Stripped the anodising off of my set of 14×7 Weds and polished the rims up then shot the centres with some Ford Solar gold base, added a bit of sparkle courtesy of a couple of coats of House of Kolor Platinum Metajuls basecoat then a couple of clear coats. Done in a hurry but looks OK. Yeah I know it looks like the body colour but trust me, it isn’t. The lower half of the body is going to get repainted in Ford Champagne Gold, a much paler gold with a slightly redish/pinky tinge to it. Now all I need to add it about a 3″ drop and then some lower profile treads. Soon, soon…
I’ve no idea who made this toy Auto Factory. The box is just marked “Hong Kong” and aside from the slightly 1960’s looking artwork on the packaging, there’s no indication as to it age at all. This is the kind of toy that would have helped make a child into a life long gear head, much in the way similar toys did to me.
Although it’s pretty basic and not particularly interactive, it’s quite cleverly designed, as it assembles the little cars from the three main components, chassis, body and roof, using just a rubber conveyor belt powered but a little motor and a 1.5V battery. It needs some minor tweeking as there’s a bell that should ding as each car rolls off the line and the red light on the front should light up. Regardless, it’s a pretty neat and unique old car toy which I was well pleased to find. Some video of it working after the jump!
I’m not sure if these Night Runner LED illuminated speaker covers qualify as totally tacky or just plain rad, but either way they’re probably going in my van! These actually date from the late 80’s and were made by Rally Accessories Inc in the States. I can’t ever remember seeing anything like this before so I can’t imagine they were all that popular back in the day over here. Check out this short clip of one doing it’s thing…
These shiney new door handles arrived a few days ago from US eBay seller Auto Parts Direct to You. They are labelled ‘Made in Taiwan’ but the quality looks really good and the chrome is excellent. Pretty good considering they were only about £17 each. Hopefully they’ll last okay. No matter… they’re a mile better than the manky, corroded ones that were on the van before.
Remember that C31 Laurel I spotted for sale on the roadside a couple of weeks ago? Well, I just couldn’t resist it any longer and now it’s joined our fleet of old clunkers, although thankfully for two thirds of it’s original asking price. Although it’s only got about three months MOT left, I don’t think it’s a bad deal. It’s a bit flaky around the lower extremities but nothing too serious and of course being two tone means I can do the necessary repairs and just repaint the lower half. It could do with the bonnet repainting too but that can wait a while. I think I’ll be hitting the lower flanks with a much paler gold, probably Ford Champagne Gold.
Back in the days before the Australian Dollar had elbowed out the old colonial Pound, any Aussie with a lot of kids who was in the market for a wagon to haul them all around in could blow £1440 on a classy new Japanese import, the Nissan Cedric. And according to this road test from Australian Motor Manual back in November 1963, that represented pretty decent value…
