Barnfind AC 2litre saloon uncovered in Diss Norfolk

On Thursday 3rd November 2022 whilst scanning the ads in Facebook marketplace, which is really a continuation of the old Bargain pages magazine, I came across a 1970 Dodge Polara convertible, as a rule I’m not into American cars but for some reason this caught my eye.

this is the picture of the actual car but in a better state in the 1980s, I can see why I liked the look of it but it’s still not my thing, as I went through the pictures in the listing which is what I always do, some pictures can reveal other things of interest, I saw this picture of the parts removed from the Dodge

and just top left I could see what looked like a coach built aluminium rear end, I didn’t see the AC badge but had to ask Adrian the seller what it was and if it was for sale, he replied there are two AC 2 litre cars there, a two door and a four door, they were for sale and had been there since the mid 1970s.

Adrian asked for my number and said he would pass it on to The vendor.

about an hour later that same evening I received a call from a gentleman named Bill and his wife Doreen, we had a great chat about his collection of cars, sadly he had come to the conclusion that he would need to thin down his collection, we agreed that I would go down to Diss Saturday morning with a view to having a deal for the Dodge and the two AC’s.

after a great evening with the family at a fireworks display at the local Royal British Legion club I went to bed excited for the trip today.

my alarm got me up at 5 am, I had a morning cuppa and set off for Norfolk, it was dark and a fresh morning, but dry and not too cold, the trusty Mercedes transporter ate up the miles in her stride, before long I was entering a village that I felt I had seen before but hadn’t been to, it turned out the Village that Bill and Doreen lived in was the one where the program “Lovejoy” was filmed, the connection I have to Lovejoy although quite tenuous is that I sold a collection of vehicles in 2009/2010 for my good friend Alan Browne who supplied all the vehicles for the program.
I asked Bill if he knew Alan and he replied was he the bloke from Chelmsford? Yes he was.

I arrived at Bills place at 8:45 am and was met at the door by Doreen, a lovely lady in her mid 70s, she said you must be Anthony, I’m Doreen, Bill is round the back in the bottom garage, I walked round the side of the house and met Bill walking out of the garage.

we shook hands and started talking about the cars.

Bill is in his 80’s tall and I could tell was a strong hardworking man in his earlier years, still very much active today.

we looked around the AC’s and Bill told me he bought them both from Doncaster in 1974, they had sat in this nissin hut all that time.
we then went to the next garage to look at the Studebaker 1923 tourer.

 

This car originally came from South Africa and was used as a taxi for a hotel, when it came to the U.K. it was wrongly issued with a “Q” plate, Bill organised getting a better suited registration number for her, she is as can be seen in the pictures a hand crank 6 cylinder but Bill did show me an after market period starter motor that is with the car.

The car has sat here since at least 2001 but is covered and I believe is still in rather good condition, she has no front brakes but has dual rear brakes, inner and outer.

the next car we looked at, somewhat briefly was the Ford LTD which was heavily covered in dust sheets so we didn’t want to get too deep into uncovering her.

First picture is of the car in the 1980s /1990s, second was taken today.

we then went to the next garage where there is a 1979 MG midget (rubber bumper) with a hard top as well as a soft top.

again I wasn’t really interested in uncovering the midget, it’s for sale but I think the market is flooded with black rubber bumper midgets.

The next car we look at is a Studebaker President 1937 straight eight, she was in really poor condition and had suffered at some stage in her life from a small fire, the car is massive, she would have been very imposing, again I’m not really an American car fan but anything with a straight eight does peak my interest but what makes this car more intriguing is that she stared in two Madonna films.

I have always been of the opinion that attaching a “celebrity” name to a car does not necessarily add money to it, I once owned a Rolls Royce that was believed to have been owned by Marylin Monroe, which is great but if you didn’t like her then it doesn’t really add any extra value.

however I think this car that was previously owned by EMI studios should be saved, it would be heart breaking for the banger racers to get hold of it.

next car to view was this amazingly original and rather clean Ford Consul 1500.

also for sale and I think if Ford Consuls are your thing then she is definitely one for the stable.

Bill particularly picked this Consul out purposely to be driven with little maintenance, he said at his age he no longer enjoys getting under vehicles to work on them, especially after his accident in the early 90’s, he was changing the ball joints on the Dodge Polara when all of a sudden the car dropped off its Jack and landed on his shoulder, instantly breaking it and his collar bone but also pinning him to the ground, luckily even in his 70’s he was strong enough to drag himself out from under the nearly three ton car and get help.

In the garage next to the Ford Consul was this really tidy green Austin 16 1948

Again a very good example, the rear seat has been re trimmed but the fronts we led doing, they deteriorated due to a leak on the sunroof but Bill informs me that this has been rectified, whilst looking over this car we were met by Adrian, Bill and Doreen’s guardian angel, Adrian has been helping the couple deal with moving on the collection since the very sad and untimely death of their daughter to a blood clot recently at the age of 50.

it began to rain a bid heavier so Bill invited us in for a coffee and to show me pictures of the vehicles when they were in their prime.

As we entered the front door and wiped our feet on the mat provided I looked up and saw cabinets everywhere full of Corgi model cars and trucks, we sat down in their front room and Doreen made us drinks whilst Bill got the photos folder out.

it was great looking through the old pictures of cars Bill owned over the years, I particularly liked this one, can anyone identify it?

we had a great time discussing the various cars and their values, it was also interesting that at around the same time in the 90’s Bill and I both owned a Bobcat American car 2.2 litre pinto,Bills was a station wagon and mine was a Coupe.

seeing pictures of Bill and Doreen in their younger years only 30 odd years ago is very sobering and a reminder of how fast time goes.

Over Coffee Bill and I managed to negotiate a deal we were all happy with, in front of Adrian who was also in agreement.

We then went back outside to have a look at how the vehicles would be extracted from their sleeping places, Bill then showed me some interesting automobilia eg Esso signs and tins and a set of numberplate making items, once again we struck a deal.

we returned to the house so I could pay Bill for what I had bought today got a receipt, arranged for me to go down mid November 2022 to collect the vehicles.

we shook hands and I set off for home.
Thank you Bill Doreen and Adrian.

As agreed in telephone call with Doreen George and I hitched up the trailer to the Mercedes and set off for Diss again at 530 am on Wednesday 16th November 2022, a pleasant steady drive.
on arrival we were met at the front gate by Bill, we shook hands and I introduced George to Bill,it’s a very tight entrance on a narrow lane road, we unhitched the trailer and manoeuvred it into the driveway, I then reversed the truck in.

It was another tight corner around the bungalow to get to Bills garage, Bill didn’t think we would be able to get to it with the Mercedes but I assured him I had done this many times and would manage, Bill seemed quite impressed that I did get the truck in in one go, so my plan was to load one car on the truck then use the winch cable again to pull the other car out then tow that car out with the truck and load that on the trailer.

see vid below.

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I then towed George in the spider infested AC, he wasn’t happy.

it is always difficult when moving equipment or cars and loading them onto trailers or transporters when you’ve done thousands over the years you have an eye for where to aim the wheels, it may look to the inexperienced wrong but you know where it will lead the car in the end, I regularly have to politely ignore people telling me how to do this or where to steer the car to, when you’re dealing with dead cars (non rolling) it’s very important to make those decisions count because it will save your back, time and effort.

it is also the same with strapping your vehicle down, never let anyone tell you how to strap down or even help you, this can lead to disaster.

we strapped up, loaded the old Esso signs, Esso can and number plate masking equipment I had bought off Bill then Bill offers me a bundle of 1970s Esso stickers for fuel pumps and petrol station advertising.

we agreed a deal and boxed them up, I said a final good bye to Bill and Adrian, we shook hands, Bill said you haven’t got out the gate yet? I said I’ll manage but because of the nature of the exit and road I’ll just carry on when I exit, I got the trailer and truck out in one move.
Bill and Doreen are the kind of people I love to meet when doing what I do, just lovely accommodating old school people.

it was a pleasure to meet them .

now time to decide what to do with the two AC’s?

If you are interested in any of the cars in this blog ( not just the AC’s) then contact me and I’ll put you in touch with Bill.