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[annihilator]

With hindsight would have been a lot easier and could have reformed the chain link.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Well spotted Lizzie impressive eye for detail, it is indeed a Mk2



John 

If only you lived closer John, I would be asking to come around for a nose / drive!

She really does look good, and yes the Mk2 is one I would no doubt had transpired to if I hadn't been blessed with company cars after my Mk1.  They are such a joy to drive, even with mine that was a real "rust bucket" all over (cars didn't last as long then as they do now)|  Great "first car", even now in 2017.

Any chance of pictures of the interior John to really "take me back to when"?

[Lizzie Zoom]

Think it was the larger Austins a50/a60 that had column change.
John.

Yes, the Austin Westminster's certainly had column gear changes, with bench seats at the front, just like big cars under the Austin, Morris, and Humber badges, to name a few.

[annihilator]

Here u go Lizzie 



and it's not been round the clock so nice low mileage and only 2 previous father/son owners.
John.

[Kevin Wood]

They don't make 'em like that any more.

[Bigron]

Nice aftermarket binnacle and I so well recall that panoramic speedo!
Mine had a habit of jumping out of second gear and needed holding in most of the time. Anyone else experience that?

Ron.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Here u go Lizzie 



and it's not been round the clock so nice low mileage and only 2 previous father/son owners.
John.

Thanks John!

My Mk1 was far more basic than that, but I could be quite at home in that drivers seat!

[Lizzie Zoom]

Nice aftermarket binnacle and I so well recall that panoramic speedo!
Mine had a habit of jumping out of second gear and needed holding in most of the time. Anyone else experience that?

Ron.

No Ron, as my problem was getting it into gear with me having to so often double de-clutch as the clutch was knackered!   I well remember the day I was driving back from Tunbridge Wells up the Tonbridge bypass in a rain storm, going up hill, with water coming in under the passengers feet and the clutch slipping so badly the wind was actually pushing us back to 30 mph, but the engine was racing!!  Oh what memories, what fun!

[Bigron]

Oh, and there was I thinking that there wasn't so much to go wrong back then, Lizzie! 

Ron.

[Lizzie Zoom]

Oh, and there was I thinking that there wasn't so much to go wrong back then, Lizzie! 

Ron.

    One of my first learner mechanic jobs was replacing 2 valves.  The car had blown them with big chunks out of the rims, a fact I found out when going up a big hill in Kent at about 2300 when clouds of blue smoke came out of the tail pipe and I shuddered to a halt.  Then the handbrake would hold the car and I started to go backwards down the hill until I steered into an earth bank at the side of the road!  Go wrong?  No cars then never went wrong

This was on my first drive out with friends after passing my test!

The hill in question by the way was Blue Bell Hill.  It's name haunts me now!

[ronnyd]

Think it was the larger Austins a50/a60 that had column change.
John.

I had an Austin A50 with a column change, the front bench seat was great too . Also no seat belts to get in the way either.

[Bigron]

Er, get in the way of what, ronnyd? 

Ron.

[ronnyd]

If you don,t know by now Ron

[Bigron]

Yerse, that's why I liked my Renault 4 - no gearlever nor handbrake in the middle - they both came through the dashboard.....

Ron.

[terry paget]

Back in the 1950s cars had bench front seats (or adjoining square front seats), column gearchanges and umbrella handle under the dash handbrakes, to allow 3 people to sit in the front. My father's early cars, Austin A40 Somerset and A50 Cambridge, were thus equipped. I passed my driving test in the A40. Seat belts put a stop to this nonsense. The gearchange was poor, the handbrake lousy