HMC- Mr Chowdhury’s Mercedes

[BorniteIdentity]

That's brilliant.  Tatty and honest - just the ticket.

I remember in 1999 I was 16 and me and my mate knew another guy who was a year older than us and he'd just passed his test.  Lovely guy - Christian family - and his NAN insisted that her car went to him.  Robert therefore had a brown Mk2 Escort on a V plate and everyone (other than me) felt sorry for him.  His contemporaries had Clios, Fiestas, the odd 205 and Novas - and he had to park his Mk2 Escort around the corner to avoid getting RINSED by his mates.  

Nowadays, he'd be everyone's hero.

Same with Cortinas.  Our caretaker had a brace of MK5 Cortinas and by 1999 I remember marvelling at them in the school playground thinking 'Fucking hell they look shit nowadays'.  They were both 17 years old, my daily is now 25.  

Crazy how things change so quickly.

Anyway, enough bumbling of the insane - well bought @HMC

[HMC]

1990 just arrived with someones first set of wheels…..

[HMC]

Once off loaded….

[HMC]

But first matter of business…. lets just turn the orgy of stickerage down a bit….

 

 

 

[HMC]

However- 

this one can stay

And this one ive added….

[HMC]

So the paints knackered, and its a bit accessorised. So very 1990. But then again its unwelded and original- not very 1990 at all.

 

[wesacosa]

love it. I'd be inclined to bin those red Ford badges too, even though I used to have them on my old Capri and thought they were cool 

[HMC]

Just now, wesacosa said:

love it. I'd be inclined to bin those red Ford badges too, even though I used to have them on my old Capri and thought they were cool 

My thoughts too, I remember they looked cool (in the 90s)

[dome]

23 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

love it. I'd be inclined to bin those red Ford badges too, even though I used to have them on my old Capri and thought they were cool 

Am I right in saying you used to be able to sand the back of them down to get rid of the blue paint and then spray them whatever colour you wanted?

Car looks ace BTW!

[egg]

Ah, it's great. Well bought. The only thing I prefer about the earlier models is the older style 2 spoke steering wheel.

[danthecapriman]

That is awesome! Well bought that man👍

Goes to show what a decent climate does for cars. Hopefully it’ll not rust into the ground in this wet cold salty shit hole!

 

Back when I got my Capri in 2001 all these old Ford’s were at that point of being deeply unpopular. I got loads of shit off my peers for having it. How the tables have turned! Which is a blessing and a curse in some ways.

[catsinthewelder]

I was driving back up the M5 towards Bristol last night and saw a transporter heading your way with a car that looked a lot like this but assumed it must be another one.  Was he still towing the mk2 Transit when he got to you?

[HMC]

6 minutes ago, catsinthewelder said:

I was driving back up the M5 towards Bristol last night and saw a transporter heading your way with a car that looked a lot like this but assumed it must be another one.  Was he still towing the mk2 Transit when he got to you?

That must have been him, he was dragging an empty trailer behind when he got to me.  Was it white/red? think i remember him saying something about a mk2 transit ex german fire dept.

[catsinthewelder]

@HMC I think it was red but I did nearly 15 hours yesterday so its all a bit of a blur 🫠

[Dick Cheeseburger]

1 hour ago, dome said:

Am I right in saying you used to be able to sand the back of them down to get rid of the blue paint and then spray them whatever colour you wanted?

Car looks ace BTW!

I remember that! My mate used to change the colour of his badges on his red Cortina P100 pickup every other week. Yellow seemed to be a favourite from what I remember. While I'm reminiscing, the boss at the garage at the time bought a white mk2 Escort on an N plate for the forecourt. I remember stuffing a load of p38 in the front wings to cover his shonky plates. It was an unusual one though - it was on an N plate. Has anyone seen another on an N? I remember mk1s were still being registered on N plates. 

The Escort looks really solid - well bought. I see the sticker tells the story of its Portuguese past - that would explain the rogered paint but lack of rot. 

[jonathan_dyane]

I had a neighbour with one the same colour, model and year however pretty rusty by the time it failed and MOT to be scrapped and replaced my a mk2 Fiesta by the late 90s

[wesacosa]

30 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

I remember that! My mate used to change the colour of his badges on his red Cortina P100 pickup every other week. Yellow seemed to be a favourite from what I remember. While I'm reminiscing, the boss at the garage at the time bought a white mk2 Escort on an N plate for the forecourt. I remember stuffing a load of p38 in the front wings to cover his shonky plates. It was an usual one though - it was on an N plate. Has anyone seen another on an N? I remember mk1s were still being registered on N plates. 

The Escort looks really solid - well bought. I see the sticker tells the story of its Portuguese past - that would explain the rogered paint but lack of rot. 

My first car was an N reg Mk2

 

[egg]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

That must have been him, he was dragging an empty trailer behind when he got to me.  Was it white/red? think i remember him saying something about a mk2 transit ex german fire dept.

Not this one posted on ebay tat?

[jonathan_dyane]

That not a Transit it's an A series 

[HMC]

18 minutes ago, egg said:

Not this one posted on ebay tat?

more like that but red/white

[Matty]

Hasta driven it yet boss??

[HMC]

42 minutes ago, Matty said:

Hasta driven it yet boss??

Just around the block to park it up. Gearbox feels nice, but needs a bit of a serice/ tune up. Much choke and some bogging down. Much preferable to a weldathon!

[egg]

16 minutes ago, HMC said:

Gearbox feels nice

in my memory they do feel nice to use too.

[wesacosa]

10 minutes ago, egg said:

in my memory they do feel nice to use too.

No external linkages or cables IIRC. just the lever directly into the box

[egg]

Thanks, I wanted to say 'snickety', but that's a car review cliché 😅 

[garbaldy]

4 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Goes to show what a decent climate does for cars

Yes they definitely last well in eu land.      This one was the very first car bought and collected from Germany and popped in yesterday for coffee and still with the mate that bought it after all the work I did on it, still looks just as good as the day I first set eyes on it on the guys drive all those years ago.  Can't be arsed to hunt for the collection thread to see how long ago it actually was.

[DVee8]

15 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

Yes they definitely last well in eu land.      This one was the very first car bought and collected from Germany and popped in yesterday for coffee and still with the mate that bought it after all the work I did on it, still looks just as good as the day I first set eyes on it on the guys drive all those years ago.  Can't be arsed to hunt for the collection thread to see how long ago it actually was.

I think that passed me on Friday afternoon heading to Wooler.

[garbaldy]

8 minutes ago, DVee8 said:

I think that passed me on Friday afternoon heading to Wooler.

Yup he was off work screeving about clocking up some miles,  I'd have been with him if I'd finished the colt.  

[HMC]

6 hours ago, egg said:

Ah, it's great. Well bought. The only thing I prefer about the earlier models is the older style 2 spoke steering wheel.

Have you got any more pictures of STF?

[HMC]

5 hours ago, wesacosa said:

My first car was an N reg Mk2

 

Quite an early mk2 !