I saw the car in Levin last Saturday. I was having a coffee in town and did a double take as you went by. Looking good!
Hey, Killer lookin' Zeph....... Anything left of the sills & floor pans? Who was the coachbuilder down under? In the U.K. Carbodies L.T.D. or Abbots? Swankey Devils C.C. '' Meanwhile, back onboard The Tainted Pork"
I bought it in 1983 for $300 minus just about everything.No doors or front guards nor any mechanical parts,and managed to scavenge up enough parts to get it on the road a couple of years later.Quite a lot of it was held together with rivets and bog.That was in the days when vehicle inspectors didnt worry so much about rust.I took it off the road at the end of 1987 for a quick tidy up but found so much structural rust I put it aside until I had the time or skills to fix it properly.Two years ago I had some money saved so I got Richard Barnes of Shannon to repair all the structural problems.Its had all new floors as well as inner and outer sills and large parts of the central crossmembers replaced.The bottoms of the A and B pillars have also been replaced and the lower sections of the back guards have been made from 4 door parts and lengthened.Im still missing a lot of the chrome and am using japanese door latches.I plan to drive the heck out of it over the next few months then finish the body and paint over winter.Its running a mk3 motor of 2553cc but still has the mk1 box and diff although I plan to fit a mk3 4 speed box and 3.5 diff.Although they are rare over here they are more common than any other country.I am upholstering another one for a customer at the moment and have worked on 2 others
Here's a link to some info I found. http://www.motorbase.com/vehicle/by-id/1262/ I think a company called Farnham did the estate (station wagon) bodies on the later Mk2 and 3 Consuls, Zephyrs, and Zodiacs.
Hi Magoo, where does Richard work from? I don't know him but I know of his work. I've heard of somebody doing classic car work from a workshop in Shannon in the area near the railway tracks but I haven't managed to catch up with them yet.
If you cross the railway lines at the top pub and go along the road on the other side of the railway lines and go down the road with the old church on the corner.He is at the end next to the engineers. Mk1 converts were built by carbodies.The mk1 estates were built by Abbotts of farnham.What is claimed to be the only Mk1 Zodiac estate in the world is about a mile away from me and is in regular use
I use to see one of these in the next suburb over from where I grew up, in the late 60's and early 70's Always thought it looked strange, because of its size and proportions. But now, how good would it look lowered and with a light chop? A super rare car.
Not rare here in New Zealand, but scarce enough and sought after enough to make them fetch big $$$$. Looking good Magoo. What's happened to your green sedan?
Ive still got the sedan but its off the road for a bit of a tidy up.It better not take 20 years.I had to borrow a few minor parts from it to get the convert on the road but Ive got replacements now
I had to sign up to say I like the old Mk 1. I was born in TeKuiti (New Zealand) and in my school days the local hero always drove a hotted up Mk 1. For those who have ever head a Ferrari boxer on full song,thats what a souped Ford Six sounded like. To be a bodgy, driving a Mk1 with starfires,fergy muffler ,those bubble things around the back window and venetian blind was as cool as it could get. But..to have a Convertible,you were really shakin then! When I was in school in the late 60's ,I often delivered milk (my night job) to a house in Railway town which had a mk1 convert parked on the front lawn. One day I decided this was too good leave sitting there and went in and said 'hi' to a guy working under the bonnet. His name was Jed and seemed like a real old boy ( probably about 30 ) but was really friendly and showed me the triple SU's,extracters (headers) modified dissy,disc brakes,Mk3 Zodiac box and Mk2 diff. A real go machine... But that wasn't all,he had another in the shed! a red converible and a straight but scruffy left hook 57 Ford two door hardtop . Car heaven! .I saw that yellow Mk1 around a lot before I left town to see the world ,often with some young hottie riding shot gun. There must have been at least 10 hot Mk1's in that town alone (pop 900).Including Carl Fishers Wreckers with a Convertible they made into a Ute. Quite a lot of Zephyr Action in those days,even if some were just noisy,the sound was pretty cool. You need the Raymond Mays head ,B/C cover and impala shifter now to really get with the program. Smooth Customs,if you read this, my old mate Les( from Huntley) drives red Mk1 Convert in Brissy as a daily.
I grew up in Palmy North. There were more Mk 1 Zephyrs there in the late 60's than anything else I can recall. I owned 5 of them over the years. One was a convertible which we welded a hardtop onto. Instant 2 door hardtop.. lol Another nice purple flaked one ran a full race flattie V8. They were definitely the car to have then.
I used to wander down to the swap every year in the early 70's in Palmy,sheeeeeit that place was COLD!. It was a good thing all the young uni students had warm hearts.... heres a blast from the very distant past,a Mk1 with Raymond Mays head and 3 Weber DCOE's,valiant 225 pistons ,'full race cam ' ,lightened and balanced bottom end .
I love the shape of those mk1s,I nearly traded my vg pacer hardtop for one. Very pretty motor with weird exhuast ports the hot setup back in the day. Any more pics in that hot rod? looks awesome.
I pinched that from a site in Sweden. I'll see if i can find it again. There were a few Raymond Mays zephyrs racing on the circuits in OZ back in the day . Finding a head would be like finding a Merv Waggot twin cam for grey motor. Same engine was used in the AC Ace before it become the basis for the shelby Cobra and various other pommy oddities. The thing with Zephyrs was to remember to get the half round things which fitted into the heads exhaust ports,with out those,the extracters you just bought cheap were useless... Heres a car i see sometime around town,; http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/autos_and_vehicles/watch/v14083110Kz9kD6ma
And a black Mk2 Zody on the dyno,wait till the end when she comes up on the cam... Pure nostalgia!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXnUvRQey84
What a beauty, I love those cars. I have a MK 11 Consul convertible that I need to get to one of these days.
In the mid 80's I was working in a shop in Sydney, where one of the guys there was a Kiwi. At lunch time, Zephyr's came up in conversation. He mentioned that in the 70's, he had owned a very different Mk1 that someone had converted into fastback two door. I knew of the one he was talking about, as I had seen a photo of it in a New Zealand show coverage in an Australian magazine. Took the magazine in the next day and he confirmed that it was the the car he had owned. Does anyone know if it still exists and ,or any history on it.
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