For his wedding ceremony Joseph Grixti hired not just any classic car, but Malta’s oldest vehicle, the 1904 Cadillac. The religious function at Stella Maris parish church in Sliema went without a hitch and shortly afterwards, the newly-weds seated themselves in the dark red car to be driven a few kilometers away to the reception hall in Attard.
During the short trip the Cadillac’s engine stopped six times. Every time, the driver would apologise profusely, get down, open the bonnet, fiddle with the engine, struggle with the manual starting handle, and the car would continue on its journey. Always a thorough planner, Grixti had also hired a modern taxi to follow them closely and despite his wife’s diplomatic insistence on changing to the taxi, Grixti was adamant they would stay put and realise his dream.
The journey lasted more than one and a half hours. When the bride and groom finally arrived, there was another shock in store for them. For unbeknown to the couple, the wooden floorboards of the Cadillac had a circular opening above the running chains, over which the unsuspecting bride nestled part of her long, white bridal train. Every time the driver restarted the engine, a significant sprout of thick, greasy black oil shot upwards into the snow white material.
When the bride got out at the reception hall entrance, she broke down in tears at the ghastly sight. Grixti flatly refused to pay the company that provided the Cadillac.
“My fascination with old cars goes back to when I was a little boy,” Grixti recalls. “My father Carmelo, who worked with the British services as a ship controller based on Manoel Island, had a number of old motors.
“I was particularly fond of one – a black 1936 Morris 8, which he had bought from a British serviceman in the 1950s. It stood out with its beehive grille, wind up windscreen, spike rimmed wheels, the carrier on the spare wheel acting as a travelling bag, and the partly canvassed roof.”
Grixti’s father carried out all the technical and maintenance work on the old car himself, and Grixti learnt his father’s skills. All tasks were carried out on the road.
The Morris was also garaged on the road, and Grixti remembers that one night, a drunk British serviceman broke into it and crashed against the nearby church parvis. The loud noise alerted the neighbours, who gave chase, but the thwarted joy rider vanished into the darkness.
Unfortunately, in 1968, Grixti’s father decided to part with the Morris. “I could not believe my ears,” he said. “I tried my utmost to dissuade him, but he would not change his mind. He sold it for peanuts – just Lm20 (€47). I cried my eyes out when I saw it leave and promised myself that when I grew up, I would buy a similar vehicle”.
At 14, Grixti already knew how to drive and two years later he bought his first car, a 1960 Ford Prefect E493A. “It cost me Lm60, which I had to repay in Lm2 monthly installments,” he admitted. “When my father got to know, he threw me out of the house, and I had to go and live with my married sister, next door.”
Peace was soon restored between father and son, and Grixti’s father helped him restore the car. Shortly afterwards the Prefect was joined by a white 1968 Triumph Herald, produced at the car assembly plant in Marsa.
Grixti revealed that in those days, it was no problem driving underage without a licence, as traffic was light. However, he was always careful to take one of his cars out when his father was asleep, and limited his drives to nearby Manoel Island in Gzira, and only as far as St George’s Bay in St Julian’s. A few years after he got his driving licence, he sold his old cars for something more modern.
But the classic car fever hit him again before he started planning his wedding in 1990. Besides earmarking the Cadillac to hire for the reception, Grixti also wanted to buy an old car. He had long been eyeing a black 1951 Ford Anglia on the road and one day he suddenly saw it for sale at a car dealer in Msida.
The dealer was finalising negotiations with an Englishman. Speaking in Maltese, Grixti asked the dealer to sell the Ford to him instead. The dealer declined, saying that the foreigner had already quietly accepted the asking price of Lm1,000 – the only snag was that payment had been agreed in sterling, something the dealer was not happy with. When Grixti offered to pay the same sum in Maltese currency, the dealer’s eyes lit up, and the stunned Englishman, still confused with a conversation he could not fathom, was soon and unceremoniously shown the door.
In his hurry to buy the Ford, Grixti did not bother to look inside and check the engine. A few days later he decided to take the car on its first run and drove it to Xemxija.
On his way back to Sliema, he stopped for fuel at a station in Pembroke. The pump attendant mentioned that its engine must have now been changed for it previously ran on paraffin. “I could not believe my ears when I heard that a qualified engineer well known for his miserly antics, had panicked at the hefty price of fuel in the early 1970s and converted the engine”.
Grixti then opened the bonnet to check, and it was found that the car still had its paraffin modifications. The car was transported to a mechanic in Gżira, where it was found that a brass pipe had been installed in the silencer manifold to heat the paraffin in order to thin it. The old owner had fitted a big carburetor into which he poured the paraffin. A strong string had been attached from the choke, going out through the front grille, and the car used to be kicked into life by the starting handle. The old car did not even need a battery.
The vehicle was temporarily patched up, and unlike the coughing Cadillac, performed its going away duties without a hitch.
Once the honeymoon period was over, Grixti immediately embarked on a thorough nut and bolt restoration project. He contacted the old owner to enquire about original parts which he might have put away and luckily, items such as the original carburetor and radiator turned up. The UK Ford Side Valves Owners Club provided missing items including new ball joints and brakes.
When planning the spray, Grixti wanted to change the hand-painted black car to its original colour. He went to the local agent for help and was told that the Ford was beige. “I was thrilled to get this information from the horse’s mouth. Complete with colour number, I lost no time in acquiring a stock of this paint. My brother Peter Paul undertook all the spray work and we were both very happy with the end result.
The whole restoration project took more than four years.
Once the Ford was restored, Grixti showed interest in other classic cars. “I worked as driver with the then Telephone Department and was based in Zejtun. My work mates, well aware of my old motors interest, were always a mine of information about old cars available in that region. At the height of my classic car fever, I had seven other cars besides the Anglia: two Baby Austins, two Fiat 500s, a Prefect 100E, a Morris 1000 and a Hillman Minx”.
Unfortunately, ill health and other aspects came in the way, and forced him to depart with all of them, except his beloved Ford. Grixti, who also collects models of old trucks, as well as full-sized car grilles, has long been a member of the Old Motors Club, and his Anglia is a regular face at most events.
www.oldmotorsclub.com
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One of the first Ford products in the UK, the Anglia was designed entirely in England in line with the express wishes of Henry Ford, who did not want to replicate American cars, but opted instead for unique Ford products made for the European market. The patriotically named Anglia, coming out in 1939 at the start of the second world war, was a simple vehicle at the lower end of the market. The style was spartan, with mechanical brakes, front and rear suspension using transverse leaf springs, and power provided by a 933cc straight four side valve engine.