Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[badhuis]

For some cars it seems you can never really lose them.

In 1983 or so I bought a white 1966 Triumph 2000 Mk1 from the scrapyard, without registration or number plates. My father at the time owned a 2500TC (Mk2) and I had never seen a Mk1 so could not let this one go to scrap.
After sitting two months in a parking space on a public road, and me without a garage I sold to car to a fellow student.
Ten years ago my brother admired my green Mk1 so I went out and searched for another one. Which proved to be pretty difficult because only a handful exist in the Netherlands. I found a fairly decent example so my brother bought it. Then, after a month or so, I spoke to an old friend who told he did own a white Mk1 in the early eighties. After some engine trouble he took it to a scrapyard....
Later I found my old fellow student who said that after buying the car from me, he got the original registration back, restored the car and after ten years sold it to the guy where I found it again.

I do not think I will allow my brother to sell the car (only to me)!

[Jim.Walker]

In 1956 I passed my driving test in an Austin Metropolitan Hire Car (like the last London Taxi produced with no front passenger door except that this car had one).

For years interspersed with duties as a mechanic I drove the car on Private Hire up to 1966 amassing over 100,000 miles. It was generally known as Jim's car.

Laid up in the back yard slowly deteriorating, it was spotted around 1970 by a young man looking for a suitable chassis to build a pre-war Mercedes replica. I believe he bought it for £25.

Somewhere around 1975, by which time I was running the business, I was called to the phone. A man on the other end said he had a taxi to sell. Was I interested? When he told me it was a Metropolitan Hire Car I told him "it is out of the Ark" and no good as a working vehicle. He said he was desperate for some urgent cash and had nothing else to sell. To try to help, as he was only 25 miles away, I asked him for the registration number. These cars were comparatively rare and I might remember who owned it if it originated within a radius of 25-30 miles of Chesterfield and that a previous owner might be interested. I was dumbstruck when he said BTS 652. MY CAR!

"Not interested" was no longer the answer!!! I collected the car from Retford on trade plates. Replaced all the parts needed for MOT and re-sprayed it where necessary. We had ALL the parts including king pins and bushes AND reamers and brake linings etc. Because our fleet of these numbered 9 or 10 in the 1950s and we had never cleared out our spares!

The firm is now long gone, but the car is not! It is in my garage, along with remainder of the spares and it is not leaving again!
_________________
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!

[Rick]

I owned the green 2dr 122S Volvo twice.

I was running a four door 121 saloon, and regularly used to see a very smart green 122S in Cheadle Hulme. On at least one occasion I knocked on the door, just to admire it. A few years later I noticed it starting to look a little faded, and no longer being used, so I ended up buying it by this time needing some weldy weldy work.

A welder friend replaced the inner arches and did some other work to it, and I ran it for a while. Eventually I sold it to my welder pal (an Amazon fan and 123GT owner at the time). Shortly afterwards he crashed it into a lamp post, and sold it on again. In the meantime I'd broken another 121 for spares, a rotten old thing but blessed with brand new front wings. Somehow these wings ended up being sold to the new owner, who used them during the rebuild. He then went on to win shows with the car.

One day we were chatting and he mentioned that he was thinking of selling it, so back it came for the second time. I sold it a while later, partly because I'd just bought the A40 Devon, and partly because I thought it was just too shiny for me to look after (daft I know). Last heard of down south somewhere.

A certain E83W pickup has been here more times than I can remember now (either 3 or 4 since 1989), but its current owner can provide the details

R
_________________
Rick - Admin
Home:https://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk
Videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/oldclassiccarRJ/videos
OCC & classic car merchandise (Austin, Ford ++):
https://www.redbubble.com/people/OldClassicCar/shop

[Giggles]

No hope for my children then, as they spend all of their time being driven around in old cars. Hubby's first car in 1990 was a 1965 Beetle and our daily is a 22 year old Volvo, not quite in the same league as the old VW I know.
_________________
1953 Humber Hawk
1955 Ford Fairlane
1960 & 1963 Humber Super Snipe's