Another week another fleet addition for Buckley

The point about this Zephyr – which I bought off C&SC special projects man John Deverell – is that the floors and inner wings are incredibly sound. The bad news is it has an awful rat rod paint job perpetrated by somebody who thinks he lives in America and has carnal relations with his sister.

I would actually make it an offence to do things like that to old cars, particularly when there are only 10 of the things left as is the case with this Ford.

Of all the Farnham big Fords they are the easily the best looking because the roofline flows naturally rather than looking like a later addition. They were much favoured by the new Motorway Police for their speed and carrying capacity: for five seconds I even considered making this one into a Police replica, but the moment passed.

I may in fact MOT the car if I can free the brakes off. I might even fit the new-old-stock bonnet that comes with the car, but I will need to do something reasonably dramatic with the inside of the thing if depression is not to set in.

The rear fold-down seat is in A1 condition, but the front bench has various splits and tears and the dash top is heavily split.

The headlining is intact, but will need cleaning or recolouring. The nearside front door card is missing and the offside is non-original, but both rear door cards are good and the load area is surprisingly unmolested so it’s not all bad news.

Will keep you informed.