Ford Thames 300E The Little Black Van

 THE LITTLE BLACK VAN (LBV) - 991 XUY

Published in Ford Sidevalve News

We are now members of that most exclusive group, the FSOC, by virtue of our new purchase - the Little Black Van. A 1960 Thames 300E reg. no 991 XUY.

I had always wanted a Ford Pop. We have had a string of classics, but the hissing sound of a SV engine on a cold morning takes me back in a trice to my childhood in Liverpool. The few cars that lived in our street were invariably Ford Pops. My cousin had an E494A which he let me drive around a field. All the plumbers/carpenters/TV repair men etc. in the area had 300Es.

But getting 991 XUY was a bit of a convoluted process. I spotted the LBV last October for sale by Yorkshire Classics in an ad in Classic Car Weekly. The nice man there said it was ‘a good un’ and had been driven across the Pennines to Yorkshire by the last owner who lived in Lancashire. He intoned ‘Lancashire’ in the sort of whispered voice people reserve for the discussion of dangerous foreign countries.

But a lot of snow and tardiness by me meant that the van was sold before I could get up to see it.

In the spring we were up in Lancashire visiting family when I spotted a small ad for a Squire in Southport being sold by Dave Rothbury, who is a real SV nut. His ‘shed’ in the back garden has a four post lift and several wonderful old fords including his ‘chopped’ 100E run-around.

When we got to speak to Dave he had bad news. The Squire had been sold to a guy in Bournemouth. Dave had though taken in a nice black 300E van as a part swap - would we be interested in this? Was this the mystery black van that was in Yorkshire I asked? “By ‘eck it was!” said Dave “I used to own it, sold it to Yorkshire Classics. Drove it all the way there … across the Pennines [i.e. abroad] .. it never missed a beat. These old Fords are terrible to drive, awful really… but such great fun!” The Bournemouth buyer had loved the van but had really wanted to have a Squire. So when he saw Dave’s one up for sale he did a trade and Dave got the van back!

So the van had gone from Lancashire to Yorkshire to Bournemouth and back to Dave in Lancashire and “never missed a beat”. After such adventures we had to have this LBV. So we bought it and drove it all the way to our home in east London… and as expected it never missed a beat. It really is a good ‘un.

This particular van is unusual in that it had rear seats and side windows fitted at one time. Curiously the rear seat (which has Restall - Birmingham written on it) has matching covers to those on the front seats – how can that be?

 For working men, buying a van and converting it to a very basic estate for the family was an economical way of getting on the road. Commercial vehicles were exempt from the 50% Purchase Tax (PT) levied on cars – a big saving on the price tag of the saloon version of the Pop.  Many of these homemade estates were ‘dual purpose’ in that they were weekend family cars and weekday working vehicles.

Unfortunately, there were convoluted rules about PT. If caught trying this wheeze, new van buyers who converted their vehicles could be liable to pay the tax at once. But not later owners who bought in good faith.  The other downside was that if the vehicle was still classed as a van it was limited to 30 m.p.h - although not great a hardship as with no sound proofing or headlining driving fast in the LBV can be very noisy.

I found an interesting 1958 Car Mechanics article on fiddling  Purchase Tax at http://www.e83w.co.uk/carmechanics.htm

I remember these home-made estates very well. Ford 300E, Austin A30 and Morris Minor van conversions were all pretty common. I used to eavesdrop worried talk amongst my father’s friends about getting caught over this Purchase Tax dodge, but they all seemed to get away with it. I suspect they were doing lots of other small tradesman fiddles.

The picture below (coincidentally found on Flikr) shows the LBV with its windows and its previous Registration number – but at some point panels have been rewelded into the side window apertures and it got an age related plate. The LBV has done a believed genuine 37,000 miles. It may be that the ‘estate’ phase of its life meant it escaped the abuse most vans endured.  I found straw and bird droppings in the inner recesses of the van when I did some work on it – maybe some time in a barn helped preserve it too.

We often get stopped in the street by guys who remember the good old 300E. A very typical east ender (with typically bad language) came out of a local pub yesterday, interrupting my unloading, to tell me “I owned loads of these **!!@ vans in the 60s… we ran them into the ground. We made a **!!??@ fortune with them… I remember the time we had 4 navvies in the back, a cement mixer, six bags of sharp sand and the @@!!??** still kept going”.  OK, being in drink he may have slightly exaggerated the last claim. And Bill, a gentleman mechanic that runs Westgate Motors in Hackney (good on classics tel: 0207 241 1233) remembered the vans fondly – he and his father bred racing Greyhounds and used a 300E to transport dogs to the track. Big Greyhounds are not good at sitting down when travelling so the headroom was useful. There is no doubting the affection tradesmen held for these little workhorses.

And here is the van now. Sign writing is about to happen with the livery of my son in law’s HiFi business – which is kind of appropriate.

We are continuing to improve the van and plan to keep it as original as possible. They do seem rare now. We have attended the North London FSOC Group and could not have been made more welcome. The LBV will be at the Enfield Pageant on the FSOC stand over the May Bank Holiday.

If any FSOC members know the history of the LBV we would love to hear it. And maybe see you at some shows. Or you may see it still working, chugging around London delivering huge flat screen TVs and Home entertainment systems.