1924 Cluley 10/20 Four-Seat Tourer

Description

Ex-Bill Boddy; four owners from new, the current since 1997; one of only 700 made and perhaps 9 surviving; fully restored and in super condition throughout; find another!

Hands up if you’ve heard of a Cluley. No? Well, we’re not surprised, they only made a few cars between 1921 and 1928 (probably fewer than 1,000) and it is thought that only around nine still survive today, only five of them in roadworthy condition.  

Founded in Coventry in 1890, Clarke Cluley & Co. were engineers who specialized in textile machinery and then in bicycles under the Globe brand, switching to munitions production in WW1 followed by a brief foray into car production, then into making parts for Rolls-Royce aero engines before their factory was destroyed in an air raid in WW2.

The Cluley 10/20 was designed by Arthur Alderson, who also worked for Calcott and Lea-Francis, and was a typical light car of the Twenties with a 1,460cc four-cylinder engine mated to a three-speed gearbox. Costing £270 for the four-seat tourer version, it is thought that around 700 were made.

Supplied new by DR Owens of Llandrindod Wells in March 1924, this Cluley 10/20 comes with an interesting history file extending back many years. It was first owned by a Mr Alfred Thomas who ran the village shop in Pen-y-Bont, Radnorshire. Car ownership was a real status symbol at the time, especially in rural Wales, and Thomas used it on high days and holidays only, keeping it until 1946 before selling it to the local undertaker, Walter Jones.  At some stage Jones took the rear part of the body off and fitted a flat bed, the resulting pick-up truck being used as a farm hack until the late-1950s, as shown in a photo on file.

The Cluley was then spotted by Bill Boddy, founding editor of Motor Sport magazine, who had recently moved to Powys. He and fellow journalist Denis ‘Jenks’ Jenkinson (who famously navigated Stirling Moss to victory in a Mercedes 300SLR in the 1955 Mille Miglia) were planning to start a Mid Wales Motor Museum and were on the hunt for interesting cars to display.

They made repeated attempts to buy the Cluley and eventually wore Jones down until he finally agreed to sell it to them for the princely sum of £5. By this time the car had lost its mudguards, windscreen, lamps and all of its bodywork aft of the front doors. The last tax disc had been issued in 1956, since when the car had been used to block a hole in a hedge. To everyone's surprise, Jenks soon got it running and they decided to drive it back to Boddy’s house, even though it looked like a wreck and had no tax or insurance.

Unfortunately they were spotted by a Police car coming the other way, stuck in a line of traffic. The copper put his blue lights on to give chase but by the time he had got his squad car facing the right way, Boddy had darted up a side road and managed to sneak back home undetected, a story he loved to tell for years afterwards. The motor museum project never got off the ground, but Boddy kept the Cluley for many years, using it almost every week to carry his dustbins from the house down to the nearby road.

Our vendor acquired the car from Bill Boddy in 1997. With the assistance of Cluley historian Roger Armstrong, he then set about a painstaking restoration which took over 20 years to complete, the whole process being recorded in invoices, notes, correspondence and an album of photos on file. The engine was found to be in excellent condition with minimal signs of wear, leading both him and Boddy to believe that the 6,800 miles recorded was most probably correct.

Used very lightly over the last few years, mainly to go to local shows, we are told that the car runs and drives nicely, with healthy oil pressure. It has a hood and a full set of side screens, all in excellent condition. The history file also contains much literature relating to the Cluley marque, including period road tests, copies of  original Cluley sales brochures and articles about FO 1399 written by Bill Boddy.  

Michael Ware also wrote a long feature recounting the story of FO 1399 and its restoration in his ‘Back on the Road’ column in the Automobile magazine, some of which is reproduced below.

Consigned by James Dennison – 07970 309907 – james.dennison@brightwells.com


Michael Ware feature:

“In 1997 the Cluley was bought by Keith C of Rickmansworth who was determined it would be restored to its original state. He was helped in his research and restoration by Roger Armstrong who is the unofficial Registrar for Cluleys. When they collected the car from Bill Boddy’s barn it had no bodywork at all fixed to it. They scoured the rest of the barn for missing pieces. They found part of the body work, the windscreen frame, the bonnet, instruments and other bits including a wheel.   

The chassis was interesting as the central cross member had been cut out and replaced with a removable bar fixed in place with 4 bolts. It is assumed that this was done by Walter Jones to allow the vehicle to be used as a stationary power unit with a drive off the rear end of the gearbox. There is a rumour this was to drive a circular saw in order that he could make coffins for his undertaking business. The missing piece of the chassis was not lost and the chassis has now been repaired, shot-blasted, zinc-primed and powder-coated by a firm in Watford.

One of the amazing things about this car is that it seems to have had very little use and not much wear. The 1,460cc engine for example had all original pistons and rings which were in good condition and reused. The bottom end was perfect, but the big end bolts were replaced as the old ones had stretched. Rather than take out the crankshaft to clean the oil ways, Keith rigged up  the engine with oil pump and turned the crank with an electric drill. Oil came out of all the right places so it was assumed it was clear.

The car has a Dynastart, this was overhauled by Roger’s brother who cleaned the commutator and brushes and checked the bearings. The chain drive was missing, which Keith knew was an 8mm inverted tooth. It was impossible to acquire the right chain so he opted to modify the existing sprockets to take a modern double roller chain. The cone clutch was in good order and did not need relining. The gearbox was thoroughly cleaned out but all gears and bearings appeared to be sound. The transmission needed new fabric discs which came from a retired specialist in Manchester, Mr. Philip Daintree. The robust back axle was perfect, the crown wheel and pinion case was again cleaned, but no bearings needed replacing. 

The brakes (rear wheel only) have four shoes in each drum. Two were for the foot brake and two for the hand brake, and they needed relining, the shoes being sent to Friction Services of Bristol. The front springs needed a new leaf on one side so both springs were taken for repair, tempering and set up by Brost Forge Ltd, London N7. The radiator was leaking when tested and was refurbished and re-cored by Keith Hately of Midland Radiators. In this connection the water passages in the cylinder head and block had to be cleaned out so they were carefully dealt with by a local shot blasting expert.

When it came to the bodywork, most of the rescued woodwork could not be reused because of woodworm and rot, though amazingly the two doors were in good condition. Some could however be used as patterns. Keith was very lucky as he was able to visit a restored Cluley for a weekend so that he could draw and measure it in detail. His plans are very professional. Armed with this information Keith made up the new ash frame. In June 2009 he took the chassis with ash frame to Les Keeling, a private craftsman from Brentwood in Essex, to make the panels. They decided to do them in steel rather than aluminium. He also made the rear wings; front wings having already been made by Cooke Group of Leicester using one of Roger Armstrong’s wings as a pattern.

Keith French-polished the walnut dashboard. All the instruments worked but needed cleaning and a new bezel made for the oil pressure gauge. The speedometer was sent to Speedograph Richfield of Arnold for checking and refurbishing and fitment of a new cable. Mrs Thomas, the first owner’s niece, had kept the clock when they sold the car and had mounted it at her bedside. When she heard the car was to be restored she donated it to Keith and it is now back in the car.

The missing head and side lamps were sourced at autojumbles and sent to Coasting Ltd. of Earlswood, Birmingham for restoration. Wessex Workshops made up a hood frame. The Family Repair Service of Andover undertook all the trimming and the making of the hood to a very high standard. The body panels were brush-painted by Keith in his garage using Craftmaster paints, enamel and varnish.

This is a lovely little car and the restoration has been done with great care and thought and at all times keeping the car looking as original as it was possible. When first shown at a local car meet it deservedly received great praise.

Of the 700 Cluleys made it is thought just 9 now remain of which 5 are in running order and two in museums.”