You’ve got to have a dream!
A few of you will have heard of my long standing love affair with Mk1s in all their different flavours. But if you haven’t, I thought I would try to bring you up to speed…
I guess my interest first started back in the late 1960’s when I was around 6 or 7 years old. My Dad used to work on brand new Mk1’s at a garage in Woolwich in the 1950’s and used to tell me how great the cars were.
Around 1968 or so, he purchased a Mk 1 Zephyr for around £40 or £50, all black and he sprayed the bottom half metallic grey I think. I can remember sitting on the front bench seat and looking at the transfer of all the UK road signs on the windscreen and being fascinated by them - does anyone else remember those?
Anyway, let’s fast forward to 1980, when I had just passed my driving test and decided it was time to purchase my first car to get about in. This turned out to be a 1955 Mk1 Consul, registration UKT 552, which was basically very solid and I was intent on restoring her. I had always hankered after a Zephyr, and especially a convertible - but couldn’t afford either at the time.
One night I was trawling through some old classic car magazines and saw a 1951 Flat Dash Mk1 Consul for sale. On the off chance, I decided to call the number to see if it was still up for grabs – it was, and after much frantic bargaining, shortly thereafter I was the proud owner of LYX 928 – underneath the rustiest car I had ever seen, I even remember jacking the car up on the front jacking points to “clean off under the wheel arches” one Easter Bank Holiday, only to be greeted with a sort of crunching sound as I watched the jacking point collapse and the sill along with it. One of the rear wings had an enormous lump of filler on it which was affectionately nicknamed “the shield”. It was literally the size of half of the back wing and about 6 inches thick – they hadn’t even bothered to knock out the dent!
After about 2 years of evenings and weekends, I did finally manage to get the car back on the road, but only untrimmed and in red primer. The car was however, very reliable and never broke down on me once. After a while though, I got to the point where I decided to sell the car and let somebody else have a go… I rediscovered her in an old copy of Five Stars (from a batch I bought on eBay), and even saw her for sale at one point. This rekindled my love affair for these cars and in 2006 I purchased a Mk1 Zodiac from a guy in Leeds. The project proved too ambitious at the time, so I sold her to Charles in Aberdeen, who has a much larger skill set than I do and I look forward to seeing her up and running again.
So that was about it, I thought I was going to simply be an admirer of these cars, and look after the website, but the more pictures I looked at, the more I wanted a car again, but didn’t want to take on a huge amount of work on the rust side.
By chance, I ran across a splendid chap in Nottingham, who told me that he had a Mk1 Zephyr for sale, as he needed room in his garage. After several emails and pictures I bought the car – 209 ARA – without even seeing her, I took the guy on trust and I wasn’t disappointed when she finally arrived.
The history of this car is quite amazing, it was purchased new in 1955 by the Chief Constable of Derbyshire, sold in 1958 (I have the bill of sale from the garage), the engine was then left running on the new owner’s drive in 1959, whereupon the engine promptly seized and the car was then pushed into a garage – where it stayed until 1998.
Mick, who I purchased the car from found out about it from a work colleague who told him that his grandfather had sadly passed away and that he had discovered a car in his garage. The roof had collapsed on top of the vehicle, so it was in a pretty bad way when Mick bought it, but it had only covered 20,000 miles since new. I have the original log book and the last tax disc from 1959 and the car is now registered at DVLA - many thanks to Andy Tutt for his assistance with this.
Anyway all the information points to the fact that the car is a low mileage vehicle that has not been on the road for very nearly 50 years!
Work that has already been carried out:
Four new door skins, two new number plate lamps, new rear valance, two new inner and outer sills, two new front jacking points, two new front wing repair panels, front valance repairs, new front and rear bumpers and overriders, new rear lights, including glass and reflectors and rubbers (all nearly fitted - November 2011), full engine rebuild with unleaded head, full set hoses, reconditioned radiator, new alternator, starter repairs, new battery, one new rear spring, new rear spring bushes, new brake/clutch reservoir, new brake linings, new brake hoses, new brake lines, new handbrake cable, new front wheel bearings, new stainless exhaust, new horns, new starter solenoid, new water pump, fuse box, car converted to negative earth, total respray - (although the bottom half was in bright pillar box red - this was sprayed black in October 2011), replacement carburettor, front and rear screens fitted (excellent work carried out by Discovery Windscreens, full details on Links page), electronic ignition - vast improvement to starting and performance, new inner and outer track rod ends, all new front suspension bushes (urethane), new steering box O ring and thicker oil - guess what? No further oil leaks, hoorah!, new front wing mirrors fitted (makes it much easier to reverse into garage now! I also managed to get a complete red leather interior, with seats, carpets, door panels etc, and they look really smart - but more importantly they smell right too! They are from an earlier model, but the previous owner had messed up the '55 door cards, I still have them all, but one is ruined, I may find another in my travels?
In late November/early December 2009, I rebuilt the carb and the fuel pump, as the carb was leaking slightly and one of the valves in the fuel pump was stuck, we have now finished respraying the dash and it is all back together (July 2010), and my dad helped me a lot with the respray. With the help of Big JW I swapped the carb over and now it is working as it should, so I reckon I had a duffer originally. Started work on underneath in April 2011, first task is to remove all the overspray from the horrid red paint job that has gone all over the stainless exhaust - no substitute for nitromors and elbow grease I am afraid. Painting the underside and spray painting the axle, springs, prop, front suspension - all of which was put back on rusty (ish) by the previous owner, so a quick wire brush and aerosol enamel and that should be that. That has now been done (July 2011), and this month have also fitted and clagged up a manual screen wash kit, with chrome washers on the bonnet - I deliberated at huge length on this, but because the car is black and the addition of the wing mirrors - the lines work and the symmetry is fine.
We have also made a new clamp to fit a new battery, I appreciate that some of these mods are not original - but the battery on my old Consul in the 1980s was held in place with an old bungee clip at one time, so I am not going to get my shorts in a bunch over it. Had more fuel starvation problems in July too, but I put this down to the valves getting stuck through lack of use and the very hot weather, once Dad cleaned them out and got them freed off, no worries. Sent off for a couple of new pipes from the fuel pump to be manufactured from copper as the old steel ones had holes in due to rust/wear, fitted the new copper fuel/vacuum pipes, but they were not really up to my spec to be honest, and the guy who made them threw away the originals, despite me asking him to send them back! But they will do for now to get her on the road - and I think the car suffers from not being driven on a regular basis, to be honest, no car was ever in need of a huge run-in such as this one.
We have now painted and fitted the sunvisor with the help of some clips from Old Ford Autos - and it looks pretty good, really sets the car off nicely.
After an approximate three month wait, I got the sunvisor strips and bonnet mascot back in September, the chrome strips are great and now fitted, but I was less than impressed with the bonnet mascot, it has slight pitting which was to be expected, but I don't think they properly polished the wings of the mascot and it is a bit like dust underneath your fingers when you go over it - fine for now, but this was a recommended company - suffice to say I won't be using/recommending them myself - I actually sent it back for another go, so will update as soon as it arrives. Got it back in October 2011 - not bad, but slightly pitted all over, it will do for now!
Work that still needs to be done:
New headlining, some internal trimming, sound deadening and carpet underlay, various rechroming jobs and external trim fitted, new tyres, new hub caps/embellishers, and various other tidying jobs – the car was also missing a few components, but I have sourced the majority now, with some sterling help from that Mk 1 legend, Big JW and Ebay!
I have a set of top strut bearings that we will be fitting shortly, hopefully these will really improve the steering (as it still feels heavy). Decided that the old ones were perfectly OK, but the bottom ball joints needed to be replaced, so this has now been done, plus four new front brake cylinders at the same time. I'll keep the new bearings for now as they are so hard to come by. Should have the front bumper on soon, so watch this space.
I feel very privileged to be the latest custodian of this car, and hopefully I intend to have her on the road soon, and sorted properly (funds permitting). I am going to get the car back on the road as a rolling restoration for now, as I can't wait another 2 or 3 years, I want to use it regularly and not just leave her in the garage - I think she has been standing long enough.
I have dreamed of owning a Zephyr for a very long time, and when I think back to when I first sat on the bench seat of my Dad’s Mk 1 back in the 1960s, my car was quietly languishing in a garage somewhere in Nottinghamshire, and had already done so for nearly 10 years.
Dream on...
