The exhaust seems to be intact but I can't tell about the inside without taking it off. It is very easy to fabricate a new one from off-the shelf new parts if necessary. The engine turns over very freely by hand with the spark plugs out. (Oiled and turned over by me regularly over the years!). There are no signs of major oil leaks. The spark plug leads would be best replaced. I have brand new contact breaker points, (a few un-opened sets! - they are standard old Ford parts). The spark plugs are old but seem in good condition. They are Champion L10 plugs, which have been superseded by L86 plugs I think. (I have a list of the AC, Bosch, NGK and Lodge equivalents somewhere, something else to look out!). The radiator seems OK, again I have a spare if needed.

Lighting seems OK, just some lenses to refit on the back and a couple of connections to repair. The windscreen washer pump needs to be replaced and new wipers are needed, I have the arms, but the new blades are needed. The speedometer and fuel gauge need replacing, I have spares! The starter is a great big button on the dash and I have two spare starter motors if needed. The front floorboards need to be replaced, they are in 3mm ply. I think they should be replaced with 6mm myself. An easy job with an electric jigsaw. Then the front seats need to repaired and screwed to them.

The passenger side door handle needs to be replaced, again from existing spares! The windscreen is unchipped and will pass an MOT test, and as you may have guessed, I have a spare!

As you can see The trike is definitely a bit of a project, but I am confident that it is easily done. In fact I could supervise my 10 year old grandson to do all but the welding, it is that simple. It will take a bit of elbow grease, but most of the cosmetic work needed is not necessary for an MOT test.

When I say that I have spare parts above, these do not include any parts taken from the van. There are also three other engines in different stages of build, although one looks like spares only as it has a hole in the crankcase. It doesn't look too bad though, so I wonder if the damage could have been done after it was removed from the vehicle- dropped or something? There is a spare back axle, a gearbox, lots of brake, body and chassis spares. There are also electrical and instrument spares. I still have a lot to sort through!

I am really getting into finding all the parts I have stashed around the house. I have found two different Haynes workshop manuals, The original Factory Workshop Manual and the Factory Drivers Handbook. There is a current V5 for the saloon. I also found two sets of green documents for the van. The van was registered in 1960, but the chassis is from another trike registered in 1959. I did this rebuild myself in the late 1970's. This is why I am fairly convinced that the van will be in better condition than the saloon, when I finally get around to inspecting it.

The 1959 vehicle is also the source of a lot of the spare parts. As it was never declared scrapped, I suppose that a new chassis could be made and a third trike built from the spares.(I always wanted to use these parts to make a replica of the 1930's Reliant Regent 10cwt van

Data extracted from the Reliant3wheeler forum.