The story of a Ford Anglia estate 1966 > 2013 RIP

[Anglevan]

I've not contributed to the world of autoshite for a while, despite my obsession with some serious pieces of shite (namely the Shitsubishi Lancer) My early passion is the humble Ford Anglia 105e. Since I was 18 I've owned quite a few with a 50 / 50 split between saloon and estate models. I much prefer the estate, one because of the rarity (they are rarer than the van) and two because they are a practical and IMO a good looking estate model of the day.

 

This story states in 1966 (although I only became involved in 1989)

The car was registered JBY355D in London to a company (cant remember which) in 1971 for car found it's way to a main Ford Dealer in Derby. This is where a chap bought the vehicle (again cant remember his name)

This chap laboured love in this car and fitted a heater to the engine and wouldn't start without the engine being warm, he kept a diary of the vehicle and this was immense.

 

Roll onto 1989 - At the time I was rebuilding an Anglia saloon (at the time I owned 2 saloons, a standard and deluxe) I placed a wanted advert in the Anglia owners club for a grille for my Deluxe and the same guy in Derby phoned me to say that he owned an Anglia estate that he was scrapping and would I be interested in the grille. I lived in Leeds at the time so Derby was not too far so I decided one weekend to pay the chap a visit.

 

And this is the car in Derby, we had agreed a price of £100 with me to collect the following weekend. You can just make out the owner reversing the car back into it's garage (probably for the last time)

 

 

The following weekend with the help of a mate we agreed to collect using my mums Lada Niva (which at the time would have been only a couple of months old) - I have more pics of that if any interest. I thought that car was ace and would have another any day given the chance but that's for another day.

 

This is in Derby

 

 

And hooked up to the Niva

 

 

And back home in Leeds

 

 

A quick assessment of the estate showed that it needed some welding to the N/S inner wing and some brake pipes. As my garage was full a neighbour (the owner of the Metro and Suzuki Carry) lent me the use of his garage

 

 

 

 

and welded up - that blue panel is a panel removed from the roof of a Mitsubishi Colt that I fit the sunroof into. I was 19 at the time these were taken.

 

 

Anyways the car was pressed into service and was my daily driver - after a quick clean and general tidy this is how it was run - the engine was the best I'd ever had in an Anglia and had done 70,000 ish miles genuine.

 

 

 

 

 

The car was then used for the next 2 years as my only daily driver - it never let me down and I drove all over the country in it collecting parts or going to shows - My deluxe saloon was nearly finished so I needed to sell this as such I decided to sell the car at the time the mileage was about 99,000 - I never did quite roll over the 100,000 mark.

 

I sold the estate to another Anglia member for £750 around 1991 / 1992 to a guy up in Gargrave north Yorkshire.

There is stayed for another couple of years and I kept in touch with the guy. A couple of years ago I bumped into him and he said he sold to guy Lincoln way, and there it disappeared and I never heard any more about it until this year.  

 

 

Roll on 2013 and browsing ebay for estate bits (yes I still own an Anglia) and spotted this

 

 

I noticed the rear sticker and the mark on the tailgate, colour etc - I thought could this be my old Anglia?? he was stating the mileage was genuine at 36,000 (don't think so) I contacted him and said was it JBY355D to which he replied yes it was how did I know ??? It was on as normal auction and I was really tempted - problem was it was in Southampton !!! My mate tried to talk me into buying it but no I couldn't. It sold for £600 with no tax or test but think it was being upped by his mate as a few weeks later it appeared again - this time in bits

 

sorry for small pics - but copied from ebay.

 

 

 

 

So sadly while I saved the car in 1989, and it managed another 66,000 miles it sadly is no more which is a shame.

 

So there is my tale of my old JBY355D - plenty of shite to spot and if you want to know any more about the Niva let me know as plenty of pics of that... Thanks for reading

 

 

 

 

 

[Wilko220]

Nice read and pics but a sorry story. 

[Lord Sterling]

Great story man, shame about how it ended up.

 

I think its important not to let the seller of the vehicle know how much its worth to you, I.e its an old vehicles of yours/your dads/grandads etc.... as sellers will instantly see money before thier eyes. Hence why shill bidding was going on.

[RedSparrow]

That's a bit sad.

[ShiteRider]

This actually makes me quite sad. Gutted for you mate.

[derskine]

Sad story but extremely interesting, love the anglia and the various shite in the pictures too

[Anglevan]

Great story man, shame about how it ended up.

 

I think its important not to let the seller of the vehicle know how much its worth to you, I.e its an old vehicles of yours/your dads/grandads etc.... as sellers will instantly see money before thier eyes. Hence why shill bidding was going on.

 

It's a really good point and to be honest I tried not to be too excited that i'd found it after all those years and I'd have loved to have saved it again. Sadly the guy was only interested in the coin and for my to ship back up to Yorkshire it was too much. he did list heck of a lot of parts off it and I was tempted to buy some of the parts to at least say I had somat from it but thought sod it I wasn't going to contribute to his Stella fund.

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Poor car  

 

Good post though. 

[In The Pit]

A good read and some nice pictures.  I guess if the shell is sold with its id it could live on.

[For Fiats Sake]

Great write up, sad ending, loved the pictures.

[saucedoctor]

What a shame. Good write up and story, though.

[dollywobbler]

What a shame. Good write up and story, though.

 

This. A nice read indeed.

[phil_lihp]

Great story and pictures, a slightly sad ending but then again on a positive note it lasted nearly four decades and now it lives on keeping other Anglias going.  

[Cheggers]

Thanks for this, a great story well told, albeit with a less than happy ending...this is why I still (sometimes) love this place.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk - now Free

[trigger]

Thanks for sharing that, I enjoyed reading it and the photos but like the others have said, the endings sad, a bit like Forrest Gump but with less Jennys.

[fordperv]

Shame you didn't have it back fella, I do like a good shite reunited story and I really expected this to be one of them when it got to the part about it coming up on eBay

[mercrocker]

There is no good reason why an Anglia estate should die in 2013, that is a sad tale to  end my day on.   Cherish your memories, fella.....

[rml2345]

^This. Pretty pointless waste really. Excellent write up of a pretty sad tale. It's a shame you couldn't save it again but we can't save them all unfortunately. Especially if someone is bidding it up in the hope of extracting extra coin through sentimentality. The bastards...

[jbz2079]

I find that the proble of gold plated shite is almost entirely down to E-bay and such like auction sites.

How mant time have you seen somthing old listed and it usually has a list of faults as long as a toilet roll.

But it's old innit? bound to be able to make something out of someone for it.

 

This applies to everything sold on these sitesfrom cars to old Hi/fi everything has an eye watering price that usually kills off any genuine enthusiasm you might have had to have a go.

[Junkman]

Why does this world have to be such a cruel place?

I'm sitting here crying like a little child.

[Tetleysmooth]

Ah, fond memories. My first ever car was a 105e saloon. Cost me 55 quid. I passed my test in it. 2796 VW. Wonder where that is now.

[Anglevan]

Cheers for all the comments - only on Autoshite could you share a story about a beige estate with bright red interior and have sympathy passed on regards it's loss.

Before I wrote it, I thought it was just a story - I now know it was part of the family ... If i'd have shared that story on any other forum and i'd have been slated for my sentimentality.  

As an added, the guy did list it again on ebay (it's just that I didn't save the pictures) and at that time it was a bare shell with everything stripped - was a sad day, even then he was asking £300 for the bare shell with ID - so yes it may live on however sadly the estate does not get the attention that the saloon or vans get so I think it will be bean cans now on a brighter note I still own an Anglia and one day i'll post pics of that (probably when it's finished).

 

Now do you want to know about the bright yellow Viva with tartan interior I used to own that ended up being rattle canned by the new owner  or the Lada Niva shown in the pics that was rear ended by a Fiat Uno and almost written off but I rebuilt it ... (The Fiat Uno did not survive !!)

[chaseracer]

Now do you want to know about the bright yellow Viva with tartan interior I used to own that ended up being rattle canned by the new owner  or the Lada Niva shown in the pics that was rear ended by a Fiat Uno and almost written off but I rebuilt it ... (The Fiat Uno did not survive !!)

HELL YES!!!

 

[HillmanImp]

What a shame. Good read though.

 

I would love to find a couple of my old cars.

 

I tried tracing one a while back. I suspect its been ringed as I had lost the VIN plate on it and the guy who owned it after me got pulled by the police and they thought he was trying it on to get cheap tax, so it got put onto a Q plate. It has definately not been scrapped as was too good.

 

A couple of other ones are AWOL too.

[hennabm]

36,000 miles claimed

 

Just goes to show that the older cars without 100,000 mile digit on their odometer can be misread.

 

I wonder how many so called low mileage cars have been passed off over the past 10/15 year as their history becomes more obscure.

[CortinaDave]

My old yellow 1971 Mk3 Cortina GXL resurfaced again recently. I owned it from 1999 - 2008 and sold it on still in good shape.

 

Next owner YO SLAMMED IT MAN then ran it as his daily through a couple of heavy winters before cutting out most of the floorpan and abandoning it in a muddy field at his lockup. Result = its fooked.

 

I thought it was a goner but its somehow made its way to Dublin, the (in fairness really nice ) guy who has it now bought it for parts to resto his own car but wanted to give me the chance to "save it" first.

 

He wants £1500 for it though, says its dog rough and I'd still have to get it back over here so its a no go. Always sad when you find out a car you cherished for years has gone through a  couple of muppet owners and as a result is dead. But when you sell up its no longer up to you what happens to it.

 

If i'd got to it before it got trailered off to Ireland for sensible money chances are I'd have bought it back and tried to slowly revive it, but now its in another country it makes no sense!

[DVee8]

Thanks for sharing sad tail.

Now can we have more Lada Niva action and Viva stories please.