LOVE AT FIRST FRIGHT

Ken Walsh’s enthusiasm was not dimmed by his brother Ray’s reluctance. “We never do the same type of vehicle twice. Where’s the challenge in that?” Ken had restored and run an Austin Gipsy many years back. “Yes, but that was the long wheelbase version of the final G4 series – it had leaf spring suspension and beam axles.”

Ken relishes the memory of performing a particularly difficult recovery job with it. Before he replaced its original petrol engine with the less powerful diesel, he did an emergency motorway rope tow recovery – in heavy snow – of a 10-ton Bedford TK boxvan. “It was inch by inch, mind you. The conditions were so bad that the only way to maintain traction at the front was to keep turning the steering from lock to lock.” (That’s the redacted version. For Ken – whose motto in the face of adversity is ‘whatever it takes’ – you sense that particular job tops his list of resourceful escapades).

You will have read about the Walshes’ 1961 Austin FG-K80 Aberdare mobile library restoration in the November issue of . The Gipsy was their next project, and completed in the space of only five weeks. Finished and running by mid-November, it was good to go for a photoshoot – until a drive shaft broke on an early test run. The Walshes were unable to find a replacement. “North West Propshafts in Manchester know we’re impatient so-and-sos,” Ken explains. “Very