A 1972 Vanden Plas Princess, Harvest Gold. Who would have thought that the most luxurious of cars could have had cover sills on? Well sadly it did. When we bought it the owner assured us that the car had genuine 1100/1300 sills fitted. And us being us we didn’t check so we bought the car. A few years later we found out that the car had cover sills fitted. So my Dad asked Roy Maskrey of RPM Workshops if he could do the sills at his workshops. Roy agreed to let Dad do that so Dad cracked on with the sills. After cutting one side off, Roy Maskrey took a picture of the sills, what a state! Whoever put these cover sills on ought to have their fingers cut off! Never, ever fit cover sills, the 1100 really doesn’t like them.

Anyway Dad finished the sills and they were painted to match the colour of the car. Only about a year later the car was sold to a man who lived in Rotherham (can’t remember full name). We only sold the car because Dad had seen an original 1300 GT, which was for sale. He had to sell his 1935 Morris 8 and the 1300 VDP to raise enough cash to buy the car. So off the car went to Rotherham where it stayed until this month when a man from Batley, Steven Heaton, bought the car and plans to run it everyday. From what we can gather the car had only covered 2000 miles in 3 years, mainly stood in a garage?

Memorable moment

We were holding a rally at Buxton, and it was time for us to go into the cafe and get a cup of tea and a nice bun!! Mum and I got out of the back, and locked the back doors, Mum was waiting to shut hers because Dad had asked her to lock his, so he wouldn't need to use the keys. She locked his door, and shut her own. It was only after she'd shut the door we realised that the keys were on top of the dashboard. Luckily, Malcolm Groves' keys (worn down) fitted our lock and so the keys could be got without breaking anything!

GHT with K-C.

Dad removing the cover sills to expose the dreaded ROT!!

The last picture of GHT, a few weeks later would be sold.