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Memorabilia Trade Shop Signs

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crustytv
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OK Its official, I'm a now a Telefusion dealership 😉 

As you may recall, the other day I managed to obtain an original Philips G8 Advertising sign and I mentioned I had something a little special on the way, well its arrived.

I was curious as to where it had come from, a little research revealed it was the rear insert on the MKII Ford Escort vans that Telefusion once used. Now all I need to get is the MKII escort.... fat chance!

van

It looks the bees-knees now it's hung up in the new workshop extension. I'm rather pleased with it as I've been after some sign or other for quite a while. With a TV on the bench, test card music playing in the background and warm dropper aromas wafting through the workshop, one can forget its 2021 and believe it's the mid 70s all over again. Ahhh perfect........

tel1
tel2
tel3
tel4

Oh and I got hold of a Dynatron sign too

dyna

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Posted : 08/02/2021 2:17 pm
Mikey66, Alex728, Mikey66 and 3 people reacted
Till Eulenspiegel
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Hi Chris,  is that a Mark 2 Escort estate car? The Telefusion sign could be removed to allow private use at weekends.

Mark one and two Escort estate cars and vans are rare. The saloons are fetching crazy prices.

Till Eulensiegel.

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 2:23 pm
Pye Man
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The curious thing about the MkII Escort estate car is that it’s only MkII from the windscreen forward. The doors and the back quarters retain the ‘Coke bottle’ styling of the MkI whereas the front wings has the straighter styling of the MkII. This model also features the square headlights of the more upmarket MkII models.

Nick

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 3:01 pm
Katie Bush
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Posted by: @till

The saloons are fetching crazy prices.

£20'000 plus is not unheard of for a mk1 saloon - I had a rolling shell offered to me for £11k not long ago! (The MOT guys remembered my Escort mk1 1300E). estates and vans are exceedingly rare, and no doubt command an even more excessive price. And to think of all the Escorts I made my way through over the years (about 7 of them) and what they'd be worth today - And they all ended up going for scrap, all except the 1300E, which I traded for £100 worth of goods from a second shop. I wish I still had my 1300E!

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 3:18 pm
Jayceebee
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All you need now is a Telpro and you’re all set😂.

That version of the Escort Estate looks to be a 1300L or XL, note the chrome around the windows. I wonder if that was the service managers car?

The Thorn supplied Escort estate was the most basic model you could get with 12” steel wheels, no hub caps but plastic cups over the wheel bearing covers and round headlamps. The engine was a pitiful 1100 low compression unit and when mine was later converted to LPG it was dangerously slow. Oh and in the winter whoever managed to get theirs started went round everyone else to give them a tow. I used to park mine on a steep hill a few hundred yards from home and even then it wouldn’t always start. They were often sourced through a company called Forder motors, I picked mine up from Lincoln SGN163R. 

Later I took it to the local Pye Telecoms to get a Europa RT fitted, when the headlining was removed inside was just bare metal, no primer. Probably why you don’t see many now, after 3 to 4 years the bodywork was rotten and not just mine.

By the way Chris those side panels made excellent sledges for the snow, you always kept them for such things when the car was replaced.

John.

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 3:52 pm
crustytv
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Posted by: @jayceebee

All you need now is a Telpro and you’re all set😂.

I know, and I only figured that out in the last couple of days as I'd not heard of that model before. Wish I could have got that Autovox and Telpro. 😥 

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Posted : 08/02/2021 4:33 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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The UK designed Mark 1 Escort didn't have a project name.  The Mark 2 was called Brenda and the front wheel drive Mark 3 was called Erika.

Ford Escort (Europe) - Wikipedia

Till Eulenspiegel.

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 6:38 pm
Nuvistor
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The Dynatron sign brings back a few memories, the TV’s were “poshed up” Pye or Philips but the “Hi Fi” were their own in modern or fancy cabinets. They worked very well but perhaps the build quality was not quite what it could have been but they gave little trouble.

The Dynatron rep was quite a character, Roy I think his name was but could wrong. We used to put on demonstration evenings in a local hotel and the rep did the patter. He was good and the evening was enjoyable for me even after all the set up and tear down I had to do. Most of the public seemed to enjoy it, I think it was an evening out for most with no intention of buying but we sold a few systems on the nights. 

Frank

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 7:26 pm
crustytv
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Odd thing is I've been looking for shop signs for absolutely ages, there was nothing to be found. Then like the buses, three come all at once. I would love to find a Radio Rentals one with some Baird sets, but that's just not going to happen. Over on our FaceBook group David Newman has a van insert from a 1980s Rumbelows van.

rumb

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Posted : 08/02/2021 7:42 pm
crustytv
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Posted by: @nuvistor

The Dynatron sign brings back a few memories, the TV’s were “poshed up” Pye or Philips

I quite fancied finding one of the Sandringham CTV25 models they produced with either the built-in N1500 or N1700 Never seen one though. I could imagine Margo Leadbetter making Gerry get her one from Harrods as soon as they came out.

https://www.radios-tv.co.uk/dynatron/

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Posted : 08/02/2021 9:12 pm
Nuvistor
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@crustytv

Rumbelows, I used to work for Bulloughs in Bolton, it was taken over by Rumbelows but I left before the name was changed. Bulloughs had a number of shops in the area, forgotten how many but must have been at least a dozen.

 

Frank

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 9:52 pm
Nuvistor
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@crustytv

I never saw one of the sets with built in VCR.

Before the advent of full featured remote controls Dynatron had a cable one with all the functions. One of the wires would break where it entered the hand set. Snip 6 inches of and rewire, the cable must have been 20 ft long so a few inches didn’t matter.

 

Frank

 
Posted : 08/02/2021 9:55 pm
Cathovisor
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Posted by: @katie-bush
Posted by: @till

The saloons are fetching crazy prices.

£20'000 plus is not unheard of for a mk1 saloon - I had a rolling shell offered to me for £11k not long ago! (The MOT guys remembered my Escort mk1 1300E). estates and vans are exceedingly rare, and no doubt command an even more excessive price.

On the contrary, the vans and estates don't attract high prices: the saloons are very highly sought after for re-shelling things like the Mexico and RS1600, which command stratospheric prices. Find a rotten Mexico/RS and wait until say, a good 1100 or 1300L turns up. Gut it to fit all the Mexico/RS running gear and interior and do a VIN swap. You now have a £40,000 car. Same applies to the Mk. 2 RS2000. The 1300E attracts a good price but nothing like the sporting versions.

Fords attract what one very cliquey motoring forum calls a "scene tax", in the way that Vauxhalls and BMC/Leyland cars don't.

 
Posted : 09/02/2021 8:55 pm
turretslug
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That saloon scarcity accentuated by the way that the 2-door RWD Escort was the rallying enthusiast's basic shell of choice- and if you didn't turn it into a crumpled mess from time to time, you weren't trying hard enough, so they are sparse on the ground and sought after. There was a tale that the original Ford presses had been located in Romania, but I filed that in the "WW2 bomber found on Moon" category.

 
Posted : 09/02/2021 9:52 pm
malcscott
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I have a pair of Rediffusion inserts for Mk2 Escort estate.

 
Posted : 09/02/2021 10:02 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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The Mark 1 two door Escort saloon car is prized for it's stiff body shell. RS and Mexico versions are beefed up further for track and rally use.

As for the Mark 2 estate car, the body styling is bit odd having the front of the Mark 2 and rear part from the earlier model. Same for the van. Ford did the same trick with the Mark 2 Granada estate car.

Till Eulenspiegel.

 
Posted : 09/02/2021 10:20 pm
Till Eulenspiegel
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Never saw the original 300E Escort estate car ever being used for TV servicing but the van which the Escort and Squire was based on was employed by many TV rental firms. DER and Rediffusion for example.

Ford Escort 1959

Till Eulenspiegel.

 
Posted : 11/02/2021 12:32 pm
crustytv
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Here's the much later D|E|R escort, the model @jayceebee used when he worked for them up here.

Forum 142

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Posted : 11/02/2021 1:05 pm
Katie Bush
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Posted by: @turretslug

That saloon scarcity accentuated by the way that the 2-door RWD Escort was the rallying enthusiast's basic shell of choice-

On the other hand, I was always led to believe that it was the AVO shells , (Advanced Vehicle Operations) that were favoured by the motorsports brigade. Not just beefed up, but built for the task at Ford's AVO division? I only ever saw one, once, after an engine fire. It was at a local breakers, and wound up there "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang" fashion after a "special stage" incident at the Castle Howard estate, just a few miles up the A64 from the breaker's yard. It was certainly a meatier shell altogether, but after the fire it was written off because the fire would have 'denatured' the structural integrity of the shell, though apparently, it was there for sale, and supposedly was bought for restoration as a road legal car. This would have been around 1985/6 when I was scavenging parts for my 1300E.

 
Posted : 12/02/2021 5:11 pm
Hurty
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Hi, I worked for Telefusion for most of 1982 based at Moorbrook St. Preston. The installer was equipped with a Mk 2 Escort Van. Two of the engineers still had Mk2 Escort Estates with, as already mentioned that awful low compression 1100 engine. Put a TV in the back and you couldn't get back up the hill into Preston down the M6. You would be in third with a line of traffic behind you. The rest of us had Fiesta Mk1 950L's except the workshop foreman who had an 1100L. I was asked to pickup the installers new van one day from a local Vauxhall dealers and wondered what it would be, to then be confronted with a Viva HA van known as the "Metal Micky". It again was just awful. I said to the installer I would insist on keeping the Escort. On the Fiesta the Telefusion signs slid in on the outside and where held there by the doors. You could take them off to make your car "normal" for personal use. Heading back to Preston from Blackpool one afternoon one of my signs took off for me to watch it in the rear view mirror disappear under a concreate mixer trucks wheels and shatter, oh well.

EK 0093

Picture of my Telefusion Mk 1 Fiesta 950L unfortunately with the signs not fitted but if you look you can see the metal "U" channel around the rear windows that the signs slid into.

Adrian

 
Posted : 22/02/2021 11:21 am
Alex728, crustytv, Alex728 and 3 people reacted
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