My shite FB Victors

[fbvictor]

I had a look at buying a 1500 estate version of one of these a fair while ago. It was the lack of seat belts that put me off in the end.

In other exciting FB news, a mate's dad had one when we were back at school, it rode really smoothly and we all sunk into the soft seats.

Odd thing was, when chap changed gear, it felt like we all sat completely upright for an instant and then sank back again.

Totally Bizarre!

My black FB wasn't registered until 1965, so seatbelts were fitted from new. I too travelled in the back of these when young, but I can't remember if the seats were as soft as you describe! 

[fbvictor]

I had a 63 FB in 73. Three speed box, column change.

Had to put 4 speed box in so it would tow a trailer up a hill without using bottom gear.

Had quite an hole where the floor should be and the chassis moved an inch each way with the steering box.

Four-on-the-floor gearboxes are more desirable, apparently, but I love the three-on-the-tree in my black car. I'm undecided yet about fitting a towbar

[fbvictor]

IIRC Danny Hopkins had it ( or one very much like it) in his earlier time at PC ( Around 2000 ish?) I think he had a bit of a problem with the sills having been creatively repaired in years gone by. #magazine anorak

I'm pretty certain that Danny Hopkins's car is still around, but it's not the one I now own

[fbvictor]

Welcome to the madhouse!

 

Not a Victor but a VX 4/90, whist I don't own a GM mobile I share your delight in Luton made products

I had an FC estate back in 1979, and just last year I broke a Powerglide FC for parts. I'd love to own another FC in usable condition some day

[wuvvum]

I was following a delightfully shonky FB through the centre of Norwich the other day.  I've seen it about a few times over the years, I think it's the chap's daily.  It is in a proper state mind.

[fbvictor]

More front-end shiteness:

 

 

The VAUXHALL  letters on the bonnet were only fitted to 1500cc FBs, and these aren't even the right ones --- due to the angle at which they sit, they're probably off the back of a Chevette or something. I don't have a spare bonnet, so the holes will have to be welded and filled

 

Also, the factory painted black strips on the grille have been polished out, changing its appearance --- I will be reinstating them in due course

 

Oh, and the sidelight/indicator lenses have been painted amber, meaning the car has amber sidelights like US cars... I've obtained one clear lens from an autojumble, but may try stripping the amber paint off these with a solvent that doesn't harm plastic (Fairy Power Spray or similar)

 

 

[Zantimisfit]

There's a load of these, at least six, up the car cemetery...if you need a new fuel filler flap or something. Bit of a trek mind!

 

 

 

 

Also one or two still knocking around. I think they sold quite well up this way

 

[Mally]

I'd love to own an estate, but they're either very expensive or very rusty these days...

 

Have had a couple of 101 Estates years ago. Got a lot of stick at work, "what you doin in that van?"

 

Everyone's got a hatchback these days.

[carlo]

Really like 60s Vauxhalls for some reason, the HB Viva was a lovely looking thing.  And my dad had a 101 (?) Cresta (1965) in white which was quite an imposing machine.

[Squire_Dawson]

Proper shite. Frontal styling looks good but I've never cared for the rear treatment.

[anonymous user]

 

I knew I had a pic of my old one somewhere. I owned it either in the very late 1980s or early 1990s, I only bought it as it had a towbar fitted and I had nothing with a towbar at the time (I never towed with it). Bought it in Cornwall, drove it back to Barry in South Wales ran it around for a few months then realised I had no real use for it so sold it. A couple of years later it turned up in the cars rotting in a hedge bit of Classic Car Weekly.

 

It had already had the original registration robbed off it before I bought it and the paint was dreadful as it had been stored for years under a plastic sheet. Despite the reputation for Vauxhalls of this age to rot badly it was structurally sound.

[Isaac Hunt]

Some interesting 'customisation' on the black one, good to see your working your way through the reversal.  Nice workshop.

[wuvvum]

Here's a gratuitous pic of my old one.

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I might be imagining this , but was there an FB fitted with 2.0 Cavalier front wheel drive running gear and hideous wheels , on eBay a couple of years ago?

It was truly awful and looked like the creator probably builds trikes as well.

[fbvictor]

There's a load of these, at least six, up the car cemetery...if you need a new fuel filler flap or something. Bit of a trek mind!

 

DSC_0603 - Copy.JPG

 

DSC_0648.JPG

 

DSC_0641.JPG

 

Also one or two still knocking around. I think they sold quite well up this way

 

FB_DSC_0005 - Copy.JPG

I wish there were still yards like that in the UK !

[fbvictor]

Proper shite. Frontal styling looks good but I've never cared for the rear treatment.

Possibly the front and rear ends of an FB look "mismatched" but the rear was certainly unlike anything else from a British car maker of the time and very distinctive (which can mean attractive or ugly!)

[fbvictor]

fb 001.jpg

 

I knew I had a pic of my old one somewhere. I owned it either in the very late 1980s or early 1990s, I only bought it as it had a towbar fitted and I had nothing with a towbar at the time (I never towed with it). Bought it in Cornwall, drove it back to Barry in South Wales ran it around for a few months then realised I had no real use for it so sold it. A couple of years later it turned up in the cars rotting in a hedge bit of Classic Car Weekly.

 

It had already had the original registration robbed off it before I bought it and the paint was dreadful as it had been stored for years under a plastic sheet. Despite the reputation for Vauxhalls of this age to rot badly it was structurally sound.

There are or were at least two two-tone estates like this on the custom scene, with V8 engines --- this colour scheme seems to suit the estate particularly well

[fbvictor]

Here's a gratuitous pic of my old one.

 

"The clean line of good design" as Vauxhall said in their FB adverts!

[fbvictor]

Rear end shite:

 

 

The "HISTORIC" sticker (home made!) was binned on my journey home when I bought the car... Unfortunately the chrome VAUXHALL badge above the number plate had been ruined by sanding, but I managed to find a NOS one online

 

I've started to improve the paintwork at the arse end:

 

 

Bootlid stripped to bare metal (no welding needed, just a bit of careful derusting and a small amount of filler), etch primed ready for topcoat (will be keeping car black as inside the boot, under the bonnet and the door shuts were painted that colour and it would be an arse to strip and repaint them).

 

Not much progress for a while --- I tried to flat back the black and aerosol spray the panel underneath the bootlid and the one inbetween the lid and the rear window, but even after sanding back to original Vauxhall paint there was pickling and bubbling... So much for my "one panel at a time, on a shoestring" rolling restoration --- it needs to be done properly

[quicksilver]

I might be imagining this , but was there an FB fitted with 2.0 Cavalier front wheel drive running gear and hideous wheels , on eBay a couple of years ago?

It was truly awful and looked like the creator probably builds trikes as well.

Yep, I have a vague memory of seeing such a thing at a show a long time ago.

 

Excellent work on the Victors. Those mods on the black one were, err, interestingly giffertastic and it looks a gazillion times better without them.

[Squire_Dawson]

Reading an advert for these in an old copy of The Motor, a great deal was made about how well the Victor was rust-proofed by factory treatment and designing out rust-traps. Indeed the main strapline for the advert went something like 'beneath every Vauxhall there's a No Entry sign', and a photograph of the car passing at speed through water. My favourite Victor is the F Type Mk.1, a car I'd very much like to own. I think by the time the FB made its appearance the notorious Vauxhall corrosion problem had been licked. 

[fbvictor]

Some interesting 'customisation' on the black one, good to see your working your way through the reversal.  Nice workshop.

Thank you --- I want to return it to standard, yes, but may spray the roof green to match the interior. That workshop is a bit more crowded now the other Victor's in there too...

[fbvictor]

I might be imagining this , but was there an FB fitted with 2.0 Cavalier front wheel drive running gear and hideous wheels , on eBay a couple of years ago?

It was truly awful and looked like the creator probably builds trikes as well.

Yes, it was around for a number of years and then got too rusty for the owner to drive it, so they sent it to the scrapyard, complete with "ROD" numberplate --- what a waste of that plate and useful parts!

[fbvictor]

Yep, I have a vague memory of seeing such a thing at a show a long time ago.

 

Excellent work on the Victors. Those mods on the black one were, err, interestingly giffertastic and it looks a gazillion times better without them.

See my reply above regarding the Cavalier-engined thing, which was wantonly scrapped recently: there would have been lots of usable parts on it, and the "ROD" numberplate would have made it worthwhile getting the thing through one last MoT... 

[fbvictor]

Reading an advert for these in an old copy of The Motor, a great deal was made about how well the Victor was rust-proofed by factory treatment and designing out rust-traps. Indeed the main strapline for the advert went something like 'beneath every Vauxhall there's a No Entry sign', and a photograph of the car passing at speed through water. My favourite Victor is the F Type Mk.1, a car I'd very much like to own. I think by the time the FB made its appearance the notorious Vauxhall corrosion problem had been licked. 

There are many more F-Type Victors still around compared to the FB and FC, despite the first Victors rusting terribly. My black FB does seem to have survived reasonably well and is sound underneath the horrible paint and silly mods, but my maroon one is just a parts car as it's been bodged through lots of MoTs...

[Squire_Dawson]

Oh, I like the one Jeff Randall drives in Randall and Hopkirk (deceased), don't think I've ever seen one of them apart from the white expensive one on eBay.

[fbvictor]

Interior shite: the black Victor had lost its original front seats when I bought it, but the slider frames had been welded onto some part-leather Mini Cooper seats:

 

 

They were actually quite comfortable, but they of course didn't match the rear seat (original but shagged-out green leather) so I put out feelers on another forum and was offered a front bench and rear seat in green vinyl from an FC Victor 101: the bench just about squeezes in between the door pillars, and luckily Vauxhall used the same spacing for the mountings on the FB and FC, so it bolted straight in. It's lower than the Mini seats, but I like it that way

 

The rear seat parts from the FC are wider than those of an FB, but I will be removing the covers from them and having them altered to fit my FB frames eventually. Luckily my original green door cards are in reasonable nick and almost match the FC seats in colour!

 

I sold the Mini seats on ebay, so got some of the money I spent on the FC seats back again

 

The 1600cc "facelift" FB Victors had a wooden dash panel on Deluxe models, but I don't think that suits the US-influenced lines of the car, so I've obtained an alloy dash panel from a standard/Super FB of the correct type --- 1500cc Victors had the switches etc. in slightly different positions. I'm also going to fit the silver-faced dials that go with the alloy dashes.   I do have TWO 1500 FB alloy dash panels for sale if anybody's interested

 

Visible in the picture are the welds on the replacement sills --- I'll tidy them up eventually, but they do seem to have been fitted carefully otherwise (I'm not sure what lies beneath them, though...), and although probably pattern panels don't look obvious when the doors are shut... Other than that, the car has had no welding as far as I'm aware (I need to check underneath the wings before returning the car to the road: a very vulnerable area which may have been plated in the past)

[59Impala]

I have to confess to banger racing an FB back in about 1976, it went quite well. I have owned a few Vauxhalls since, a 1959 Victor cost £40, Cresta PB and PC, FD Victor 2000 estate and about six HB and HC Vivas. I would like another FD or an FB VX4/90 but they're hard to find.

[JeeExEll]

Not FB but this was my screensaver for a while.

[steveo3002]

dont spose thats in sudbury is it ?   past one just like it if not

 

dly3.JPG