AnthonyG

The extra door mirror could have been fitted at the dealer. It does have the proper base dash from the pic in the ad, and also the door trims are correct. Even the tan side stripe is right looking at the July 1982 Ford Cars catalogue. Sienna Brown with tan interior is the right combo on the colour/trim front. Hope it makes it into the fold so I can have a proper perv over it at a shitefest/FoD event. Happy to buy it some oil/petrol or other service bits if it does!

These were really popular Stateside in their first few years, particularly as GM only had the Chevette based models as competition, and Chrysler the Horizon. Between 81 and 85 the Escort was in the top three best sellers easily. After the mid 80s the Japanese started their domination of this sector with the Corolla and Civic, and the Yanks slowly started to give up. Conversely, the EXP was a bit of a damp squib and didn’t last very long. I bet a 2.3 engined Mustang wasn’t that much more expensive, particularly once a eager salesman got his teeth into the prospective buyer! Pretty

Geek alert - BMC plus Jaguar/Daimler become British Motor Holdings not British Motor Corporation. The last car designed by Daimler was the SP250 sports car. Although there was a brief mad plan for a Vauxhall Cresta PA with the V8 and an ersatz Daimler front to replace the Conquest/Century models. Thankfully Jaguar stopped such nonsense.

The only modern car I’ve seen with dog dishes was the ‘New Beetle Mk2’, or however VW defined the one they launched around about 2013. I don’t expect VW added lugs to the steel wheels in the old school way, so it be worth having a look at one to see how it works. I would add that it may be a clever full wheel trim with body colour bits to make it look like the old ones - never seen one up close.

I think for sheer cynicism the Corsa E (? the one launched about 2014 and only just replaced?) is hard to beat. GM had plainly lost all interest in Opel and just wanted a replacement as soon and cheaply as possible, whilst they waited for someone to take the company off their hands. So they used the same bodyshell as the last one, with a new front end tacked on. The new Pug designed one looks light years better, and is probably a damn sight better to drive as well. It’s basically a 208 without that weird driving position.

Diesel Enfield Bullets were sold retail, an auctioneer I knew in Carmarthen had one. Typical West Walian, everything has to be diesel there! This would have been about 20 years ago, the bike was on one of the last prefix plates like a X or a Y. He fitted one of those Watsonian sidecars. The ‘combination’ looked quite stylish but sounded like a tractor (the Lombardini heritage no doubt) and must have had acceleration times measurable in minutes.

Shame about the Maestro but I reckon it might be quite a bit rustier than the 800, although you’re right that parts are probably easier to find. £700 is a bit mad though, there was a very similar working MoT’d one that changed hands on here for £400 or thereabouts very recently. On the bright side, it leaves you more time for sorting the 800!

I think the launch of the W210 coincided with the Chrysler take-over, when the Daimler chairman of the time went all Master Race and decided to take on VW, only to start a decade of corporate infighting and general organisational crapness. They’ve spent 20 years trying to recover their game after those two decisions of the mid 1990s. The rot* started with the first C class, I expect they realised the W201 was completely over engineered and perhaps barely profitable in its home market - where they can’t change 15% more than everyone else and still sell loads - and decided to cheapen it.

There were two of these, more or less the same era as yours, for sale in a really crappy garage in Eardisley, Herefordshire in the summer - ironically the exact site was a Daihatsu dealer around 30 years ago. They were both up for around £2.5k and didn’t look particularly presentable from a quick drive-by. Asking if either example had a valid MoT would probably have been met with laughter. They were sold within the week - these things do have hardcore fans. There are still quite a few around the area. I think the last were registered in mid 2001 - I’ve seen X and Y plate ones but

Firstly I am amazed this car has survived, and secondly well done for having the stones to save it! I’m pleased it’s rewarded you by being a runner and not having much rust. The list of missing parts is a little weird, obviously I can understand the windows and wheels, but the rest is a little strange. For things like door cards - did the previous owner to you start breaking it and sell the odd item here and there or were they just ruined by the vandals? Anyway, good luck with finishing the restoration and also with potential purchase of the Maestro!

VPs went through final assembly in the Vanden Plas place (North London somewhere?) I can well imagine them getting another coat of paint if the VP people felt the Longbridge job hadn’t been good enough. Or possibly the bodies were all done in primer in Brim and paint was done in London. Basically - VP ‘gros went through two factories, so lots of opportunities for a double go at the paint.

I imagine the back of the light units is some sort of crappy die cast alloy - the ‘corrosion’ looks similar to how very sickly Dinky toys could get. The word ‘mazak’ comes to mind, not sure if that was a company or the actual name of the alloy.

Who makes the XF? Might get one for the mantlepiece! Ideally a Minichamps or similar would be ideal, the one you have looks like Matchbox size (1:75)?

Those 1970s/1980s restorations were either done properly or very badly, and I would imagine those done badly are probably parts cars now, or will have been scrapped in the intervening 30 years. I do think vintage/prewar cars were probably ‘easier’ for an amateur back then to restore, I accept parts were harder to get (although not as hard as trim/body components for 70s stuff now) and fabric/wood coach work could be hard to rebuild if you didn’t have the skills, but generally the metal was a lot thicker and the mechanical components very simple. How much of a market there is for this

I agree, I think it will be seen as quite antisocial unless the vehicle is obviously ‘historic’. And I suspect such vehicles will only be allowed out on certain days/times or for certain purposes. The alternative is electric conversion and I note that GM will soon offer a ‘crate electric conversion’ that fits in the equivalent space of the original engine & box and uses the existing propshaft etc. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1130129_chevy-makes-all-electric-classic-blazer-suv-to-show-off-upcoming-ecrate-package