Rebel, with a cause
Greg Price has owned this 1953 Ford Zephyr Mark I for nigh on 50 years
In 1965, I bought my first Mark I Zephyr sedan. It was a 1953 model, black with a light-green top; twin aerials, spot light, whitewall tyres, and, yes, a sun visor. I’d advertised in the Wanted to Buy section in an Auckland newspaper seeking a Zephyr for no more than £350. A guy came around with a nice example, and the deal was done. However a move to Aussie later necessitated its sale.
In 1973, while trying to ditch my Austin 1800, a car dealer on Great North Road offered to swap my Morris 1800 for their $700 green 1953 Mark I Zephyr and I was happy as, to be a Zephyr owner once again.
Over the subsequent years I did extensive mechanical work on it including reconditioning the engine, replacing the Mcpherson struts, overhauling the differential, fitting Olympic Green colour trims to the tyres, and then painting the car a matching green in 1982. Fitting a vacuum overdrive unit in the early 1990s didn’t work out, as there was a fault in the rear shaft which caused a frustrating noise, so it came out again.
Named ‘The Rebel’ after James Dean, the car played second fiddle to ‘Happy Days’, our 1954 Mark I convertible (purchased in 1978), but it still managed to attend a few Zephyr conventions, in Auckland, Taupo, Christchurch, and Invercargill. In 1988, we got a personalized plate: ‘DEAN55’.
Then, in 2016, our friendly warrant issuer decided that he could no longer issue Warrants of Fitness (WOFS) for The Rebel, until I attended to “some rust issues”. He had seen daylight underneath where he ought not to have seen any. I knew there was some
bog in the car after painting it in 1982, but I didn’t know a previous owner had ‘tidied up’ the rust in the panel with newspaper, chicken wire, and bog! All was well until 2010 when the Christchurch earthquake–damaged roads rattled the bog loose and exposed it to my alert WOF guy. I hadn’t helped matters by placing an aluminium plate over a hole in the boot and covering the underside with underseal. Add to this actual earthquake damage after an old AWA portable TV fell on the headlight surround, and the whole car jumped backwards onto my motorcycle lift which punched another hole through the boot floor …
After nearly seven years getting the Earthquake Commission (EQC) to finally sort out our claims, and then moving house, it was to be August 2019 before repairs and restoration on the car could commence in earnest. This work has included removing much of the boot floor, most of the rear panel, removing the dings and dents in the doors and sills, and fitting two replacement mudguards that I had been storing since about 1980. Also to be fitted is a brand new front jacking point that I got in 1981. The intention is to make it look like my very first Mark I, save for the addition of original Starfire hubcaps, proper wide whitewall tyres, the colour, and maybe not so many accessories as before. The remedial work beyond my capabilities went to Malcolm at Northend Rust and Panel Repair. As you can see, The Rebel is in good company: the Mark I Ford Cortina is destined to have a rotary engine inserted once its remedial bodywork has been completed.
The Christchurch earthquake–damaged roads rattled the bog loose and exposed it to my alert WOF guy