1935 Hillman Minx (1:1 WIP)

Here she is as she arrived to-day. I have decided to call her 'Sissy' (Short for Cecilia) in light of her reg. letters.

I'll update as and when.

im looking forward to seeing you work on this

are you aware of this happening soon?....its only down the road and it has a vintage car section

http://www.frontline-sedgefield.co.uk/

Looks great Al.

Just needs the Fiat twin cam engine in it, scare yourself silly...LOL

She's a beauty, Skid !!

A great looking car, Al.

It looks quite appropriate in that setting. Dig your old 30's style knickers out of the attic and take some B&W pictures for the WIP. They'd look great.

BTW - what is that little pullout on the pillar between the front and rear doors?

Indicator (turn signal) I think Mike.

Semaphore.

Thanks everyone.

beowulf wrote:

are you aware of this happening soon?....its only down the road and it has a vintage car section

http://www.frontline-sedgefield.co.uk/

I wasn't Paul, but I'll look into it.

dublin boy wrote:Looks great Al.

Just needs the Fiat twin cam engine in it, scare yourself silly...LOL

I've got a spare one with gearbox too Shay............... but NO!!

RetiredMike wrote:BTW - what is that little pullout on the pillar between the front and rear doors?

Gary is correct..... in your parlance 'Turn Signal Indicators' or in proper English (LOL) Semaphore Direction Indicators or Traficators. Notorious for sticking closed and often the wind resistance would prevent them closing!! LOL

I took her out for my first proper run in her to-day.

Bombing along nicely at about 50mph, I think. I say 'I think' as the speedo is just 50mm diameter and with the rather vague worm and roller steering, I was too scared to take my eyes of the road to look at it.

Those early English cars are beautiful Al.

An awesome WIP indeed! I look forward to seeing how this develops with bated breath (I think that's the saying).

What a real beauty

Thanks guys.

OK.... here is the first update. Nothing major and it wasn't hard. (accept on the wallet!! LOL)

When I bought Sissy, she came with a clamp on door mirror on the passenger side......



............ so I bought her a new pair of 'period correct' 'Peep Mirrors':













However, they really are only for looks purposes as I cannot get the angles right and the flat glass only exacerbates this but as vision all round is considerably better than my daily driver, I'm none too worried,

Would a 1/16 V8 engine fit in I wonder? LOL

Just spotted this on the headlining, just where the passenger sun visor would be if it had them:



It's the original suppliers 'plate' (like the vinyl stickers in rear windows of to-day)

Now, it's a tad odd really as the first two letters of the registration, define the cars original registration point, in this case it's SS, which is Dumfries and that is 175 miles away.

Seems a long way to go to buy a car in those days and if the original owner did, why didn't the garage register it in their own area? It would appear the car was bought in Bridlington then delivered to Dumfries where it was registered.

Amazing how a small detail like the mirrors can change the overall feel of the vehicle. Goes to show that it's the subtle things which, when handled properly, that 'make' the look.

Old cars get re-registered sometimes Al, can you check with the DVLA?

I'd had a suspicion that's what may have happened Shay but not sure how to check it with the DVLA

Go old school, ring them and tell them the situation and see what they say.

Looks like you were correct Shay. I found this on the DVLA website:

DVLA

(Type in SSY 706)

For an oldie, she is in remarkably good shape,a big plus! Did the Hillmans have those "friction shocks"back then?

id try one of two things

get in touch with the owners club

http://www.hillmanownersclub.co.uk/

very often owners clubs have past history of cars

or

give dvla a bell....give them the vin number (does something this old have a vin?) or chassis number or current reg and they should have some history too

That link does work Al, I came home from England in 1990 with RPR 443 X, it still identifies it all these years later correctly as a black 1300cc Ford even though it was exported to Ireland.

You'd wonder why it's still listed as it became 81 D 947 when it came to Dublin, so it's been out of the UK DVLA's scope since when I was young and handsome. lol

Hi Harron, no she was factory fitted with hydraulic shock dampers the same as these: