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old car snaps

Another couple of years on, to 1937/38 and Dad's no. 3, a Ford V8 of probably 1936 vintage, COH619.

This came, in 1937, and very shortly after, nearly went! It's here in Cutler's Garage in Streetly, awaiting attention - the result of a coming-together at the Chester Road/Queslett Road crossroads with a Vauxhall being driven by someone under the influence. My brother and sister were in the car with him at the time but escaped without injury, despite the lack of seatbelts, airbags, soft surfaces and all the other modern paraphenalia. The windscreen suggests that my brother would have had a bit of a headache, though....
FordV8Damageca1937img623.jpg

This was the Vauxhall, almost certainly a write-off:
DamagedVauxhallCutlersStree.jpg

Our V8 was hammered back into pristine condition as shown in the background of this image from summer 1938 - the car is on its holidays (as is the reluctant horseman) and is parked in the same place as the Morris Major three years previously.

HMM-cars-1jpg.jpg

(Pity it only warranted a full picture when it had been in the wars).

Chris
 
Another couple of years on, to 1937/38 and Dad's no. 3, a Ford V8 of probably 1936 vintage, COH619.

This came, in 1937, and very shortly after, nearly went! It's here in Cutler's Garage in Streetly, awaiting attention - the result of a coming-together at the Chester Road/Queslett Road crossroads with a Vauxhall being driven by someone under the influence. My brother and sister were in the car with him at the time but escaped without injury, despite the lack of seatbelts, airbags, soft surfaces and all the other modern paraphenalia. The windscreen suggests that my brother would have had a bit of a headache, though....
View attachment 157788

This was the Vauxhall, almost certainly a write-off:
View attachment 157789

Our V8 was hammered back into pristine condition as shown in the background of this image from summer 1938 - the car is on its holidays (as is the reluctant horseman) and is parked in the same place as the Morris Major three years previously.

View attachment 157790

(Pity it only warranted a full picture when it had been in the wars).

Chris
wow glad your family were ok,car body's can be banged back into shape,human body's cannot.
 
#223.

From the ages of the boys, can you put an approximate date on the picture? I do not think that the vehicle has anything to do with Land Rover.
 
#223.

From the ages of the boys, can you put an approximate date on the picture? I do not think that the vehicle has anything to do with Land Rover.
Hi John, this is another photo (slightly blurred) of the same scene and they were taken around 1958-59. Looks like a late 50s Hillman coming the other way.
roadside picnic.jpg
 
Thanks for this. I’m glad that it’s not just me who took that sort of photograph!

Let’s start with what we know for sure. That Minx is, at the latest, a Phase VIII, or VIIIA, the production of which ended in 1956. At the earliest, the grille started with the Phase VI, Anniversary Minx, celebrating the model’s 21st year, in 1953. Difficult to tell, but I think it might be a drophead coupé, or a Californian Coupé. So we have a period of time, ‘53 to ‘56, before which the picture could not be taken. The registration of the subject vehicle appears to be EOJ, if so, a Birmingham index in use from August 1938 to February 1939, and reserved for commercial vehicles, although the Brum authority included estate cars as commercial vehicles. If it’s EUJ, that is June to October 1948, issued by the County Council of Salop (Shropshire). Those dates, the suicide doors, and the height and width of the vehicle pretty comprehensively rule out a Land Rover.

Now to the guesswork. The style of the drop-down tailboard, (love the tablecloth!), and the horizontally opening half doors suggest a home or local coachbuilder alteration of a damaged car, or van. The prewar registration plate, (if EOJ), rules out a conversion of a “Tilly” of which there were many still around at that time. although some jiggery-pokery might have occurred, especially due to the arcane tax laws and shortage of vehicles at that time.

I have tried to identify the front door. No easy job and I have no definitive answer, sorry. No Ford of that era still had suicide front doors. The Ten Model CX ceased build in 1937 and did not have a quarter light. The just prewar Austin Ten and Twelve had suicide doors, but the handle was mounted lower. The late thirties Morris models had no-draft ventilation with a strip of fixed glass across the top of the doors’ window aperture. Similarly for Flying Standard cars.

The nearest I can get with that door is a 1936-38 Talbot Ten, or a Singer Bantam from that time, which seems unlikely.

Later…..

I think I have it. Hillman New Minx, 1938/9. The door matches, even to the handle in the chrome belt line.

I hope that this is a possible solution.

This is the Commer van version, from which the conversion might have sprung: -

 
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Thanks for this. I’m glad that it’s not just me who took that sort of photograph!

Let’s start with what we know for sure. That Minx is, at the latest, a Phase VIII, or VIIIA, the production of which ended in 1956. At the earliest, the grille started with the Phase VI, Anniversary Minx, celebrating the model’s 21st year, in 1953. Difficult to tell, but I think it might be a drophead coupé, or a Californian Coupé. So we have a period of time, ‘53 to ‘56, before which the picture could not be taken. The registration of the subject vehicle appears to be EOJ, if so, a Birmingham index in use from August 1938 to February 1939, and reserved for commercial vehicles, although the Brum authority included estate cars as commercial vehicles. If it’s EUJ, that is June to October 1948, issued by the County Council of Salop (Shropshire). Those dates, the suicide doors, and the height and width of the vehicle pretty comprehensively rule out a Land Rover.

Now to the guesswork. The style of the drop-down tailboard, (love the tablecloth!), and the horizontally opening half doors suggest a home or local coachbuilder alteration of a damaged car, or van. The prewar registration plate, (if EOJ), rules out a conversion of a “Tilly” of which there were many still around at that time. although some jiggery-pokery might have occurred, especially due to the arcane tax laws and shortage of vehicles at that time.

I have tried to identify the front door. No easy job and I have no definitive answer, sorry. No Ford of that era still had suicide front doors. The Ten Model CX ceased build in 1937 and did not have a quarter light. The just prewar Austin Ten and Twelve had suicide doors, but the handle was mounted lower. The late thirties Morris models had no-draft ventilation with a strip of fixed glass across the top of the doors’ window aperture. Similarly for Flying Standard cars.

The nearest I can get with that door is a 1936-38 Talbot Ten, or a Singer Bantam from that time, which seems unlikely.

Later…..

I think I have it. Hillman New Minx, 1938/9. The door matches, even to the handle in the chrome belt line.

I hope that this is a possible solution.

This is the Commer van version, from which the conversion might have sprung: -

Thanks John, I had a feeling you might come up with a resolution. It is an EOJ reg. Incidently, the Family story is that Pop (Father-in-Law) camped overnight outside this car dealership in Potters Hill Aston in order to be first to buy a car from the vehicles they were selling off cheap the next day. No one knows now just how cheap this car was.
Potters Hill from Bartons Bank copy.jpg
 
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Not an old car but the back of an old lorry. Very clear registration number DOP 661. Does anyone know when this may have been introduced? I'm trying to date this photograph as the person in the foreground is my mother. Could be early 1950s? Many thanks. Looking more closely it could be DDP. Dave.

P1000876 (2).JPG
 
DDP - Reading August 1947 to June 1948.
DOP - Birmingham December 1937 to Jan 1938.

However, Birmingham reserved special indices for commercial vehicles and this is not one of them. So I reckon it’s a 1947/8 lorry, but no idea what.

Better to date from the “peep-toe” shoes, early 50s I think, or the Austin Devon in the background, 1947+.
 
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This is a photo of my ex boyfriends old works van on holiday in Prestatyn North Wales. I learned to drive in it.
Austin A60 van, based on the similar-fronted car. An uncle had one when he was a butcher in a Northamptonsire village.
 
Dad's first car - 1939 (I think) Morris 8 Series E, purchased from Monkspath Garage on the Stratford Road, Shirley around 1954 (site later Prophets, now a Toyota dealership). Pictured outside Grandparents' bungalow in Presteigne.
 

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I have investigated the cost of converting my Bentley to electric power and have been given a budgetary figure of about £60,000. Needless to say, I view this as a non starter, and have decided to await developments in terms of kits to convert classic cars gaining more market coverage. People are starting to look at this, although the high price of the electric replica Morris van being used by BBC‘s “Click” programme does not bode well.

One of the difficulties is that if you are going to create an electric version of your 70 year old car, the car being presented needs to be almost in show condition, which could mean an electric 50s Bentley could set you back £100k not including firstly purchasing a car to convert, if, unlike me, you don’t have a spare Bentley sitting in the garage.
 
"Daddy, why does your old car say 2.4 on the back?"
"Well son, it's.. err.. it means 2.4 volts."
"Daddy, why does it have two pipes poking out the back?"
"Ah, yes, that's where the air comes out that came in through the radiator in the front!"
"Daddy.."
"Don't you have homework to do?"
 
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