A FORD Experience.
Supplied
to Galeforce Zephyrs from Alan Godfrey via a member of the
Auckland
Consul Zephyr & Zodiac Car Club Inc. Gratefully received.
I
suppose it was always meant to be that I would one day be working for the Ford
Motor Company. When I was about to leave school, I applied for an engineering
apprenticeship at Ford s Engineering facility in Essex. Unfortunately, I didn t
get a place offered to me, and with disappointment found a job in London
working as a sales correspondent in a large steel firm. After completing my 2
years National Service in 1960, I returned to my previous employer, but was not
settled. I saw a job advert for vacancies at Ford at Dagenham, and promptly
applied. I was offered a job in the Export Division to operate the new
computerised ordering procedures. We practised completing computerised
documents for about 6 months before actually processing real orders. Would you
believe, we even did overtime to practise! This was the beginning of my 30 year
career with the mighty Ford Motor Company.
During my early childhood I had always been around Ford products. My father had
a removal business, and used Fordsons, which was the name used by Ford on their
commercial vehicle products. He also drove a Ford Eight saloon during the war,
and when the war was over he put his name down for a new car. In those days, it
was usual to be on a two year waiting list, and although he had ordered a Ford
Prefect, it was not until the Mk1 Consuls and Zephyrs were in production that
his name came to the top of the list. So when I was 13 years old our family
became the proud owners of a brand new Ford Consul. It was painted in Opal
Blue, and came with tan leather upholstery. It looked extremely smart in those
days, and my father kept it for about 6 years, when it had clocked up about
85,000 trouble free miles. In fact it was the car in which I passed my UK
driving test.
My experiences on my first day at Dagenham in 1960 were fantastic. Here I was
where they actually made motor cars, and I would be part of it! After a
medical, and interviews, I was taken to the Export office and introduced to my
colleagues. Low and behold, I was to be working with a chap whom I knew from my
time in the RAF, so it was a comfortable start for me. Then it happened! After
about six months our office was moved to Cheapside in the middle of London. I
was not happy as I was away from cars, and again I was commuting by train into
London, which I had wanted to leave. Shortly after this, I applied for a job back
at Dagenham, which was under the control of the Export office. I was to work
independently as a progress chaser in the Assembly Plant. My job was really to
ensure that either individual cars were built on time, or shiploads were built
together to arrive at a dockside in time for a boat s departure. The boats
either came up the River Thames to the Dagenham Ford jetty, or other UK ports
were used. This meant that I liaised with the Ford shipping/credit departments,
as well as all areas in the Car Assembly buildings, on instructions from my
masters in Cheapside.
To start off with, I had an office runabout which was a Ford Popular. Can you
believe my surprise and excitement when, on introduction of the MK111 Zephyr
and Zodiac models, I was actually give a Zephyr 4 to use around the Dagenham
estate? It was a lovely car, and I did occasionally sneak it home to show it
off to the neighbours!
I remember the very first Mk111 we saw off the production line. Employees stood
around to admire it. The general feeling was that it looked better than the
current Mercedes Benz 220 (fintail).
On Public Announcement day I remember the new Zodiacs all lined up in the wash
garage at the main office block, overlooking the river Thames, in readiness for
chauffeurs to drive the directors home. There were two or three unique Zodiac
colours, two of which I especially remember. One was Midnight Blue, and the
other was Sable Brown. I personally liked the brown one best.
Prior to Public Announcement day, the Company prepared a mix of models and
engine sizes for the press to evaluate. This meant that about twenty or so cars
were to be "run-in" prior to handing over to the press for their
appraisal. The office staff were offered weekend overtime, or sometimes evening
work, to drive these cars around a disused airfield at Boreham in Essex, about
forty miles from Dagenham. I remember arriving early one Saturday morning, with
sandwiches and a flask of tea, to be allocated a car for the day. We just had
to drive clockwise around the perimeter track, with regular stops on a concrete
area to reverse, and turn the car into left bends as against the right hand
bends being used out on the track. A couple of drivers lost the feeling of
speed on the featureless landscape, and ended up in a muddy ploughed field.
They didn t do any more driving! There was even one tale, of a driver
forgetting that he had an unregistered, secret, new model and drove it down the
lane to the nearest pub for lunch, there leaving it parked outside for all the
customers to view.
My job necessitated me to drive newly built cars from different places in the
factory to either repair booths, or repaint facilities, in order to prioritise
them. This part, I really enjoyed. The new Zephyrs and Zodiacs were lovely cars
to drive, especially those with auto transmissions. In fact I liked them so
much that I put my name down on a press car to buy for myself. It was a mid
blue Zodiac. I can even remember it s registration number - FOO 534. After I
had decided to buy it, I looked up the road test report in a weekly car
magazine, either "Motor" or "Autocar", and low and behold
the car reported on was the actual car that I was buying. Alas, my wife at the
time had other ideas, and so I ended up buying an Anglia 1200 Super. Yes, you
ve guessed it again another road test car!
I remember, in the course of my work, I had to ensure that a LHD Zodiac was
ready and shipped on time for the World Trade Fair in New York. This was a
specially painted blue car, and received extra quality control checks through
it s manufacturing journey, so that it was something special to show beneath
the bright lights of the show stand. Because it was special, it was being
crated and airfreighted to New York, and was to be picked up by a transporter
from the factory gate. This was unusual as they were normally driven to a
holding compound. All cars, on leaving the factory, were checked by the
security guards to make sure the paperwork was in order and that a spare wheel
and tool kit were included. (Some car checks revealed parts hidden in the boot
of the car.) The security man hadn t realised that on opening the boot lid, it
would hit the top deck of the transporter. There we were, ready to box the car
and airfreight it out the next morning, and it had suffered a nasty dent in the
boot lid. Needless to say, the factory worked on the car during the night, and
the car still reached it s destination on time - with a little help from me.
During the life of the Mk111 s there was an occasion when Henry Ford II visited
the British offices and factories. This meant that a specially prepared black
painted Zodiac, with a red coachline and leather trim, had to be readied for
this VIP visit. To facilitate preparation I believe that the Ford company
called upon the services of the Hooper Coachbuilding Company. This first car, I
reckon, spawned the limited number of production Hooper models being built. I
remember that the cars were built as standard production vehicles, and then
delivered to Hoopers for re-work. Unfortunately, no-one co-ordinated the
production trim colours with the orders for the leather interiors. Consequently
a car with lovely red leather upholstery actually had a blue fascia panel, top
roll and steering wheel and carpets! A number of strange combinations resulted
from this error, and this meant that it became my job to get the cars sorted
out afterwards, by returning them into the factory to have colour matched
features. By the way, did you know that this Hooper exercise was also applied
to the first Capri models? I can recall that the Hooper cars had unique paint
and coachlines, and maybe some walnut interior trim, but I am not sure on this
point.
In those days I was young and ambitious, and after about two years at Dagenham,
I applied for a job back in London which would give me promotion. My career at
Ford continued to give me the opportunity to be with cars in one way or
another, and I remember one year I was seconded for Motor Show stand duty at
Earls Court in London, at a time when all the Ford factories were on strike. We
had nothing new to show the visitors so veteran cars were put on the stand
instead of the current range, which wasn t very demanding for the show
personnel. In those days all specially prepared Motor Show exhibits were
subsequently scrapped after the Show. I was told that this was because the
bodies were weakened because they received excessive buffing prior to painting,
but it may have been due to the cars not having proper production plates.
My longest and most interesting job with the company was being in charge of
Sales and Marketing for Special Vehicle Orders (SVO) . The Fleet Sales
department would obtain business from large Plc s and government organisations,
who quite often would want unique features on their vehicles. For example:
special Army Green for the Ministry of Defence, special paint and liveries for
the gas, water, and electricity companies, and special requirements for Police
Cars. The police bought the Zephyr 6 s and Anglia saloons. The Zephyrs were the
"Z cars" of the TV series, and the famous theme tune was inspired by
them. They would have special features such as: a high output
generator/alternator, a heavy duty battery, zips in the headlining to
facilitate the fitment of "police" signs, and "blues and
twos" - blue light and two-tone siren. The police Anglias were painted in
either lagoon blue with white doors or, the other way round, white with lagoon
blue doors. These were known as PANDA s. We even prepared the Zephyrs and
Zodiacs for conversion by limousine and hearse coachbuilders. This would
usually mean uprated suspension, black paint, and very basic trim levels,
sometimes the rear seats and boot lids were left off during production. I
remember on one occasion we decided to build a Zephyr 4 taxi prototype, with a
two-tone paint scheme of mid blue and yellow bonnet and boot lid. It also had
the zips in the headlining, as well as high output electrics, and an emergency
foot operated switch for the driver, which would sound the horn and flash the
headlamps if he was in a dangerous situation.
The last ten years of my career were spent in the Halewood Assembly Plant near
Liverpool, where Anglias, Capris, and then Escorts and Orions were built. Since
I left in 1990, the factory has become part of the Jaguar organisation, and
produces these prestigious models. At Halewood I was working as the Vehicle
Distribution manager, a position with responsibilities not dissimilar from my
very early days in Dagenham, except that it had a much higher profile, and I
had staff working for me.
Of course, during the thirty years with Ford, I managed to drive most of their
products, and also leased or owned a large number of them. Looking back over
the years, I think the most memorable ones were: MkI Lotus Cortina, MkII
Cortina 1600E, Capri 3litre, Escort RS1600, and Sierra Cosworth. I even managed
to get a ride as a passenger in a Ford GT40 - the Le Mans winning model, well
that was something I can tell you!
So what do I now own in retirement? Well, my wife and I have a nearly new Ford
Fiesta, a four year old Daihatsu Fourtrak, a Russian built 1975 GAZ-13 Chaika
limousine once owned by Brazauskas, the Leader of the Central Committee in
Lithuania during Soviet times, and a 1994 GAZ-31029 Volga saloon. During my
working career I also owned two Rolls-Royce Silver Shadows, and a Silver
Spirit. I have also been a member of the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club for about
twenty five years, but that s another story.
John Matthews