4 years ago this car was destined for the crusher, sitting in the scrapyard, until I rescued it.

It was originally Polar white and most of it was missing, but I decided to take the challenge and test my ability and try to restore it to its original condition. So after about a year and a half and nearly £5000 she was finished.

I decided to run her up to my first Billing and gained a few ideas, the prospect of modification was ever looming after seeing all the excellent cars on the field (this was my first show and I was a new member).

So this year I decided to go for broke and blow my savings on giving her a new lease of life.

First to go was the original 2.0l engine that I had sourced and spent 2 weeks re-building, I decided to go with the 16v conversion but had no experience of these engines but knew a man who did.

So I borrowed a 4x4 and hired a trailer and towed the car 400 miles to Scotland to the home of Mr Jock Ramsey.

He was the only man whom I was willing to trust to do the work, and that he did.

Next, it went off for paint a bare shell.

I got the car back 2 weeks before Billing and had the long task of building her up from near enough scratch.

The penultimate thing was the ice install in the boot and the Thatcham alarm with remote central locking and immobiliser.

She was MOT'd 1 hour before Billing (on the Friday) and just made the post office for road tax with 5 mins to spare.

Phew! and the reward for my efforts?........ 1st in class. Excellent.

New Pictures 3rd July 2004