1962 Vauxhall VX 4/90

[bent8rover]

Back in September, I was out in the Daimler Six (see that at the kerbside), and happened upon this.  It had recently been repatriated from Lancashire to whence it was born (Lutonshire) and was sitting looking like it needed some of the snags sorting through, being 54 years young.


 
Some of this was duly done (door lock, oil service, a tickle) but shortly after it became surplus when this driveway went beyond capacity (again!), so it was offered a temporary and safe home over at chez Bent8Rover.  Months passed by and during that time it was realised that these cars were rare and forgotten by the masses, whereupon a bond had seeded.

Over the Christmas festivities, it unexpectedly became available to purchase outright during the owner's moment of 'car stock clearance', so a deal was done to keep it back over this part of town and 'in the family'.  

It's been out and about once in while (but not a lot) - as 1) it's been autumn/winter and it's a notorious Vauxhall, fizzing like an Alfasud, and 2) I didn't own it and embarrassingly scuffed the last surplus car that was borrowed..

Anyhow, the sun came out this weekend and as it stayed dry, it was taken along to a 'wake a Victor FD from its 20-year slumber event' in North Bedfordshire (see other blogs). It was gunned on the way there (late), and gunned on the way back (enjoyment).

Pretty rare now.  Even rarer in this form - it's the 'Mk1', predating any 'GT' Cortina that Ford had to offer from the era.

Vauxhall made significant changes to their base Vauxhall Victor for this model, so much so they marketed it as a model in its own right - the 'VX 4/90' and not just 'Victor Sports Model' or similar.  The wonderful Vauxpedium can explain better: vauxpedia.net/vauxhall-fb---victor-vx490

Plans:
Replace the screen rubbers as it's become the hoover dam inside
Repaint the side strip back to the correct red colour
Think about that roof.  Back to White/cream, or maybe red to match the stripe?
Drive it.

[bent8rover]

See that bonnet ornament?

Well that Jaguuar leaper has been replaced with something more fitting: a Vauxhall Speedbird off an EIX Velox.

[bent8rover]

Took it from under its cover and out for its first run in many weeks at the weekend 

Weather stayed dry so attacked all of the the inner lips of the front windscreen rubber with black roofing mastic as the rubber with the lip for the brightwork is made of unobtanium. Didn't make a mess and it looks tidy.  Been putting that off for ages.  Will see if that keeps the elements out as the underlay has been drenched for a while despite that portable dehumidifier running from time to time over winter.

Not so sure on the mascot now as it dominates the bonnet. The i dea was to fill the nasty holes made in the bonnet for the Jaguar leaper with something other than filler and paint expense for now



But, I've not owned a gun sight since the Merc W123 years ago.  Might get used to it.  

Looking underneath there are more urgent bushings to address and the exhaust is blowing at the joint due to careless reversing.  That MOT is looming and I've only put a couple of hundred miles on it.

[bent8rover]

List of things to do from the surface:

Dry that carpet and after-market underlay out. It might have to all come out

Fix the sender to the fuel guage before I get caught out

Clean and fit the set of seatbelts front and rear scavenged from Mytocon's big shed donor Victor.  Curiously, it obviously had two-point belts fitted before in its life but were removed. Maybe it did some film work?  I had fitted a driver's three-point belt back in December to make things a bit safer, but of course meant no friends or family could come along.

The nice big period Lucas spotlights appear to be wired as the main beam.  Which is a nice alternative, but surely won't pass MOT.

Get all that front and rear windscreen brightwork back in, and make it stay in.

[Willy Eckerslyke]

That is indeed a very lovely car. I agree with you that a red stripe would look better, and roof too perhaps. Did the door tops always follow the roof colour?

[bent8rover]

List of things forgot to mention:

Bought a better unique-to-the-VX grill badge



Bought a spare unique-to-the-VX front indicator cover



Boot lid is blowing through it's lip repair and is full of filler so grabbed this for £12 as it's correct for series-1 FB Victor



Bought a load of service manuals to help with bedtime reading, ranging from Vauxhall's own to Mr Olysager.  Have I even opened them?  No.


Replaced the missing, fragile ceiling light cover as plastic is brittle on these at this age. Car came without one, so borrowed one off Mytocon donor car until another came up.  Saw one on eBay but missed it and it went for much more than expected.

[bent8rover]

Apr 6, 2017 13:29:48 GMT Willy Eckerslyke said:

That is indeed a very lovely car. I agree with you that a red stripe would look better, and roof too perhaps. Did the door tops always follow the roof colour?

Cheers.  Correct scheme is this.  Stripes were black or red, when over white.   Red always with the red interior this car has.




Why it was changed, I don't know.  I thought maybe he was a Rootes colours fancier!  Then spotted that Pathfinder did a model with a suspiciously similar scheme




This was five years ago, prior to the butchery custom touches



My initial thoughts were to just go over that brown roof with red as well, but roof would still be 'wrong' and bound to draw comments at a show, but at least it's been done and if they are worried about that they they haven't looked underneath at all that 'glass and filler.


Notable differences for this early model are:

The raising of the stripe along the rear door.
Decal 'wood' dash rather than the later proper veneer, amongst various other interior changes.
Higher-compression engine based on the earlier 1508cc unit carried over from F-type, with alloy head and twin Zeniths 

[bent8rover]

The leaking front screen is fixed! So pleased about that. Carpet is ill-fitting aftermarket, but at least the correct colour. So, pulled carpet and underlay out to confirm all dry and ....what did I find?

[Willy Eckerslyke]

A wad of tenners?

[bent8rover]

If only!

I found holes in the floor, glassed-over from underneath. Grr...

[Willy Eckerslyke]

Damn. Still, at least you know now, rather than just suspecting.

[bent8rover]

I had my suspicions, as underneath has lashings of underseal.

This is the reason why I pulled out the whole carpet and the (what looks like) recent thick underlay that was taped down. Wanted to look up into the bulkhead, past the toe boards. Daren't take a hammer to any of it now...

[bent8rover]

Took it over the pit at local MOT tester

Will need a plate on nearside chassis rail, gaiters and a brake hose is twisted.

Resident welder declared he didn't want to go near it because 'I don't want to chase all that pudding'

[bent8rover]

MOT passed after some floor/outrigger welding and the expected front bushes.  Phew!

Since then, been away a lot, kept busy on the house and other jobs too but I have been running it about to a couple of shows when given the chance



- Leaking front screen is back!  But not to the extent it ever was.  More chasing required.
- A strip of brightwork fell off a door top.  It had been glued home with NoMoreNails or somesuch!  Hmmm.
- Driver's door card removed and the inner handle fixed back, as it came adrift whole.  Not surprising as the factory wrapped two metal lugs around the card along with just two additional screws to reinforce it. 
- Found a NOS exhaust, but wanted to check first if the VX had a wider bore to the standard FB.  In the meantime the good oldschool Holts repair metal bandage with clamps came to the rescue to get through MOT.

In all my days of crumbling Alfas and Lancias, this lovely bus has given perhaps the obscurest MOT advisory I've ever had  

Advisory notice item(s)

underbody corrosion, filler present

Still, it is a survivor when so many of these didn't make their first ten years!  And it's still on the road 45 years later.

I've been wondering if the full strip-down and dip route would be better serving, rather than just paint and fix for now as there is filler evident busting through a year on, what with it being such a rare and worthy vehicle.  However, hearing of Father Ted's recent experience of escalating cost on the Zephyr, I'm unsure if I can go through with all that right now 

[Father Ted]

My experiences of escalating costs are probably partly my own fault for entrusting the work to someone I didn't know, who has turned out to be something of a bullsh*tter.

You probably know someone you could trust with your car.