My dad used to muck around with old cars and do them up, and I never realised how really weird and awesome some of them were until way too late. Now I'm struggling to remember some of them.
In the late 1950's (before my time) he had a wooden chassis sports car. I'm not sure if it was a Morgan or MG or something altogether different - my mum has some old slide photo's somewhere but can't find them (I've nagged her for ages and will continue to). My memories are because of all the old slide nights and the stories they would tell about their trips and adventures in it. It wouldn't have been new when he bought it, but was still in fantastic condition, was 2-door, red with a soft top, and we're in Australia -whatever wooden frame vehicles were around Australia around then. I've looked at pics of Morgans, and I love them, but not sure it they match my memories of the photo's of the car. Any help to work it out, based on what would have been available in Australia at the time, would be appreciated
And when we were young kids in NT he was doing up a Zephyr - again soft top. I can't find a photo that fully matches my hazy memories (I was only 6-7 when he sold it), but the one below has a familiar look to it: it seems like it make have been a mark II from the photos I've looked at in car mags since. Again I'm nagging my mum for photos
At one stage after that we went travelling in two cars, both done up as camper vans - mum and dad drove one each, parked them next to each other at night, and the kids slept in one with them in the other. One was a white Thames van - something like this picture but ours had a bullbar and so the front was a bit different, of course:
The other was a Combi van (two toned white and green - dad used to do all the mechanics, conversions and painting). After we'd finished travelling we sold the Combi but the Thames was our much loved family car for years. In the days before seat belts were compulsory, we used to travel very comfortably in it, and often we'd pile up to 15 neighbourhood kids in the back for outings to various places (especially the speedway -it was a regular event). When it was finally deemed by dad to be not worth repairing again, we were actually crying - we loved that car!!!
After that he had an old EK Holden- It was salmon pink. He, kept the colour, did it up and travelled (without us) up and around all over Australia, through the deserts and cities etc etc. Somewhere along the line he got a funny little caravan, and by the end of his travelling days he was quite a funny little oddity - and probably road risk - tottering around the place. By the time he died it was pretty run down (he'd been sick for a long while and couldn't maintain any of it any more, and we sold the car to an enthusiast who lovingly restored it yet again. This is a google image but gives a pretty good idea how it looked (except in salmon pink):
My dad used to pick up great little odd weird cars all the time - at one stage when my older sister was at home he helped her get a car - again I don't remember the name but it was a tiny little (2-door, from memory), darkish green car and not overly fast, but really cute. But what i always remember about it was that it was a 2-stroke. My older sister used it a bit, but it was my younger sister mostly who drove around in it, with me as front seat passenger and we absolutely loved it. My older sister was never that thrilled with it, and she eventually sold it. My oldest son is a car enthusiast and he's asked about it - I don't remember the name and we haven't been able to find a photo of it in any of our albums.
And I've been looking at so many google images that I've muddled my memory of it - but I don't remember it having back passenger seats, and I do remember it being very tiny. The little vespa pictures seems to fit my memory better of the front of it than the trabant, although aspects of both cars seem familar. We were in the NT and he found it (second hand, of course) in the 1970's - any help with what would have been around in Australia at that time would be appreciated
(vespa above, ttabant below)
He also raced cars, but that's another memory lane drifty altogether
And he had / did up other cars and a bike or two - the ones above were my favourite memories
Thank you so much for sparking this little nostalgic trip. I've enjoyed it
