‘IT WAS A DEATH TRAP’
A new series of Car SOS kicks off tomorrow – and every week Fuzz Townshend will be sharing the inside stories of the star cars in CCW. This week, how he and the team rescued a Ford that was more ‘pup’ than ‘Pop’
‘Hot rods are a vital and thriving scene within the classic car world, combining artistic and engineering endeavour in a festival of crackling energetic self-expression and realisation. But as such, every single example of these marvellous machines is a one-off exercise in imagination made manifest, meaning, in plain speak, that they’re not always easy to work with, especially if the initial build leaves much to be desired on many levels.
‘So it was that we picked up nominee Andy’s 1955 Ford Popular hot rod, a car that he had bought some years ago with the intention of it being the basis of his dream creation, and a car in which he and his wife, Kim, could attend local and nationwide gatherings.
‘Unfortunately for Andy, who lives with cerebral palsy, the car, which he bought more than ten years ago, turned out to be in a bad way. From engine and transmission problems through to body issues, not to mention becoming increasingly difficult for Andy to drive, the car’s potential was diminishing.
‘Enter a number of good egg members of The Hot Rod Club of Great Britain and Andy’s wife, who nominated him and his car for the Car SOS treatment. Needless to say, we jumped at the chance of taking on such a special project, with the rather rose-tinted spectacled outlook that afflicts classic car enthusiasts so often.
‘Kim explained to us Andy’s needs regarding driving the car, setting us thinking about how these might be achieved. She also relayed the many things Andy had been dreaming of doing to his car, not the least of which was a sparkling purple paint job. The car was bright orange.
‘On inspection at the new Car SOS headquarters – Nathan Barber’s Paint Shop, Aldridge – it was quickly realised that the ‘Pop’ was more ‘pup’ and that we had stumbled into the dreaded quicksand of the hot rod world – a bad build.
‘Andy’s Pop was probably a massive achievement as a project back in the 1970s when car maintenance manuals cheerily encouraged motoring Diyers to stuff their car’s rotting sills with newspaper fronted by a mesh of chicken wire and slather them with filler followed by a rattle can finish, but it was now showing its shortcomings.
‘Its patchwork perimeter chassis frame was distorted, and the hopeful addition of some flimsily welded one-inch box section steel at the rear was not nearly structural enough to contain the car’s Jaguar E-type rear suspension, while at the front, a Rover 3500cc V8 engine driving through a Borg-warner Type 35 gearbox threatened to twist and distort the ensemble, thwarted only by the corroded body’s messy welding to the chassis.
‘At the front there existed a distinct ‘hinge’ point in the flimsy chassis ahead of the bulkhead and the steering column had, as I seem to recall, four joints in its attempt to reach the Vauxhall Viva rack that had directional responsibility up front.
‘It was a death trap and we had some tough decisions to make.’
SEE THE EPISODE! NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, THURSDAY, 7 MARCH, 8PM