Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Ellis]

[img]

At around the same time as I bought my Jaguar Mark2 in 1991 someone I know was looking for a specific car to restore. He wanted an early MGB and even more precisely one with the original 18G 3 bearing crank engine, not a 18GA with improved breathing. That fact alone restricted him to cars from late 1962 to early 1964.

He eventually found one in Leamington Spa, a March 1963 car in light blue with it's original engine, registration number and drive train. It was in "scrapyard" condition having been stored since MOT failure in 1978. The failure was because of rust, and lots of it.
He is a skilled commercial welder having worked on oil pipelines in the UK, Canada, and even further afield.

After four years the bodyshell was complete but then two things happened. The first was, sadly, a divorce and secondly his work took him abroad for longer periods.
The restoration faltered, a house move and relocation blunted his enthusiasm and since 2001 the car, in pieces, resides in the garage of his new house.

Only one mile from my home is a partially restored 1965 Morris Minor convertible. Work stopped years ago and it's still unfinished.

I often wondered why restorations were abandoned. I bought one in 1990, a 1968 "S" Type Jaguar and rued my decision. It was a bad dream of missing parts, bodges and misery. I did finish it but it never felt "right".

What are your experiences or thoughts of abandoned restorations?
Did any of you take one on or do you also know of such vehicles?

If so, please do tell.

[/img]
_________________
Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[emmerson]

Morris 1000 Traveler with all new wood, abandoned after I realised that advancing years = limited mobility!
Passed on last year to a fellow enthusiast 20 odd years my junior.

[Rootes75]

Not really abandoned but more like stalled is the restoration of my Ford 7W, have owned her twenty years and did an awful lot of work on her, the trouble being that she didn't have a grill. Probably the rarest Ford grill, I have seen a few over the years, cheapest being about £800 then one last year at Beaulieu was £1750!!!

I will never sell the car but she cant be finished without the grill, so she is tucked away while I continue searching.
_________________
Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Keith D]

A number of years ago I owned several very early post war Jawa motorcycles including the 350cc Ogar. I had great plans for these but common-sense finally dawned on me. I was in the middle of full restorations on my vintage Chrysler and Austin Seven. At the time I was working in the north-west of Western Australia in the mines and was flying in and out to work, having very little time at home So I was never going to get around to the bikes. Plus my wife was not very keen on my throwing a leg over a motorbike again! (I was a very keen motorcyclist back in the late sixties when I was a very young man with plenty of spills!)

The outcome was that I gave the whole lot to one of my sons who being a keen motorcyclist himself, couldn't wait to get into restoring them. Many years later they are still parked in the back of his workshop to be done "one day"! At least they are out of the weather and in the dry.

I still have the half finished flat nosed Cowley that I spend a few hours on now and again, so it is not actually abandoned! As I get older I find that the first thing I have lost is the enthusiasm to get into major projects!

Keith

[peppiB]

I bought this, which had been abandoned in a garage after the owner divorced his wife (she sold it to me)





Together with a vanload of bits, and ended up 10 months later with it looking like this





Nowadays I can't even remove a wheel