1941 Wolseley 14/60 Met Cop Car, brit rod, whatever...

[akku]

Well. I don't need any more cars, any more projects, but occasionally....

Dez spotted this one and there was a bit of a mumble of who was best placed to take it on, because, well, someone had to. And it seems that someone is me. Although Dez is actually doing a load of work on it right now, so I guess its a team effort. Of sorts.

The car was advertised in Sunny Scunny so we popped over on the Sunday to take a look, because there's no harm in looking. And taking cash, and a recovery truck.

Sellers who see a recovery truck know they have a serious buyer but the seller seemed motivated. His wife was sat on the patio furniture looking right out onto this old thing and it wasn't much to tell she wasn't into the view.

So what we have is an interesting one, civilian production ended for the hostilities in about 1940 but this is a 1941 car. That means it had a war department approval. Contrary to excitable opinion this doesn't mean its war department / military issue, just that someone had a good enough reason to buy the thing during a war. This could be anything from civil service to police to anything. Just not civilians. Chatting to the seller he said "it was owned by the met" so that probably checks out as a reasonable story. Cops used Wolseleys back then.

So what we know is that this old thing was off the road since like 1980. As far as the seller says, it was owned by the five-o until the late 1950s then bought by a woodwork teacher who owned it until it came off the road in 1980, then he hung onto it and matey boy bought it a year or so back. Nit sure if he bought it off the woodwork teacher or if its been through other hands first

Anyway, fella decided to try fit a 2.0 Pinto in it, for "reasons" using a 4 speed Transit 'box. For more reasons (possibly reasons reclining on the Wolseley-viewing patio) he didn't get it finished and so was selling it on cheap, and was in the mood to haggle.

So its needing some floor, accelerator linkage and cable, exhaust tweaks (bits of whats on are genuinely made of baked bean tins) brakes, radiator and plumbing, and some form of electrics would also be nice.

Also its been half painted REALLY REALLY BADLY

Oh and a ton of other thinks too, but we will get to those.

Dez is working on the heavy stuff as it would be 2080 by the time it saw the road if I tried to

Lets see how we get on. I got no log book with it so I am at the mercy of the DVLA against the V62 application so lets see who gets done first. My money is on Mr Stringer.

Right up his back passage, as you may say...



Not a badly proportioned old thing to be honest.



Dulux gloss by roller?



Pinto 205 & decent Weber



Odd transit 'box



Dash would have been lovely once



Luxury leather interior to boot



could be tricky to load...



If its on, its gone...






Spotted this A7 on the way home...

[akku]

Dez is either full of enthusiasm or wants this heap off his lot, pronto as he's dug on into it today.










Things taking shape...

[akku]

Po-po look...








Anyone got a bell?

[kevins]

looks a interesting project, I'll be watching with interest.

The paint does look something special, it's rare a paint job looks awful in pictures!

[crockpot]

Nice project.
I'm sure if the Pinto installer had tried he could have got it a bit further forward...

[akku]

Aug 22, 2023 14:52:27 GMT crockpot said:

I'm sure if the Pinto installer had tried he could have got it a bit further forward...

LOL, plenty of space to the bulkhead for sure. Gotta be space for a V8 in there, right?

[akku]

Looks like we have the makings of a cooling system now. Thats a Honda Civic rad, the Dez recomendation.

[Dez]

Aug 22, 2023 14:52:27 GMT crockpot said:

Nice project.
I'm sure if the Pinto installer had tried he could have got it a bit further forward...

It’s actually about where the stock motor sits. They have a fair gap over the bellhousing as standard.

Other reason is look where the steering box is in relation to the exhaust. Moving it back would offer no actual benefit (there still a fair gap from the pulleys to the rad) but create the need for a custom exhaust manifold
Or the alternator relocating.

[crockpot]

It was a slightly jocular comment dez.
I tend to ignore exhaust manifolds as I don't mind making a custom one. My personal preference is to get all the heavy stuff within the wheelbase if possible.
It's a great project in good hands.

[ducklooker]

Is there a "vision" beyond getting it working?
Not that that is a bad plan.

[stealthstylz]

That's a cool looking thing. I'd be tempted to leave the outside as it is apart from add the Police stuff, blow through turbo the Pinto then absolutely hoon it everywhere.

[Dez]

Aug 27, 2023 10:02:36 GMT ducklooker said:

Is there a "vision" beyond getting it working?
Not that that is a bad plan.

At the minute all I’m really doing is undoing everything that’s been done to it bar the pinto being fitted. Literally the only things that have been done competently are the engine and gearbox mounts, the prop, the clutch and throttle pedals and some of the exhaust. Everything else is bodge upon bodge. Terrible wiring, broken/hacked up fasteners with metric stuff stuck through the holes with nuts on the back instead, loads of stuff removed for no reason, badly painted, then a half assed attempt at refitting it. I’ve been cleaning dod all the paint and reinstating the correct fasteners as I go through stuff.

From my involvement, My first job is complete the pinto swap, which is mostly a rad and plumbing, replacing some needlessly modified parts of the throttle setup and cooling system, a bit of exhaust work, a rewire, and making up a tunnel/front floor. The original plywood floors are also a bit soft and need replacing as part of that.

Once that’s done it’s make the brakes work as they were disassembled with parts missing and damaged. It’s been decided to ditch the stock master cyl as it was a bottom swing pedal with the master under the floor, but the new throttle and clutch are top swing from the donor Ford, and it’ll feel very weird to drive with opposing pedals. So some cortina pedals have been bought and I’ll figure out the rest from there.

After it’s then rewired, stuff becomes more cosmetic and/or creature comforts. There’s a little body repair but not too much, mostly just some door bottoms. Then it becomes Alistairs project to make it look a bit healthier!
It obviously needs interior and body work doing but I’m not interested in doing such things really.

I’ve already said to him I kinda regret not buying this myself though. It was actually me who brought this to his attention, but in a fit of sensibility about the size of my fleet i passed it along. This is going to make a very practical and really cool daily driver.

[ironmighty07]

Saw this for sale in town and kept resisting the urge to go look, especially as the price kept dropping.
Comments seem to align with expectation, cool idea with lots of badly executed bits that needed sorting.
Cool project and looking forward to seeing it progress to a conclusion 👍

[akku]

Dez has been busy.  There have been some interesting curse word points, one of which being the distributor hold down which doesn't.  Or didnt. But does now.










Huzzah

Next job has been for Dez to sort out the radiator mounting and so on....










And now we have a windscreen without sodding big cracks....

[horrido]

Quick photoshop idea, with Radir tri-ribs and whitewalls and stance adjustment.

[surprisingskoda]

Liked primarily for Austin 7 content [insert appropriate drooling or heart eyes emoji here]

[metalshapes]

Nice...

horrido said:
Quick photoshop idea, with Radir tri-ribs and whitewalls and stance adjustment.

[homersimpson]

I saw this and thought of you @akku Dez

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145252623398?hash=item21d1bb2426:g:xJkAAOSwOL1k4Nyh&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4IWdUCdK8Jvv010mfKR5ht64GVjB%2FDxHEokfubojvZNz0Y0QT1CYaS1dRNw9sA4FSId0Qpq%2Bmj4oi4CB1ObDtsSej%2FLiM1B92GGPISUBjoYO%2FfLy2BFbPZc22yBsUdgZuvVri4amKCDv47265FvOt4SeuG71kgyWCD3ENvdCfFTPFtkiu8ouB6Xj80VaqFHkMvK1Nzp824QNNRW6IYJz94aeT25jZbKhrAost2ejdVf%2B9lQ4GlQetPhkrdV3nWSmuqJkZLL7Z5y3eS%2Fs2JXBNoDd7K1n2aLx6EIG7g6iqlmP%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8Syr6PMYg

I bet it was a bit of a handful with all that weight up front and probably very little in the way of brakes :-)

[Dez]

homersimpson there’s more than one similar vehicle about. I met a guy road testing a jag engined Brit saloon done back in the day when I lived near Ipswich. I think it was a MO morris Oxford though. Essentially the same car with a considerably less ugly front end.

That thing is massively overpriced in its current state. Part of the appeal of cars like this at the moment is the market is falling as people who take them seriously are dying off. Shabby ones are becoming good cheap fun, there’s loads of stuff around sub 5k.

[misterm]

I like the idea of fitting the rad in where the core went on the original. May have to nick that for my MG.

Dez, you obviously rate those ally Civic rads to cool a Pinto, so hopefully will be good enough for an MGB lump.