ME AND MY RESTO
Vince Moore needed a new car, so he built one himself using whatever he had to hand
INTERVIEW & PICTURES JAMES WALSHE
This car began as a 1932 Standard Little Nine – a boxy little family car produced between 1930 and 1933. I got it off a chap whose advancing age meant the amount of work involved had become just too much for him. The engine was shot, and the body was completely rotten. The Little Nine’s body is also quite heavy, so I decided to do away with that completely, leaving just the chassis and engine. I’d always fancied a special!
Living in the far north of Scotland means car restoration can be a bit of a challenge. I power everything via solar panels and, while we have a wind turbine, I turned it off in the end as the wind up here was just too wild for it! When winter comes, it can be difficult as the days are so short but, on a sunny day, you can just about do some welding and get the washing done! Nevertheless, I had a fair idea of what I wanted to create.
I started at the front. Having raked back the steering to decide what height I wanted the car to be, I found a steel bath in a nearby field and made a grille out of that. It pretty much set the shape of the car. Using strips of cedar and oak, along with some ash, I made a frame – the long strips out of the cedar. Having built and fitted the frame to the chassis, I threw an old bedsheet over it and applied boiled linseed oil. This soaks into the fabric and goes quite rubbery, holding it all together. I then applied red oxide paint, some leftover masonry paint, then more red oxide paint and a coat of cellulose. The most expensive purchase, aside from tyres, was a sheet of aluminium for the bonnet. I didn’t want a roof, so the seat had to be waterproof. I made it out of an old canoe and some faux rattan. Just leftover stuff lying around, really.
The original engine was toast, so I used a tired A-series engine from a Morris Minor that had been donated to me. I rebuilt that and made it fit to the original gearbox – the clutch is an A-series pressure plate with the splined friction plate the original Standard one. I was recently given an original two-bearing Standard engine, so I’ve decided to rebuild that and will install it at some point in the future.
It has been a thoroughly enjoyable project, which I’ve steadily been able to modify and adapt to my taste. But you must use a bit of ingenuity when you live up here. I had to come up with a solution for the exhaust silencer, so I got a big bore tube, filled it with a spiral of fence wire, surrounded with kitchen pan scourers. I did many of the jobs in my workshop and other aspects of the build in my shed, the roof of which is made from an old boat made on the island of Stromer. I bought that for fifty quid and trailered it home. Stromer hasn’t been lived on for decades and the boat was one of the very last built, we think sometime back in the 1880s.
My Standard Special is great fun to drive and surprisingly quick. It’ll do 60mph. It was a bit skittish to begin with, so I had to change the castor with wedges between the spring and the axle, while I remade the cable brakes – it’s very primitive, but everything works as it should. I drive it in all weathers and you tend to get very wet when it rains. Once the water warms up though, it’s fine…
ENGINE
Currently a Morris Minor A-series with a clutch adapted to fit, it will be replaced by an original Standard unit in due course.
WORKSHOP
Inside Vince’s workshop – an upturned Stromer boat from the 1880s, which he bought for £50 and dragged up to the house on his trailer.
CABIN
Spartan cabin is a result of Vince’s carpentry skills, and a seat from an old canoe.
BODYWORK
It’s a homemade wooden frame covered with a bedsheet soaked in boiled linseed oil and a bathtub for a grille. All perfectly normal.
DRIVING
Car was skittish to start with but once he’d modified the suspension, Vince says it’s good for about 60mph tops.
TIME TAKEN 3months
EST. COST £1500
BEST ADVICE ‘It’s a good idea to look around you to see what you have lying around. You never know how useful it could be!’
Practical Classics Restorer of the Year 2025
Vince is entered into the 2025 Restorer of the Year competition. You can vote for your favourite in a future issue of Practical Classics magazine.
Subscribe to a PC Print+ Subscription today and you'll get instant digital access PLUS FREE UK delivery so you'll never miss an issue again. Check out our offers today.