Bay to Birdwood Day!

Yesterday was one of the highlights of my year with the Bay to Birdwood run. Now I prefer classic cars, so the B2B Classic is the bees knees for me, but with the awesome weather yesterday the Run was still pretty special. Lots of fantastic cars and trucks and bikes and buses. I've never seen so many bikes in the Run before. I love this era 4WD's I must admit, I could definitely add a Series 1 Landrover or a WW2 era Jeep to my collection.

Landrover S1

WW2 era Jeep, probably a Ford although I can't really tell.

Another Landie, I have a vague recollection of seeing this one on eBay, or maybe in a copy of Australian Classic Car magazine? I can't remember.

You can see my photo album of the B2B run here. I really liked the range of old Okie from Grapes of Wrath style vehicles too. Lost of rusty looking jalopy's.

 Anyway, this post doesn't appear to be related to the Corona build, but I did score an owners handbook on eBay a couple of days ago. Looks like this, not sure as yet whether it is my year or an earlier RT40, guess I'll find out when it arrives.

Gawler Swapmeet Day

Up early, for a Sunday anyway, and down to Gawler to pick up Dad and then to the swapmeet. They hold it at Gawler Oval these days as the trotting track has been demolished and the racecourse is being renovated. It was bloody huge this year, the whole area was full. Wandered around for a good two hours, but sadly nothing Corona related apart from badges which I don't actually need. Did pickup some driver's side interior door handles for the HZ as these are pretty rare nowadays. Passenger ones are dime a dozen, but I found 3 driver's side handles for $5, where in the past I've paid $15 for a rusted hunk from a wrecker. Grabbed a couple of bits for the XR too.

I did forget to mention, some weeks back I scored a mint condition Corona Sales Brochure on ebay.

The sales brochure. Essentially a fold out flyer, spruiking the superb comfort and power.
No pictures of mirrors!

Spring is Here!

And with Spring is a sudden influx of excellent classic cars on the road which has given me a kick in the bum. I've given the HZ it's spring clean and service, and I serviced the XR prior to re-registering that in a couple of weeks. Although the whitewalls on the XR look goddamn awful at the moment, the tyres have bled rubber oil on them, plus I scuffed the left side tyres a couple of days prior to putting the car into storage, I may wait to fix them before getting it back on the road.

Here's a pic of the XR at last year's Bay to Birdwood.

The old Corona sadly became part of the scenery in the shed to the point where I've even stored stuff on top of it. Today I had the battery out of the XR and decided on a whim to chuck it in the Corona and see if it would start. Firstly the battery is way too big, but I sort of balanced it in the carrier and connected the leads. Oddly the Corona terminals are bigger than the battery posts so I had to space them out with a screwdriver. They look like the original battery terminals actually!

Anyway I digress, after cranking for what seemed ages she coughed a few times and then fired! I was extremely happy with it idling quite nicely after it warmed a little. And that's with 4 year old fuel in it. It's strange how a little life has suddenly reinvigorated my interest.

Anyway tomorrow is Gawler Swapmeet, probably the best swapmeet in SA. Many may ask, what about Campbelltown? - but these days I think Campbelltown is filled with either Holden or Valiant wreckers who want top dollar for everything. Gawler still has the occasional shed clearance kind of seller. I'm on the lookout for all kinds of things but mainly door lock knobs for the Corona (they're all broken bar one), and suitable mirrors.
Can anyone tell me what the original mirrors were or at least looked like? Did these vehicles even come optioned with exterior mirrors?