A brief history of my first real car.... Colin Smith

In 1966, I was an apprentice mechanic at a small garage in Watford, my transport then was a 1954 Reliant and a 1950 BSA Bantam ( which I still own ), Anyhow , the Reliant was on its last legs, and I had just passed my test , so I was on the lookout for a ''real car''.
JBL 126, a 1953 Anglia , was the property of my boss's accountants, a company called Scruton & Trupp, they had offices in Watford and Edinborough. For reasons that now elude me, the car was used to ferry documents between the two offices,and driven by a harrased looking youth of about my age, I beleive that each trip took 3-4 days there and back.
The car eventually failed the then newish MOT, and much to the young drivers releif was replaced with a Consul ( Wireless and Heater! what luxury), and the old E494A was sent to languish at the top of the yard.
Meanwhile ,early in 1967, the Reliant finally fell in half,{literally} and after a bit of haggling JBL 126 became my 1st proper car for the princely sum of £10. With some trepidation , I marched up the snow covered yard to examine my ''new '' pride and joy, which had not moved or been started for 3 months or so.
Scooping the snow off of the bonnet, I re-conncted the battery , got the starting handle out, and hand cranked it a few times to no avail, so I sat and shivered in the drivers seat to take stock of the situation. Just out of curiosity, I have the starter a pull , on the plus side, the engine spang into life , on the down side , the exhaust disintigrated and fell off. Anxious not to quit whilst ahead I roared down the yeard and into the workshop .
A new tie rod and exhaust were soon fitted ,the sacred MOT obtained , much painting, patching and polishing were lavished on the old thing ,and somewhere in the process ''it '' assumed an identity and became ''Maude''.
It should be noted that at about the same time my I started courting Jill , the girl of my dreams, and we are eternally grateful to ''Maude '' for the tactfull silence that she has maintained to this day reguarding certain activies in the back seat over the period 1967-1969, after which we decided to make it legal and got married.
Once married , we moved to a terraced house in Ealing with no yard or garage,and I worked at a small service station with only one very busy service bay . In mid 1970 disaster struck, Maude threw a conrod, and I had absolutely nowhere to do the nessecary repairs .We had just put a deposit on a bungalow in Brackley ,Northants, and I reluctantly agreed to sell Maude to an enthusiastic young chap around the corner for £5 .As far as I can recall that is the only deal that I have ever welched out on . Poor chap , when he arrived with his £5 and mates Morris Minor to tow Maude away ,I just couldn't go through with it, and sent a very dissapointed and angry young chap away , still clutching his fiver.
A garage was rented from a nice old lady up the road for 10/- a week , and an engine assembled from the remains of the old one and a scrap one donated by a mates Dad who just wanted rid of it. Maude came back to life just in time to make the move to Brackley, but now boasted an 1172cc engine, and sadly has never seen a 933cc again, although I have lost count of the number of engines that she has had .
When Maudes engine Expired ,I purchased a Triumph Herald Coupe on HP , but what with the Mortgage and the impending arrival of our first child , something had to go, so it was the Herald, and Maude became ''front line'' transport again.
Over the next 18 or so years , we bought and sold various cars, Melanie and Jonathan were born ,and we moved twice to bigger houses, Jill finally got her driving licsense in 1976 ( 10 years after her
1st lesson!) The young family and the 100 mile round trips visitng family in Watford made Maude's antiquated design totally inadequit for a family car , and in 1977, she went into retirement in a hastily thrown up wooden shed in the corner of the garden, there to remain until 1985 , when I got a job at RAF Upper Heyford, some 11 miles from Brackley.
As Jill needed the family car [a Mk2 Fiesta] for her baby shop business, to run the kids about ,and do shopping etc, I leaped at the chance of ressurecting Maude, so the temporary wooden shed was demolished , and Maude moved into the new double garage where she underwent her first and only major overhaul and respray. Within a few weeks she was on the road , gleaming with new paintwork, and attracting ludicrously high cash offers from the American Airmen that I was working with { Sorry guys , money can't buy this car!} Foolishly , I had ommited to register her at Swansea during her retirement, and for a year or 2 she went as LSV 675, until the DVLC became more sympathetic and let me have my number back.
Life rumbled on , and for all sorts of reasons , we sold up everything in Brackley and moved to St. Erth in Cornwall, where we purchased a big old house with a mile of unsurfaced track , and the plan was that I would run a business from the outbuildings restoring classic cars. Sadly this didn't go to plan and I soon found myself putting clutches in Cortinas and welding Datsun floorpans , etc ,etc.
Maude became the company ''hack'' and was often seen loaded with spares and such like , or hauling trailer loads or stone to patch the ever pot-holed drive,she then went into semi retirement,only being used to haul the trailer on my weekly road mending days, as it was a private road , no tax, mot , or insurance were needed.
At this time my health took an unexpected nosedive, and we had to sell the big , maintenance intensive property , and move into the village.The kids had now left home, and the motor trade was proving too much for me , so I took a job as a Driver /occupational therapy technician at the local hospital, and we moved into a comfy modern bungalow, life was a lot easier and Maude slumbered in the garage.
Jills work soon began to call for more use of our car , and history repeated itself when ,in 1993, after a little tweaking , Maude re-emerged from retirement to become my commuting car again.
She has been in constant use since then , passing each Mot with only minor work,and is quite famous locally , even making the local press a few years ago.
When , last year, our daughter Melanie decided to get married, she was adamant that Maude should be the wedding car. This caused a minor panic, as years of use as beast of burden , and 2 large dogs, had done the 48 year old interior no favours at all, so a new roof lining and carpets were fitted , and a lot of careful stitching applied to the seats and doortrims.The results , along with some minor bodywork put Maude into the tidiest condition that she has ever been in, although she will never take a concourse prize.
Freinds and family often ask how I keep Maude going , and why she is so reliable [ to date in all those years , she has never had to be towed home , even travelled 8 miles under her own steam with a con -rod sticking out of the side of the block].
For those who are interested here is my creed
Rust, zero tolerance.. never let it take hold, and paint or treat the inside of double skins regularly,whenever possible garage the car .Maudes 50 year old chasssis has so far never needed welding , but is coated with paint and waxoyl [not underseal ] so that any emerging rust can be easily seen and dealt with.
Servicing , regular and thorough, if it moves , lubricate it ! If the grease wont go in , clear the hole and make sure it does go in .
Finally, if it aint bust-- don't fix it , people find it hard to beleive that I don't spend my every moment tinkering with Maude, but whilst she is running well, I don't so much as lift the bonnet.
With the above set of rules Maude has covered over 200,000 miles , and for the 35 years that I have owned her , been a loyal and tolerant servant and member of the family, not bad for a £10 banger!
Now in the 4th decade as a ''Sit -up-and-beg'' owner , I have noticed how the comments of the inevitable anorach who accosts you as you park the car have evolved over the years:-
In the 70's , he would say......''Huh , I used to have one of those''
In the 80's it was......................''Huh, my Dad had one of those''
In the 90's.................................''Huh, my grandad had one of those''
In the new millenium...............''What a funny old car, think I've seen a picture of one in in Great Aunt Sarahs old photo album''

Evolution is a wonderful thing!