Swedish Jensens

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berthold kleta
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Swedish Jensens

Post by berthold kleta »

We have started a little academic research project into Jensen as example for vintage car culture, the project is based at Malmö University and we run it from Hamburg and Malmö.
For a pilot study, we look into Jensen-culture in Sweden:

There has been no active Jensen-club in Sweden for ca 20 years. There has been a Jensen-Healey club, but even that trickled out long ago.
So, we got the data on registered cars from the state and sent a questionaire to every owner of Jensen cars in Sweden. And the answers have started to come in.
We will continue to collect information on how people organise their Jensen-related activities. If all goes well, we turn the results into some documentary comics (sequential images tell the story and show how people, cars, things look. And we do of course share the results here.

But now more about the answers to the questionaire:
Some would like to have a Jensen related club, and some ask for meetings of Jensen & Jensen-Healeys in Sweden or even in the regions, as many would not drive their cars all that far.
There are quite some issues taken up in the responses, there are hints of spare or donator car-offers. In the answers to the questionaire, some ask for suggestions of garages or experts for restauration projects, in Sweden or around Sweden.
Also, there remains frustration because of mis-attributed chassis numbers -- check out the details on this, in case you have not read the splendid piece on the issue of mis-numbered FFs on the Jensen Museum's homepage: https://www.jensenmuseum.org/jensen-ff-119-029/
And then most of the usual stuff comes up when you own and try to run cars like ours, seems like there is enough to keep a Swedish section busy.

In my case, it feels completelty wrong to try to start a section of the JOC for Sweden without living there. And Jakob, our man in Malmö, is in Sweden, knows about research and documentary comics and so on, but neither owns a Jensen nor is he close enough to the practical issues of repairing, restoring, running a Jensen in Sweden. So, it would be splendid, if one or two of you in Sweden would start a Swedish section (yepp, this is the begging section of the message...)

Here is what we can offer at the moment: A first analysis of the data on Jensen cars in Sweden -- official data provided by Transportstyrelsen, Örebro, in January 2020 -- is on Jakob's homepage: http://jakob-dittmar.eu/heritage.html
Jakob will contact those who asked to be telephoned during the next weeks. If you have more information on Jensen culture in Sweden, please contact Jakob: jakob.dittmar@mau.se
We will duly update with more information on the page and here while we go along. Hope, this is ok!

Best regards, Berthold and Jakob
Last edited by berthold kleta on Fri Mar 13, 2020 8:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
berthold kleta
C-V8 MkII 104-2165
berthold kleta
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by berthold kleta »

Hej again,

A note on that statistical data: we assume that the number of cars under restoration compared to those on the road is not unusual for cars of this age!
Sweden is certainly not that different from other countries in this regard - from what we read in the responses to our little questionaire that we did send out in Sweden, the big division between Jensen owners seems to be between those who trust in others' work on their cars and those who have their cars because they want to work on them themselves - as one put it: "Rather work on cars than talk cars!" (very rough translation, the original is somewhere between serious restoration and messing around in cars). So far, we do not understand, yet, how the ratio between active and somewhat more passive restorers is.

In vintage cars, the amount of people who do all of the work on their cars themselves might be different between countries: to hand vintage cars to professional garages for bigger repairs / restorations, for more substantial tuning, etc. is allegedly typical for Germany and Benelux, but not for Sweden. This might be a myth only, we hear this generalisation again and again, but it might get tricky to substantiate how things are really - from looking at all the stories and images on these JOC-pages, it seems that many Jensen owners (no matter what country) do indeed run their own restoration projects themselves...

Again and again, the question for suitable garages and experts in matters Jensen is raised - so if any of you could recommend experienced mechanics or workshops to turn to in Sweden on matters Jensen, feel free to add the information to these posts, please!

All the best! More on this soon : )
Jakob & Berthold
berthold kleta
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by berthold kleta »

Spare Parts and Garages in Sweden that know how to treat a Jensen

Here comes a summary of comments on where to get spare parts and where to go to in Sweden in matters Jensen. As other respondents asked for just this kind of information, we hope it is ok to post these suggestions here. Of course no guaranties can be given in every case, it is just a list of recommendations (some kind of disclaimer, just in case...)
It would be splendid, if you who know more on the matter would comment! Maybe we can get together a working list for Swedish Jensen needs?

The main sources for spare parts are the following.
At the moment, it is completely unclear how expensive or complicated the import of spare parts from GB will get from next year on. For the time being, for all aspects of body and chassis repairs, Martin Robey http://www.martinrobey.com is named most, while Richard Appleyard Parts Ltd. http://www.jensen.co.uk is recommended - mostly for Jensen-Healey.
And Rejen Classic http://www.jensenparts.co.uk is recommended for the more complicated sourcing of specific Jensen parts.

Here in Sweden, for spare parts, Anglo Car Spares AB in Getinge has been suggested, they have a facebook page but no homepage has been found so far (date: March 12, 2020)

Praise came in for the usual suspects:
Chris-Con AB http://www.bildelar.me/Uppsala-lan/Osth ... ris-Con-AB
and Åbergs http://www.abergsvtc.se

For V8-engines and related matter, Norrlands Custom http://www.norrlandscustom.com is referred to a lot, while even Delta Motorsports in Phoenix, Arizona, gets mentioned.

For brakes and related matter, Nobtec i Norrköping http://www.nobtec.se have earned warm words of praise, while over in GB Classicar Automotive http://www.classicarautomotive.co.uk offers spare parts to brakes and brake-systems in vintage cars.

With workshops / garages it looks bleak in Sweden: As with providers of spare parts, dedicated whorkshops in the UK are refered to: Cropredy cropredybridge.com and Rejen http://www.jensenparts.co.uk while no dedicated Jensen-garages seem to exist in Sweden.

But several dedicated vintage car-workshops are named that have looked after or into Jensens, e.g. Emil's Bil in Karlsham emilsbil.se, 1900-garaget in Trelleborg http://www.1900garaget.com , for Jensen-Healey: English Car Care in Löddeköpinge http://www.englishcarcare.com

We assume that there are more. Also, quite some restore and service their cars themselves and duly use their own workshops.
Three people wrote in to tell that they have helped each other with repairs - and that is what a club is supposed to help with. So maybe some platform for Jensen in Sweden can made to work to get us all a bit more social around Jensen : )
berthold kleta
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RAP72
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by RAP72 »

from the chart you can see which cars I have listed as being in Sweden albeit some are from others lists when I started.

obviously if owners, or others, can update the information it would be appreciated.
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berthold kleta
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by berthold kleta »

Sincar produced Interceptor for sale in (North) Sweden:
117 - 2595 is for sale, Swedish registration: HRC 963.
The car is partly stripped down and parked since 1986, the interior being stored indoors and safe since then.
The chassis is in acceptable state but work needs to be done.

For details / images etc, please contact the current owner:
Thord Hall, Sundsvall
email: sundsvall.audio@telia.com

Background: the guy who had bought it in 1986, had been planning for a quick restauration but got seriously ill and died, the current owner inherited the car from his friend, but had to realise that he has neither room nor time to restore the car. It is stored in partly disassembled state, the interior has been stored indoors all the time.
In the context of our research on Jensens in Sweden, Thord asked if we could help with spreading the information - so here it is : )
berthold kleta
C-V8 MkII 104-2165
berthold kleta
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by berthold kleta »

Have added images of the car to the post in Jensens for sale.
Please contact Thord Hall for more information : )
https://www.joc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=31023
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Jens
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by Jens »

As far as I remember Sweden had an interesting „car import and VIN swap“ history in the 70ies due to tax regulations and som innovative importers ... :roll:

Especially FFs.
In order of appearance:

(sold) C-V8 Mk III 112/2432
541 S 102/1035
(sold) FF MkII 127/243 (sold)
Healey Mk II 1140/14406
(sold)Jensen GT 1610/30257(sold)
Scimitar GTE SE5
Gordon Keeble #21
berthold kleta
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Re: Swedish Jensens

Post by berthold kleta »

Yes, indeed: "Innovative importers" is the word - they swopped chassis number-plates in the engine bay and glove compartmens (usually), before they imported the cars to Sweden, pretending that the same car was returning to Sweden again (and again) - but they did not return the plates to the original cars in the end. Due to that, several cars sit there with wrong numbers since then. Some of the cars are no longer in Sweden, but registered in other countries, some were/are not registered at all as they were intended as donator cars, but still sit somewhere - or have been scrapped long ago. One example of a donator that has been fully restored and is on the road only surfaced a few years back, so nobody knows what might be in some container or shed or wherever.

E.g., we know for sure of one FF that is registered as an Interceptor with the chassis number-plate on another car in Norway. The Norwegian car is registered with this number, of course, but not its original number, so the car in Sweden cannot get re-registered with its original chassis number nor sold with its true history as that is taken by the other car, theoretically.
As we all know, the factory records and all documentation tends to hinge on the chassis number, so these cars are dead for the collector's market to a certain extend. The Jensen Museum ran a nice piece on the issue focusing on a circular return-swop of numbers between three cars some time back: https://www.jensenmuseum.org/jensen-ff-119-029/

When the story of these "innovative imports" : ) broke in Sweden and the tax authorities got hold of the people involved most, a side-effect was that the Swedish Jensen Drivers Club imploded. It just stopped working and has not recuperated ever since, according to what we have found out so far. (So, please, take this summary with a pinch of salt...)

We report more on these matters in due course, stay safe!
berthold kleta
C-V8 MkII 104-2165
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