The Triumph Mayflower.

[angrydicky]

There’s no getting away from it, the Mayflower is a real marmite car which attracts differing opinions. For some, they are nostalgic, cute and different with their razor edge styling, others think they are the ugliest car ever made.
I’m in the former category. I think they’re really cute and I viewed one with the intention of buying one a good few years ago. It was rusty with a noisy, smoky engine so I walked away - it was overpriced too.
At least there’s always a few to choose from for sale. Despite selling a meagre 35000 over four years they seem to have survived reasonably well.
About a month ago I decided to sell my A40 Somerset and try another car on the bucket list, this is quite short actually but I had yet to try a Mayflower. As I have quite a few projects on the go and usually buy shit cars as I feel sorry for them, I decided to break with tradition and spend real money (four figures!) buying something in decent condition that won’t need an imminent weldathon or similar.
It just so happened it was a good time to buy a Mayflower as there were no fewer than five for sale by the time I arranged the first viewing. The only real stipulations I had were that I didn’t want a black one, and I wanted one with its original number plate.
I drove all the way to South Wales to view a nice grey one with its original plate but on arrival I found it was nowhere near as nice as described and was very disappointing. It was well overpriced and the seller wouldn’t drop the price because he’d paid over the odds for it when the prices were high. The market is on its arse now for pre and early post war British stuff. Especially very slow sidevalve engined cars that aren’t very practical.
I decided I wasn’t buying this car as it just wasn’t good enough. I then made a phone call to the dealer selling the second choice. This was black and had an age related plate BUT had had an absolute fortune spent on it recently and apparently drove really really well.
Original interior too which was a plus point (the Welsh one had been retrimmed).
So I headed down over the Severn Bridge and along the M4 to Surrey to view the next one, not wanting to go home with an empty trailer.
As soon as I walked up the sellers drive and saw this car I just knew it was the one for me. The paint was nice, ok it’s suffered a bit through being under a cover at some point but it’s got a nice shine. It’s also got a lot of nice shiny new parts, one of the previous owners spent £7k at a vintage Rolls Royce specialist?! having all sorts of work done. A lot of it was the sort of tinkering I’d just do myself but there’s actually a lot more work that’s been done to this car recently where the receipts haven’t been kept, I’d say the total spend if all done by this place will be in excess of £10k.
Apparently the poor old boy, having spent all this money to create the best driving Mayflower in existence, died before he was able to use it and his son then sold it for a fraction of what they’d spent.
It’s had a full suspension rebuild with new springs all round, shock absorbers, bushes, shackle pins, balljoints, new fuel pipes, recon carb, recon distributor, a rechromed grill, 5 new Michelin XZX tyres and loads of other bits.
The price was very reasonable I thought (from a dealer).
The only bits of welding it’s had have been to the bottom of the sills which have been replaced, apart from that it’s all original and I can’t see any filler in it. It’s an older respray, but quite a decent one and to be honest had it not got microblistering on the roof and bonnet it would be pretty mint.
What does it drive like? Very, very well. Smooth and quiet, nice precise steering, no clonks or rattles. Yes of course it’s slow and is happiest at 40-45 but it’s a lot of fun, very charming and brimming with character.
Here’s some photos:

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[mercrocker]

What a lovely thing! Those add-on indicators are neat, too.

[angrydicky]

There’s a sizeable bill for making the little brackets and wiring those in. I’m not sure how they’ve done it but there’s two relays hidden behind the dashboard with an audible warning buzzer when the indicators are on.
They are operated via the original trafficator switch and the trafficators (which are both pretty loose and worn out) come out at the same time.
The indicators themselves are eBay specials sold for motorcycles. I fitted a set on my Somerset years ago but put them on a separate switch to the trafficators.
They are extremely good, they’re LEDs and very noticeable. The only drawback is the chinesium chrome is particularly bad as they started rusting the moment they saw any road salt.
It’s interesting whoever was working on it didn’t want to go drilling holes in the bodywork as it has a couple of clip on quarterlight mirrors as well rather than just fitting wing mirrors.

[mercrocker]

My Cowley runs the same kind of indicator system - original switch and speedo warning light, 2 relays and four added flashers so that all work in harmony with the trafficators (these have LED flashing "bulbs"). Just nowhere near as neat as those on the Mayflower! I might have upgraded them at one time but I am all for keeping the one previous owner's mods....

Your Triumph bears all the hallmarks of considered, careful ownership and that all adds up to a worth balancing out the loss of the original registration - shame though that is. The upholstery is particularly nice and I love the Dymo switch labelling!

[christine]

Very awesome . We had a '52 Renown.

[cuntbuster]

Decent buy that, good purchase. The plates are wrong and you must change them. They need to be yellow on the back, white on the front and narrow black 2001 onwards letters. You're welcome

[angrydicky]

Your Triumph bears all the hallmarks of considered, careful ownership and that all adds up to a worth balancing out the loss of the original registration - shame though that is. The upholstery is particularly nice and I love the Dymo switch labelling!

It’s got every MoT back to 1969 and all issued in the same town in Northumberland (Blyth, think that’s near Mario?)
The mileage in 1969 was 75,000, now it’s 95,000.
I’d say it had the same owner until at least 2014 or so who clearly doted on it. There’s a note on an ancient North East Restoration Club application which shows where he bought it from. This ties in perfectly with the original Cumberland (as it was then) registration MRM 79. Maybe she was the original owner.

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The dymo labelling of the switches is actually original! It really does look like an afterthought.

[christine]

Blyth is Weewee and Foad . Doesn't look like a Foad restoration .... and the wheels are still perpendicular, so Weewee hasn't wrecked it . No dents , foglights ,or ECU to chip up means Paul hasn't been near it either..

[Drum]

I've always been in the Mayflowers are ugly category, but for some reason I like this one. Looks great

[Drum]

Blyth is Weewee and Foad . Doesn't look like a Foad restoration .... and the wheels are still perpendicular, so Weewee hasn't wrecked it . No dents , foglights ,or ECU to chip up means Paul hasn't been near it either..

Foad is in Fife