2012 barn find: 1935 Standard Ten

lip

lip

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2005
Messages
3,509
Location
Switzerland
Car(s)
Renault Twizy
If somebody gave this to you for free: Would you say no?
http://img694.imageshack.**/img694/3193/83061385.jpg

Yep, tought so. You say "Yes, of course", even if you have initially no idea what to do with it, or where to actually place it. And that's what we just did. "We" are a large second hand store , also moving households or doing complete removals.

This car belonged to a costumer of us. An old moldy barn full of rotten junk, a tiny but dry garage and a large house were already on her property when she bought it all a few years ago, but she only had interests in the house. The other stuff had to go someday. So finally she called us a few days ago to remove all the other crap. And there it was, inside a tiny garage which was barely larger than the car itself: A 1930's Standard, and two cardboard boxes with some more bits and pieces for it. All that's missing is the inside trim on all the doors and parts of the wooden dashboard. And as can be seen on the following pics, the floor probably did look a bit different when the car came out of the factory 80 years ago. :D

As in a agreement with our costumer I will not upload any photos from her property and hence from the day of the barnfind itself, but here are some photos from todays transport of the car from the temporary outside storing place we had nearby into our shop, for simple use as a display/eyecatcher. It will be there until someone is going to buy it as it is, or until we need the place for something else. There will be no grand restauration at all, just a bit of cleaning, bolting on some loose bits and getting some air into the tires.

http://img402.imageshack.**/img402/9562/20412896.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.**/img267/4402/14696564.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.**/img16/5634/12514085.jpg

http://img96.imageshack.**/img96/2508/25168249.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.**/img40/6535/18760966.jpg

Loading the car into our company truck again:
http://img528.imageshack.**/img528/5517/50838870.jpg

No problem with the steering, the handbrake works to, but quite some resistance from the one deflated tire:
http://img829.imageshack.**/img829/3204/20420657.jpg

But in it went, and here we are already at our shop entrance:
http://img585.imageshack.**/img585/1327/26645188.jpg

Slowly out again per pulley:
http://img842.imageshack.**/img842/5135/93447025.jpg

The shop entrance was juuust wide enough:
http://img820.imageshack.**/img820/4162/98565269.jpg

Almost in:
http://img542.imageshack.**/img542/9765/97822936.jpg

Tadaa! :D - Not its final place, but it's in atleast:
http://img69.imageshack.**/img69/4994/84715337.jpg

As said, we have no real plans what to do with it other than to just have it there in our shop. Sure we are going to bolt the pieces out of the cardboard boxes onto the car again (the side running boards, the spare front light, etcetera) and are going to clean it up a bit but that's about it for the moment. By the way, yes there is an engine under the hood, but we are going to leave our hands off it. I can post pics of it if somebody is interested.

There are no papers at all and we have no further information about the car or it's former owners before our mentioned costumer, all we have is just the car and its (I assume) orginal UK numberplates. - I think some Brit here on Finalgear can probably tell from those plates when the car was last registered? - And for sure any more knowledge about the car would be appreciated. - And don't forget: It's for sale. I have no idea what to demand for it at the moment tough. :D

A barn find. So very random. :D
 
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A most excellent barnfind! The plates are indeed English and say that the car was first registered in the Chelmsford, Essex area. (This is the 'VX' part of the plate). This car is older than number plate age identifiers, which makes determining the year a little harder. However, I do know some people who have books which say at what date the numbers became used up, allowing for an approximation to be made. So I'll look into that for you! Unsurprisingly, the car is not currently on DVLA records.

Also, this reminds me I need to post up my own barnfind! Not as impressive, just a Hillman Minx.
hill2.jpg
 
Wow lip, what an excellent find! :thumbsup:

It does make you wonder just what was the history of the car and how it ended up in a barn in Switzerland. When WW2 started in 1939 petrol was severely rationed, thousands of car like this one were parked up in garages and barns in the UK and left for years. Some never to enmerge for decades.



Andeh said:
A most excellent barnfind! The plates are indeed English and say that the car was first registered in the Chelmsford, Essex area. (This is the 'VX' part of the plate). This car is older than number plate age identifiers, which makes determining the year a little harder. However, I do know some people who have books which say at what date the numbers became used up, allowing for an approximation to be made. So I'll look into that for you! Unsurprisingly, the car is not currently on DVLA records.
Click to expand...

I didn't know you could look up registrations so quickly, good sleuthing dude and it would be interesting to find out anything more about this car.
 
The fact it is on UK plates and is in such good condition for it's age suggest it was taken over to Switzerland, probably as a light resto project which was never completed for whatever reason and so was never registered abroad. Also explains why some parts have been dismantled, I'd not imagine it's been off the road for too long (1990s perhaps) as even in a decent garage the untreated steel these are built with will rust.
 
captain_70s said:
The fact it is on UK plates and is in such good condition for it's age suggest it was taken over to Switzerland, probably as a light resto project which was never completed for whatever reason and so was never registered abroad. Also explains why some parts have been dismantled, I'd not imagine it's been off the road for too long (1990s perhaps) as even in a decent garage the untreated steel these are built with will rust.
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I'd tend to agree, but I imagine the DVLA online tool should have record of it if it was on the road in the last twenty years or so. (For example my old moped, last on the road in the mid 80s is on that website) I think it could have been around much longer. Then again, this is the DVLA we're talking about, hardly the world's most organised system...

Also, that link answers your question Heathrow, and regarding the regional identifier, that's just me being nerdy. :lol:
 
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So pretty! Awesome find.

I an curious as to how it sounds when it runs (if you can get it in running condition), but that's still cool.
 
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I forgot to mention, despite not being on the computerised DVLA database, they may still have something paper-based lingering around, or something that isn't on the publicly accessibly database. For a ?5 (cheque!?!) you can request information on the previous owners of your vehicle. However, this may be difficult as you don't have a V5 or any proof to the DVLA that you now own it. Regardless, might be worth a try!
 
Thanks for all the info so far.

Surprise today: Some paper has turned up! Awesome! - Ok, it's not much, just the "Registration Book", which is a bit of a grand title for basicly a flyer with a few stamps. :D...
http://img6.imageshack.**/img6/2893/5dsc08661.jpg

But anyway, with this we now know the car was built (as guessed) in 1935, went on the road in the UK in 1936, and was driven there until 1967. Around then (or some time later) it came into Switzerland, but as Andeh said, it was probably never registred and on the road here. Just some restoring project for decades that did some basics, but never went too far.
http://img805.imageshack.**/img805/4788/6dsc08662.jpg

We also got three pics from the car's heydays back in Blighty. Two b/w orginal shots:
http://img201.imageshack.**/img201/5243/81344537.jpg

And this coloured one, but this looks more lika a "modern" 1970 or 80's copy made from an older diapositive:
http://img822.imageshack.**/img822/1899/23555637.jpg

Anyway, meanwhile our staff has already half buried the poor green sod in the usual daily income of rummage our store is famous for, and as said this shouldn't be it's final place inside the store, but hey, that's the moment.
http://img163.imageshack.**/img163/1395/17960033.jpg

And here's a shot from the engine bay, so far still uncleaned in there. (As can be seen some lines do look quite newish, so some restauration has been going on in recent times.)
http://img440.imageshack.**/img440/6835/74596829.jpg
 
You have provenance & ehpemera, as they say on the "Antiques Roadshow". :lol:

That Registration Book means you could sell via some classic car, internet auction, especially with the old photos as well.

OK, so it's not a Bugatti worth $millions, but still may be worth more to you doing that, than a regular, random customer in the shop, who likes old cars.

:cool:
 
Nice find indeed!
 
Ha! Finally! Sold it for 7000.- Sfr. to a local chap. I included the delivery for free (hehe). I have to deliver it at the end of next week.
The buyer has visited the shop numerous times during the last few days according to staff. Finally yesterday he went straight for the car. :D

He will do the car up at least to presentable display status, and he has already made contact to a saddlery business so they will have a go at the interiour.
 
As far as I understood his general plan is to bring the car back onto the road someday. - For sure he has already arranged to give it to the professionals for a complete chassis and interiour restauration, but he clearly hasn't decided yet what to do with the engine and transmission.
 
lip said:
Ha! Finally! Sold it for 7000.- Sfr. to a local chap. I included the delivery for free (hehe). I have to deliver it at the end of next week.
The buyer has visited the shop numerous times during the last few days according to staff. Finally yesterday he went straight for the car. :D

He will do the car up at least to presentable display status, and he has already made contact to a saddlery business so they will have a go at the interiour.
Click to expand...

Well done! Good price and he will probably have to pay out 1000s more to restore and rebuild.

So, a Bugatti next time lip? :lol:
 
In Liechtenstein 5000? is a very different sum as 5000 are in the UK. - It's not very much compared to the average income and cost of living. :lol:
 
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