sadly I can't find a pic of the last one but I still have a tin of Pageant blue paint....
I had a mate who rebuilt his engine in a 1300. I was very impressed with the roadholding, finish and relative luxury (compared to my 1200 Cortina mk1). So I bought a 1500 fwd. The 1500 (fairly sound if a bit staid) ended up being scrapped around 1981 after an altercation with an imp, but PAF 487M stayed with us for quite a while. We had our issues; it came back from an MOT with it jumping out of reverse - no *fault* of the garage of course - which meant a gearbox rebuild (all done on the side of the road in winter as we didn't have a garage). Later on the big ends went awol whilst my girl at the time was at the wheel - she heard a rattle, then a knock and, typically, ignored it.....until the engine seized. I rebuilt it at work - we were living on a narrowboat then so still no garage! - and it carried me from Cornwall to Sheffield most weekends without a murmur. I loved the overdrive unit. Eventually I traded it in about '84 for a (gasp) ... Renault 5 GTL which was so light and skittish on it's nail hard Michelins that I stuffed that one into the front of a school bus one damp morning....oh the ignominy of all the kids crying and laughing in equal measure doesn't bear thinking about. We replaced it with a Moggy thou then a Talbot Horizon. I know, I know. But we were desperate.
Then I bought a '78 1850 in about '92. It brought back all the good times of the first one; a garage local to my work had some spares and knowledge of Triumphs and he also had a dog rough Sprint. Could he rebuild my good 1850 with the running gear? He could and did, but things couldn't last, and sadly the mains rumbled for a while until vision was impaired. I entrusted it to some contacts I knew and they hoicked the motor out, stripped it and declared the crankshaft u/s. They kept saying they would get another but never did, I never paid them and the car disappeared. Sad but true. That was about '98.
So here I am again. Looking at prices and feeling the skip of a heartbeat when I look at pics of Sprints and hear tell of overdrives, and wood cappings. I'm potentially smitten once again if I find the right car. PAF487M is still in the DVLA lists; but it's probably forlorn and dishevelled and I really want to find a good, clean car - preferably rhd, and on the road.
Any ideas, chaps?
Rick
