Found some old pics of mine from early 80's

[Savvi]

I came across some old pics of my old cars some are from when i was still at school !!!!

 

My very 1st Mk1 2 door, i bought this when i was about 14 or 15, it had a blown engine was jacked up at the rear and had grey fur glued on all the interior !!!

 

 

 

Nice summer day & im painting the black bits on the wheels

 

 

My brother and mate helping me prep the bodywork, i'd just fitted a brand new Ford front panel & wings at a weeks wages of £40 discounted as my brother worked at a dealership

 

 

Masking up at the back of my mates workplace (over the weekend while no one was around )

 

 

 

 

Then i had a go at spraying ..

 

 

It turn out pretty good considering

 

So with that finished i got offered a mk1 van from the local farmer, he did me a deal of £5 for the van as long as he could keep the wheels and new tyres for his other one !!!!

 

 

I did eventually t cut the whole van and a mate wrote off his escort so i bought his rostyle wheels

 

 

Cant believe i sold it to a mate for £50 when it failed the Mot on a small patch of welding and a brake pipe He stripped it and scrapped the shell !!!!

 

So i still had the 2 door and was driving to college one day and got into a bit of a race with a Mk1 Capri (had a 1600 Xflow fitted by then) it had been raining and i was young and stupid, overtook the capri and was leaving him well behind when we came to a bigger bend that i could get round, i lost the back end hit the curb then went head on into a large wall which throw us back into a spin nearly taking out a lolly pop lady.

 

So managed to get it home looking like this..........

 

 

So we didnt get to college but stripped the front off using a large tree as a puller i managed to straighten the inner wings out, took a trip to the local scrappy and found some decent Mex style wings and got it back looking like the 2nd pic but 8 oclock the same evening & use it for college the next day, the rear arch wasnt damaged i just wasnt happy with the filler work i'd done the 1st time so put it right.

 

 

On the plus side the boss gave me a company van to use for work ( i was a heavy plant fitter) this was about a year old at the time

 

So after i'd saved up i got a local garage to respray the car for me as although it was ok the paint id done wasnt great and ended up with a nice looking car which i eventually sold after owning it for about 6 years

 

 

So thats my 1st proper car and van but i got loads of others i own around the same time !!!

[Savvi]

So here's a tast of the various old fords i had ............

 

Mk2 Cortina 1600 Gt 2 door on my Grand parents drive, think i was 14 here, they got fed up with it on the drive and so i had to move it, ended up stripping the engine box etc and fitted it in my Mk1 escort i'd bought.

 

 

1600E MK2

 

I'd parked my Escort up to use this, you can just see it in the background after a few months i went back to the escort and sold the 1600E

 

Mk1 Cortina 1500 delux

 

 

 

Mk1 Capri

 

[lotusless]

Great pics and write up Savvi, oh the long gone days of £50 escorts + Cortina mk1 2 doors. Now we have the scene tax added to the already inflated prices and the panels / parts are just stupid money. I know things move on with time but i'm sure you agree it was so much more enjoyable back then.

[Savvi]

Yeah ........... i'm sounding like my Old Dad ............ but it aint how it used to be, i was buying and selling old fords every week with my mate mainly to be able to afford to keep my own car on the road, £40 a week as an apprentice was shocking wages even back then, mate seen in the pics wa on £120 per week just working in a factory and had some nice cars even back then cos he had the cash to do them how he wanted.

 

We were buying Mot failures for anything from £5 - £50 taking the good bits off and selling them, sometimes being paid to fit them and getting £15 back in scrap !!!!

His Dad was into cars and we did a series 1 landrover which we used to pick stuff up with, and he had tools and engine hoist in his garage which we used every waking hour that we wasnt at work.

 

I'd hate to think how many we had, i can remember buying 2 mk1 estates and a 4 door off a friend of my Mums, spent a week stripping bits off and scrapped the shells as the were rotton, another time i bought a pair of 1300E's which i still have parts kicking about that i took off at the time !!!

 

Another car i still have was given to me by my late Dad, we drove the Landrover from Oxford to Plymouth to collect it (parents split when i was young) and found the pics amounst these others.

[Mr Day]

Love old pics and stories,nice one for sharing them

[Savvi]

Cheers for the reply ........... all seems like yesterday to me !!!

 

So i've copied a few more over, here's me collecting my Morris 1000 back in 1983, 400 mile round trip in a 1957 Landrover which was only put on the road the week before, after having a diesel transplant and restoration !!!

 

 

 

 

 

My Dad bought this back in circular 1970 and i remember a Holiday with him and my "New" step mum

 

 

& whose this little lad

 

 

I've had this stored since i collected it back in 1983 and just pulled it out and brought it home at Xmas after my kids had kept on for me to get it on the road again !!!

 

[mk2cortinadan]

great pics fantastic history to,i remember those days of 50 quid mk1 escorts well!

[marky4]

great old pics mate

[XjamesX]

Awesome pic's and stories, a real pleasure to read

[frankthefencer]

Really liked this!!

My first car was a mk1 Fiesta on a R reg (1977) and was a 1100S in green.I then had a MK2 Escort van as I passed my test(the fiesta was being rebuilt) .The escort van was given to me by my older brother as he didnt want it!! I remember it was about 4 weeks before my driving test so i had to get it through an MOT etc.I loved it!! The only downside was I got constantly pulled over in it as the local plod thought i was driving round with stolen goodies in the back!!! At the time my brother in law had a mk1 Mex (genuine) and a mk2 escort.There was a breakers yard next to my dads lorry yard at the time so any parts were available!!!

[mk3cortinasteve]

I love seeing old pictures