Twas Autumn 2001 (busy year this for acquiring rusty old cars) and I received an email out of the blue, offering me an A40 Farina cheap, complete with shed load of spare parts. Naturally I was interested, and gave the
guy a call. Even better was that although he'd tracked me down on the internet via another website I used to maintain (RIP Jalopy), he only lived a few miles down the road.
That same evening therefore I donned grubby jeans and jacket,
and set forth to inspect this
classic Austin, Pininfarinas first attempt at styling a BMC machine (he went on to do the Oxford/Cambridge series of Morris and Austin cars). My original plan had been to acquire this car and use it as a donor for
my Mk1 A40. As it turned out, this latest machine was a Mk2 and subtly different in many ways, plus in all honesty it was too nice to chop up. The MOT had run out in June, primarily due to tinworm in the sills (spring hangers ok though).
Nice colour combination too, mid grey with cream roof, and the rare early Mk2 (still 948cc!) 2 tone interior which I really took to.
The end result was inevitable really, and I ended up buying said classic Austin for a reasonable sum, including a
mountain of secondhand spares. My thinking is that this could be a quick doer-upper and would make a great little runabout, especially as I've recently been practicing with my new MIG welder and seem to have the hang of producing reasonable
welds. The car itself drives very nicely, and shouldn't take too much work to sort out, but whether I'll get around to it or not I don't know!
August '02 Update: Deciding that one A40 in the fleet was quite enough (especially as I'm in the middle of rebuilding my family-owned-from-new Mk1) I
sold this Mk2 on to a couple who are fortunate enough to live just down the road from Beaulieu, which will be handy at Autojumble time when it comes to finding
parts for their tasty little Austin!
May '05 Update: The new owners decided to sell on this little Austin on ebay, and now it has gone to a new home in Wales I believe.
New: Are you interested in A40s? read my new Austin A40 Buyers Guide!
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