Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[clan chieftain]

As there is a wide variety of car owners on this forum it would be interesting to have your views on breaking one type of vehicle to improve another. Yes you have guessed it......Breaking a perfectly good marina to upgrade a minor. My own marina one of the oldest was stripped by a minor owner and dumped in a scrapyard in Derbyshire. Luckily it was rescued.
Is it right to break one type of vehicle to improve another. It is ok if the one to be broken is completely rotten and beyond repair but not a perfectly good one. It happens with other makes as well not just the marina.......but is it right.
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The Clan Chieftain

[peter scott]

Not nice but it's just free market economics. Number plates are probably the most common in this type of vandalism.

Peter
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https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[P3steve]

How many Jaguar S Types or 420's and even early s1 XJ6's went that way to supply back axles to the kit car trade? the repro cobra market has a lot to answer too.

[Ghost]

On the other hand, to build my favourite racing car, the Cooper Norton, you need to take the engine from a motorcycle and the axles and wheels from a FIAT Topilino.

Also had not a certain Colin Chapman used Austin Sevens and sidvalve Fords as his building blocks there would be no Lotus 7 or type Eleven.

Modifying the Morris Minor seems to have begun about a week after the first one left the showroom! The amateur racing driver Alan Staniforth bought a Minor Tourer and modified it for competition. He then designed the Terrapin racing car using Mk 1 Mini components.

A determined man with tools and a workshop, either a very destructive or creative thing, hard to say I think.

[Jim.Walker]

I think we need to remember that in Colin Chapman's Lotus eleven days (and the days of the Cooper Nortons), 'old' was not as collectable as now and many cars in 'restorable condition' were scrapped or just left to rot.
I remember that about that time we had to dispose of a 1927 Rolls Silver Ghost in excellent running order. It was admittedly a hearse, which could no longer be offered for funerals, but a replica body would have made a car worth a fortune now. What was the best price we could get??? Just £60!

Of course the 'Fake Snake' brigade (Cobra Replica builders) are another matter. Not all Kit Car builders are guilty of destroying motoring history though. 25 years ago last Monday, I completed the car on the left. Apart from the Gentry bodyshell, all parts except new brake parts etc. came from terminal cases in scrap yards or my scrap box.

By the way. I do hate the term 'Kit Car', though some cars deserve it. My car is essentially a standard Triumph Vitesse Mk2 with a different body. I seem to remember that all Rolls Royces and a lot of other luxury cars of that era came like that with bodies fitted by Park Ward, Mulliner etc. etc. Were they 'turn key' Kit Cars??
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Quote from my late Dad:- You only need a woman and a car and you have all the problems you
are ever likely to want". Computers had not been invented then!

[petelang]

Lets face it guys, If every car was saved the cost of running a classic would be unaffordable as parts would be very hard and expensive to find and the value of your car would be much reduced. You can't save em all!
As long as there are a number of each model about it's OK but no one wants to see a model a complete loss.
I have been trying to find an example of a Talbot 10, similar to that owned by my father in early 50's and it seems they are very very rare. But, in their day there were loads. This is worth crying over but the loss of a Marina seems a bit less significant in my book. However in 20 years time someone will probably take issue with this statement.