Early family cars

[Mike K]

Do any of us have pics of early family cars . Or stories relating to them. This was our car in the mid 1950's, a 1934 Ford sedan. The mechanical workings of cars were a complete mystery to my father . The Ford was well and truely worn out: the brakes were almost non-existant and sometimes my father occasionally ran into the rear of other cars at intersections. The distributor cap was broken and it ran on about 6 cylinders: to get up steepish hills, he would reverse it up the hill. It was sold off for 5 pounds and a brand new Standard 10 replaced it. That is my brother sitting on the running board.

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Will need to find some pics but one of our first cars I can remember my mother having was a 1948 straight 8 Buick. She used to inherit cars from her father, sometimes it was his old personal car (like the Buick) or sometimes one of the office cars like a clapped out Austin of early post-war vintage.
My father had a range of interesting cars including Amilcar and 30/98 Vauxhall. The first one of his I can remember was a Rover 5 light which belonged to his mother and had almost no paint left. I was embarrased to be driven to school in it until he sold it and bought a Bugeye Sprite.
But the car I grew up with was a 1959 Pontiac which we kept into the mid 70s.
Pics to come in due course.

[Mike K]

Thats great Keith,

Pics would be interesting.. 59 Pontiac was called Strato Chief or similar ? Other cars I recall neighbours having : a rare 1950ish NASH with its flamboyant curvy body style . A Citroen light 15 , a Ford popular ute and numerous Holdens like FJ's .

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Thats great Keith,

Pics would be interesting.. 59 Pontiac was called Strato Chief or similar ? Other cars I recall neighbours having : a rare 1950ish NASH with its flamboyant curvy body style . A Citroen light 15 , a Ford popular ute and numerous Holdens like FJ's .

Mike

Ours was a Laurentian - I think the other names were for cars of the mid-50s.
The other model was the Parisienne. I can still remember the little 'body by Fisher' plate on the sill. It was powered by a Blue Flame motor.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Ours was a Laurentian - I think the other names were for cars of the mid-50s.
The other model was the Parisienne. I can still remember the little 'body by Fisher' plate on the sill. It was powered by a Blue Flame motor.

OK .. this link will interest you Keith

http://www.ozgm.com/1959_retro_1.htm

And.. another link
http://www.chevcarclubvic.org.au/pho...s59pontiac.htm

That is a fancy looking car .. is it your old one ?

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

OK .. this link will interest you Keith

http://www.ozgm.com/1959_retro_1.htm

And.. another link
http://www.chevcarclubvic.org.au/pho...s59pontiac.htm

That is a fancy looking car .. is it your old one ?

Mike

What an interesting article - also to see that GMH were still using the same letter code for the different assembly plants.

The car in the link is the same model as ours, rego HBF 789 I think it was, although ours was a creamy white with red leather upholstery. It had the sludge-o-matic transmission and power steering which was quite a novelty at the time.

My grandfather, the previous owner bought it directly from Holden as he had close business ties with them as a customs agent. I can remember him going on about the engine being the 'truck' version so it probably was the 261 mentioned in the article. It certainly was quite adequate although the 'aircraft carrier' handling was dreadful. Sometime in the late 60s my mother rear-ended another car in the wet and the Pontiac was almost written off until we found one with good front end metal in a parts yard. The other thing which gave up was the differential - we bought the last one GMH had in stock - I drove to Dandenong in the Sigvan to pick it up.

[hrpearce]

The oldest vehicle I know of in our family was Great Grandfather's 18 bullock bullock wagon My Grandfather did the 30 mile mail run from Adelong to Yaven Creek in a Model T Ford, with 20 odd gates each way it would have been a days work. The run is longer now and the round trip is done in around 4 hours. Grandfather also ownd a Summit, there is a restored one at the Birdwood Mill Museum, I'll try and find a copy of the book on the restoration to scan a picture.

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

You're taking me back here!

I remember when my father bought us a 1957 Jaguar Mk.VII (in '59 I believe) and drove it for a couple of years. The only problem is that it cost him as much to maintain it over two years as it cost to buy the damned thing! Nice car, though, leather and real wood, as well as those door-frame pop-up turn indicators.

After that it was an early Plymouth Whatever with the slant-six engine and a push-button transmission. When my parents divorced in '66, he bought my mum a 1957 Morris Minor, which I got my driver's license on in 1969. In '70 I bought my first car - a 1959 Austin-Healey ('Bugeye') Sprite, for $100... I sure wish I had the damned thing now!!

After that I got into motorcycles...

[Keith Webb]

Yesterday I drove down South to pick up a 16" wheel I'd bought and what should be just ahead in the traffic? A '59 Pontiac! This one was red and had no rear number plate, but it was the first one I've seen on the road for many many years. Amazing coincidence!

[hrpearce]

My first car inmy collage days was a Hilman Minx paid $200.00 for it drove it for two and a half years then got my $200.00 back when I traded it in on a second hand Nissan Patrol soft top.

[Keith Webb]

Here are a couple of pics showing the crucial relationship of our Pontiac and MVs...

The Singer was my $25 first car, and the GMC the first MV I drove, before I had my licence.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Yesterday I drove down South to pick up a 16" wheel I'd bought and what should be just ahead in the traffic? A '59 Pontiac! This one was red and had no rear number plate, but it was the first one I've seen on the road for many many years. Amazing coincidence!

That is weird ... serendipity . I spotted one driving down Boronia road in Wantirna South ... many years ago .. the tailights are very distinctive ... Reading that article, it appears the aussie version was built on a 59 Chev chassis and differred a lot from the US model . it was typical of GM , we got the lower end 'export' models 'jazzed up' to imitate the real thing.

Mike

[Mike K]

Seems that most of us began with British cars ( me Triumph Herald ) ... the next generation had the Jap range .. older Datsuns and Toyotas as a first car .

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Seems that most of us began with British cars ( me Triumph Herald ) ... the next generation had the Jap range .. older Datsuns and Toyotas as a first car .

Yes, I had 15 (yes fifteen) Morris Minors of various types including two series II Utes, a series II panel van and woodie along with the more pedestrian 2 and 4-door varieties. Never had a series I or a convertible though, and most ranged from free to $75 for the most expensive one. Also had a series MO Oxford.

What did I learn from the experience? I learned to seriously dislike the 803cc engine with it's weak bottom end, also the syncros on the series II gearbox with it's ridiculously long throw gearlever, that alloy rear wheel cylinders with steel pistons are a very bad combination, that you can ignore the manual when removing the master cylinder and, instead of removing a torsion bar can flex it out of the way with a jemmy to withdraw the bolts, I also learned where to hit the firewall with a large blunt object to kick the SU petrol pump back into life on a hot day... that the sump on a Cortina engine sits way too close to the road when you convert the minor to decent power, and especially for the Oxford, the diecast door handles loved to just snap off.
Oh yes, and you just cannot tune twin SU carbies once they're worn.

And that's just to start.

Bet the next generation with the Jap cars had far less trouble but also less 'learning' and 'growing' experiences.

[hrpearce]

If you continue to drive after the flange gasket blows it melts all the solder in the starter If you hold your foot hard to the floor for just over two hours on a well worn engine disaster can strike, it droped a valve, smashed a piston, put the conrod through the block which also smashed the camshat into four pieces so I learnt how to swap engines more than fix them

[Mike K]

The triumph herald . The 'P' plates displayed , tell other road users there is a probationary driver at the wheel..who has less than 12 months experience .

The car had twin SU carbies and I was always fiddling with them .. it would fart and miss . I didnt know what i was doing .. until a relative who was a mechanic altered the diss points gap and it ran a lot better . They had weak diffs and nylon front suspension bushes that were prone to wearing out in quick fashion. My 2nd everyday car was a 1942 MB Jeep .. still on P plates when I got it ... and LHD too .

The 34 Ford in my original post, was sitting in the same back yard.. 20 years previously ! The other car in the background is my brothers 1956 Vanguard . Another Herald , same as mine is behind the Vanguard.. we had 3 of them on the road at one point... people were almost giving them away then.

Mike

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

and the GMC the first MV I drove, before I had my licence.

Looks like it has had a RHD conversion .. it's got early 60's plates on it .. the background cars date it don't they !

[Les Freathy]

My first vehicle was a Bedford 15cwt van i had to carry our group around in it. it was a 1959 model which i purchased in 1962 for £150. As can be observed i was still a learner when this photo was taken i had it for a couple of years then changed for a bigger Austin J2, what a load of c--p that was kept it for 12 months then decided someone else could provide the band transport for a while, sold it to buy my first car this 1957 Hillman Minx. Geoff i also had a Frog eye Sprite it was my pride and joy it had a straight through exhaust and could it roar as a motor it was fast on acceleration but i found at about 80mph you hung in there for dear life, one twitch and you would lose it. mine was all original 1959 with a steel bonnet worth around £7 to8000 now if it was still around biggest problem the floor attracted rust i did a few mods to it but kept all the old parts. When i can locate the photos i will put them up
cheers
Les

[Keith Webb]

Love the period shot of the band with the Bedford. What a classic!

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Love the period shot of the band with the Bedford. What a classic!

Smashing picture...What instrument did you play....??
Skin Flute..???
LOL

[Phil Waterman]

Pictures below are of my fathers first new Post War car (I believe it was the first New car he had ever bought) it was a 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Coupe powered by a 337cu.in. flat head V8 (same engine as F-8 Ford Truck, with a different cam). This picture was probably taken winter of 51 or 52 that’s me in the back seat. The second picture is of the first car I bought a 1949 Lincoln Cosmopolitan Town Sedan which I bought in 1969 while in college, I was still driving the families Coupe but the salt on the roads of northern climes had taken a toll on the frame. So when the Town Sedan with only 25,000 miles came along I bought it. The car had been used as a “Summer” car on an estate in New Hampshire. The picture shown was taken in the spring of 1972 at a friends wedding.

I still have the engine out of the Lincoln my father bought in 1949 which has been extensively hot rodded. But what’s probably more important I still have the Town Sedan I bought, it is has been sitting in the back corner of the garage since 1975. Now that I have all three of my CMPs on the road, I hope to move the Lincoln into my restoration bay and start working on it this winter.

[Mike K]

Is the miniature Hoppalong Cassidy you Phil ? Talking of Lincolns .. In the early 80's a crazy KIWI friend of mine had to move his 1946 Lincoln continental convertible down to Port Melbourne for shipping to NZ .. He had bought it in 1967 . The car was original.. with its V12 side valve motor still fitted. I drove him down to Seaford where it sat in somebody's back yard.. it was unregistered . This was a real HOLLYWOOD movie star flashy car .. maroon colour with a cover on the spare wheel in the boot lid... He got in it and I followed him to Bentleigh . The looks at the traffic lights I cannot describe.. as it was tatty looking with a dirty white top on it. It was running on about 8 cylinders and the brakes had gone west too. We squeezed it onto a tandem trailer .... hooked it behind his rusty AP5 Valiant ute ! The Valiant was almost scraping the ground. We made a midnight dash to the docks and managed to unload it ....never again.

[Howard]

Behold, the beauty of an Australian designed 1973 Falcon

I love this car, Mum & Dad bought it in 1973 when I was 5... I remember Dad arriving home with it. 302 Cleveland C4. I still own it & it is the next project after the F15.
Just wait 'till I dig up photos of my Grandfathers post-F15 cars!

[Howard]

Originally Posted by Alex Blair

Smashing picture...What instrument did you play....??
Skin Flute..???
LOL

Oooohhhh! Rough!