My Mk2 Consul
By Kevin Barlas
I've always been into old cars and
made a promise to myself that before i was 25 id get one. I'm currently 24 so I
seem to have just made it.
I found my Consul by accident
really. I was driving about in my Fiat Punto as I had a tip off as to where my dad's
old Morris Minor he sold years ago was. As i was driving about i passed someone's
driveway and noticed some vague 50's classic car sticking out. So i had to do
what any normal guy does and turn around to get a closer look. When I first saw
it up close I never really knew exactly what it was but I knew i had to have
it. I left a note through the owners door and a few days later he emailed me back telling
me it's a 1960 Ford Consul mk2 and it was for sale and that he wanted £1100
for it. I went back up to his house to have a better look at the car. The floor
pans were sound but both sills needed replaced, the doors and wings had the
usual holes and bubbling rust coming through as well, but nothing too major. I
had no money saved at all but luckily the metal fabricators i worked at at the
time was getting busy and they needed people to do overtime. I asked the owner
if he wouldn't mind keeping a hold of it for me and thankfully he agreed. As
I worked for 6 weeks 6am-6pm and the occasional weekend I managed to start saving the money
up. I would sometimes pop along on my drive home and have a look at it. I
even remember the feeling I had when the owner gave me the keys and let me look
at it and sit in it alone, Wondering how the hell I would manage the column
change, vacuum wipers, mirrors on the wings, no seat belts etc.. Once I had
saved up enough money I went and picked 'Connie' up. It had a month's MOT left
but no road tax. As I was leaving, saying my thanks to the owner I remembered I
had never asked him how I change the gear, after a quick demonstration I was
off.
I took it to the MOT station
straight away to see what the problems were. Number one was the sills but I
knew about that anyway, the rest was a blown brake light, tyres rubbing on the
steering stops and a leaking brake slave cylinder. Which for a 50 year old car isn't
very much. At the time however, I never had a garage and knowing the months MOT
would be up soon I started to get worried about the car being on the street.
There was nothing for it but to take 2 weeks off work and weld the sills on the
street. My girlfriend was looking forward to 2 weeks in Spain , sorry dearest. I
had never really done any welding on bodywork before but I'm a
welder/fabricator by trade so I at least had a head start. I had one
sill outer and inner repair panel with the car to make a copy of for the other
side and I made my own piece up for the membrane sill. I managed to get the
roughest side done in a week and a half but still had the driver's side to
replace, I never had the time to replace the whole thing so against my own
wishes I had to just repair the sills.
I had nowhere to keep the car off
the road but the repair was pretty good. I then had 2 weeks of after work time
and weekends to get the rest sorted. As I was underneath the car so much i
noticed how much the rear axle could do with a refurb, the shackles that held
the rear leaf springs were really dangerous as well, the retaining bolt was
just a friction fit!. I removed the rear axle (in the street again) and all the
gubbings along with it, I would have liked to retemper the springs but i had no
time or money. I made up new shackles with the proper high tensile bolts, I
replaced the seals and spent a long time with the wire brush/grinder, whilst I
was it i noticed the petrol tank was looking tired so that got a lick of paint
too. I also made the mistake of being under the car and seeing how much of the
old underseal I could remove, a job I thought I'd do on a Sunday turned out to be
the Sunday and 3 nights after work.
I had also bought a complete seal kit
for all the brake cylinders. I couldn't just stick them in without painting the
front and rear hubs.
On the day of its MOT I took it
along and surprisingly it passed. Since then it's been my daily driver, to and
from work and cruising on the weekend. It's quite good for town traffic I love
the lazy column change although the original radiator was leaking and
blocked and I never had the money to re-core it so I went to the scrap yard and
found a Mercedes one that was about the same size and fitted it in a way that I
could replace it with the original if I want to. It's been pretty reliable, I've
went camping, been to shows and even covered long distances like 100 miles to
Pitlochory and back with no problems.
Just recently at my new job I got
offered a large garage to rent from my boss at a price too cheap to refuse, it
used to be a metal fabricators shop so its large, 3 phase sockets, toilets,
water, office, canteen etc.. and I share it with just one other person. My intentions
with the Consul was to get it in there and get stuck into restoring it
but I seem to have erm, bought another classic Ford, It was another one
of those "I never intended to but I did" scenarios. A guy I know from
the Scottish pre67 ford club had been having trouble with his Ford Thames,
namely the roof gutter and he was looking for another camper to strip out for
parts. He posted some pictures one he knew about lying in a field, a 1958 Ford
Thames Dormobile camper. After a little bit of thought he realised that this
van was a lot worse than his so he never bothered taking it. Foolishly, I felt
sorry for it, thinking it's a shame to see it rusting and rotting away back to
the earth in some farmers field. I managed to get a hold of the owner to see
how much she wanted for it. She said someone told her it was worth £400 - £450
and that I was welcome to go take a look. So a few weeks ago me and my brother
took the 44 mile trip in my Consul , from Edinburgh to Ancrum to have a look.
Straight away I thought it was never in a hundred years worth £450. I managed
to persuade the farmer to pull it out using his tractor.
The first time
it had moved in 3 years, so I could get a better look at everything. Thankfully
the separate chassis and out-riggers were still solid. The main area of concern
is around the roof. The gutter is practically oxide and the edges of the roof
have disappeared. The pop up roof also has a bit plastic missing so the rain
has gotten in over the years, luckily its just a wooden floor so that shouldn't
be too hard to replace. Everything needs stripped out and cleaned/ repaired.
When i got home I wasn't too sure about buying it. One half of me said that I
have enough to be getting on with, with the Consul but the other half was telling
me how awesome it would be to go travelling in it once it's all done. I decided
to set my price at £200 and let fate decide. I phoned the woman up and told her
what was wrong with it and how it wasn't worth £450 at all and I offered her £150,
she declined so I upped it to £200 and she agreed, bonus! I think she was more
glad that it was going to someone to restore than as a parts van. The next
major hurdle was how do I get it from Ancrum 44 miles up to my garage in Edinburgh.
The plan was for my brother to get his 2.4 Toyota estima/previa taxed MOTd and
insured for this weekend and hire a trailer. Unfortunately that plan never took
shape as on the Thursday he found out the cost of insuring the Toyota just wasn't
worth it. That left me in a bit of a pickle as to what to do next. I tried
searching for a company to pick it up on a flat bed and drop it off but that
was going to cost £240 at the cheapest. My next idea was to find a trailer to
borrow and a car to borrow, my dad's friend came up with the trailer but no
vehicle. I tried phoning the only other person I know with a tow bar on his VW
golf estate but I couldn't get a hold of him at all. I just about gave up on
the Saturday when I looked at the full raging 1.2 litres of my 120,000 mile Fiat
Punto and thought "Would it be stupid to try and tow a ton and a half of
camper and trailer with this" so off I popped to the scrap yard and found
a Tow bar for the pricely sum of £15 and went to town installing it. It fitted
pretty well and bouyed with confidence I got my dad to arrange the trailer for
Sunday. Sunday morning, its pissing down with rain and as we set off the engine
is running on 3 cylinders, not the best of starts to the day. I pulled over at
a garage and fiddled about with the HT leads and the problem disappeared. We
went to my dad's friends house to pick up the big ass trailer. It was longer
and wider than the car. I probably should have checked out the weight limit of
the car but it was too late now. It was also the first time I had ever driven
with a trailer so no better way to get used to it than with a proper man size
trailer. After another 44 miles of 'fun' driving we reached our destination,
Thankfully Mr farmer was around to pull the Thames out of the soft muddy grass
and onto a slightly less wet and muddy patch of grass for us to load up. Seeing
it again after 2 weeks made me kind of think did I make the right choice, too
late now. It was all paid for.
Loaded up
and ready to go, We got about 15ft before getting stuck in the mud. I had to
get the farmer to get his manatou and get us unstuck. I think he was a bit pissed
off by this time as he dragged us literally out of the hole 5ft and that was it
"yeah, you will be fine from here", cheers mate......Back on the main
road the first hill we pull up I had to change down to 1st gear to get it up
there. Me and my dad looked at each other, not muttering a word but both praying
to the automotive gods that this thing better get up these hills! Of course we
had mental cross winds and no trailering experience would be complete without
the fluttering heartbeat you get that only a fish tailing trailer can provide
at 50MPH. At one point the rain got so heavy it was like driving on a small
lake and you still couldn't see anything with the wipers going at max. We
managed to get the Thames into the garage. Then back another 10 miles to drop
the trailer off. I must say, I'll never underestimate the Punto again, it is a
cheap run around but it was a champ today, I think I may need to service the
poor thing now.
I now need
to come up with a restoration plan. I'm also toying with getting the cologne/Essex
V6 in it.
I've decided
that this needs work done a lot sooner than the Consul, I guess the Consul has
a few more years for the road without needing too much attention to keep it
road legal. Once the camper is done I'll get started, but in a way I like the
slightly ratty look.
Here is a
link to my album folders on tinypic.com,
your welcome to use any of these photos as well, there's a lot more of the van
in restoration on that site http://tinypic.com/2mpknuy9
Also, this
is my restoration thread on the Scottish pre 67 ford forum, http://pre67ford.hyperboards.com/index.php?action=view_topic&topic_id=456&latest=1
Kevin
Barlas