Introducing my 142
 

I've just bought a RHD 142 originally from Finland.

I've spent many years with Amazons and more recently a P1800S. Earlier this year I bought a hulk of a 144 to harvest the lovely B20A for my Amazon Estate, then sold the rest of the wreck for parts. However, having never paid much attention to the 140 Series, I recognised its charm.

Earlier this year, over on a Facebook page, a guy showed a couple pictures of this lovely 142 in Safari Yellow saying that he'd bought imported it from Finland and about to embark on making it roadworthy. I commented on its appeal, then put it to the back of my mind, but to remind myself to keep check on its progress. It went silent, so I emailed him and he replied saying that he had done next to nothing seeing as he had too many other projects on the go and I persuaded him to sell it. I had it delivered by from Colchester to Devon last week.

The old car's been stood standing for a good while and the brakes are the first thing requiring attention along with a list of other things:

• Both rear shocks are non-existent,
• the exhaust is blowing and there are no rubber hangers left,
• the heater hoses are perished,
• there's a list of electrical faults including right indicators not working, left indicators hardly working, no horn, fuel gauge and temp gauge not working.

There are many other things, but those are the main things. Oh, and of course tyres. I'll set about all this work with my friend who has worked at Volvo in Exeter for 20 years and we're starting up together working on old Volvos at an extremely low rate. Do get in touch!

The bodywork is extremely good with little signs of previous work which includes one new spare wheel well, repairs to the OSF inner wing and a replaced NSF inner wing. However, there is now a hole under the driver's seat that needs repair.

The interior is impeccable only requiring new Pirelli webbing under the 2 front seat squabs.

First off is to get the thing registered and a V5 doc in hand. I feel nervous about this having had many dealings with the DVLA when I worked in the motor trade. As such, I'm not making any start with mechanical work until I have all paperwork in hand.

Attachment 117767

Attachment 117768

That looks very nice, the same colour as my first one which I inherited after a good friend in Surrey died. Mine was a rare UK car all its life -just hope its still around.
Until you said Finland I thought you had bought the blue one I restored three years back, as I know the guy I sold it to wanted some money to continue financing his P1800 resto. Get it good and ready for the VOC stand at the NEC show next November - there wasn't a 140 there this year.

Paul

That’s gorgeous.

God Damn :)

That's the same color as the 1st '71 164 I owned way back when. I love that color and that car looks fabulous!

Yello!
 

I had a poo brown 144 in Australia but sold it to pay for a Valiant (Dodge) Charger 7.2litre!
After that had fallen pray to the rust devil I bought a 244 the same colour as this one - and that was a keeper despite almost being written off by a wayward 264 t-boning me!
I know it was a 264 because all that was left behind was the `chrome` grille!

That brings back memories! Same or very similar colour to the facelift 72 144 auto i had, interior is the same colour seats as well.

Amazing how little needs doing, considering its age and it's sat around for a while doing very little.
When i had my 144 auto, my brother had a 68/G 142S with the B20B and M46 overdrive box.
I'd also previously owned a 145 on a K reg for a while but never drove it legally on the road.

The thing i always liked about the original 140 series is they had a general old world charm/appearance with some modern twists like the wrap-around front indicators, also the pre-facelift dash was more ergonomic than the facelift version, except maybe for the bargraph speedo - never been a fan of those. Difficult to fit anything except a bargraph speedo in that dash though so i'd accept it as part of a better overall design.

Lovely looking car - what are your general plans noce it's roadworthy?

The car looks great. Is it currently in this condition or has it been taken apart to restore? I'm looking for a 142 for a photoshoot and would love to chat with you about it!

Thanks!

No, the car is still as is. However, I see you're in Seattle!! That's not near me..

Good to hear! Location is fine in UK I was planning to go there. Is it possible to email you? I don't think I have access using the forum profile contact system since I am still a new member. I can give you some details on what I was thinking!

Well let's keep in touch.

Now that all the documentation has arrived, over the next few weeks all the work is being executed on the old car.

I've FINALLY made time to make a start on proper work on this car. I would like to get it up and running for Swedish Day in a few weeks.

We collected the car on a trailer and took it up to my friend's workshop located in the middle of nowhere down here in Devon.

Up on the ramp, we had a good look around, poking here and there finding nothing more than the hole under the driver's seat that I already knew about. Apart from the non-working horn, sorting out a couple little electrical issues and other things including rhd headlights, the main job in hand was dealing with brakes. So we went about getting the wheels off to find, with no surprise the calipers seized and perished rubber. As well, the servo is hissing and I'm going to change all the brake lines. Brake back plates too need to be replaced.

Sadly though, we came across what is probably the reason the car was laid up all those years ago and it's a very weird one seeing as the rest of the car is pretty solid: the subframe is completely rusted around the spring housing. Like, completely rusted.

Seeing as you're not allowed to weld suspension components - I'm sure you could get away with it is it wasn't so bad - the only option is to remove the whole lot and replace it!

I doubt at this stage I'll be taking this one to Swedish Day!

Anyway, I got straight on the phone to our man Triple-S who reckons he's got one down the road near Chichester...

Hi S & G, was good to meet you at Bruntingthorpe. What a great weekend. Hope you are still looking after that Fordson Major!

A small update here: having reached stalemate on discovering the condemned front subframe, I got in touch with a guy local to me who has a 144 that has been off the road for many years.

Its the same year as mine and I'm having the whole car. It seems very excessive seeing as I only need the front subframe, but there are other bits and bobs that I will salvage including the boot lid struts and speedo in MPH.

Once the restoration of my 142 is complete, I will then strip down the 144 and sell off the parts to contribute towards what I'm paying for the thing. It's not even covered 90,000 miles!!

Good news on finding the subframe attached to a complete spares car! :thumbs_up:

Will you be converting it to RHD as well seeing as you now have the bits to do that? :thinking:

Guess what? It is already RHD!

'Twas the foreign number plates confused me! :err:

I know one photo shows the interior but i'd somehow got it in my head it was taken in mirror-image! :rolleyes:

142 Rules! :-)