Hello Farina Club!

[Maya]

My name's Maya (username and real name ! ). I'm from Wolverhampton and just joined in this past week after finding you through Google. I bought my A40 scarcely a few weeks ago.



Valentina here (I thought Valentina the Farina was pretty catchy...) is a 1960 Mk1 saloon, but the eagle-eyed might spot the Mk2 bonnet. I don't know much about her past, but she seems to be a bit of a jumble of various parts. I suspect previous owners were trying to keep her on the road as long as possible without performing a full restoration. She even has Mk2 doors (winding windows!) and fibreglass front wings.

Believe it or not, she's my first car, and yes, she's more than twice as old as me! I've always loved classic cars and have been determined for a long time to own one, come what may. My dad and I are doing what's needed to get her back on the road, which is really helping teach me about maintenance, and then I'll be learning to drive in her.

If anyone knows more about Valentina's history (her original registration was 138 BOJ), do please let me know!

Regards!

[exlkrs]

Wow that's great! Everyone on here is most helpful you will find. Join the club too for access to the good and very useful half of the site!

[Dave the rave]

Maya is a member Chris

[austina40sam]

Welcome to the club. I'm a younger member with my mk2. Sadly the reg number is now on a 2016 Mercedes-Benz. Please ask for any help and feel free to tell us what you have been doing with the car. Sam

[Dave the rave]

Hi Maya, a real privilege to have you in our club. Like all classic car clubs, we need young members, you're our future, our lifeblood. We're all a bunch of decrepit old fogeys now, well, all except the old ones
( Likewise you too Sam..... Young sprog member that is ).
Keep us informed of you and your cars progress. ANYTHING you need to know..... JUST ASK, it'll probably be answered within the hour.

[Dave the rave]

Bumped back onto front page........

[Keith Bennett]

Welcome to our madhouse, Maya. I hope you, your dad and Valentina will make many happy memories together.

You may not know this, but the Mk 1 doors always had holes for window winders even though the mechanism was only fitted to the Mk 2s.

And one hint from another Mk 1 owner: make sure that the steering idler is kept lubricated, even though getting the semi-fluid grease into the tiny hole will soon send you mad (bad enough doing the blessed steering box itself!)

Actually, it looks like your new friend lives outside, so do ensure that her plenum chamber's two drain holes are kept clear. Use the search facility to find out more about this hidden rust trap and save yourself from a world of anguish!

[Maya]

Thank you for the welcome, everyone There are a few immediate issues I need to sort, so I'll definitely be perusing the forums!

And thanks for that advice, Keith. It's definitely something I didn't find in the Haynes manual!

My latest task has been trying to repair the under-dashboard tray. When I got the car, the tray was very tatty and held in place by just a single screw on the passenger side. I've had to resort to stapling it together, but it's on its last legs anyway!

[Dave the rave]

"but it's on its last legs anyway !"

They often are Maya. For me, a permanent solution would be to have one made from wood, or perhaps even fibre-glass.

[Keith Bennett]

I would't be in too much of a hurry to firm-up that shelf - you may need to access beneath the dashboard and a rarely-disturbed shelf can be a real pain to remove.

Another ps: unless really necessary, don't try removing the front and/or rear screens. The stainless-steel embellishers are very fragile and if you twist them during removal, you'll find it almost impossible to re-fit them satisfactorily. Ask me how I know...

If/when the time does come when the glass needs removing, carefully cut the rubber lips which hold the embellishers in place, and then just lift them away and store them somewhere safe until the time comes to re-fit them. (Don't worry about destroying the rubber seals - they wouldn't be re-usable anyway, and the Club holds stocks of new ones.)