My 1962 Vauxhall Victor FB

[trigger]

I know i posted about this on the News 24 thread but i thought i'd start it's own thread, just because.

I've known the car for a few years as it's owner and his wife took it to all the local car shows and came to our East Coast Retros car meet every month without fail, sadly his lovely wife passed away in January and the owner couldn't bear driving it anymore so did what all grieving widows do and put it up for sale and bought a immaculate 1975 Jaguar XJ6L. This was where i got involved, it got posted onto my FB group for a good price, Mrs Trigger saw it and declared her love for it and i don't need much persuasion to buy a car!.

The purchase was a bit odd, normally i wouldn't have gone under current circumstances but it was a good price and wasn't far away so i took the risk, i put a mask on, kept my distance and did all the payment via online banking and even did the V5 online, it was quite easy really, to save anymore risk though a friend who does car recoverys offered to collect it for me and swap it with my Marina and take that to a farm near my dads so that i didn't have to drive it.   

It's very pretty! Mrs Trigger is over the moon with it too so that's extra brownie points!

There's lots of little jobs to do, someone was excitable with the wood screws so I've got some stainless ones on order.

There's a bit of rust here and there

and the wings dented.

But all in all it's very tidy for the money i paid, there's not a lot of old history with it but I do know it was a A reg once until it lost it's plate around 2003 time, the same time as it was involved in a  accident and became a donor car for Danny Hopkins in PC magazine but it was deemed too nice to break, someone did spend a lot of money on it back in 2007 though!.

I've already started a few little jobs, the wipers have been swapped for original old stock chrome ones i had with new rubbers to replace the modern plastic ones with the ugly black clips.

 

Front number plate straightened and a few bulbs replaced.

and some stickers removed.

I do plan on getting the wheels repainted, I'm thinking cream with the chrome caps although they need replacing too, underseal the underside, the steering is very wandery, not sure if that's the box or bushes yet and i definitely need to fit some front and rear seat belts but we both love it so car, Mrs T drove it today for the first time now it's insured and took to the 3 on the tree gearbox straight away which was good as it was her first time with that kind of box.

I took it up the lane around the back for some photos with my nice camera.

So there you go, and before anyone else asks, I still haven't decided on the headlight lips!

 

 

[wuvvum]

That looks bloody lovely.  I had one of these about 15 years ago - that was also 3 on the tree but I could never get all the gears working at once, however many times I adjusted it - it was either first and reverse or second and third.  I gave up in the end and sold it - it later turned out that there was a bush missing from the selector mechanism.  Rock solid that car was too.

Can I have a go when we're allowed out to play again?

[High Jetter]

That looks well bought and looks great. A chap who lives near me has one but I don't think he's in the best of health and I didn't see it out much last year.

[trigger]

3 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

Can I have a go when we're allowed out to play again?

Of course! I still haven't even had chance to show the Granada yet! 

[500tops]

That looks lush... But the front  'plate needs centralising!

 

 

[500tops]

Just now, 500tops said:

That looks lush... But the front  'plate needs centralising!

 

 

Perhaps it's  the angle and the fact I've had 6 pints ?

[ETCHY]

Good looking car the FB. Clean understated but stylish.

Well bought, nice motor.

[trigger]

I'm going to have to go and have a look now! I ideally want to change the plates to that type with the white plastic digits on a black background, we'll see.

[Vantman]

Top buy Trigger,great memories for me as FB Victors were the car to have when i worked at the local Vauxhall dealer parts department.

[RobT]

Lovely car m8, and good to hear Mrs Trig likes it too.

[HMC]

Nice one, have you found pic of when it was in pc- I seem to remember it had had a front end bump- which is mentioned in the bill there

[trigger]

I'm yet to get hold of a copy, Mr Semi-C said its in the March 2002 issue so I've got a few in my watch list to bid on! I do have these photos in the history though. 

[trigger]

Actually looking at them photos it used to have a wooden dash and front seat belts! 

[atomic punk]

Great choice of car?we have a later 101 fc which is basically the same car, perfect for cruising country lanes on a sunny day. Is it a 1500 or later 1595cc? Watching with interest?

[vulgalour]

I do miss the one that I'd see out and about regularly when I lived up in the North East.  Out in pretty much all weathers, sounded and smelled great as it trundled past.  Looking forward to getting to an East Coast meet at some point, hopefully get to check this one of yours out or whatever else you take along, you've got a very nice collection of things.

[cort16]

Very nice!

[captain_70s]

That looks like a lovely old barge. I think the wood dashes were fitted to the fancier "Deluxe" models, although I could be wrong... It certainly looks like it'd be tarted up a bit bit pre accident as it also has wheel trims.

The colour scheme really suits it, even the not-so-stock duo-tone interior. I bet it's great to waft about in with the 3 on the tree.

[sierraman]

8 hours ago, trigger said:

I'm yet to get hold of a copy, Mr Semi-C said its in the March 2002 issue so I've got a few in my watch list to bid on! I do have these photos in the history though. 

Might have got a copy in the loft I’ll have a look. 

[Eyersey1234]

What a lovely car. Chodspeed with it and glad Mrs Trig likes it too

[Cavboy80]

A beautiful example Trigger, i do like the FB as these have the nice clean lines of a 4 door saloon a bit like the MK2 Cortina.

Looking forward to seeing the progress of this.

[bigstraight6]

Very nice, the colour suits it very well. The best looking of the Victors these...

[wuvvum]

That's reminded me actually, there's a really scruffy FB VX 4/90 which is still in regular use in Norwich - I think it's the bloke's daily as I often pass it on the way to and from work.  Rough as a badger's arse and with a noisy exhaust - it looks like it's come straight from a council estate in 1981.

[davocano]

What a cracking motor. There's a few shots of it on flickr, this one was quite nice I thought.

Ipswich to Felixstowe Classic Car Run 2016 by mattbeee, on Flickr

[trigger]

That's the one! It's the previous owners wife beside him who passed away in January in that photo, she was a lovely lady always on hand with homemade cakes! 

He rang me this morning to say that he had several boxes of spares to collect including a front and rear screen so as he lives near my work I'll get them collected on the way home tomorrow. 

Thanks for the nice comments by the way

[Joey spud]

12 hours ago, Vantman said:

Top buy Trigger,great memories for me as FB Victors were the car to have when i worked at the local Vauxhall dealer parts department.

What dealer was that Brian ?

[NorfolkNWeigh]

10 hours ago, captain_70s said:

That looks like a lovely old barge. I think the wood dashes were fitted to the fancier "Deluxe" models, although I could be wrong... It certainly looks like it'd be tarted up a bit bit pre accident as it also has wheel trims.

The colour scheme really suits it, even the not-so-stock duo-tone interior. I bet it's great to waft about in with the 3 on the tree.

You’ve just reminded me of something that confused me for years.  The FB Victor (and 101) range was base, Super, deLuxe whereas Ford used base, deLuxe, Super for the MK1 &2 Cortina.

[trigger]

On the Marinas the Deluxe was the base model and Supers the top model! 

[Vantman]

7 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

What dealer was that Brian ?

Martin Walter,New Dover Road,Canterbury,i learnt a lot there as they were multiple franchise dealers,Vauxhall-Bedford,Standard Triumph,Jaguar,Rolls Royce etc..

[Joey spud]

I will have a dig through my Practical Classics box in the loft too as i'm sure i was sitting up there a while back flicking through some and recall the two FB's pictured together.

Kevin Leaper (ex Kent Rac patrol so i sort of knew him) took it off of Danny's hands with a view to repair it.

I must admit i am not much of a Vauxhall fan but this is rather cool so as usual well bought sir.

[Joey spud]

3 minutes ago, Vantman said:

Martin Walter,New Dover Road,Canterbury,i learnt a lot there as they were multiple franchise dealers,Vauxhall-Bedford,Standard Triumph,Jaguar,Rolls Royce etc..

Were they the guys that did the minibus conversions on Bedford vans too ?

I was an apprentice at G.Wells and sons in Strood (Vauxhall,Opel,Bedford no less).

Back in the early 80's i would often get sent out in the battered workshop CF to collect parts from The Chatham motor Co,Greens of Rainham and the dealer in Maidstone who's name escapes me.

Remembered it,Drake and Fletcher.