As an apprenticed mechanic in the 50's I worked on many of these small Ford cars in my spare time. I worked for a Jaguar/MG garage so the Fords, with their side valve engines, were simple by comparison. Sturdy, tough but rather gutless by today's standards, they were simple and cheap to maintain. The Anglia and Prefect were the modern Model Ts of the time, replacing the ubiquitous Ford 8 with welcome relief! Great little cars, fond memories.
They were replaced eventually by the Escort, which was my first car, but closer mechanically to these than the electronic, turbo charged behemoth I drive today.
My Grandfather had a 1958 100E Anglia. My memories of this car was steam coming out of the engine when it overheated and also been nearly catapulted through the windscreen, even though I was in the back seat, when he had to brake suddenly. There were no catches on the front passenger seat so it tipped forward with me on it!
Learned to drive in one in 1960, going from 2nd to 1st gear was fun ! ! Bought the van version about the same time, loved how the wipers stopped when going uphill in the rain.
I think that there was some kind of expansion tank fitted to that vacuum wiper system that regulated the wiper speed. My father's (later my) Anglia never had that problem and the wipers maintained the same speed uphill and downhill.
Keith: they were activated by a system which created the vacuum via the air intake to the carb meaning the wider the throttle the less air to create the vacuum hence uphill you were lucky if they wiped once in a minute, happy days.
@@chrisgee5893 Quite correct but the system was fitted with an expansion tank that acted as a regulator; like a capacitor in an electronic circuit. The 100E that my father, then I owned had no problems with the wipers, which maintained a steady but slow speed under all driving conditions. I would guess that the faulty ones that slowed down or stopped going uphill and sped up over the summit had leaky expansion tanks.
In the late 1960's I helped several friends convert 100E Anglias, Prefects, and Populars to Kent OHV power, the component that made it a doddle being the 107E engine crossmember. Most were built with pre-crossflow units; one a 1200, a couple of 1,340s, a couple of 1,500's and one a 1,760cc, a 1,600 block bored to 85.00mm and skimmed down to suit flat-top pistons and fitted with a 1500GT non-crossflow cylinder head.
Bought my first car in 1966 for £15 and it was a 1953 Ford Anglia E494A with running boards. Gutless 3 speed with flip-up indicators and ultra narrow tyres that were perfect for going on two wheels around a bend. Took it out of gear going down hill and put it back in gear rolling at 55 mph and blew the engine up.The recklessness and fun of a 17 years old! I moved on to a 4 door powder blue 100E prefect but unfortunately Ford had forgotten to move on. We can reminisce but my goodness the cars back then were basic and unreliable. There were more RAC and AA vehicles on the road than police cars. Noisy, bumpy, uncomfortable,poor heaters and wipers, misty windscreens etc but you were more connected with the car and there was not the traffic so it was more enjoyable to drive.
As a child I was fascinated by the vacuum wipers how my dad tried to control them slow going up hill then use to really speed up going down. The 100e he had just had three forward gears. Such memories
I had 2 of these one in 1963 and one in 1967. Drove all the way to Spain and back in 1967. They rusted badly but were very good cheapo motoring I remember I bought them both for less than 200 pounds each. 3 speed box was a pain but old side valve engine basic but reliable
i love those boxy little cars with trunk and front about the same length . Fiat , Datsun(Nissan) and others got even more boxy and rectangular in the late 60's through 1970s . i'm a bauhaus school of design freak . bought a used 1973 Datsun 510 4 door in the mid 1980s . Great engine, suspension and roomy inside . one of my favorite cars i ever owned
Oh the memories. My first cars were all small English Fords (3 x 1930s and a 105E estate when I moved to Australia) and the brand has been my favourite ever since.
Great film. As a young man in the early 70s, I bought a four door Prefect for the sum of £10. It was in excellent condition and being a trainee mechanic, it was simple to maintain. I've owned more Fords than any other make since then.
I had one. Maximum speed was about 62mph. Tiny engine, I doubt the 5 up big people would have liked their trip much. But it got my wife and I started. We took it to Marseilles when we decided to live there.
I bought a prefect in 1973,it was the same age as me! I paid £50 for it which was about two months wages. It was a great way to practice driving as I lived on a 300 acre farm. The thing I loved was I could get it on 2 wheels if I cornered flat out. In second gear! Happy memories. Rip SYL 248
Wonderful! My first car was a 1960 Popular (the later “poor man’s” version of these 100Es). Thought it was the dog’s proverbials - 0 to 60 if you were going downhill (otherwise about 55 if you were lucky), no synchromesh on first gear so effectively you only had 2 forward gears (3 speed box) especially since first was so low geared it only took you to about 5mph, vacuum wipers which stopped when the engine was labouring (most of the time), servicing every 1000 miles, oil consumption about the same as the petrol consumption, boot accessed by an Allen key stored in the glove compartment, the wallowing pseudo-American road handling that characterised all the 1950s and 60s Fords, and seats that wouldn’t have supported the average 5 year old. A different age, a different world. Thanks to whoever posted this piece of real nostalgia
@Tom Begg. You're showing your age there Tom, me too, i remember all these models back when i was a teenager, in Westport New Zealand. I'm 80 on May 30 this year. I drive an American Dodge Journey Station Wagon V6 Automatic, lovely powerful car, these days. God bless you Tom. Bob Wilson, NZ.
You nailed it Tom. My 1958 Anglia was my second car. I had forgotten that first gear was not synchromesh. At age 17 I was itching to race anyone in high school so I had a body shop stamp-cut Louvers in the bonnet. If I had taken better care of that car it might still be around today, ha ha.
When I was learning to drive in an escort, I kept pulling away in second gear. The instructor was not amused. Then jumping into my Prefect I’d be selecting reverse each time. Happy days.
Glpi lpi, you took the words out of my mouth. The antiquated side valve engine and 3 speed gearbox were out of the ark. The car was built on the cheap, and compared to the BMC cars with their lively OHV engines and 4 speed boxes, it was a museum piece. Even in this film you can see that it doesn't take 3 passengers in the back comfortably despite the blurb. The only saving grace was the suspension, which was a big improvement over the transverse leaf springs of earlier Fords.
@@michaeltb1358 Probably the most reliable small car was the Morris Minor. It was streets ahead of the Ford 100E especially after it acquired the A series OHV Austin engine. The 100E was reliable but it's SV engine and 3 speed box made it technically antiquated. I got to drive a 100E belonging to a friend and the box was its worst feature. It felt like a car with a gear missing. I owned a Morris Minor with the 803cc A series engine which I bought for £25, and although old at the time, it was in lovely condition and a joy to drive with its rack and pinion steering, 4 speed box and great road holding for its time. Ford did eventually catch up with the far better 105E Anglia. Later I had a Mk. 2 Zephyr 6, Mk.3 Zephyr 4, and eventually a brand new Fiesta. The Fiesta was a brilliant car, best seller at the time and with the lowest depreciation of all. I sold it to a private buyer at 4 years old with 24,000 on the clock and at just £400 less than its new price of £2,100.
I had a 1959 107E Prefect. Great little car early in my married life. However, things move one and needs change. I now have reverted back and have a 1961 four door Ford Consul 315 with a 1340 engine. Great little car!
Learned to drive in a 105E Prefect, built like a tank. The wipers were vacuum operated which meant they stopped working when decelerating! Had their charm, we put a Ford Cortina engine in ours and made it go faster. Big difference. As for room, we called it a 4-saloon door! Not enough room for a leg over in the back seat. Glad to get rid of it in the end.
the great thing with these cars that the young motorists of today will never have, is the experience of learning to repair these cars working out how they worked and the satisfaction of making the car better than is was.
@@thomaspridmore106 Me too, but my FIRST car was a '58 Ford Zephyr with 3-speed manual AND GAS heater! Was a fun car to drive. However, the British "alloys" back then could NOT stand our sub-zero cold in Minnesota. Turn signal lever snapped off one day in January as did the passenger side vent window handle! Traded the Zephyr on a '58 Studebaker "Silver Hawk", MUCH, MUCH better steel and alloys! It's no reflection on our British friends, they did the BEST they could with what they had after the HORRIFIC WAR they suffered! CHEERS!
SYL 214, i have never forgotten the number of mine, like a lot of people with your very first vehicle,i just loved it , simple cars to work on and reasonably comfortable.Mine was blue and white, and the lat time i ever saw it was in the car park of the Odeon morden surrey driven by some young hooligan, who had no respect for it whatsoever,It was in some state, not been looked after at all so sad to see it,Actually i would not mind buying another one today.
@peter ryan, from 1976 to 1980 I owned OCT 623, bought it for £125, sold it to a scrapyard for £125! No doubt it was the number plate that he wanted. Two years ago it came up on the listings, I HAD to have it, needless to say it cost an arm and a leg and is now on retention. In 46 years of motoring I have owned 5 cars, all Fords. Fix Or Repair Daily probably but I wish I still had that MK2 Escort! Happy days.
@@tonyfranks9551 That's very curious to me did you also live in the London area,i just assume that's why we both had Syl and way merry Christmas, and thanks for your reply,I loved my little perfect.I drive a honda jazz today,
@@peterryan7827 Yep...I lived in Worcester Park and bought it from a friend in Cheam. I now live in Vancouver and have had many cars but the Prefect has great memories.
@@tonyfranks9551 Thanks so much for your replys ,vancouver yes just a little further than i have moved ,from morden,we now live in newark notts ,have agreat xmas and many many thanks bfn peter .
Used to race and rally them when they were new Known as the 100e Anglia they were OK for the money and after fitting decent rear shockers could hold a perfect 4 wheel drift at Woodcote Silverstone What comment I can make is the top hose shown as in this film used to split along its moulding, dumping water and putting out the fire as one might say. This was replaced later with a casting and normal rubber pipe at a later date.
Remember when finishing my Apprenticeship as a Motor Mechanic about 1960 , A Ford factory rebuilt engine for these,complete with spark plugs clutch and I think water pump , cost 28 pounds !! Those were the good old days Reply to Golo on my wage at the time as an apprentice about 8 Weeks , as a time served mechanic about 3 weeks
My very first car was a 1958 light blue Ford 100E (some called it an English Ford Anglia). I loved that little car and wish there had been a way to keep it but when I went into the military I had to sell it. Now, here in the US, they are extremely hard to find.
The wipers were fine, until you put your foot down to overtake, then they stopped completely. I replaced min with the wiper motor from an A60 and the wheel boxes from a mini.
Nice cars that looked modern , but they used a sidevalve flathead engine that had its origins in the 1930s to save costs and a three speed gearbox . They rusted quite badly after a few years and the front suspension and steering used to wear . But it's good points were low costs to purchase and lots of room inside .
I passed my test in one in 1958 when it was called the Popular. I still double declutch - necessary if going down to 1st. Morris Minors were much superior.
The '50s British cars used a lot of cheap steel and "pot metal" which would break in the sub-zero temperatures. I bought a '58 Ford Zephyr new and in the first Minnesota winter, the turn signal lever snapped off along with the passenger side window vent handle. We traded it in '58 on a Studebaker Silver Hawk, which DID NOT break! The Zephyr was a fun car to drive and looked liked a '55 Thunderbird, but that steel, OMG!
A Ford 100E Anglia! My first (four wheeled) car! Had to weld up the lower offside wing at the rear with a steel patch, cut and panel beat and brazed in place, filler and sand to shape and spray it in beige to match. Windscreen wipers were a worry, pneumatically driven BUT the vacuum tank wasn't big enough so passing a lorry chucking up a spray in the wet meant letting off the throttle two or three times whilst in the outside lane to get a desperate wipe to see where you were going. Had a spare second hand Lucas ELECTRIC wiper from my Berkeley T60 spares. So pull the Anglia's "suck suck" mechanism out from under the dash, head scratching design work, cut and gas weld up the frame, wire it in with a toggle switch on the facia. Wait for the rain! The sheer luxury of flicking a switch to get constant speed wipers independent of engine revs. that allowed you to pass lorries in the wet with impunity! Well, as much as a 1,000cc side valved 4 cylinder'd engine could manage anyway. Happy days!
Several people have commented that Fords were rust buckets , as I remember ALL cars at that time rusted like hell , some people have selective memories .
My dad had a green/cream two tone prefect in the early sixties - RLF 433 - funny how you remember these things from way back but can’t remember what you came upstairs for?😁
I want a Ford 100E after watching this. look at that glove compartment, name me a modern production model that can fit so much shit in the glove compartment, Plenty of space for all my CD's, my sat nav, window cleaning cloth, ice scraper and all the other junk i carry in my passenger compartment daily. Also look at that face, it reminds me of the old S trains of Copenhagen with those headlights, it looks cute and a bit sexy at the same time. Yet it is also modest and elegant.
You haven't driven one. The "out of the ark" side valve engine couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, and the 3 speed gear box was like a 4 speed gear box with a gear missing. All of its competitors had an OHV engine and 4 speed gear box, making them faster and more economical. After the 105E Anglia was launched, the Prefect continued in production for a while with the new engine and gear box from the new model, making it the car it always should have been, designated the 107E Prefect. That is the one to buy if you want a car which can keep up with traffic and doesn't bankrupt you at the pumps.
@@Replevideo Quite right, the only other sensible option is an engine and gearbox transplant from something later. Not an impossible job by any means, judging by the numbers of Pinto and even Zetec transplants seen on some of these nowadays.
@@paulbennell3313 Yes, you could probably fit the 105E Kent engine and gearbox using mounting brackets from the late model Prefect, and probably the prop shaft too. That would also make it possible to use 1300 and 1500 versions of the engine.
Don't forget the 107E. It looked like the 100E but had the running gear of the 105E Anglia i.e. Same engine and 4 speed gearbox and heater as standard. The grille was the vertical chrome slat grille. 100E's had the horizontal bar grille or square punched out grille.
Almost. The Prefect al;ways had the vertical chrome slat grille. The Anglia had the horizontal bar grille up to 1957, after which iy was replaced by the new mesh radiator grille.
Such a huge and modern jump forwards from the models that preceded them. The old ones looked like something from the Al Capone era but were still on our streets in the 60s.
The Ford Prefect; my first car. Remember the three speed gearbox meant to overtake anything you had to blast past it in 2nd or take a run at it in 3rd.
Effectively only 2 gears as no synchro on 1st. In 1959 the Prefect got 4 gears. Was always a bit heavy on fuel given its small size. And the wipers, demister and heater were not much good either. But compared with the Ford Popular "noddy car" still being sold as late as 1959, it was quite ahead.
Remember the vacuum operated wipers? The faster you went & the heavier you pressed upon the accelerator pedal, the slower the wipers became until they just crept slowly across the screen! 🙈😂😂 The only way to clear the screen was to take your foot off the accelerator & let the engine idle to increase the vacuum in the inlet manifold 😂😂
I remember when Australia made everything to the highest world standards and we were self sufficient. Australians, like the British, were innovative and had ingenuity. We have been betrayed by corrupt politicians who only filled their own pockets and moved all our manufacturing off shore.
You are absolutely correct. In order to pay for all the things we no longer make ourselves, from underpants to power stations, we sell our homes, farms, mines and infrastructure to foreign buyers (mostly, but not exclusively, China). If we complain we are called xenophobic or racists!
I bought one of these for £17 in 1973, a bargain! It was so slow I couldn’t wait to sell it on. Fortunately a mate at work was selling his sunbeam rapier for £50, four speed with overdrive, it was like a spaceship in comparison.
Had a 100E Popular for 3 years. Rusted around the sills and wheel arches. The engines were cr*p, side valves. The big end bearings went. Had two replacement engines the second blew up. Steering joints always failed the MOT. Windscreen wipers ridiculous. Still it got us around until it got nicked!
A friend of mine had one, the windscreen wipers worked on pressure build up in the engine, so if it was raining, the faster you drive the slower they got, it meant slow motoring in a storm. In hindsight it sounds like a good safety feature by accident rather than design. Surprised health and safety haven’t come up with it on modern cars.
They worked on vacuum and were a disaster and stopped completely going up hill. Only three gears and no synchro on first . Add in the rust and they were utterly dreadful.
The wipers worked on vacuum not pressure. The vacuum tank was situated in a clamp fitted to the inner front wing, and connected to the inlet manifold via a small hose. The vacuum tank was far too small, and could not supply sufficient vacuum to operate the wipers adequately under different throttle openings.
@@cliffwheeler7357 Thanks for the info, I knew the engine was involved somewhere in the procedure but wasn’t sure how.Bearing in mind I lifted the bonnet of my car the other day and couldn’t even find the battery, I do look back and think how simple cars were back then, I did all my own repairs, couldn’t afford garage prices.
I bought my first car when I was 16 from a car dealer in Galleywood, it was a blue 1955 Ford Anglia 100E, 291FMD. My father drove it mostly, I drove it in fields, in car parks and old airfields until I was 17. The car was wonderful and such simplicity, such reliability, such quality. The only trouble I had was when I thought that German cars were high quality and bought a VW which had so much trouble and unreliability. Ford's are excellent.
My dad bought one new in the early '50s. Real quality control, the off-side 'Prefect' badge was upside down! My other lasting memory was, at the age of about six, having to regularly having to help give him a push start. Was this a common problem?
Hell we were evidently not alone in the 1970's kids with regular Ford pushing duty in our briefly owned Popular, relatives' Squire, our Thames van and many years of Cortina Mk1. All rubbish and I've never myself even consdered a Ford. Scarred for life !
From memory the starter motor bendix gear on most small Fords wore out fairly quickly. I used to run stock control in the parts department of a Ford dealer, and replacement bendixs were amongst our highest turnover parts. Ford only cured this fault when they finally adopted pre-engaged starters in the early 1970's.
I always remember being picked up by my head mistress in a ford prefect I still recall the smell of that car and the fact she always wore gloves The bigest memory was the wipers thay worked faster the slower the car went "vacume" How clever was that I also remember the long gear shift and how she always managed to crunch it at least 4 times on the journey Those were the days "NOT" !!!!!!!!!!!!
The trick down here in New Zealand back in the 70's was to stick 6cyl Zephyr or Holden engines in them, had to cut a fair size hole in the firewall to fit them, great fun to be had.
Hi I had a friend who had a Prefect. It was a nice looking car at the time. Ford lost out once the Mini came into production. My Mini in 1967 did over 100,000 miles . Unheard of at the time, Morris Minor, best out of the old Gold Seal ohc engine 40,000! The Mini changed for. Ever motor car design and production.
Instrumentation consisted of a speedometer, an ammeter and a fuel gauge. Warning of overheating consisted of steam rising from the bonnet !! Dad's 100E took us on family holidays from home in Kent to Essex, Dorset, Devon and the Isle of Wight.
My first car after passing my driving test. Side valve engine with 3 speed gearbox. Vacuum wipers that slowed down when you went faster and almost stopped going up hills. I really loved that car though.
100E Anglia, 157GDH. I remember it well. My father owned it in the sixties and I cut my teeth as a “mechanic” helping him keep it on the road. Hated the wipers though.
This has been a downward spiral that started in the 1960s, if not earlier. Britain is a wonderful country and has a lot to offer, but history will show that it was not large enough to support stand-alone shipbuilding, plane-building and car manufacturing industries in the late 20th Century, especially when crippled with the rot of poor labor-relations, bad management decisions, and at times, an unhelpful government. It's a shame but there are some bright spots: Britain currently does build a lot of cars, it's just that only a few are for domestic marques, and the country has a significant role in making vital aerospace components, specifically engines (RR) and Airbus (wings, landing gear, etc.) It's unclear how Brexit will change all of this, however. The Ford Prefect and Anglia of the early 1950s were the first new postwar models that were beginning to show some design optimism. While 'near luxury' is a term used more now than back then, the Prefect would have been fairly well equipped in 1950s Britain, even if sparsely finished by today's standards. Look carefully and you'll see some style added to the cabin dashboard, and the shape of the grille and headlight bezels. Compare this to cars right after WW2.
@paul austin Nonsens You did have Rolls-Royce Bentley Daimler Jaguar and many more and do not compare american cars of any type with Rolls-Royce from the 50s 60s 70s after that maybe
I also.remember my dad and his mate taking the enging out one morning and putting a recon in. By mid afternoon he was driving up the road in it for a test drive.
These never seemed to rot, unlike everything that Ford made afterwards.You couldn't give them away by the early seventies because they were so dull. When at a Ford main dealer in the eighties we had a customer who had kept hers since new, although it was shabby. She had a restoration done at our bodyshop and I dread to think what that must have cost.
VUL 789 was my one. Full of filler and a badly slipping clutch! But it had a special extra - a large vacuum reservoir for the wipers so they didn’t stop as soon as you put a load on the engine. But to be honest they weren’t good cars even then. Slow heavy on fuel vacuum wipers. The Morris minor was a better car. And they did make a four speed version at the end - the 107E Prefect had a 4 speed with the overhead valve engine that was later used in the 105E Anglia. It made it a much better car. Dual wipers were an improvement - the E93 sit up and beg Popular I had before it only had one and you had to operate each stroke manually! The back axle used to regularly come loose so one rear wheel stuck out the wheel arch and the other rubbed the body. Ahh dear dead days........!
They had wipers driven by vacuum, so when you were going uphill in heavy rain, the wipers just stopped working as the engine did not produce enough vacuum, they never mentioned that in the advert!.
A lot of people talking absolute rubbish about this car keeping up with traffic. It had an 1172cc side valve engine producing 36bhp. The Morris Minor had a 948cc OHV engine producing 35bhp. People who drove them and couldn't keep up with traffic clearly didn't know what they were doing and changed from 2nd to 3rd, which was really 4th, way too early. Rev them right up in 2nd and there was no problem at all. Great car but sadly Ford steel was utter crap.
I remember them, you had to decelerate to bring the speed up. Also if the rubber pipe perished it caused starting up problems. Of course we also had a starting handle in those days!
There have been a number of 100Es in our family since the early 1960s when my stepfather had a nearly new Popular. Actually the 100e is a car in a far more modern idiom than theMorris Minor. The Sidevalve and 3 speed gearbox let the car down as time went on but a very good car otherwise and attractively styled. My last had a pre-crossflow , 4 speed and 107e back axle . Plus I added electric wipers. Sold it in 2013 a very useable ‘classic ’. Would like another.
had one when in my teens, no syncro when changing down, wipers that if you were driving up a long hill would eventually stop lol, however lovely memories of a bye gone era of driving.
My first car was a 1960 100E Popular. After a while the gear box would throw the gear stick into neutral from 2nd. I learned how to hold it in gear with my knees. You don’t mention the Pop, but I feel sure that’s what it was called.
The gearbox was a failure, 40mph in second was thrashing the engine but only just high enough to keep accelerating in 3rd (top), no syncro on first and the syncro on second wore out quickly. The cylinder head was too thin and easily warped in warm weather. 1959 Anglia, my first car.
What all these former owners looking through rose tinted glasses are not mentioning is the dreaded vacuum windscreen wipers. This wonderful invention stopped working completely the whole time you were driving up a steep hill. As the engine was not powerful you could not see for a very long time. When you created the hill and came off the accelerator the stalled wipers would go berserk. Converting to over head valves. At the time you were very lucky to get 30 k miles for that new Ford engine. The gearbox had only 3 gears with no synchro on 1st. Under 'emergency braking' the rear passenger was thrown forward into the folding front passenger seat crushing both people! Oh yes great years!
As an apprenticed mechanic in the 50's I worked on many of these small Ford cars in my spare time. I worked for a Jaguar/MG garage so the Fords, with their side valve engines, were simple by comparison. Sturdy, tough but rather gutless by today's standards, they were simple and cheap to maintain. The Anglia and Prefect were the modern Model Ts of the time, replacing the ubiquitous Ford 8 with welcome relief! Great little cars, fond memories.
They were replaced eventually by the Escort, which was my first car, but closer mechanically to these than the electronic, turbo charged behemoth I drive today.
They make the Anglia and Prefect sound so good, I fancy ordering one right now.
If consumers didn't a toss what image the car had and instead wanted a small economical city car they would've still made these today.
Dont!
If you want to buy a Ford buy the replacement, a 105 e a great car. Especially with the later 1200 c c engine. That is the Harry potter car
My Grandfather had a 1958 100E Anglia. My memories of this car was steam coming out of the engine when it overheated and also been nearly catapulted through the windscreen, even though I was in the back seat, when he had to brake suddenly. There were no catches on the front passenger seat so it tipped forward with me on it!
My dad's first car was an Anglia bought in 1959! Mum learned to drive in it as well! Nostalgic memories.
Learned to drive in one in 1960, going from 2nd to 1st gear was fun ! ! Bought the van version about the same time, loved how the wipers stopped when going uphill in the rain.
I think that there was some kind of expansion tank fitted to that vacuum wiper system that regulated the wiper speed. My father's (later my) Anglia never had that problem and the wipers maintained the same speed uphill and downhill.
I remember well...
Keith: they were activated by a system which created the vacuum via the air intake to the carb meaning the wider the throttle the less air to create the vacuum hence uphill you were lucky if they wiped once in a minute, happy days.
@@chrisgee5893 Quite correct but the system was fitted with an expansion tank that acted as a regulator; like a capacitor in an electronic circuit. The 100E that my father, then I owned had no problems with the wipers, which maintained a steady but slow speed under all driving conditions. I would guess that the faulty ones that slowed down or stopped going uphill and sped up over the summit had leaky expansion tanks.
In the late 1960's I helped several friends convert 100E Anglias, Prefects, and Populars to Kent OHV power, the component that made it a doddle being the 107E engine crossmember. Most were built with pre-crossflow units; one a 1200, a couple of 1,340s, a couple of 1,500's and one a 1,760cc, a 1,600 block bored to 85.00mm and skimmed down to suit flat-top pistons and fitted with a 1500GT non-crossflow cylinder head.
In 1974 i owned this 100E Anglia having bought it for $50 in NZ. After this video I want it back again. Beautiful !Thanks mate !
Bought my first car in 1966 for £15 and it was a 1953 Ford Anglia E494A with running boards. Gutless 3 speed with flip-up indicators and ultra narrow tyres that were perfect for going on two wheels around a bend. Took it out of gear going down hill and put it back in gear rolling at 55 mph and blew the engine up.The recklessness and fun of a 17 years old! I moved on to a 4 door powder blue 100E prefect but unfortunately Ford had forgotten to move on. We can reminisce but my goodness the cars back then were basic and unreliable. There were more RAC and AA vehicles on the road than police cars. Noisy, bumpy, uncomfortable,poor heaters and wipers, misty windscreens etc but you were more connected with the car and there was not the traffic so it was more enjoyable to drive.
100E Prefect, drove one of these when I was 17.
Only car I have ever driven that the wipers stopped working when I accelerated.
As a child I was fascinated by the vacuum wipers how my dad tried to control them slow going up hill then use to really speed up going down. The 100e he had just had three forward gears. Such memories
My mate used to have one in the 60's, though he didn't like it when I used to pass him in my tuned up Austin A40...
@@jrgboy Going the other way?
@@Golo1949 His car was SSSOOO slow.
@@jrgboy good job they are not on the road today!!
Most pre war and post war Ford populars had gutless side valve engines with no water pump,hence no heater.
They were a great community builder as you always needed someone in the community or street to give you a push to start them
Yes! a simple knock on your neighbours stately home with sweeping driveway as depicted in this footage would bring them out to give you a push 😀.
Learnt to drive 60 years ago in a Lichen Green Ford Prefect 100E. One of the best cars I have ever had!
Learned to drive 63years ago in a '58 EnFoMoCo Zephyr. A fun and sharp looking, but the materials used left a LOT to be desired!
I had 2 of these one in 1963 and one in 1967. Drove all the way to Spain and back in 1967.
They rusted badly but were very good cheapo motoring I remember I bought them both for less than 200 pounds each.
3 speed box was a pain but old side valve engine basic but reliable
i love those boxy little cars with trunk and front about the same length . Fiat , Datsun(Nissan) and others got even more boxy and rectangular in the late 60's through 1970s . i'm a bauhaus school of design freak . bought a used 1973 Datsun 510 4 door in the mid 1980s . Great engine, suspension and roomy inside . one of my favorite cars i ever owned
Oh the memories. My first cars were all small English Fords (3 x 1930s and a 105E estate when I moved to Australia) and the brand has been my favourite ever since.
Great film. As a young man in the early 70s, I bought a four door Prefect for the sum of £10. It was in excellent condition and being a trainee mechanic, it was simple to maintain. I've owned more Fords than any other make since then.
I had one. Maximum speed was about 62mph. Tiny engine, I doubt the 5 up big people would have liked their trip much. But it got my wife and I started. We took it to Marseilles when we decided to live there.
I bought a prefect in 1973,it was the same age as me! I paid £50 for it which was about two months wages. It was a great way to practice driving as I lived on a 300 acre farm. The thing I loved was I could get it on 2 wheels if I cornered flat out. In second gear! Happy memories. Rip SYL 248
Wonderful! My first car was a 1960 Popular (the later “poor man’s” version of these 100Es). Thought it was the dog’s proverbials - 0 to 60 if you were going downhill (otherwise about 55 if you were lucky), no synchromesh on first gear so effectively you only had 2 forward gears (3 speed box) especially since first was so low geared it only took you to about 5mph, vacuum wipers which stopped when the engine was labouring (most of the time), servicing every 1000 miles, oil consumption about the same as the petrol consumption, boot accessed by an Allen key stored in the glove compartment, the wallowing pseudo-American road handling that characterised all the 1950s and 60s Fords, and seats that wouldn’t have supported the average 5 year old. A different age, a different world. Thanks to whoever posted this piece of real nostalgia
They were awesomely nasty cars.
@Tom Begg. You're showing your age there Tom, me too, i remember all these models back when i was a teenager, in Westport New Zealand. I'm 80 on May 30 this year. I drive an American Dodge Journey Station Wagon V6 Automatic, lovely powerful car, these days. God bless you Tom. Bob Wilson, NZ.
You nailed it Tom. My 1958 Anglia was my second car. I had forgotten that first gear was not synchromesh. At age 17 I was itching to race anyone in high school so I had a body shop stamp-cut Louvers in the bonnet. If I had taken better care of that car it might still be around today, ha ha.
When I was learning to drive in an escort, I kept pulling away in second gear. The instructor was not amused. Then jumping into my Prefect I’d be selecting reverse each time. Happy days.
Glpi lpi, you took the words out of my mouth. The antiquated side valve engine and 3 speed gearbox were out of the ark. The car was built on the cheap, and compared to the BMC cars with their lively OHV engines and 4 speed boxes, it was a museum piece. Even in this film you can see that it doesn't take 3 passengers in the back comfortably despite the blurb. The only saving grace was the suspension, which was a big improvement over the transverse leaf springs of earlier Fords.
Which company is still in business? Ford made cars which made a profit and were reliable and cheap to maintain.
@@michaeltb1358 Probably the most reliable small car was the Morris Minor. It was streets ahead of the Ford 100E especially after it acquired the A series OHV Austin engine. The 100E was reliable but it's SV engine and 3 speed box made it technically antiquated. I got to drive a 100E belonging to a friend and the box was its worst feature. It felt like a car with a gear missing. I owned a Morris Minor with the 803cc A series engine which I bought for £25, and although old at the time, it was in lovely condition and a joy to drive with its rack and pinion steering, 4 speed box and great road holding for its time. Ford did eventually catch up with the far better 105E Anglia. Later I had a Mk. 2 Zephyr 6, Mk.3 Zephyr 4, and eventually a brand new Fiesta. The Fiesta was a brilliant car, best seller at the time and with the lowest depreciation of all. I sold it to a private buyer at 4 years old with 24,000 on the clock and at just £400 less than its new price of £2,100.
I had a 1959 107E Prefect. Great little car early in my married life. However, things move one and needs change. I now have reverted back and have a 1961 four door Ford Consul 315 with a 1340 engine. Great little car!
Learned to drive in a 105E Prefect, built like a tank. The wipers were vacuum operated which meant they stopped working when decelerating!
Had their charm, we put a Ford Cortina engine in ours and made it go faster. Big difference.
As for room, we called it a 4-saloon door! Not enough room for a leg over in the back seat. Glad to get rid of it in the end.
the great thing with these cars that the young motorists of today will never have, is the experience of learning to repair these cars working out how they worked and the satisfaction of making the car better than is was.
How I wish we had the empty roads like they had back then; motoring would be a pleasure and not a chore.
Nowadays you have a lorry in front and a Audi or BMW try to overtake me at any cost.
Oh how I wish SOMEONE would hurry up and build that "way back" machine!
Yes first car 1962 roads empty no potholes ford prefect head lights on wings no indicators no power steering bad brakes crash gears loved it
@@thomaspridmore106 Me too, but my FIRST car was a '58 Ford Zephyr with 3-speed manual AND GAS heater! Was a fun car to drive. However, the British "alloys" back then could NOT stand our sub-zero cold in Minnesota. Turn signal lever snapped off one day in January as did the passenger side vent window handle! Traded the Zephyr on a '58 Studebaker "Silver Hawk", MUCH, MUCH better steel and alloys! It's no reflection on our British friends, they did the BEST they could with what they had after the HORRIFIC WAR they suffered! CHEERS!
Eric George
I seem to notice that the roads ARE pretty empty at the moment...😷👍🏻😷
My first car in 1968 was an Anglia, a 1959 model I paid £20 for. What a delight!😂
SYL 214, i have never forgotten the number of mine, like a lot of people with your very first vehicle,i just loved it , simple cars to work on and reasonably comfortable.Mine was blue and white, and the lat time i ever saw it was in the car park of the Odeon morden surrey driven by some young hooligan, who had no respect for it whatsoever,It was in some state, not been looked after at all so sad to see it,Actually i would not mind buying another one today.
@peter ryan, from 1976 to 1980 I owned OCT 623, bought it for £125, sold it to a scrapyard for £125! No doubt it was the number plate that he wanted. Two years ago it came up on the listings, I HAD to have it, needless to say it cost an arm and a leg and is now on retention. In 46 years of motoring I have owned 5 cars, all Fords. Fix Or Repair Daily probably but I wish I still had that MK2 Escort! Happy days.
Mine was SYL 454 a '54 Prefect bought in '65 for 60quid and sold in '68 for 4quid (with a new battery)....great memories...
@@tonyfranks9551 That's very curious to me did you also live in the London area,i just assume that's why we both had Syl and way merry Christmas, and thanks for your reply,I loved my little perfect.I drive a honda jazz today,
@@peterryan7827 Yep...I lived in Worcester Park and bought it from a friend in Cheam. I now live in Vancouver and have had many cars but the Prefect has great memories.
@@tonyfranks9551 Thanks so much for your replys ,vancouver yes just a little further than i have moved ,from morden,we now live in newark notts ,have agreat xmas and many many thanks bfn peter .
Used to race and rally them when they were new Known as the 100e Anglia they were OK for the money and after fitting decent rear shockers could hold a perfect 4 wheel drift at Woodcote Silverstone What comment I can make is the top hose shown as in this film used to split along its moulding, dumping water and putting out the fire as one might say. This was replaced later with a casting and normal rubber pipe at a later date.
Remember when finishing my Apprenticeship as a Motor Mechanic about 1960 , A Ford factory rebuilt engine for these,complete with spark plugs clutch and I think water pump , cost 28 pounds !! Those were the good old days
Reply to Golo on my wage at the time as an apprentice about 8 Weeks , as a time served mechanic about 3 weeks
But how many weeks wages would that be?
But £28 in 1960 would be the equivalent of £1,945 in 2021.
My very first car was a 1958 light blue Ford 100E (some called it an English Ford Anglia). I loved that little car and wish there had been a way to keep it but when I went into the military I had to sell it. Now, here in the US, they are extremely hard to find.
"It's Imported - It's Ford - It's yours for $1 a day!"
This video brought back memories of this car our family had in 1960s we enjoyed long journeys on it.
Great cars apart from the vacuum wipers I love these old films great channel 🙂👍🏻
Useless wipers in the rain, moved at a snails pace making it impossible to see...
@@jrgboy Especially going up hills.
Oh yes those wipers
The wipers were fine, until you put your foot down to overtake, then they stopped completely.
I replaced min with the wiper motor from an A60 and the wheel boxes from a mini.
I converted mine to electric. Got a motor from the scrapyard
Of All The Cars I've Owned Over The Years . None Will Touch My Ford Corsair (Mid Seventies).God Wish I Had It Now.
You must have had some junk, ha ha .
They were great cars , I never owned one, but drove a few in my time, the best being a pure white 2000E, gorgeous car.
My Uncle had a Corsair in 1968 loved it !
Nice cars that looked modern , but they used a sidevalve flathead engine that had its origins in the 1930s to save costs and a three speed gearbox . They rusted quite badly after a few years and the front suspension and steering used to wear . But it's good points were low costs to purchase and lots of room inside .
Not bad for a working class family like me and mine
I passed my test in one in 1958 when it was called the Popular. I still double declutch - necessary if going down to 1st. Morris Minors were much superior.
And those accursed vacuum wipers!
The '50s British cars used a lot of cheap steel and "pot metal" which would break in the sub-zero temperatures. I bought a '58 Ford Zephyr new and in the first Minnesota winter, the turn signal lever snapped off along with the passenger side window vent handle. We traded it in '58 on a Studebaker Silver Hawk, which DID NOT break! The Zephyr was a fun car to drive and looked liked a '55 Thunderbird, but that steel, OMG!
Yes could get engine for the price you pay for light bulb now
A Ford 100E Anglia! My first (four wheeled) car! Had to weld up the lower offside wing at the rear with a steel patch, cut and panel beat and brazed in place, filler and sand to shape and spray it in beige to match. Windscreen wipers were a worry, pneumatically driven BUT the vacuum tank wasn't big enough so passing a lorry chucking up a spray in the wet meant letting off the throttle two or three times whilst in the outside lane to get a desperate wipe to see where you were going. Had a spare second hand Lucas ELECTRIC wiper from my Berkeley T60 spares. So pull the Anglia's "suck suck" mechanism out from under the dash, head scratching design work, cut and gas weld up the frame, wire it in with a toggle switch on the facia. Wait for the rain! The sheer luxury of flicking a switch to get constant speed wipers independent of engine revs. that allowed you to pass lorries in the wet with impunity! Well, as much as a 1,000cc side valved 4 cylinder'd engine could manage anyway. Happy days!
My dad had both. He loved them.
Several people have commented that Fords were rust buckets , as I remember ALL cars at that time rusted like hell , some people have selective memories .
I had a VW and I had to drill a little hole in the back to let the water out that came in the front but only when it was raining....
the were ALL rust buckets...even the expensive brands.
Love my old Fords 100e and 107e
My dad had a green/cream two tone prefect in the early sixties - RLF 433 - funny how you remember these things from way back but can’t remember what you came upstairs for?😁
I want a Ford 100E after watching this. look at that glove compartment, name me a modern production model that can fit so much shit in the glove compartment, Plenty of space for all my CD's, my sat nav, window cleaning cloth, ice scraper and all the other junk i carry in my passenger compartment daily. Also look at that face, it reminds me of the old S trains of Copenhagen with those headlights, it looks cute and a bit sexy at the same time. Yet it is also modest and elegant.
You haven't driven one. The "out of the ark" side valve engine couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding, and the 3 speed gear box was like a 4 speed gear box with a gear missing. All of its competitors had an OHV engine and 4 speed gear box, making them faster and more economical. After the 105E Anglia was launched, the Prefect continued in production for a while with the new engine and gear box from the new model, making it the car it always should have been, designated the 107E Prefect. That is the one to buy if you want a car which can keep up with traffic and doesn't bankrupt you at the pumps.
@@Replevideo Quite right, the only other sensible option is an engine and gearbox transplant from something later. Not an impossible job by any means, judging by the numbers of Pinto and even Zetec transplants seen on some of these nowadays.
@@paulbennell3313 Yes, you could probably fit the 105E Kent engine and gearbox using mounting brackets from the late model Prefect, and probably the prop shaft too. That would also make it possible to use 1300 and 1500 versions of the engine.
I shoved a V6 Essex into one-ex Granada,splitter box from a trannie-too scary though.
I agree about the "cuteness", but if you're going to keep one in cold country be ready for things breaking, like ANY metal part!
Don't forget the 107E.
It looked like the 100E but had the running gear of the 105E Anglia i.e. Same engine and 4 speed gearbox and heater as standard. The grille was the vertical chrome slat grille.
100E's had the horizontal bar grille or square punched out grille.
Almost.
The Prefect al;ways had the vertical chrome slat grille. The Anglia had the horizontal bar grille up to 1957, after which iy was replaced by the new mesh radiator grille.
The engine crossmember from the 107E made converting a 100E to a Kent OHV engine really easy.
These films just wouldn't be the same without the narration of Mr. Cholmondeley-Warner.
I Bought a Ford Prefect 100 E years ago, Great Car. 👍
Such a huge and modern jump forwards from the models that preceded them. The old ones looked like something from the Al Capone era but were still on our streets in the 60s.
Love 💓 this Video from Australia 🇦🇺 .
I can always remember the sound of a big end going on my 100e
Or the 3 speed non syncro 1st gear, gearbox problems.
@@bazzab177 I had the 107e after which was much better car
@@arthurblundell6128 That was the 105 E engine and gearbox fitted to the 107, if my memory is correct. Good motoring days.
@@bazzab177 yes the Anglia engine in the ford prefect 4 speed box
Me too , I was showing off outside my girlfriends hairdressers when too much right foot blew the engine , it sounded like a tin full of nails
The Ford Prefect; my first car. Remember the three speed gearbox meant to overtake anything you had to blast past it in 2nd or take a run at it in 3rd.
Effectively only 2 gears as no synchro on 1st. In 1959 the Prefect got 4 gears. Was always a bit heavy on fuel given its small size. And the wipers, demister and heater were not much good either. But compared with the Ford Popular "noddy car" still being sold as late as 1959, it was quite ahead.
Remember the vacuum operated wipers? The faster you went & the heavier you pressed upon the accelerator pedal, the slower the wipers became until they just crept slowly across the screen! 🙈😂😂
The only way to clear the screen was to take your foot off the accelerator & let the engine idle to increase the vacuum in the inlet manifold 😂😂
I remember when Australia made everything to the highest world standards and we were self sufficient. Australians, like the British, were innovative and had ingenuity. We have been betrayed by corrupt politicians who only filled their own pockets and moved all our manufacturing off shore.
You are absolutely correct. In order to pay for all the things we no longer make ourselves, from underpants to power stations, we sell our homes, farms, mines and infrastructure to foreign buyers (mostly, but not exclusively, China). If we complain we are called xenophobic or racists!
We own nothing
@@thomaspridmore106 and will be happy
One of best car ever made of that time
My first car I think was 1964 a Ford Anglia 100E 1956, the vacuum driven windscreen wipers were a pain on a hill in heavy rain!
Try them in heavy snow on the M1 - I did !! Tried to get a Lucas electric replacement but by that time was no longer made - memories 👍😀
Mine a Popular 100e 204 AXL light blue over grey cost £16 in 1976. 3 speed, no syncro, sidevalve vacuum wipers. well made and thick steel
My first car in 1966 wish I had one now with seatbelts in.
I will never forget my dad's light blue ford popular - KTS 819 - will never forget the reg plate - we travelled everywhere in this lovely wee car :)
RRO 75, Was mine, first car I owned at 18, 75 now, more pudding than metal.
I bought one of these for £17 in 1973, a bargain! It was so slow I couldn’t wait to sell it on. Fortunately a mate at work was selling his sunbeam rapier for £50, four speed with overdrive, it was like a spaceship in comparison.
Had a 100E Popular for 3 years. Rusted around the sills and wheel arches. The engines were cr*p, side valves. The big end bearings went. Had two replacement engines the second blew up. Steering joints always failed the MOT. Windscreen wipers ridiculous. Still it got us around until it got nicked!
Love all those English cars! Simplistic practical form of transportation! Unpretentious!
A friend of mine had one, the windscreen wipers worked on pressure build up in the engine, so if it was raining, the faster you drive the slower they got, it meant slow motoring in a storm. In hindsight it sounds like a good safety feature by accident rather than design. Surprised health and safety haven’t come up with it on modern cars.
They worked on vacuum and were a disaster and stopped completely going up hill. Only three gears and no synchro on first . Add in the rust and they were utterly dreadful.
The wipers worked on vacuum not pressure. The vacuum tank was situated in a clamp fitted to the inner front wing, and connected to the inlet manifold via a small hose. The vacuum tank was far too small, and could not supply sufficient vacuum to operate the wipers adequately under different throttle openings.
@@cliffwheeler7357 Thanks for the info, I knew the engine was involved somewhere in the procedure but wasn’t sure how.Bearing in mind I lifted the bonnet of my car the other day and couldn’t even find the battery, I do look back and think how simple cars were back then, I did all my own repairs, couldn’t afford garage prices.
I bought my first car when I was 16 from a car dealer in Galleywood, it was a blue 1955 Ford Anglia 100E, 291FMD. My father drove it mostly, I drove it in fields, in car parks and old airfields until I was 17. The car was wonderful and such simplicity, such reliability, such quality. The only trouble I had was when I thought that German cars were high quality and bought a VW which had so much trouble and unreliability. Ford's are excellent.
My dad bought one new in the early '50s. Real quality control, the off-side 'Prefect' badge was upside down! My other lasting memory was, at the age of about six, having to regularly having to help give him a push start. Was this a common problem?
Hell we were evidently not alone in the 1970's kids with regular Ford pushing duty in our briefly owned Popular, relatives' Squire, our Thames van and many years of Cortina Mk1. All rubbish and I've never myself even consdered a Ford. Scarred for life !
With foreign cars? YES! Except Volkswagen Type 1!
From memory the starter motor bendix gear on most small Fords wore out fairly quickly. I used to run stock control in the parts department of a Ford dealer, and replacement bendixs were amongst our highest turnover parts. Ford only cured this fault when they finally adopted pre-engaged starters in the early 1970's.
Us rich folk like to spend our Sundays driving around out new Fords all over the well manicured lawn and gardens. ;)
while wearing gloves made from net curtains.
I always remember being picked up by my head mistress in a ford prefect I still recall the smell of that car and the fact she always wore gloves The bigest memory was the wipers thay worked faster the slower the car went "vacume" How clever was that I also remember the long gear shift and how she always managed to crunch it at least 4 times on the journey Those were the days "NOT" !!!!!!!!!!!!
The trick down here in New Zealand back in the 70's was to stick 6cyl Zephyr or Holden engines in them, had to cut a fair size hole in the firewall to fit them, great fun to be had.
Didn’t mention the side valve engine and three speed gearbox, plus the vacuum wipers that slowed the faster you went, I know I had three haha😊
Hi I had a friend who had a Prefect. It was a nice looking car at the time. Ford lost out once the Mini came into production.
My Mini in 1967 did over 100,000 miles . Unheard of at the time, Morris Minor, best out of the old Gold Seal ohc engine 40,000!
The Mini changed for. Ever motor car design and production.
Deceptively brilliant styling.
Instrumentation consisted of a speedometer, an ammeter and a fuel gauge. Warning of overheating consisted of steam rising from the bonnet !! Dad's 100E took us on family holidays from home in Kent to Essex, Dorset, Devon and the Isle of Wight.
Great film bing them back
My first car , Ford Anglia 100 e , three forward gears , plastics seats, the floor rusted out and then the engine blew up !!
Beautiful mansion with its gardens.
Had a few of these in our family, days out to North Wales took all day, lol
My first car after passing my driving test. Side valve engine with 3 speed gearbox. Vacuum wipers that slowed down when you went faster and almost stopped going up hills. I really loved that car though.
There was a Ford squire I used to drive same shape and years but not many have heard of it
100E Anglia, 157GDH. I remember it well. My father owned it in the sixties and I cut my teeth as a “mechanic” helping him keep it on the road. Hated the wipers though.
One had a Anglia 105 E, 1960s reg, colour sea blue, it went with a muscle muster, on the road.!
Sales pitch to gangsters at 12.50 . . the boots big enough to put a body in .
Brilliant response. Love it!
When Britain was a world leader in car, motorcycle, and shipbuilding....What happened to us, we are slowly going down the toilet.
yes with side valve engines and vacuum powered wipers. I do not think so.
This has been a downward spiral that started in the 1960s, if not earlier. Britain is a wonderful country and has a lot to offer, but history will show that it was not large enough to support stand-alone shipbuilding, plane-building and car manufacturing industries in the late 20th Century, especially when crippled with the rot of poor labor-relations, bad management decisions, and at times, an unhelpful government.
It's a shame but there are some bright spots: Britain currently does build a lot of cars, it's just that only a few are for domestic marques, and the country has a significant role in making vital aerospace components, specifically engines (RR) and Airbus (wings, landing gear, etc.) It's unclear how Brexit will change all of this, however.
The Ford Prefect and Anglia of the early 1950s were the first new postwar models that were beginning to show some design optimism. While 'near luxury' is a term used more now than back then, the Prefect would have been fairly well equipped in 1950s Britain, even if sparsely finished by today's standards. Look carefully and you'll see some style added to the cabin dashboard, and the shape of the grille and headlight bezels. Compare this to cars right after WW2.
Thanks to the EU (Germany) and our 5th column politicians for conning us into giving up our manufacturing....
Sadly yes your right mate.Brexit will repair it all though won,t it ha ha .
@paul austin
Nonsens You did have Rolls-Royce Bentley Daimler Jaguar and many more and do not compare american cars of any type with Rolls-Royce from the 50s 60s 70s after that maybe
I also.remember my dad and his mate taking the enging out one morning and putting a recon in. By mid afternoon he was driving up the road in it for a test drive.
Oh yes, they were so easy to work on.
These never seemed to rot, unlike everything that Ford made afterwards.You couldn't give them away by the early seventies because they were so dull. When at a Ford main dealer in the eighties we had a customer who had kept hers since new, although it was shabby. She had a restoration done at our bodyshop and I dread to think what that must have cost.
VUL 789 was my one. Full of filler and a badly slipping clutch! But it had a special extra - a large vacuum reservoir for the wipers so they didn’t stop as soon as you put a load on the engine. But to be honest they weren’t good cars even then. Slow heavy on fuel vacuum wipers. The Morris minor was a better car.
And they did make a four speed version at the end - the 107E Prefect had a 4 speed with the overhead valve engine that was later used in the 105E Anglia. It made it a much better car.
Dual wipers were an improvement - the E93 sit up and beg Popular I had before it only had one and you had to operate each stroke manually! The back axle used to regularly come loose so one rear wheel stuck out the wheel arch and the other rubbed the body. Ahh dear dead days........!
They had wipers driven by vacuum, so when you were going uphill in heavy rain, the wipers just stopped working as the engine did not produce enough vacuum, they never mentioned that in the advert!.
My first car was a 1958 Ford Prefect DeLuxe 100E side valve engine vacuum windscreen wipers bought by me in 1960 for the princely sum of £20
A lot of people talking absolute rubbish about this car keeping up with traffic. It had an 1172cc side valve engine producing 36bhp. The Morris Minor had a 948cc OHV engine producing 35bhp. People who drove them and couldn't keep up with traffic clearly didn't know what they were doing and changed from 2nd to 3rd, which was really 4th, way too early. Rev them right up in 2nd and there was no problem at all. Great car but sadly Ford steel was utter crap.
But it might have been quicker than a 1953 VW Beetle with a 30hp 1131cc engine.
I TOTALLY agree about the steel being crap. I owned a '58 Ford Zephyr that couldn't stand Minnesota Winter, metal pieces would break in sub-zero cold!
I remember the comedy wipers!
Good car of the time
Bought one in 1968 really solid and well made apart from those ****** wipers
I remember them, you had to decelerate to bring the speed up. Also if the rubber pipe perished it caused starting up problems. Of course we also had a starting handle in those days!
There have been a number of 100Es in our family since the early 1960s when my stepfather had a nearly new Popular. Actually the 100e is a car in a far more modern idiom than theMorris Minor. The Sidevalve and 3 speed gearbox let the car down as time went on but a very good car otherwise and attractively styled. My last had a pre-crossflow , 4 speed and 107e back axle . Plus I added electric wipers. Sold it in 2013 a very useable ‘classic ’. Would like another.
I love this car💖
had one when in my teens, no syncro when changing down, wipers that if you were driving up a long hill would eventually stop lol, however lovely memories of a bye gone era of driving.
And a bygone era of good manners too.
My first car reg 377 HTA piston rings snapped every time I went over 60 jacked it up one day jack ended.up inside the car great days
”Note the twin wipers” 😂
Great cars for the upper crust. Got hydraulic shock absorbers too, begad.
Learned to drive in the 105E Prefect.
My first car was a 1960 100E Popular. After a while the gear box would throw the gear stick into neutral from 2nd. I learned how to hold it in gear with my knees.
You don’t mention the Pop, but I feel sure that’s what it was called.
The gearbox was a failure, 40mph in second was thrashing the engine but only just high enough to keep accelerating in 3rd (top), no syncro on first and the syncro on second wore out quickly. The cylinder head was too thin and easily warped in warm weather. 1959 Anglia, my first car.
Those were the days, and an engine you can recognise.
What all these former owners looking through rose tinted glasses are not mentioning is the dreaded vacuum windscreen wipers. This wonderful invention stopped working completely the whole time you were driving up a steep hill. As the engine was not powerful you could not see for a very long time. When you created the hill and came off the accelerator the stalled wipers would go berserk. Converting to over head valves. At the time you were very lucky to get 30 k miles for that new Ford engine. The gearbox had only 3 gears with no synchro on 1st. Under 'emergency braking' the rear passenger was thrown forward into the folding front passenger seat crushing both people! Oh yes great years!
i own many i have the thames model two of them
3:13 holy shit , that is a massive parcel to stash under the dash board !
My father had a Prefect until it got destroyed by the storm of 1967 in Glasgow, chimney Landed on it.
Next was a Cortina mk1. 😁
Love ford my farther hade one here in kenya.
I think you may mean "father"?
@@anthonymorgan7479 English may have not been his/her first language. I think we all get what Onesmus was meaning.
My first car was the slant back window Anglia and it was very second hand to me the Kent motor was the best ever to come out of the Ford factory!!
... to sell them as premium light cars?