Another blast from the past, this time featuring some tasty Italian machinery from over twenty years ago. I’ve got a soft spot for Alfa Romeos. Despite the rot prone sheet metal, wayward electrons and temperamental oily bits, they have something intangible that makes them that bit special. I guess that’s one of the reasons I like my Nissan Cherry Europe so much… it covers my liking for both Nissans and Alfas at the same time. These snaps were taken at the National Alfa Day in 1989 and feature a number of other Italian cars alongside the Alfa Romeos. Full gallery after the jump…

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I bet when Dallas Custom Vans put this Dodge together back in 1977, they couldn’t have imagined it’d still be pounding the streets thirty three years later. Though it’s now sun faded and dog eared, this gem has all the original mods straight out of the vannin’  era including wild west murals, portholes and shag pile a-plenty. Class! It’s well travelled too having made it way from it place of birth in Texas to it’s current home all the way east in New Jersey. Hopefully this one will find a home with some die hard van freak who’ll nurse it back to health.

More pics after the jump or you can check out the original listing on eBay HERE

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Long story short. I decided a Cortina Estate would be a good thing to have as a daily. A Cortina ticks all the boxes. It’s old and thus obviously quite cool. It’s got pre-historic engineering and is easy to get parts for. It’s two litre OHC so a decent performer. It’s rear wheel drive so plenty of fun. And it’s an estate so perfect for hauling crap around. So having decided Fords classic best seller would be perfect for my needs, I bought this one. Blind. It looks nice, it goes great, the interior is nice, it’s even got MOT and tax. So far so good…

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This are moving apace with the van and the time for laying on the new paint draws ever closer. I’ve already painted a sample of some of the paint by doing the engine housing and my newly fabricated seat swivel bases. The original seat mount were made from 3mm steel plate which was really too weak, leading to the seats being somewhat wobbly. A bit disconcerting whilst driving! So I built new ones using 8mm plate and replaced the original square mounting posts with round ones as I figured it’d look nicer. I also incorporated the seatbelt buckle mount into the seat base too and replaced the original stud and nut floor mounting with countersunk hex bolts so that I can lay the carpet over the base, right up to the post.

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Pudding, Plod, Bondo, Bog, Wag or Pon… call it what you will, body filler is an inevitable part of most bodywork and one which personally I dislike immensely. There is a certain satisfaction in getting it right and making a nasty rippled panel smooth again but the process is often a miserable one, especially when you are working with your average cheap and nasty filler from your motor accessory store .

Relief is at hand though, as this ‘Unisoft’ body filler from Polish manufacturer Novol is superb! It’s very soft so it mixes really easily, goes on like cake icing, cures quickly and sands down super smooth. It never drags, has pinholes or air bubbles either. It’s not cheap (this 6kg tin set me back best part of £30 with the postage) but as it’s easier to apply you waste less and it may be my imagination but it seems to make less fine dust when sanded too.

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Amazingly it’s now been twenty five years since I snapped these pictures at a custom show hosted by the Bumpkin County Cruisers at Thruxton race circuit. I wonder how many of these cars are still about? Not many I’ll wager. Back as a car crazy teenager, my two favourite cars of the show by far were the purple Vauxhall HB Viva in classic 70’s street machine style and the orange pro street Austin A35 Van. I know that the latter is definitely still about as it appeared on eBay recently, in fact you can see it in it’s current guise HERE. Coincidentally, the A35 Van was built by a fella called Gary Cruse and it was from his brother that I acquired my very first Datsun, a ‘76 Datsun 160J SSS a few years later. Small world. The Viva hasn’t been taxed since 1992 so it’s either in storage or long gone. I’d love to find this thing languishing forgotten in a garage somewhere!

It’s interesting to see the crossover in styles that were represented at this event, from the old school street machines and hot rods of the 70’s to the body kits and billet high tech of the 80’s. Even custom vans were still getting a look in in 1985 with a couple of classics, “Terrestrial Voyager” and “Evergreen”. Amazingly, it would seem that “Evergreen” still exists, as the DVLA website has it down as being currently under a SORN until November 2010! Full gallery after the jump!

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