TERRY’S TREMENDOUS COLLECTION
Working vehicles, home-brewed ongoing projects, bikes and stuff awaiting attention litter the place
1. 1921 Jowett trials
‘It’s got M20 BSA wings, I made the body from metal shelving that the local petrol station was getting rid of,’ says Terry. ‘The bulkhead came from a fire engine – it’s tough buying things off Yorkshiremen. I’m making a JJ Hall-style car for hill climbs; I’ve set the engine back in the chassis by 12 inches. I raced my Rudge motorcycle at Brooklands and after I rolled down the hill they told me next time I came I had to fit brakes, so I’ve put front brakes on the Jowett. I’m using Morris 1000 springs and I handmade the petrol tank. The dashboard was shaped from Dexion shelving.’
2. 1931 Ford Model AA 82B
‘This has Budd wheels and a Sierra diesel with a turbo on it. Think how many of those lovely Sierras got destroyed for their fivespeed gearboxes,’ says Terry. I laugh, thinking Terry he’s joking, but he’s not. ‘For years I used to swap diesel engines into petrol vans and now it has come full circle. This AA had been converted into a lawn mower when I got it in 2005. I bought the cab and lots of other parts in from California – about £20,000 worth of metal in the end. I was on good money working for English Heritage at the time. The hardest thing to find on these AAS is the wheels; many got converted into farm trailers and the wheels rot around the tyre valve from sitting in the mud for months at a time. I bought eight or nine trailers just for the wheels – each rim was stamped at the factory with the manufacturing date.’
3. 1974 Scammell Handyman
‘This is mostly ERF underneath. I bought it purely as a recovery unit to haul the traction engine with,’ says Terry. There’s a 16ton Ford Cargo with a Hiab crane deeper in the yard too.
1928 Ford model A
Previously a lawnmower at Biggin Hill, as Terry explains. ‘It has a Ford model B fourcylinder engine that runs on tractor vaporising oil. You could put anything in: lamp oil, kerosene, whale oil… The fuel pipe runs through the exhaust to heat it in the same way as a diesel. I’m putting a French flathead V8 in it, since the B engine it has is expensive to rebuild.
‘The chassis came from John Carter of Carter’s Steam Fair, it’s a Pattisson chassis – they were a company who converted old worn-out Model T and A cars and AA trucks into lawn tractors and mowers for golf courses. I’m going to put a pick-up bed on it and run it at hot rod races. I’ve got three Model As in bits – I like them, they were the last Ford that Henry had anything to do with.’
1928 Rudge-whitworth motorcycle
‘I race vintage bikes – I break ’em in the summer and fix ’em in the winter. That’s British bikes for you – they’re all part of my family. The Rudge-whitworth is the first of the saddle tank models. It was going to become a lawn mower, but it sat in a shed in Vauxhall for 40 years, the bolts had all congealed together. There are two filler caps on the tank – the right is for petrol, the left one is for oil. It’s not really a race bike and it has no brakes – the last time I rode it I had to stop by steering into a tree.’
1937 Calthorpe 500 motorcycle
‘This is still in its original paint. It was raced in 1938, but the owner never came back after joining the army so I’m the second owner. Calthorpes were built in Birmingham. I’ve made new forks for it. The engine had been filled with Castrol R which had set like varnish and someone had tried to smash the piston out and shattered it into eight pieces; I turned one up on the lathe. I’ve had it up to around 60-70mph on dirt.’
Transit van
‘It came off a beach and had a goose living in it. Rats had eaten all the wiring, I get about 400,000 miles out of a Transit.’
Mini
Out back is a yellow Mini. ‘That’s a 1000cc with a Cooper interior. I put in new subframes and brakes, then the fuel pump went and I got bored – it’s too modern for me. It probably owes me around £4000, but I’d take a grand for it; it’s a runner.’