‘I like the scruffy appearance’
Your tales of the latest classic deals. This week, how one reader bought the perfect project.
What made you want an A35?
I have been promising myself my first restoration project for quite some time and I finally decided to bite the bullet the week before Christmas. I chose an A35 partly because my partner and I had one many years ago, but It wasn’t cast in stone that we would go for an Austin. I had drawn up a short list of cars that I thought would be reasonably easy to restore mechanically and which I knew had good spares back up and which I could get within my budget of £1000£1500.
Tell us about this one.
I whittled it down to a choice between an A35 or a Morris Minor after I discounted a Mini on the basis that even project cars were out of budget, and the rust issue scared me off Triumph Heralds. The current situation has made it difficult to view and buy a car so when this Austin appeared on an auction website, and I saw that it was located not too far away I committed the cardinal sin of making an offer based entirely on the photographs. It did help that it was on sale with a dealer and I paid £1500 for the Austin plus £125 to have the guy deliver it from just outside Edinburgh to me in Dumfries.
Has it been a joy to own?
Fortunately, when the car was delivered it appeared to be in as good a shape as the photographs suggested and the body and structure seem to be pretty solid (famous last words?). The only down side is that it came with a sign reading ‘IF IT AIN’T COUNTRY, IT AIN’ MUSIC’ attached to the front bumper and, unfortunately, my partner is a Country and Western music fan and she insists that the plaque on the front must stay!
What are your plans for it now?
The car was bought as a non-runner (and non stopper...no brakes!) and although everything seems to be where it should be, the plan is to replace all the ancillary items and get the car running and roadworthy again, rather than an attempt to get it into show condition. In fact, I like the scruffy appearance of the car and he has since been christened Ratty.
plan from a short list of cars. That’s how you avoid biting off more than you can chew, or travelling to the other side of the country, try not to focus on one specific model. Given he has been so sensible, it hopefully shouldn’t take him that long to get his A35 back on the road, and what’s for sure is that he’ll have a sweet little runabout at the end of it.