Richard Bulless 1960 Coupé 50 AMJ

 

Richard bought his Coupé in January and has been sorting things out after the previous owner had starting many jobs but finishing few!!

"Here are the pictures as promised, which were taken after she had returned from the Test Station. Since I bought the car, I realised that in the last 20 years she had only covered about 1200 miles, and a great deal of things were in need of doing. As you say, only 2 gears were available, so we set to taking the steering wheel off to discover there was no top circlip retaining the shaft down the column thereby not allowing correct selection. That replaced, we could get all gears, however the car would not run smoothly. A carb expert has helped to get her running better but we still need to replace leads, points etc until we get a really smooth engine. She ticks over great, only needing minimal choke from cold, however when you put revs on she misfires slightly-not got to the bottom of this as yet."

The mechanism on the rears of the headlights need to be replaced and if you look closely you will see the nearside held with a screw and cable tie underneath! The boot seal was missing, which I have now acquired from George, and when this is fitted we can re-assemble the catch mechanism correctly. New engine mounts are ready to be fitted, and I have replaced the front white indicators with orange ones, one of which I bought from Greece. Also, a new brake reservoir will replace the old 'Tupperware' item!! She passed the MOT with no advisories last week, and drives really well.

50AMJ was featured in May 1960 'Motor' magazine in a five page road test, interestingly with a new headlining! In 1968, she was taken in at a Ford Dealer in Rotherham against a new Cortina 1600E by the underwriter at the time, Brian Berry, who found the car difficult to move on and acquired it himself. In 1989 the car received a substantial restoration, including fitting fibreglass rear wings, and was repainted in two-tone coffee and cream. I believe she was taken off the road around 1991 and tested nearly every year until I purchased her in January 2011. The underbonnet area is now in need of extensive tidying along with the wiring and components, so will be treated to a front end restoration, and maybe a complete re-paint in the original silver-green.

Hope this is of interest and I haven't waffled too much!"

Richard Bulless