steps, I left the old iron Ford engine puttering away at idle, a bit lumpy so it could probably do with fresh fuel in the tank, and a general tune-up.

As the weather over the bank holiday weekend was looking jolly pleasant, I decided to have a tidy up in the garage, and move things around a little. The blue E83W van was closest to the garage door, and in the way of giving the pickup a test run around the driveway, so I rolled that out in to the sunlight, and tentatively drove the pickup outside, under its own steam for the first time in ages. It used to suffer with severe vibration on taking up drive, I think this was a combination of oil-soaked engine/gearbox rubber mountings, a damaged gearbox-chassis stabiliser, and oil on the clutch plate - no wonder it hadn't driven too well. With both Fords outside, I was able to give the place a good sweeping up, prior to putting the van back first (fortunately it rolls ok), and driving the pickup truck in behind. Next plan is to fettle up some nicer front panelwork for it, and give it a dab of paint.

Collecting some vintage Ford bits
It was during April that delivery was taken of perhaps the rustiest little 1950s Ford pickup truck still in existence. To say it was rough, is like saying that severe chassis corrosion is just a minor irritation. In fact it is more of a kit of parts, rather than a complete vehicle, as it comprises a rolling chassis/cab, with the backend from another pickup casually parked on the rear chassis members. The condition is ruinous, it looks like it has stood in a damp claggy peat bog for 300 years, with buckets of salty water thrown over it for good measure. Still, it was only bought as a parts donor, so I knew it was a bit of a nail beforehand.

My plan had been to break it for parts, and perhaps match the rough pickup body with one of my better chassis/cab Fords, that didn't have a rear body at all. However before setting-to and pulling this derelict Ford to pieces, I had a haul of sidevalve van bits to go and collect from Oxfordshire.

A brand spanking new Transit hire van was booked, and off I set to retrieve this stash of rare parts. The guy selling the parts suggested that it'd need a Transit in order to be able to move it all. And he was right. A few hours were spent digging through mounds of old car parts in a dusty 300 year old outbuilding, dragging dusty old Ford parts into the sunlight for the first time in years. By the time we'd finished, the Trannie was down on its bump stops, loaded to the roof with parts for bygone Fords. There were axles, seats, hubcaps, engine, gearboxes, wings, foot steps, and lots of brackets, engine ancillaries, steering columns, and so on.

Not everything was suitable for my small pickups and van, but it was a case of take the lot, then do what you want with it, so bar a few Pop/Prefect axles that I simply couldn't fit in anywhere, the lot was dragged back here, much to the delight of 'er indoors who took one look at the mountain of parts and just shook her head.

The next few days were spent sifting through all these treasures, splitting them into two separate piles, one for keepers, the other stuff that wasn't suitable and to be sold on. The non-commercial bits were mostly E93a gearboxes, lever arm dampers, and a mixture of 16" 17" and 18" wheels which, while they would fit my pickups, weren't the correct size, so listed on eBay for someone else to use. At least that'd free up some space and recoup some of the dosh I'd spent in buying the lot of bits.

With such an influx of parts suddenly appearing on the scene, I decided that there wasn't much to be gained by tearing the crumbly chassis/cab example into even more pieces, so the plan is to move that on to someone else who could benefit from all the useful bits that are still bolted to the chassis.

If you've never tried an online auction for selling on some of your surplus bits, I can strongly recommend it. To find out more, I have written an introduction & step-by-step guide on how to get set up on eBay, which you can read on the eBay tutorial page.