Project Austin Montego 1.6 Estate
REPORT: SIMON GOLDSWORTHY Not many cars can justify the cost of a full restoration, and most will cost more to fix than they will ever be worth. That does not mean they aren’t worth doing, just that the impetus has to be emotional rather than financial. O
Meet our latest project car, and unlikely choice that will never be economic, but which certainly deserves a second chance.
You know how sometimes of an evening you get an idea which seems great at the time, but deep down inside you suspect that in the cold light of day it might not seem quite so inspired? In some ways, our latest project car may seem to fall into this camp. It is a 1985 Austin Montego 1.6 estate, and it was bought on a whim by our publisher who, despite being very successful at his day job, is as much of a car nut as you and me and has a very questionable penchant for unfashionable cars from the 1980s.
Under normal circumstance that affliction would be broadly manageable, but there is an added dimension in this case which makes it rather more dangerous. Most people, if they floated the idea of buying a down-at-heel Montego, would be shouted down by their mates and told to go get another round of drinks by way of distraction. Unfortunately, I happen to share this strange attraction to mundane motors, cars which are part of our social history rather than being automotive icons. So when he floated the idea of buying this Montego, instead of shooting it down right away, I was all for it.
Which was why I found myself a few days later driving across the country to Weston-super- Mare to collect it after we’d ignored all the warning signs and posted the winning bid of £1035 on a certain internet auction site. What warning signs? Well, for one thing according to the seller the Montego had been relisted ‘due to a time waster with zero feedback who didn’t come to view, and upon collection decided it wasn’t for him and wanted his deposit back.’ He went on to stress in bold letters: ‘Please come and view so you are aware of what you are bidding on as this is not in immaculate condition, it is a running restoration project with MoT and should be regarded as such.’
This Montego had been sold new by
Ruette Bray Motors (Guernsey) and first registered on that island in April 1985. It was only re-registered in the UK in March 2019, which explained why the recorded mileage was a very low 31,000 miles. It also meant that there was only the one MoT certificate in its history file, one which still had a few weeks left to run. At least that didn’t show any advisories, and the car was said to drive very well, albeit with the ominous addition of the caveat: ‘...for a 35-year old car.’
On the plus side, we were promised that while the body needed some TLC,