| Early in the nineties a gentleman from Piedmont Ca. contacted me regarding the restoration of an English cab. I had just recently moved to the Sierra Foothills and had just barely set up shop. Because of the down time from moving both the house and shop I was really ready for something to "make a buck". I was reluctant at first because most every English cab I had seen was an Austin Diesel, so that's what I was expecting to see when I went to estimate the job. What a pleasant surprise! It turned out to be a 1958 Beardmore. This is a very tidy and attractive little cab. Tall top, black paint, very British. What it needed was repair to some body damage (aluminum) and the fiberglas wings (fenders) were broken and missing some pieces. It was ready for a complete brake overhaul as well. We also replated all the chrome work. I rebuilt the brakes first as it was a way to familiarize myself with the car and operating brakes were a good first step as I would be moving the car around yard and shop. It ran beautifully. It has a gasoline four cylinder overhead valve engine. Once the brakes were operable I had the opportunity to drive it a little. It is pretty slow, but speed isn't really a factor in a city cab. What really impressed me was the turning radius. I understand that a requirement for a London cab is a specified tight U turn. This one turned so tight that you could stall the engine. After stripping the paint I went to work on the various dents and marks on the body. Next was fiberglass work on the fenders. I hate fiberglass work! But I repaired, replaced pieces of, and rebuilt all the wings. Although the Beardmore taxi is somewhat unusual, the restoration was pretty much the usual, Cars is cars, You take them all apart, repair and clean everything, sand, prime and paint. Then you put all the pieces back together. I also built a custom small capacity gas tank for it. The original held about 30 gallons and the fuel was going stale. So I built a little tank to correct the problem. |
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