My 1962 Vauxhall Victor FB

[sierraman]

I think the gist of it was it was restored by a father and son, then no sooner had it been restored it ended up in a head on, for whatever reason the folks who restored it lost heart then sold it to Danny Hopkins, who was going to break it but instead Kev Leaper mended it and resprayed the front end. 

[Vantman]

1 minute ago, Joey spud said:

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

 

 

Yes,that was Dormobile a subsiduary of Martin Walter at Cheriton,Folkestone.

[trigger]

6 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I think the gist of it was it was restored by a father and son, then no sooner had it been restored it ended up in a head on, for whatever reason the folks who restored it lost heart then sold it to Danny Hopkins, who was going to break it but instead Kev Leaper mended it and resprayed the front end. 

That would make sense, Kevin's name is on the log book bu ti think it's the owner after him who spent a fortune on it, it looks to have had a few owners between 2000 and 2010. I'm guessing this photo is the father and son who restored it. 

[flat4alfa]

I like those old Victors.  Good save Triggs

I ran this one three years back.  Don't think you ever saw it.  It's since been stripped and repainted properly

 

The Vyvern mascot was to fill the holes a previous dork drilled to mount a Jaguar leaper!    

 

Ten years ago....  there was this 

[Joey spud]

Just been up in the loft but could only find April '02.

This was the golden age of pc in my opinion.

Trig if you want the mag shout me your whereabouts and i'll bung it in the post.

[RayMK]

Very nice.  Dad bought a nearly new FB estate in Chesham in 1963 and we all loved it. Holidays in the South of France followed, taking 3 days to get there each time with three adults, two kids and camping gear aboard. On one occasion Dad was trying to catch the ferry for return to the UK - we were running late and he was driving uncharacteristically fast (flat out). We went over a level crossing at an indicated 101mph (probably 90mph) and were briefly airborne. The car was fine and we caught the ferry.

The car was his first Vauxhall and had a 4 on the floor box. It was sold in Germany in 1966 when we were posted there, replaced by a '66 Taunus 17m estate. I don't think it made it back to the UK.

[trigger]

You legend Joey! I have a photocopy of them two photos in the history file, it explains where it comes from now! Nice to see it was given a chance to survive by Kevin. 

What's the VX4/90 like Jason? Apparently it was quite a lot quicker? 

[LightBulbFun]

oh thats a lovely buy @trigger it looks very nice  (and full wife approval is always a win!)

as always I look forward to seeing more of it on here  

heres a bit of info on the car (due to the way the DVLA issued age related plates, it got split into 2 records) looks like its original registration was 2142MG

(dont worry you can ignore the current VRM bit for AJU58A!)

hopefully its of some use  

39 minutes ago, RayMK said:

Very nice.  Dad bought a nearly new FB estate in Chesham in 1963 and we all loved it. Holidays in the South of France followed, taking 3 days to get there each time with three adults, two kids and camping gear aboard. On one occasion Dad was trying to catch the ferry for return to the UK - we were running late and he was driving uncharacteristically fast (flat out). We went over a level crossing at an indicated 101mph (probably 90mph) and were briefly airborne. The car was fine and we caught the ferry.

The car was his first Vauxhall and had a 4 on the floor box. It was sold in Germany in 1966 when we were posted there, replaced by a '66 Taunus 17m estate. I don't think it made it back to the UK.

NML72 was the number plate of a private metal AC Acedes  (now sadly ALB761A and incorrectly stuck onto an AC Acedes Mk15)

[Angrydicky]

No real surprise that was nicked in ‘87 then! It’s on a 2015 Porsche now.

MG shows it was originally registered by the old Middlesex County Council, so Staines, Feltham, Hanwell, Twickenham etc. 

My A35 is also a Middlesex car, registered new to a chap in Bedfont near Heathrow, in 1959.

No doubt the plate on that would have long gone too had it not been bought by my dad in 1986!

[trigger]

Ohhh that's very interesting information LBF! What a shame it hasn't still got its original plate and its on some wanky Porsche, it was a nice number, at least the car still exists. It seems to have spent much of its later life in the Midlands area. 

[flat4alfa]

23 hours ago, trigger said:

What's the VX4/90 like Jason? Apparently it was quite a lot quicker? 

Oh yes, noticibly.  And this was the earlier 1508cc VX 4/90 engine.  On paper the VX increase looks laughable today, but still.   Gearing was low-ish, so it was pokey off the line and fine in modern traffic (they all ran 14" wheels and four speed 'box).  But on open roads at 60mph+ you could hear it trying to run its ends out...  Sold it back to previous owner mate (a proper Victor/Ventora fiend) shortly after the trip to Festival Unexceptional 2017 when the famous* Mr Larkin was clawing all over it with glee and wanted to do an article on it.  Sold it and bought the Daimler XJ40 

The 101 Estate had three-on-the-tree like yours and I found ok but it wouldn't be rushed, not vague as some say; but wife couldn't be doing with that.  The early 101 Estate like mine (1594cc)  had very short gearing too to help them haul weight I'm sure, as it ran out of gears shortly after leaving the housing estate.  Went to a collector fella I knew at Luton who re-restored it bottom up and is regularly shown at the Vauxhall Plant Museum events.  Sold it to fund the Lancia Trevi and Beta Saloon pair of funsters.

[lisbon_road]

Excellent purchase.  We never own cars like this we are mere custodians.

Classic dilemma will be those rusty bits.  Difficult to do much when disturbing them might mean disturbing what looks like a very good paint job.

Please keep us informed.  Looks like you have a garage for it which is good news indeed.

[spartacus]

What a great looking car, a proper colour, chrome trim, bench seats, it's got it all, you've got a tidy collection trig!

[Datsuncog]

Beautiful job. Can't wait to see how this one develops!

Showed MrsDC the Instagram pics and now she wants one too.

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, trigger said:

Ohhh that's very interesting information LBF! What a shame it hasn't still got its original plate and its on some wanky Porsche, it was a nice number, at least the car still exists. It seems to have spent much of its later life in the Midlands area. 

Yeah I had a strong feeling the A suffix reg was a replacement registration plate/series (genuine A suffix registrations/cars are actually quite rare)

and especially so with the age related plates its now wearing

back in the 1980s and early 1990s when a car with an ageless plate was robbed of its number plate, the DVLA (or well DVLC) would issue the car an A suffix registration (as there where lots of unused ones kicking about, sometimes you would get a B suffix registrations issued to pre 1963 cars, like EFD326B for example but this is quite rare)

eventually tho, the DVLA did introduce proper age related plates for pre 1963 cars, and people with such cars on A suffix replacement plates, could (and still can) apply for an age related plate

which is what a past keeper of your car did  

but at least with cars issued A suffix plates in place of their old ageless ones, when you requested a proper age related plate, more often then not, for whatever reason, rather just give the car a new plate, like when you do a plate transfer etc

it looks like the DVLA would duplicate the vehicle record, and on the new one issue that the new age related registration mark, then hide the old record (so it doesn't show up on the DVLA checker, sometimes they sometimes still show up  on the MOT checker sometimes they dont, but a lot of the time my tool can pull up these hidden records regardless)

the same duplication thing also happens if you have a vehicle on an age related plate, but then V765 it back to its original registration mark

see CSV609 to 163CLD as example  (in this case the old CSV609 reg still shows up in the MOT checker too)

and the same duplication thing happens also if you have a car stuck on an age related plate for non plate transfer reasons

for example JNJ135L was sadly falsely declared manufactured 1965 so the DVLA issued it HKH330C (JNJ35L still shows up on the MOT checker tho!)

[trigger]

Thanks guys! 

Now I expect to be shot down for suggesting this but I'm just pondering the idea of wheel walls, I've never had them before and I was just looking on ebay and didn't realise how cheap the whitewall rings are, some Atlas ones are only £37 for 4.

I have heard that they can rub through the sidewall over a period of time though but it wouldn't be doing many miles? 

So has anyone fitted them before and what are they like? I was planning on painting the wheels cream but wondered if painting them silver and fitting the whitewalls would look better? 

[Isaac Hunt]

It is a great find Trigg.  I am sure the odd 'less than tidy' spot will respond to the Trigger 'Make Over' Treatmemt.

The car also has an interesting history having passed through the Plractical Classics 'fold'

it is also good to see that the car wears an age related plate, they look so wrong on a 'suffix plate'.  Is the current plate 'non transferable' ?

Good detective work by @LightBulbFun what system are you using to pull up all that past history.  Can you find what vehicle a plate was originally assigned to after the plate has been transferred ?

[Eyersey1234]

It's a bit odd in a way that in 1963 the suffix A plates were more desirable as they were the new registrations but now the older style plates are more desirable. In 1963/4 it depended which registration office the car was registered at as to whether it got a suffix A or B plate or the older style, from 1965 all registration offices were on the suffix system. I believe some registration offices never actually ran out of the 2 letter 4 number style plates. 

[flat4alfa]

55 minutes ago, trigger said:

Now I expect to be shot down for suggesting this but I'm just pondering the idea of wheel walls, I've never had them before and I was just looking on ebay and didn't realise how cheap the whitewall rings are, some Atlas ones are only £37 for 4.

I have heard that they can rub through the sidewall over a period of time though but it wouldn't be doing many miles? 

So has anyone fitted them before and what are they like? I was planning on painting the wheels cream but wondered if painting them silver and fitting the whitewalls would look better? 

Same 'Victor fiend' has a very nice FB Deluxe in black - Mr Troughton you know him from TrigFests and probably seen the car too.  That car had white wall rings on it when collected, but they wore the tyres so much he whipped them off shortly after.  I thought it looked great.  He decided bad idea.  Message him on that bookface, he'll be well pleased to talk FB talk.  Plus he has Victor spares coming out of his ears shed lockup BARN

[trigger]

I've been chatting to Dave on FB about it, he's a knowledgeable guy, I've been doing some googling and it seems that that's a major problem with them, Go for the pucka tyres or don't bother at all pretty much. 

Shame as I think a set would suit it. 

[LightBulbFun]

49 minutes ago, Isaac Hunt said:

Good detective work by @LightBulbFun what system are you using to pull up all that past history.  Can you find what vehicle a plate was originally assigned to after the plate has been transferred ?

its a commercial thingy I somehow managed to wrangle access to for my invalid vehicle research   (and as such sadly its not free and does cost actual monies)

sadly It cant tell you the past vehicles a VRM has been on, however if the plate is on retention then I can tell you the last vehicle it was on

(and likewise if you know the original number of a vehicle currently wearing a private number then I can tell you via its original plate what the private plate is, since the original number technically goes on retention when you stick a private number on)

 

42 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

I believe some registration offices never actually ran out of the 2 letter 4 number style plates. 

indeed a few small scottish areas never ran out of 2 letter 4 number marks, SV is one such county marker

these unused marks are now used as age related plates for vehicles made before 1930 IIRC

[Noel Tidybeard]

mr triggggger, shirley you should be asking mrs t what mods she would like on her car ?

[captain_70s]

I've also heard the fake whitewalls scrub the tyres, I've also seen them go all warped and wavy so they stick off the tyre and look utterly shite.

I feel the only right whitewall tyre for a car of that era is the narrow band ones:

I find the "full fat" ones look really fussy and tacky.

 

[LightBulbFun]

I remember finding out about "stick on" white walls 

was one of those "my whole life has been a lie" moments for me LOL

[flat4alfa]

.

[vulgalour]

Angle grinder whitewalls.

[ProgRocker]

Nice buy, Trigger.

I spotted this a few months ago. Initially thought it was a '101'. I'm not great with pre 1970 cars. 

 

[Joey spud]

I had stick on  white walls on my Standard 10,they certainly looked different. 

[lesapandre]

Here is a treasure trove about the model development. Absolutely fascinating.

http://vauxpedianet.uk2sitebuilder.com/vauxhall-fb---victor-vx490

[Dick Longbridge]

I think the rule for whitewalls is go for it, as long as you're in full teddy boy attire whilst in the company of your steed. I know the car is a 62, but it's minor detail. 

Otherwise, whitewalls are a large no!