21 minute read
British Konsulate
Andy Murrell freely admits to having heard the question ‘is this thing ever going to get finished?’ a few times over the years it took for this kustom Consul to come together. Sometimes it will have been in his own head, we’ve no doubt about that, but he stuck to his vision and the finished car is a triumph. Well, it’s a 1962 Ford Consul 375, but you know what I mean.
So, let’s rewind to when Andy was a fresh-faced teenager with visions of owning an American car from the 1950s. ‘I couldn’t afford one of those so I bought a Hillman Imp…’ he laughs. ‘It cost me £70, and it was worth every penny of about £70.’
Give him credit, though, he did manage to ‘fix it up’, doing all the work himself in his aunty’s garage – including fitting shorter front springs and painting it bright yellow. And he had it on the road a couple of months after passing his driving test at 17.
Teenage fan club
‘In my mind, it was a kind of Cal Look Imp,’ Andy says with a grin. ‘I was a teenage Custom Car buyer – or Street Machine if it was a good issue – the paper round money wouldn’t stretch to both! It was the era of UK Cal Look… what I really fancied was a VW Type 3.’
Andy never has owned a Type 3, nor an American car, but a moment of clarity in 1994 saw him shift his attention to British cars with an American flavour. ‘Cars like the Mk2 Consul have that American look, but are smaller and fit in British garages and parking spaces. And I could afford one of those!’
Hearing the stories behind the cars we feature is always a joy. But when a tale covers the best part of three decades, you can feel the excitement the end product brings. Or maybe it’s relief? Either way, you feel it
Words: Mike Pye Pics: Vic Peel
Above: March 1994, as bought Oppoisite: 18 Oct 1997, as Andy and Mel’s wedding car
The car had its first V6 transplant in 1994 and there’s still a Cologne V6 under the bonnet now, only one of the later 2.9-litre versions from a 1992 car of indeterminate origin, possibly a Sierra XR4x4. Andy says the Bosch L-Jetronic / Ford EEC IV fuel injection system on the torquey, 150bhp unit has transformed the car over the previous 2.8 carburettor lump The engine fits well, with only a small modification required to the firewall to clear the staggered passenger’s side cylinder head. Behind it still is the good old Ford C3 threespeed auto’ Andy fitted almost 30 years ago, just rebuilt to stock spec by Andy Frost at Penn Autos in Wolverhampton
So, precisely 675 notes later (which would be more or less exactly twice as much in today’s money), Andy bought a 1962 Consul 375 as a 21st birthday present to himself. A week or so later, he had a local garage torch the front coils to complement the naturally sagging rear leaf springs. Shortly after that, the original four-cylinder motor gave up the ghost.
‘I was actually on my way over to my friend’s house to do an engine swap on his driveway when it expired with the biggest cloud of smoke you’ve ever seen. I was right next to some old ladies doing a traffic survey at the time.’
The drive home was more rewarding as Andy had two more cylinders to play with, and in a vee configuration too. The 2.8-litre Cologne V6 with which they replaced the blown (as in up, not supercharged) four came out of a Granada at the local scrappy, complete with its C3 auto box.
‘The car still had rust on almost every panel, but I loved it. And because it was still on the stock back axle, it had brilliant acceleration off the lights but would then just drop off about 60mph.
Baby blues
‘That didn’t stop my wife Mel driving it to work every day for a while. And it was our wedding car, too. But then came the classic thing. Our first daughter was on her way, and it did need a little bit of welding to the sills…’
The ‘little bit of welding’ turned out to be a mammoth amount of rust repair and so,
Body mods are restrained, limited only to removal of the door and boot handles and side trim, de-badging, adding a pair of Highline headlamp cowls and that super-neat custom front grille. The aeroplane on the bonnet was retained, Andy feeling that it’s just too cool not to, though he’s still on the lookout for a better one if anyone is holding. Likewise, all the stainless trim around the windows has been repolished and refitted Bumpers front and rear have lost their overriders and the mounting bolts have been replaced with welded studs before re-chroming. The end bolts had to be retained as it would have been impossible to fit the bumpers to the car otherwise Would you believe the centre bar from a ’57 Buick fitted the Consul with no modifications whatsoever? ‘I couldn’t believe it,’ says Andy. ‘I bought it on eBay and offered it up when it arrived, expecting to have to make up brackets or something to fit it, but it just fell straight into place’. Blacking out the original ali mesh makes it look like its floating, while repainting the original 375 badge that slotted straight into the centre hole adds more of that cohesion Andy was after
at the tail end of the 90s, the car was zipped into one of those temporary canvas garages for the next 14 or 15 years.
‘My mate Scott, who’s sadly no longer with us, or my brother Rob, would come over for the odd weekend and we’d have big plans but end up achieving very little. None of us are mechanics so there would be a lot of standing around scratching heads, and I’m still doing that to a certain extent today.’
To put the hiatus into context, Andy and Mel’s daughters Mia (20) and Erin (18) had never seen the Consul move until this summer. ‘That was a very exciting moment,’ recalls Andy. ‘It drove like crap, but it was exciting nonetheless.’
What facilitated the project moving forward again was twofold: the kids growing up and becoming more independent, and a couple of relatives – including the aunty who had been so encouraging all those years ago with the Imp project – passing away and leaving Andy enough of an inheritance to make a difference.
‘It wasn’t loads,’ he says, ‘but I could justify putting some of it into the car. Especially the money from my aunty, who was one of the ones who helped me get into cars in the first place.’
A see DC
This time, Andy wisely decided to involve a professional in the bodywork side of things and, in the summer of 2016, went to see local lad Darryn Coleman at DC Customs. After looking the car over, Darryn said, ‘okay, if you get the panels, we can do something with this.’ Music to Andy’s ears.
Naturally, blasting revealed yet more perforated metal that needed to be dealt with, leading Mel to enquire at one point: ‘So, how much of the car is actually original?’
‘Well, there’s the roof,’ laughs Andy.
Indeed, all four doors have been replaced, as have (deep breath) both front wings, the boot lid, the sills and the rear arches. And countless other patches have been put in place on the remaining panels. ‘It’s a 1960s’ British Ford,’ says Andy matter of factly. ‘They rust everywhere.’
While the body was away being repaired and prepared for paint, Andy took the opportunity to replace the decaying gazebo that had been the car’s home for so long with a wooden garage he built himself. He also sent loads of the car’s mechanical parts off to be blasted and powder coated so it would all be ready to go back on when the shell returned.
The car’s original front suspension struts, meanwhile, headed to Rayvern Hydraulics in Cambridgeshire to have the coil springs
The inspiration. Jerry Koller’s Larry Watson-painted ’55 Ford Customline, known as Doll Buggy
And here’s his good friend Scott, working on making that rear corner good again
Then DC Customs took over, fi nishing the bodywork and straightening and gapping everything before prepping for paint
Back home in September 2017 and, for the fi rst time in its life, with a garage to live in
The only mod required to fi t the new 2.9-litre engine was to swap on the custom sump Andy had on the previous 2.8 to clear the front crossmember When life got in the way, the old Consul was relegated to the back burner
That’s one corner done and into primer. All the work was being done in a gazebo in the garden at this stage in the late ’90s
There’s a ton of work been put in between the previous picture and this one of the body in its fi nal prime
After years of working outside, having a clean, dry place to reassemble the car must have felt like heaven Andy let his creative side loose on the air ride gauge pod… …while Rob did likewise, just with some higher end technology. How cool are these 3D printed interior door handles?
A full coat of Dynamat went into the shell – fl oor, roof and throughout the boot. Here you can see where the air tank lives, with the battery repositioned bottom left. This will all be trimmed to match soon Rebuilt and now running, the last stop on the journey was to Custom Coach Trimming for upholstery
Thanks to Ash Phipps, the car was towed to Peterborough to make its debut at the 2022 National Hot Rod and Custom Show where, to Andy’s humble amazement, it won Judges’ Choice
When work did get underway, it started with just a couple of little repairs…
Finally, though, Andy decided to get some professional help. Here’s the car heading off for blasting in July 2016
And then comes the glory coat. There are few things quite as exciting as fi nally seeing a longterm project in its colour coat …but quickly escalated. Here’s Andy’s brother Rob, holding what was left of one of the original sills
Yep, that showed up even more dodgy metal that needed cutting out and replacing
With all the panels back on, polished and ready to go back to Andy for reassembly
Car’s low riding stance comes courtesy of de-arched springs and lowering blocks at the rear, with air bags for height adjustment and Spax dampers. Up front, the stock MacPherson struts have been converted to air bag tops with rebound adjustable damper inserts
replaced with air bags, returning along with another pair of bags for the rear.
‘I’ve had this car so long I’ve amassed folders of images of cars and colours I like, and it was going to be a satin mid-blue or dark green. But everything in the colour swatches was gloss and I just couldn’t imagine it in a flat colour.’ And so it ended up in the Chrysler Inca Gold you see here, with a Fiat Abarth Pearl White roof.
‘Understandably, it went over budget. But Darren did a fantastic job and gave me back exactly what I wanted – a beautifully painted, fully finished shell.’
Walk the line
Now all Andy had to do was screw it back together, adding his choice of custom touches as he went along. ‘It’s a fine line with a car like this. I wanted to build a late 50s’ / early 60s’ custom with a K out of a fairly standard 1960s’ British car.’
When it came to wheels and tyres, Andy says it wasn’t about how big a meat he could get under the rear arches, but more about balancing the look with the car’s ride height. Aesthetically, that meant stepping up to 15-inch wheels. As he’d replaced the old Ford back axle with a disc brakeequipped unit out of a Volvo 240 by this
Above left: ‘We were in danger of everything being a bit colour coded, like early ’90’s Cal Look,’ says Andy. So he deliberately kept the original trim through the dash, while the lower section is a bit of B&Q pressed ali sheet, carefully cut to size. The original gauges have been disassembled and repainted to match, while under the full circle horn ring from a ’57 Zodiac is the original Consul steering wheel, topped with a bullet centre cap. Andy ordered the carpets in a custom colour from Aldridge Trimming in Wolverhampton, and Chris Vining at Custom Coach Trimming modified them to fit around the Ford C3 shifter
Top right: MP3-compatible Alpine head unit is hidden in the glovebox, along with USB charging points, and the handmade liner is another of Andy’s old school CAD exercises. That is to say it was mocked up in cardboard before being made in metal Above right: Andy initially wanted the car trimmed in gold and white pearl metalflake vinyl but Chris talked him out of what could have been a rather garish combination and into a bit of gold ostrich and textured semi-matt white vinyl instead. The match with the car’s exterior colours is just perfect
point, he sensibly looked at Volvo wheel options, settling on a set of early 740 steels. Dressed with ’56 Olds caps and with the tyres converted to whitewalls by Ant at Mr. Whitewalls, he had the look he was after.
A pair of single outlet Patriot Lake Pipes continue the mild custom look, and the look is all they are for at present as Andy is concerned that if he hooks them up, the heat will damage the paint above. For now, then, the car’s minimal silencing comes from a straight Smithy’s muffler either side, though Andy says he’s already tiring of the drone they produce in the cabin at 60 or 70mph on the motorway.
‘It’s been such a long time since I drove an old car that I have to keep reminding myself that’s what this is. It’s the reason I built it like this – I wanted to feel that connection you just don’t get with modern cars.’
Trim shop
We can’t leave without talking about the interior and, truth be told, it’s what alerted us to this car in the first place after Chris Vining at Custom Coach Trimming in Evesham put a couple of sneak preview pics up on his Instagram feed.
‘I knew what I wanted and had done some drawings for the patterns but, once you start talking to someone who knows
Above left: The heavy stainless window trim denotes a Lowline model, though by mid-1961 Ford had decided to call these models Consul 375 and added a few badges around the car to that effect. A new front screen was ordered from Pilkington, while all new side glass was cut by VGC in Oldbury, a company Andy praises highly for its efficiency and reasonable cost. Oh, and check out more of Chris Vining’s neat speaker mouldings on the rear shelf
Above right: The very neat air ride gauge and switch panel is what Andy calls ‘a good weekend spent in the garage’ but also ‘a lack of knowledge and a balls-up on my part’. In short, he replaced the steering box at some stage in the past, not realising he’d used a longer Zephyr / Zodiac part until he came to re-fit the cowl piece many years later. The resulting gap left the perfect place for the new panel. That’s serendipity…
what they’re talking about, it escalates,’ says Andy enthusiastically.
With that, the garish gold and white flake vinyl idea went out the window, replaced with a more demure gold ostrich cloth and white, semi-matt textured vinyl. It’s the perfect foil to the exterior colours, lifted further by the inclusion of ‘church window’ patterns in the stitching at Chris’ suggestion
The moulded speaker mounts were more of Chris, their shape inspired by the centre bar in the front grille, while Andy sourced the Marshall amp cloth that covers the cones within.
‘Chris is the absolute epitome of you get what you pay for, in a good way,’ continues Andy. ‘I’ve never been more glad to spend that sort of money on anything in my life.’
Cohesive style
Andy obviously had a clear vision of what he wanted the car to end up looking like. Above all, it had to be cohesive, and not over the top. ‘I wanted to be able to Photoshop a picture of if on to one of those old images of Larry Watson’s paint shop and for it not to look out of place. I have done a render of the car with some scallops on. Maybe one day…’
So, what’s it like to drive after all these years? Did it live up to expectations?
‘It’s really nice. The front brakes are still the standard Consul discs, so I might look into upgrading those at some point. And it would be nice to go a little bit lower at the back, so maybe I’ll 4-link it one day, but I just want to drive it now. I’m making a list of little jobs I can do in a weekend as I really don’t want to take it off the road again, not after all this time.
‘The EFI on the new engine is great. It starts on the button, idles nicely and gets about 27mpg, where I was getting 17 or 18 on the old carb motor. That’s a bit more appropriate given today’s fuel prices.
‘It’s quick too, and will certainly go faster than I’m comfortable doing in what is still, by and large, an old 1960s’ car.
“The best thing, though, is the feeling of satisfaction that I’ve finally achieved it. When we first went out for a drive together in it, Mel said: ‘I did wonder if this day would ever come.’
‘To which I replied: “so did I.”’
Mk2 buffers will note the step up from 13 to 15-inch wheels, but might like to know their origin. They’re Volvo 740 steels, chosen because they were the perfect fi t in the rear arches when bolted to a standard width Volvo 240 back axle. The full wheel covers are ’56 Oldsmobile, picked up at the Father’s Day Swapmeet at Pomona in 2001. Tyres are 185/65s and 195/65s, shaved and whitewalled by Mr Whitewalls in Stafford
Thanks
“Darren at DC Customs and Chris at Custom Coach Trimming. My brother Rob, who has been a constant help throughout, and Ashley Phipps for selling me the 2.9 V6, helping make sense of the ECU wiring and getting the car running properly.
Also my wife, Mel, and daughters, Mia and Erin, for always being so supportive and encouraging, bringing me coffee, helping with assembly or simply taking the piss when another parcel of car parts arrives.
Finally, my mate Scott, who helped with the first engine swap and some of the welding later on, but sadly died in 2016 and never got to see the car become what it is now.”
