Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Continuing the theme of picking a particular car, or range of cars, what memories do you all have of the sidevalve Fords??? This can include the upright types (E493A Prefect, E83W, 103E Pop etc) and the later 100Es.

My first sidevalve was the E83W pickup that now resides with another forum member , found in a field in 1989. I think I've owned it on three separate occasions so far..



It was joined by CJM in 1992, and it remained with me until a couple of years back, when the Dodge resto needing some extra funds It was robbed of its number (grrrrrr) and lives on in Ireland, painted luminous orange.....



CJM was a really useful little truck. Shortly after purchase it was pressed into service taking a load of stuff to an autojumble, and was used regularly in more recent times for local errands, including collecting a Christmas tree from the local farm.

Several other E83Ws & sidevalve Fords have come and gone in the last 20+ years or so, including a few specials such as this Ashley, and a unique Nickri that, by the time I found it, had been switched to a Herald chassis. The former went to Germany I think, whereas the latter is not too far away from here and, I'm told, back on the road. The Ashley had proper '50s Aquaplane gear on it (2x MC2 SU carbs etc) but I could never get it to run right for some reason or other. It had been built up around an unused shell by someone interested in old Maseratis. He took his missus for a run, so the story goes, but she hated it so back in the garage it went after just 8 miles and he didn't use it again.




Does anyone remember running a Pop or Prefect back in the 50s or 60s, when they were still ten-a-penny? Or maybe you've run one in more recent times.

When mum and dad bought their first house, dad ran a 100E. It didn't impress mum too much as she was often roped in to push-start it up the road in the morning, so I think it was replaced by an MG 1100. This photo taken c1968/69:



Possibly the best-driving "sidevalve" I've driven wasn't a sidevalve at all, but the OHV 107E. This one was fitted with a Weber carb, and drove brilliantly.

RJ
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[peter scott]

I sat my driving test in my sister's 100E Prefect. I used hand signals because the clamp that held the manette in place wasn't gripping. Unfortunately half way through the test the examiner told me to use the trafficators from now on. I suggested that I was quite happy to continue using hand signals be he insisted so I then had to chase the switch around the steering wheel several turns until the cable tightened up each time I needed to indicate. It did work and the examiner made no comment and I passed.

Peter
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1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Brian M]

My 100E stories:

My second car bought in 1969 for £90 - a 1959 Ford Prefect 100E



Spotted it in a local garage and was so taken with the smart paintwork that I bought it after a demo run but was not allowed to drive it. Within ten minutes of collecting it, I knew I had made a big mistake getting rid of my A30.

The asthmatic side valve engine, the three speed gearbox was 'orrible after the A30.

I had just started at Uni and had to drive through the Blackwall tunnel every Monday morning. There was a three mile queue and in the stop-start, I realised that the clutch was biting less and less as I entered the tunnel. Went down ok but a soon as I reached the up slope the revs went up and up and I went slower and slower finally stopping completely. A quick thinking lorry driver behind me pulled round me and grabbed a rope from the back of his truck and passed it to me through the quarter light and said "hang onto this".

I was moving again less the two minutes after I had stopped, and so avoided bring the whole of the South East of England to a complete halt!!

He towed me to a bus lay-by on the northern side of the tunnel and left me there. As this was before mobile phones I had to walk to a call box and phoned my Dad, he agreed to come over and tow the car back to our local garage.

When I got back to the car about 20 minutes later, I thought I would try moving the car to a safer place and as the clutch had cooled by this time it was working again so I drove off to Uni!

Dad finally got me on the phone after lessons had finished, he had spent two hours looking for the car and thought it had been stolen!

Got it back home at the end of the week, had a garage fit a new clutch and sold it without driving it again!!

Fast forward twenty years and I spotted an ad in our local paper for a Popular 100E, "with original number plate" so I went to have a look.



The car had been vandalised - two side windows and a headlight were broken, and it didn't have an MOT but for £80 I thought it was worth a punt. A visit to Kirby's Breakers (see the thread on scrapyards) got me the windows and a headlight for a fiver, to get through the MOT it only required one track rod for £9, so the number plate was transferred (My son still has it, and it has been valued at £1500) and the car sold to a young enthusiast for £280.

The profit made up for the disaster of the Ford Prefect!
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Brian
1970 Volvo Amazon and 1978 Safari 15-4 Caravan
Classic Safari Forum: www.classicsafaris.co.uk

[poodge]

I've never been the lucky(?) owner of a sidevalve Ford myself,but my sister had a 100E in the mid-70's.It was her first car(she was in her 50's then),and quite tidy.Unfortunately,mechanically the thing was a major disaster.She had it for about 4 years,and it probably spent 2 of those in the garage for some repair or another.
In 1970-71 I worked as a driver for a local cake factory,The boss's son was about my age,and we got on quite well.He was the apple of mum's eye,and if he asked,he got.So it was he went through a string of cars.The one I remember well was a tidy "Pop" E93A.
he used to trash it mercilessly,yet it seemed to take it all in stride.
A bit later he started hitting the booze rather heavily,even during the lunch break.He came back from the pub one day,and tore into the carpark at his usual pace,and intended to stop near the boilerhouse wall,his usual spot.Unfortunately,at this precise moment(he claims)the brakes failed,and he hit the brick wall at a fair clip.He wasn't hurt,but the poor Pop suffered terminal damage.His next victim was an F series Victor ,but that's another story.

[Phil - Nottingham]

My dad once had a 1961 Ford Escort shooting brake as the family car in 1966/67 (there were 6 of us in all) . This was the shooting brake version of the Ford 100e Pop. It was extremely basic, uncomfortable, noisy and very slow.

The vacuum wipers used to slow down and stop going up hills as the top speed dropped to 40mph. He avoided the new M1 as other cars were too fast.

This vehicle replaced a very elderly but faster and spacious 1950 Standard Vanguard unfortunately as they eanted something more modern!
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[lowdrag]

My mate John Watts had one and it was so asthmatic, even then. I seem to remember that the quoted top speed was 61mph! The wipers, as mentioned above, are a memory, or nightmare, and do I remember Jeff Jago (he of the metal-flake paint fame) taking one and puttting an american V8 in it?