AnthonyG

According to this, both from a specialist German converter named Bieber: https://www.lot-art.com/auction-lots/Volkswagen-Scirocco-GTI-Bieber-Cabriolet-1980/47470363-volkswagen_scirocco-27.5.21-catawiki The cuts into the Golf’s door frame look surprisingly amateur for a professional conversion that was presumably approved by the TuV, or whatever the West German equivalent was in 1980.

How weird - surely if you can get a car to a tip you can get it to a scrapyard for actual money. Maybe the last ‘keeper’ didn’t actually own it.

Love those dashboards/interiors of the Oras - that’s proper glitz, particularly in the ‘Punk Cat’. Sadly concerns about blinding reflections from sunlight killed that sort of thing off for most manufacturers about 1970. Probably fine for the average smog/fog laden Chinese industrial city though.

Might be along next Saturday, weather dependent, but definitely for August 21/22nd. The Mazda requires some Kurusting and rustproofing so a chance to use those shallow ramps will be welcome. I also need* more Vauxhall brochures in my life 😜.

I know this may seem sacrilege, but with the price of scrap running as high as it is now, it is worth thinking about weighing some of them in? As an example, you’ve been trying to sell that diesel Mondeo for about £500 for more than a year - it might be worth nearly £400 from one of those car take back places. Vans too must be close to that, if not more. Just a thought, hope things start looking up for you soon.

Imperials were certainly banned from most US demolition derbies for many years due to their inherent strength. Imperials were built on a different body/frame to Chryslers for more than a decade, as Chrysler tried to distinguish them from Newports and New Yorkers in an effort to establish Imperial as a competitor marque to Cadillac and Lincoln, and these were the models that were banned. I think these unique Imperials started circa 1958 and ran to about 1969. This plan of brand differentiation never really worked, so in the early 1970s they were badged as Chryslers again, and became effectively a top spec version of a New Yorker.

Now that’s strength!

I assume Cedric is a monocoque/unibody design and not body on frame? It might not need a jig but you do need someone with the right kit i.e proper alignment equipment to assess it for you. You may need to tell them what (the dimensions etc) it should be though! I think these were type-approved for the U.K. back in the day? If they were then I reckon Nissan U.K. should have the required documentation.

These are not particularly strong, and less so if there is rust affecting the panels or frame. These cars were built on an X frame, which didn’t do them any favours in the impact resistance front. The panels are welded together and then bolted onto the frame, but it’s not a monocoque (‘unibody’ in US speak). The lack of any side frame, standard in the ladder design, meant side impacts were a particular weakness. If you want strong American cars from this era you need to be looking at Chrysler Corporation products. The bigger ones had both a unibody (from the firewall back) and a frame! Somebody crashed a 2009 Chevrolet into a 1959 one about a decade ago. As you might expect, it didn’t end well for the 1959 one. The 2009 Chevy was a Malibu so think Mondeo Mk4/5 size. GM abandoned the X frame quite quickly for them, and 65 onwards Chevrolets went back to a stronger design.

It purports to be information from an American market press release, from ‘Leyland North America’. I’m pretty sure the American BL importer was only ever known as ‘British Leyland North America’. There is only a scan of the letterhead, not the complete press release. Whoever wrote this also makes grammatical errors and there’s a reference to Leyland’s ‘Perry Thomas’. It doesn’t read like the real thing to me. All the information on the car on the ‘BritishV8.org’ site appears to be from this press release. Rover sold cars on the American market at this time, whereas nothing badged Leyland was ever sold there. I suspect a very high level of total bullshit.

It can be done but takes absolutely ages - the only abandoned one we had in our flat parking was also Polish registered so even more complicated as there was no way of finding how who the ‘owner’ was. I think it involves contacting the DVLA to establish who the keeper is, sending them a letter, then a reminder etc. After a certain period of time has elapsed the ‘ownership’ of the car must be transferred somehow to the landlord so they can arrange disposal of it. I have no idea how our management company dealt with the Polish Daewoo, it was unlocked and did occasionally have homeless people sleeping in it so I suspect they were given permission by the police or council to remove it on health and/or nuisance grounds. At the end of the day, if the owner lived in one of the flats, they would have been breaking the terms of the lease by keeping an untaxed/unroadworthy car on the premises (wording and restrictions will vary, but there’s usually a clause about any vehicles being ‘legal’ and kept in reasonable condition i.e. if you are not using on the road it must be on SORN and not allowed to fall to pieces). So the management company could easily argue - to someone who might have been away for absolutely ages and returned to no car - that no compensation was due for the loss of the vehicle as you were breaking the terms of your lease.

The theme tune competition certainly bought back memories. I got The Streets of San Francisco but totally missed It’ll be Alright on the Night! To prepare for the next one, you just have to watch ITV4 & Talking Pictures TV 24/7 for about three months. This is how @MondeoBlues did so well despite his comparative youth.

Many thanks as always to @Six-cylinderand @Mrs6C for hosting, @Inspector Morosefor the choice photographs. and, assisted by @davidfowler2000, the very enjoyable ‘Name that TV theme tune’ competition on Saturday evening. And everybody else for coming.

Best Frontera fact* courtesy of Wikipedia is that the original Isuzu it’s based on is known as the ‘MU’ in Japan. MU stands for ‘Mysterious Utility’ 👍

As usual, there will be some free books/mags available courtesy of Autoshite’s resident librarian. I will also have a few to sell, will put them up separately in the For sale thread. People can call dibs here or fight it out at the FoD for the free stuff: Haynes Laguna 1 Petrol & Diesel Haynes Maestro 1.3 & 1.6 Haynes Montego 2.0 Haynes Talbot Horizon (don’t all shout at once) Haynes Range Rover Classic (Petrol only) Illustrated History of Dennis Buses and Trucks, Nick Baldwin, 1987 (few pages missing at the end) World Sports Car Championship, Cyril Posthumus (bit tatty), 1961 Motor Cycles and how to manage them, Iliffe, 1954, ok condition. The Essential guide to choosing and using your 4x4 vehicle, 1998, a small paperback from Land Rover but does include info on other makes. Trucks of the World Highways, Arthur Ingram, 1979. Dust jacket tatty but good condition otherwise.