Brown Arrow shite...

[Wilko220]

Absolutely beautiful ! Kudos to you for investing what must have been a fair amount of £ to get the work done properly !

 

Thank you.

 

It has cost me a bit. I got a good deal on the work by agreeing that he would fit it around his other jobs (he had it for two years in the end!) but the new panels were not cheap.

 

But I have kept two things in mind. Firstly, I'm pretty sure I could get back most of what I've spent were I to sell it with a decent advert. Secondly, I see it as a small reinvestment of all the money I've saved over the years by living the Autoshite philosophy while people I knew bought new Fiestas on finance and all the rest of it!

[Shep Shepherd]

A stunning resto. I think it would look even better with hubcaps and a vinyl roof, though

[dollywobbler]

The Rootes Rostyles would look better I reckon, but I can understand a reluctance to splash out on fairly similar looking wheels. It does need the vinyl roof though - someone must have a contact for fitting one?

[Wilko220]

 It does need the vinyl roof though - someone must have a contact for fitting one?

 

I have asked on here a couple of times but no-one's been able to suggest anywhere within reasonable travelling distance yet. I'll keep looking though!

[Station]

Looks amazing, well done! How much was the spray job?

I love the rear end on these, especially the ones without any trim.

[Spiny Norman]

That looks fugging ace, well done!

I quite like it without the vinyl roof.

[gearoil]

That's lovely.

 

I'll bet polishing that of a weekend is very enjoyable day indeed, bronze and chrome look great together. I'd be grinning ear to ear

[meggersdog]

Great looking car.

Well worth waiting two years to get it looking that nice.

[junkyarddog]

Lovely car,

Personally I'd keep the Ford wheels as they look so good on it.

well done on the resto.

 

Have a real soft spot for these.

My old man had a '69 Singer Vouge estate,plus a '72 Hunter estate,when I was a nipper,

both old bangers by the time he got them and driven into the ground.

[Faker]

Cars perfect. Don't change a thing.

[Wilko220]

Sorry if anyone's getting a bit bored of this now, but I took a few better pictures of the Sceptre this evening (using a proper camera this time) and thought I would share.

 

There is, across the road from where I live, what I always thought to be quite an interesting and of its time 1950s/60s office building which, along with a factory, was the HQ of a printworks called Eversheds. It has been empty for a while, awaiting redevelopment. They're going to build a load of houses and flats there.

 

For a while I've been thinking that it would make a nice backdrop for some retro car pictures, but never got around to sorting it. Anyway, got home from work tonight to see they've started knocking it down. I was a bit pissed off that I had missed my chance but thought I would take advantage of the situation anyway and try to grab a few pictures on the site before light fell. I expect the rest of the building will have gone by this time tomorrow.

 

These are the results. Sadly I don't know how to (or probably have the software to) do Trigger-style 70s re-colouring but maybe I'll have a go at that in slower time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scruff]

Very nice indeed. A job well done

[PaykanHunter]

Great Job Mate!... Looking forward to see it all finished up!... I have made a new post about this car in my blog www.PaykanHunter.com check it out! Good Luck!

[phil drolls]

Your Sceptre looks great mate!

I can`t understand the paint shade not being available any longer. Any paint mix from the past can be remixed by a good paint suppliers if they have the correct codes for the mix, and Rootes archives hold all the codes for every shade they used. I`ve got 2 Imps at the moment and have owned over 20 other Rootes vehicles and never had an issue getting the correct shade mixed. That`s a puzzler, but it looks magic all the same.

 

All the best!

[Wilko220]

Thank you!

 

Interesting info about the Rootes archive - I guess I should have contacted them. But very happy with the new (slightly different) colour all the same.

[daveb47]

Nice. Those Rostyles look like Ford (1600E and others), from memory even those fitted to the Hunter GLS weren’t very wide.

 

If they are,it will tramline & wander like fuck as offset s different.

Been there etc.

[Wilko220]

Really?

I was under the impression that Ford and Rootes were consistent but BL different. I could well be wrong though - I often am.

[Wilko220]

Ok, so wtf happened to the last eight years, since long-lost forum legend Dave warned me about those tramlining wheels?

Well,  basically, not that long afterwards, some things went wrong with the car. The starter motor wouldn't engage, so I pulled it out, took it somewhere to be reconditioned, and put it back in. Made no difference. The fuel supply also appeared to be blocked as well, resulting in lots of head-scratching.

I got some mates to come and look at it with me and we still couldn't fix it. @purplebargeken very kindly gave up an afternoon to come round, armed with some inline fuel filters, to try to diagnose and sort out the running problem - but this was ultimately to no avail either. 

Not having a trailer to get the thing to a garage, I called out a mobile mechanic. After spending hours on it over a period of several weeks, he also had to admit defeat.

In the meantime, lots of "life" stuff going on meant that both time and money were in short supply. Inevitably, the car just got laid up - thankfully I had a dry garage in which to keep it. 

Fast forward to this year and I decided that it was time to bite the bullet. Personal circumstances are now different (and happier). And I'm lucky enough to be one of those people who's had a bit of a financial benefit from Covid, through saving on commuting costs. So what better way to spend it...

The first task was to find someone who knew what they were doing to give the car a proper inspection. None of the local garages I know and trust felt able to take it on, so I realised I would end up having to go further afield. Having seen great things online (including an epic restoration of a Granada catalogued on this forum) I decided to get in touch with Mid Beds Vehicle Restoration and arrange for as assessment.

Here it is emerging from its slumber to be taken away (eventually, after hammering a stuck brake off).

I quite quickly realised that instead of placing my trust in a local man with a van, more accustomed to doing oil changes on a Honda Jazz, I should have gone to a specialist years ago.

The first thing they discovered is the starter motor that I'd had "professionally" reconditioned was kaput. So all the hours spent trying to diagnose alternative starting-related problems because "it can't be the starter motor" had been unsuccessful for a reason.

The second thing they discovered is that the fuel pump fitted to the car was the wrong type, and wasn't working properly.

So, these were addressed, along with an overhaul of the ignition system.

Some pictures

Brake system-wise, one of the calipers was seized (hence the fun getting it out of the garage). Turned out two needed replacing along with the cylinders.

The calipers are unobtanium is seems, so we got the existing ones reconditioned.

While the car is in the hands of experts, I also asked them to look into the fitting of a vinyl roof - I stripped the original one off years ago because it was rusting underneath.

After some initial reservation about being able to do it in a way that matched the original, these issues were overcome - and I think the result looks excellent.

I've had to get hold of some missing bits of trim (which I have found from a breaker) and the screens are yet to be refitted. 

Finally (for now), the steel wheels that I got all those years ago from @Billy - Medhurst and repainted have finally had their ancient rubber replaced, and I've put them on the car. The Ro-styles in turn have been sold to @NorfolkNWeigh , hopefully for a future Cortina project (everyone keep nagging him about that!)

I'm very much hoping, if we end up getting some classic car shows this year, I'll be in a position to take this along.

A few more bits still to sort, but I promise you won't have to wait another eight years for the next update!

[Wilko220]

Now that the exterior of the car is pretty much there, next stage is to get the interior up to a similar level.

A key issue is that age has not been kind to the wood veneer, as can be seen in the image below:

A few years back, I removed the door cappings and took them to a specialist to be reconditioned, and they are still looking in great shape. However, I put off the rather more daunting job of removing the dashboard and centre console for the same to be done with those.

The time has now come, so...

It's all going off to the same company that did the door cappings for me a while back (a firm in Buckinghamshire called Silvercrest) who say they should be able to provide a decent match.

Will take a few weeks to get it back and then the reassembly can commence...

[Wilko220]

Took a while longer than hoped but, erm, I've got wood...

 

A few switches and wires to be matched back up now...

[Noel Tidybeard]

i do like an arrow

[Matty]

^^^ whs. Styling just spot on, not fussy just sharp and purposeful. Lively thing

[Wilko220]

So, the wood is now in the hole. 

And it's looking every bit the poor man's Rover I was hoping it would. Any 1970s provincial bank manager would be right at home in this interior.

.

This means it's pretty much restoration complete now. Literally just need to sort out wheel trims and we're there.

Yeah, it took longer than it should have, and I cheated by getting a lot of the work done by other (significantly more talented) people.  But I can still enjoy a sense of satisfaction from having bought an unloved scrapper destined for the breakers, and turned it into a head-turner that's hopefully going to last many more years. And looking at the way values of these have gone, I've probably just about broken even (ish).

Got a ticket for the rescheduled Classics on the Common in Harpenden on 22nd September, so planning to take it for a day out for what will be its first show in many years.  Hopefully will bump into some fellow members of the AS massive while I'm there.

Some new exterior shots for the pervs. 

 

A final shout out to MBVR who did the most recent work on it, including that stunner of a vinyl roof.  Would recommend them without hesitation. 

 

 

[tooSavvy]

A car worth 'slotting into the "spotted" file' as something most millennials would walk right [into..] past, with their hurry to ogle a GTA* clone......

*no, not Renault 🥺

[eddyramrod]

I think that's nothing short of glorious, but then as a former Arrow Sceptre owner, I might* be slightly* biased.

Is there the slightest chance of you getting to Portsmouth on Saturday?

[bezzabsa]

100% better with the vinyl roof.....70's in every way!!

[Wilko220]

1 hour ago, eddyramrod said:

Is there the slightest chance of you getting to Portsmouth on Saturday?

Cheers Eddy! Sadly, I’m working Saturday so won’t be able to get to Portsmouth I’m afraid

[Wack]

I'm loving that , everything about it , looks fantastic

[Faker]

Magnificent 

[Dj_efk]

What a honey!

Ive had an estate one of these also on a P reg in a glorious funky metallic light green and the same interior as yours - Also as a student I drove a worn out Hunter Deluxe 1500 for a couple of years. Everyone else drove Novas and Escorts, I could carry more people and stuff in much more comfort and style (albeit much slower)!

These cars are massively underrated and forgotten - hence because they weren’t really all that durable in the first place are now horribly rare, which I think is a great shame.

I would strongly recommend an electronic ignition kit - quality points and condensers are now hard to find.

Enjoy and please keep this thread up to date on running updates / maintenance etc.