OLD SCHOOL PREFECT
“Ivan has breathed new life into this piece of Ford motoring history and picked up some silverware along the way”
When Ivan Calvert left school, he became an apprentice in the commercial vehicle depot at Ford dealers, J E Coulter in Belfast. He learned his mechanical skills on road transport stalwarts such as the Thames Trader, the D Series truck and, of course, the Transit van. Having attended courses at the local technical college and night classes, he made rapid progress, being promoted to foremen when he was just 22 years old. Spending many of his evenings working at home servicing and repairing cars for neighbours and friends, he added to his skills and developed an understanding of the interchangeability of Ford components which would later steer him through the maze of classic car modification.
In 1978 he bought a 107E Prefect with a reasonably sound shell and an unhealthy sounding engine. 'I repaired the bodywork as necessary and then gave it a fresh coat of paint, applied with a paint spraying kit which used the pressure side of a vacuum cleaner as its power source,' Ivan grins, remembering the way things were done on a limited
