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Since John Berry kindly provided the photograph of a Bailey/Buckland works outing, I have had an email from one of the subjects. Gordon Shepherd, now 75, identified himself at the rear of the shot. “I was about the youngest one there”, explained Gordon. “I was helping with the upholstery on the grand wage of £2-10 shillings per week. All the leather hides Ernie used to keep in the loft of his house in Buckland. I think we used to turn out about one car a week”.

Gordon wonders if there are any other employees still around that used to work at the Buckland Body Works. If you can put a name to a face then we’d love to hear from you.

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What better way to spend a sunny Sunday than beneath the AC? I’d planned to remove the gearbox for a while but finally got round to it today. Undoing the nuts on the studs through the rubber mounts meant that the ‘box could be jacked up and slid back through the car.

There was even enough time to glue and screw in place another new wood section – this time an upright that makes up the a-post.

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John Berry recently wrote to me with a potted history of his association with the Bailey family. John was Harold Day’s nephew and his stepfather was a man by the name of Leslie Dillon. Dillon was employed by Bill Bailey – the father of Ernie Bailey who ran the Buckland Body Works in Hertfordshire. Both Bill Bailey and Harold Day owned businesses in Covent Garden which, presumably, is how the association between Day and the Buckland came about.

John kindly sent me the above picture which shows a Bailey river outing. Ernie Bailey and his wife are at the front of the photograph and John Berry’s mother and stepfather are two rows behind. Presumably the rest of the passengers are employees of both the body works and Bailey Snr’s Covent Garden business.

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Last year I was lucky enough to have a set of used pistons and a near-complete set of used liners donated to the project by David Rix. David runs the two AC Bucklands that are used as taxis at the Goodwood Revival and brought one of the cars along to our show in October.

The plan was to clean up the liners and pistons that he generously donated as well as those taken from our original block and make the best set we could from the two. Closer examination has revealed that the pistons taken from the car are stamped ‘+20′, whereas those from David are marked ‘standard’. It may well turn out that we try and find a flat-top piston match from another vehicle type and then bore all of the steel liners to suit.

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What to do on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon? Knuckle down and make progress on the AC, that’s what. I finally finished stripping out the tangle of electrics from the engine bay in preparation for soda-blasting the aluminium bulkhead – that will give me a good clean surface ready to accept overhauled fuseboxes and a new loom.

With everything else out of the way, it gave me a chance to locate the original clips which retain the starting handle on the bulkhead; it also provided me with an excuse to clean up the car’s identification plate. Interesting to note that the original engine number has been scratched out and replaced with another. According to his daughter, Harold Day transferred the engine from his previous Buckland into PAR 419 as he was extremely happy with the set up he had been running.

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One of the best finds for the Buckland was the discovery of the original buff-coloured logbook. It certainly helped with retaining the registration number and made dealings with the DVLA a little easier.

I have made contact with all of the owners or a member of their families with the exception of Ronald G Southgate, the third registered keeper. If anyone can help trace him or his family then that would be fantastic. I have pixelated the addresses and signatures for security reasons, but when he owned PAR 419 (1963-’66), he was based in Putney, London.

The logbook also documents the change of engine which I believe was carried out in Harold’s ownership.

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First job on the bulkhead was to remove the odd battery box. Constructed from four pieces of wood and a couple of shelf brackets, it certainly isn’t an original fitment! I need to research how the batteries were retained on the cars when new, but that shouldn’t pose a problem.

As you can see from the photographs below, the original glass fuel filter is a wonderful period fitment, but the fuel still inside certainly looks past it’s best. The coil is also a lovely looking item once cleaned up and it would be great to test it and see if it still functions as designed.

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… and as the weather gets a little warmer (on the occasional day), work has resumed on the AC Buckland.

The engine bay, or more the bulkead, has been crying out for attention for some time now and so after taking reference photographs, the stripdown has begun.

Lots of penetrating spray and elbow grease finally meant that the home-made battery box (four pieces of wood and two shelf brackets!), has been removed, and the throttle rod has begun to free up a little. The fuel filter and lines are out, and next will be the fuse box, wiper motor etc.

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Welcome to the website about PAR 419 – a 1952 AC Buckland.

Documents and photographs suggest that this car was the first AC to compete at the famous Goodwood Motor Circuit.

In 2007, I took on the restoration of this fabulous car after it had sat in a Hertfordshire garage for more than three decades. At the time I had no idea what history the car held, but a lot of investigation has revealed some marvelous tales and led me to meet some very interesting people. I hope you enjoy reading about these adventures and joining me as I aim to bring PAR 419 back to the track.

Kind regards
Martin Port