Evo from Bootle?

This forlorn Evo1 is listed on Ebay at present, it's reached £21000

so far, with 4 days to go. This Delta is interesting because it's so corroded, the car has had the front end sand blasted and primed, and the honest Ebay pics show serious holes! This will be a major operation, and as it's a sunroof car the back end will be as bad as the front.

I'm presently involved repairing back end rust on an Evo1,

I know how rusty these cars can get. The complicated sections

are hard to replicate as repair panels, and very few repair

sections are available.

Perhaps the vendor was surprised by the extent of corrosion damage, and maybe he, or she,

feels it's too big a project to undertake

and is moving the car on.

It's going to take any new owner a long time and complete dedication to make this

car safe again.

As Wayne Corini said, a car is only original once, this car will be very difficult to actually restore to originality.

But I wish the new owner the best of luck, and perhaps he'll share the progress with us.

Extreme corrosion! You can see one of the 4 sunroof drain pipes at the door front edge,

these blighters drain into the body shell, where the water is supposed to drain out of gaps in

the welded seams. Some hope!

If the front is this bad, the back end will be worse.

Another interesting point about this Evo is the number plate.

N. Liverpool is my home ground, so I recognise EM registration letters as being from Bootle.

You can see below a Commer fire appliance at Bootle fire station, I think in 1959.

This Commer has, again I think, Miles of Cheltenham bodywork. Miles appliances were distinctive

in not using the donor vehicle's original windscreens, but making their own in wrap around style.

A Miles bodied Commer fire appliance at Bootle fire station,

it was a well equipped station, being near to the docks, warehouses, and Bootle's many industrial buildings.

Check the EM number plate

This is a Guy Otter Mkll belonging to Thomas Wilson of Canal st, Bootle. It was from 1953 with new all-steel cab, and EM plates.

It would probably have a 4cyl Perkins diesel engine.

The box body is demountable, with straps and rings for lifting off the lorry to be packed or unpacked, much like a modern container.

All this means that the little green Evo has come from warm and sunny Italy,

lived, and decomposed, in cold and rainy England.

Also it's somehow been fitted with a 1950s Bootle, Merseyside

registration plate, dated sometime between the 2 vehicles above.

I'm sure the next owner will make the Evo as good as new again.

Thanks for looking, good luck.