Jump to content

Mr Bols big tat-filled day


Mr_Bo11ox

Recommended Posts

Hey all,

 

I had big plans for today that involved a 170-mile A-frame mission. That didn't happen, but I have had a heavily tat-laden day which may interest you.

 

The story starts back in February 1973 when Great_Auntie_Mollie_Bo11ox purchased a new Austin 1300 Mk3 WVE225L from her local BL dealer J.S.Holmes of Wisbech St Mary. This dealer is still trading, though it sells Nissans now and has done since the Datsun days. Anyway G_A_M_B kept the car till her death in 1990, at which point it was given to Fatha_Bo11ox, him being the car dude of the family. He didn't have a use for it so gave it to a friend of Mutha_Bo11ox, who was notable for her exceptionally fit daughter who is now a model I believe. Anyway she enjoyed using 'Bruce' (as the car become known) for a year or so, this being the time when these things were just on the cusp of classicdom ("Blimey love, i've not seen one of those for a while" etc) although fighting a tense battle against its permanently deflating hydrolastic suspension. Eventually she upgraded to another car and Bruce was given to the then 16-year old MR_BO11OX. At this point the car was still pretty clean and tidy though did have some rust problems, particularly the under-the-back-seat area and the toe board under the pedals. Also there was a slow leak on the hydrolastic which I had neither the equipment, money or skills to deal with. However it only had 40k on, a known history, a fully-stamped service book and was original right down to the cardboard box for the jack and wheel brace, i.e. totally unmolested. I drove it up and down our farm track for a while and when the suspension got too low, there was not a lot I could do with it so I put it up on blocks and took the subframes out to investigate its problems. Unfortunately I didn't get much further than dismantling it, and eventually offered it to my classmate ALAN who had a few more tools than me including a welding machine so i figured he could make a better fist of it than I could. PLus back then Alan had a mega array of shite including various minis, a Maxi and lord knows what else, the 1300 would fit right in. He put it back together, then stored it at a friend's farm in their barn. It was then forgotten about till a couple of months ago, when through Facebook Alan asked if, after almost 20 years of his stewardship, I would like it back!!!!! I said 'Defo' and went up to Northumberland today with the A-frame.

 

Alan is a serious shite lover and we had a look in his rented shed space where he has some of his fleet stashed.

 

P1030831.jpg

P1030832.jpg

 

Me and him pulled this Alfa GTV out of a Whitley Bay scrapyard in about 1993 or 4. It had been lifted onto another car but was complete and looked great, steel wheels and chrome bumpers. Rusty sills though. We paid £100 and dollied it home behind his land rover to his shed, where it has sat ever since!!!! We did try to get it going once but the engine has no compression at all. I bought a pair of new sills for it when you could still get them, it will live again one day either via his efforts or mine.

 

P1030833.jpg

Alans flagship is this slightly crispy Jensen interceptor. Its got engine problems, one pot has a holed piston and some core plugs have rotted out. However its lovely inside and the sort of car you could sit and look at for hours. Again, it will get sorted out eventually.

 

P1030834.jpg

This E21 320 carb only has about 20,000 miles on it and is a minter despite the layers of dust. Its been off the road for 5 years or something. Alan used this as his daily for a while, I think he would sell it but not for a 3-figure sum.

 

Anyway i'd travelled up to do something with this 1300 so we went over to where it was stashed. The old boy who owned the farm where it was stored, had died and they were clearing out his huge quantity of tat, so the 1300 needed shifting. It had been indoors for the 20 years but was now out in the yard

 

P1030835.jpg

When i saw the state of it i immediately realised I wasn't going to be A-framing this home. It actually looks better in the above pic as I took the hydro pump and blew up the suspension. When i clapped eyes on it it was sat with its belly in the grass, which never helps the looks. Also it is on a selection of rotten radial and cross-ply tyres which i would defo not chance on the M6!

P1030837.jpg

We pumped it up and to my amazement it stayed up, one of the hydro pipes had been replaced with a placca one, I remember the rusty pipe driving me mental back in the day.

P1030836.jpg

P1030838.jpg

 

Like all 1300's, the main problem is ROT.

P1030845.jpg

P1030846.jpg

The box section across the back where the subframe bolts on is rotten. It was bad when I had it, but that was 20 years ago and now it looks like this. The lower 'closing panel' sills are also gone most of the way down. The wings and doors are very good, and the inner and outer sills look pretty decent too. Panel gaps are super tight. Bulkhead and trumpets are good. But welding this lot up would take me A LONG TIME!

 

Anyway we decided to move it to Alans place where he has been building a new shed, at least it would be out of the scrap mans reach for a bit longer while I decided what to do about it, if anything. That meant A-framing it 1 mile along a country road which was more achievable.

 

P1030839.jpg

All hooked up:

P1030840.jpg

 

To be fair it rolled along no problems. We got it back to base and parked it up:

P1030847.jpg

Heres my calendar shot, parked next to Alans new septic tank:

P1030848.jpg

 

Now alan's a proper nice chap and didn't like to see me going away empty-handed so he said 'I've got a front subframe for one of these with a low-mileage 1275 engine, do you want it? It'll probably just get weighed otherwise' Obv I said yes. Heres the treasure:

P1030843.jpg

.... out of a 1300 countryman that he scrapped years ago. I've got the carb for it and it still turns nice and smooth.

 

Anyway we used the mini-digger to lug it into my pick-up. Alans not too comfortable using the mini-digger so sometimes has to call in some help from Dixie, as shown here:

P1030841.jpg

Dixie drove it out Gromit-style while Alan wondered how much cheese they had left for that night.

P1030842.jpg

 

In the truck it went:

P1030844.jpg

The hydro displacers in it look in very good nick so are worth hanging onto for defo. Along with a NOS unused BL Hydro pipe which I shall probably eBay and a bonnet for LankyTims 1300. Not sure what i'm going to do with this engine, really the best thing would be to use it to undo the handiwork of the many Mini enginebummers out there. We'll see.

 

Heres dixie resting her chin after a weary tatting session, I know how she feels...

P1030849.jpg

 

Anyway having got home and mulled over this 1300 i'm now wondering whats the best thing to do. I've checked the Earlpart website and £200 would buy 2 new closing sills and a new heelboard which would fix the worst of the rot here, its an unusual situation for me to be able to actually buy panels for a car project. Obv its economically a goner, but the family connection adds a bit of weight to the argument for fixing it and the fact that it made it this far somehow makes it seem more worthwhile to preserve it! i would say the rot is not much more worse than the Crab that i welded up, and the fact that you can actually buy the metalwork makes a big difference. I'd have to trailer it home too, theres no way i'd a-frame that with the subframe mountings like they are. I reckon a week off work blitzing the welding would sort the worst of it and I would not be afraid to try and paint it myself. I know that the engine and box are cracking as well. I think if I got it i'd have to move the avenger on as-is as I could not contemplate lengthening my project queue any further. Anyway i'm off to bed now, i'm sure the answer will become clear in time!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love AD016's in a big way.

Something like that would give me cold sweats just thinking about it, but it has to be said the metal work can be fixorated if the rest of the meckanikery bits are good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GR8 thread.

 

Another for the 'get it welded' theme here, panels are available and you defo have the skills so why not? EVERYONE knows ADO16s are ace so get cracking!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As has been said you should do this one up! And maybe find an aggro that needs a new engine, sell that on obvs.

 

This car has hung about for 20 years, it's a sign!

 

I'm thoroughly pleased with the idea that Kate Moss's brother welds up shonky maseratis and landcrabs and stuff, for fun! Does she ever help out at all? I bet she makes a cracking cup of tea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah Louise, its not Mutha_Bo11ox that has the fit model daughter, its her friend!!! I do have a sister admittedly, but TBH I 'wouldn't' for a variety of reasons.

 

I have been given the 1275 FOC so would be happy to pass it on to someone who was 'unbumming' an allegro or ADO16 or whatever, if someone has a good use for it PM me with your 'case details'!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I take it as given that we will be reading your Bo1 Blog on the restoration of this - Got to be worth doing - make a GR9 story for Sam's rag and you might even get a free set of Meguires out of it!

 

These are getting very popular - only 5 years ago there were still quite a few around and you could get em for sweeties - suddenly they started to cost about 2 years back.

 

and it's not a shonky CX!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Top work, Mr Bol :)

 

I think many of us would love to get our hands back on our first car - I let my solid 127 1300GT go for buttons when all it did was eat a head gasket... 16 years later, and more financially solvent / possessing some rudimentary mechanical skillz, I wish I still had it.

 

Will look forward to seeing this progressing :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great thread, I'm with the opinion of the others, It's obviously means something to you as it has personally history unlike your other ebay sourced cars, we all know your more then capable of rectifying the bodywork and with the panels freely available then you should get it done.

 

I for one would love to read about the resurrection of this on your RR thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not going to get any disagreement here! Of course you must save this! The family story is everything with this car, failing to save it would be a crime. It'll make a six-page story in PC, remember to take loads of pics. :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No question - you have to restore it. It's YOUR FIRST CAR, dammit! And a double whammy if you can ensure another one gets un-bummed.

 

Like everyone here, I'd love my first car back. Red Fiat 850 ATB139L - bought new by Mutha Gricer in 1973 (in exchange for an 1100) are you out there? Still on the Doovla 'puter as last taxed in 1989 - by which time little Fiats had half a chance of being tucked away rather than weighed in.

 

If anyone has this car in the back of a barn....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Bu77ox, what's actually "up" with that Avenger? I thought it was nearly done now bar some kind of thing with the headlights and a bit of buffing. I reckon since this is safely barned away you might as well just get that finished off first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...