The car has an agreed value, for insurance purposes, of £18,000. I would be pleased at an offer of £12,000
The car has an agreed value, for insurance purposes, of £18,000. I would be pleased at an offer of £12,000,
I wonder how many others like me there are in the Stag Owners Club? I have owned my car for 47 years. Now, I know John Wreford in Devon; who I have toured with in earlier years; had a Stag registered in the same year, which he bought from new, whereas I was the fourth owner of mine, in two years, but I know he sold his ; but how recently? I can think of a few names I have known, down very many years, but I don’t really know about their cars. I bought our Stag in exchange for my MB B Roadster and £2,000 in 1979. In 1984, another Stag owner at work suggested I joined the SOC, which I did.
An early simple adjustment I made was to the boot. I put in an MDF divider plate, splitting the Boot compartment in half, laterally, but perhaps keeping the floor plate above the Spare Wheel a little larger. To the right of the Divider, are a gallon of petrol, spare oil, Coolant, Gearbox oil, Power Steering Fluid, Jump-leads, Chamois leathers and so on. A full range of cleaning solutions, mostly Auto-glym. Ultimately, this side is fully packed. Without removing any of the packed right-hand side of the Boot compartment, I can fold the carpet right, remove the left-hand floor-plate and easily take out the spare wheel, after my modification.
Long ago ( 1999 ), after coming 3rd in a Concours inspection at the Norwich Stag gathering car show. After this, I decided that to spend 3 days on a holiday long-weekend in East Anglia, under my car, polishing and cleaning, rather than raging around and having fun, was not a good enough reward, as good as a 3rd place was. Since then I have gone rather more high-tech’, along with many others, not changing the look of the car, but …
My inspiration was Lesley Phillips’ husband, Roger. At various meeting I was fascinated by his modifications, particularly moving the Alternator across and adding a Header-tank. I began by ditching the Twin Stromberg’s and buying a Twin-Choke Weber, set up and modified especially for the Stag by Chris Spain. That certainly made the old girl feel like a new car !
Now, this is a bit of a memory test, but I reckon I have fitted the following non – standard items:
1. Oil-Cooler.
2. Spin-off Oil-Filter.
3. Stainless-steel exhaust system.
4. Re-ground Crankshaft, Tuftride hardened.
5. N/S mounted Alternator ( as opposed to standard O/S mounted )
6. Graduated, 3-speed Electric Water-pump ( as opposed to Jack-shaft driven, single speed )
7. Digital, Coaming mounted, Digital Water-pump / Fan controller and monitor, ( with displays of battery condition, Fan mode and Water-pump speed mode and cylinder-head temperature – a Davies Craig Australian Race modification )
8. Hi – torque Starter Motor
9. Competition Coil and large-gap Spark-Plugs.
10. Heavy-duty Battery : 70 Ah ( standard battery is 35 Ah )
11. Electronic Petrol Pump ( as opposed to old-fashioned oscillating one )
12. 3-point Central Locking
13. A Rally Dead-switch – a removable key which kills all electrics, so no flat battery when left a while.
14. Immobiliser, ( isolating Ignition and Fuel-pump, plus a warning siren, when you turn on the Ignition, to remind you to de-select the immobiliser. )
15. Electric High-Efficiency Cooling Fan ( binned the one attached to Crank-shaft )
16. Header-tank ( additional 2 litres of Coolant in the flow system, additional to the Radiator )
17. Five-row Radiator. ( standard is three )
18. Alternator Fitting kit for Upper, L.H. position ( standard is lower R.H. )
19. Coolant fed to R.H. Cylinder bank, via special plumbing ( standard is L.H. only )
20. Weber Twin-choke Carburettor and Modified Engine Manifold.
21. Additional Catch-box for Breather Oil spray.
22. Perspex Wind deflector and rear compartment Tonneau cover
23. No Thermostat ( rendered obsolete by this control system )
24. Two manual over-rides for Cooling fan ( emergency only ) from different electrical circuits.
25. Stainless-steel, logo-ed cover for Carb’ Air Filter
26. Wiring modified so that when the ignition is off, the Headlamps go off.
27. Stainless-steel pipes replacing all external pipes around engine.
28. Modified Differential, strengthened, with altered gear-ratio
29. Datsun Constant Velocity Half-shafts.
30. Cool-running Ignition Coil, ( mounted outside the engine bay, in the Plenum Chamber, and
thus immune to over-heating )
31. The original Odometer was old and slipping, so I fitted a Caerbont Automotive Systems digital unit, which reads the rotating stainless steel bolts on the Propshaft and transmits this through an interface to the new instrument, that looks like the original. You can enter bias figures and thus match what you are reading from your mobile phone GPS App.
32. Blaupunkt Radio / DAB / FM / CD system, which also takes Music USB drives. ( with five speakers, including a Sub-Woofer, fitted on a solid aluminium frame, behind the rear seat )
33. The Sub-Woofer is controlled by a volume switch, velcroed onto the transmission tunnel, by the driver’s left knee.
34. Switches and status light for the Fuel-pump, ( which allows me to empty the fuel lines when I park and the engine is hot. When I next need to drive, I can supply cool fuel to the carbs, which gives me a clean start every time. )
35. As a concession to me being a bit old and deaf, there is a microphone sited beside the Fuel-pump and a small speaker beside the Handbrake, which before I start, allows me to hear the fuel pump until it has filled the Filter before the Carb intake. This means a clean start, when the carbs are ready.
36. I fitted 195 tyres all around, being the largest diameter not to catch the wheel arch. Obviously this necessitates changing the bias in the Digital Odometer.
37. I have put a tiny switch beside the Boot-light, so as I can switch it on and off at will.
38. Noticing the rear Lamp cluster was scratched and clouded, I had new ones fitted, with two-tone lamps in the Reversing lamps, wired to the stop-lights, giving a much-improved rear display.
39. All the indicator-lights and switches in the cabin are mounted below the coaming on wooden panels I hand-carved in Pitch Pine.
40. I removed the Rocker Boxes and had them powder-coated a nice Silver-grey colour.
41. A couple of years back, I had the car closely inspected for rot and before re-spraying, a metal worker welded in new panels as required. I believe that there were 18 areas needing attention. He had a very interesting system. He coated all his repairs with fibreglass resin to finish. The Sprayshop undersealed over this, preventing rusting beneath the underseal.
42. I substituted the rusting inertia switch with a new style, from Rimmers, that is more reliable.
43. I had Koni Shock-absorbers fitted all around, plus those purple, hard bushes everywhere, to give a better ride.
44. The Bonnet Deafening retainer-plates have been replaced by stainless steel ones, but instead of rivets, captive Alen screws
I ordered most of my spares, down the years from James Paddock, in Chester. Pretty much all the work on my car has been done by Danny Taylor. He had been the Service Manager at Neil Ross Motors, in the North East, at the launch of the Stag and once I had met him, I took my Stag to three different garages, as he moved around the place. When he retired he modified the garage at his house into a major workshop, with an overhead gantry and everything and continued to look after a wide variety of Classic Cars.
A lot of money has been spent renewing parts, as they wore out and keeping the car roadworthy, but those are not modifications. It has had four front wings in its time and three boot lids. Then there are sills. An exchange Gearbox. The engine has been out twice. The usual stuff, I suppose. There was 21,000 miles on the clock when I bought her. Now it stands at 135,000 miles. I have never been stranded and had to get the bus home.
I have heard it said that with a modern car, its value drops £2,000 each year, regardless of constant care and good maintenance. Now I wouldn’t regard a classic car as an investment, but it does hold its value. I do think that the tens of thousands I must have spent on it, in its lifetime are well spent, for the pleasure of ownership and the fun of driving it and the family holidays.
Anyway, in a few weeks’ time, I report to Edinburgh Infirmary for a major heart Op’ and there will be no driving for a few months after that. Someone else should have this Stag and see if they can nurse it towards that Classic Volvo Es-1800, with 300,000 miles on the clock.
Malcolm McDougall
08484 Fife Scotland
Tel: 07855 231291
stag.malcolm@btinternet.com
