The Professional Opinion

So I took JSK 404 to Southern Triumph Services for a good look over on Saturday morning.  Once I had found it on Stamford Road (down the gravel track between two houses), Mark the owner introduced himself and after a chat, we got her up onto the ramps for a look underneath.

Now I’m no classic car expert so the underneath of a 54 year old car is a pretty scary place to be. Mine looks pretty grotty but I was assured by Mark that basically the car is very solid and all the flaky bits are only layers and layers of old waxoyl and underseal.

However, the bad news is there is plenty of work to do to get the car back to A1 and I pretty quickly forgot the idea of a councours restoration.

So here is a quick rundown of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

First Impressions

So the car was delivered to me on the Wednesday after the auction by the approved auction house contractor. Unfortunately, despite a phone call and a confirmation email they delivered the car to the wrong house, at the wrong time on an open lorry in the rain (JSK 404 currently has no roof). So not a good start but at least I had the car and it looked in good condition with the exception of soggy seats.

So what are my first impressions? Well, the car has an after market gear knob which made finding reverse gear interesting at the bottom of the cul-de-sac I live in (lift, over to the right and down for anyone interested).

Buying JSK 404

Although I had spent hours trawling the internet looking at cars, deciding to go to the Richard Edmonds Car Auction at Castle Coombe was something of a spur of the moment decision. I’ve never been to an auction before and I had no clue, apart from the occasional episode of Bargain Hunt, how an auction actually worked. Still, it can’t be that hard can it?