What has changed
A dated record of substantive changes to this archive: new pages, corrections of fact, restructuring and new photographs. Small tidying is not listed.
Winter storage: new section on mice, rats and a stored car.
Winter storage: new section on mice, rats and a stored car.
View the page →Added AC Cars Compared, 1904 to 2026, with a chart of post-war production years.
Added AC Cars Compared, 1904 to 2026, with a chart of post-war production years.
View the page →Added the door latch inspection tools
Added private browser-saved inspection cases with archive-grounded guidance and a printable checklist covering symptoms, door usage, steering conversion history and recorded checks.
View the page →Added AC Cars: The Complete History.
Added AC Cars: The Complete History.
View the page →Door latches page: an owner has fitted an MG A Coupe latch
Door latches page: an owner has fitted an MG A Fixed Head Coupe latch bought from Rimmer Bros, so the MG A route is now recorded as tried rather than untested; added door cards alongside the door seal as a first check. Added his note that on a car converted from left-hand drive the worn latch was on the passenger side, the original driver's door.
View the page →Door latches page updated from the 2008 club forum thread
Door latches page updated from the 2008 club forum thread: the door seal added as a cause to check first, the 1962 parts list numbers correctly described as the door latch/locks, the body-side striker recorded as obtainable, and an untested quick fix noted.
View the page →New guide: ash-framed doors and tailgate
New guide: ash-framed doors and tailgate — where the ash is, how to inspect it, repair options, how a door frame is rebuilt, and the debates.
View the page →Accuracy corrections from the AC Owners' Club
Corrected the chassis-prefix, strengthened-chassis, body-construction, interior and UBR 135 engine descriptions throughout the archive, and the AC Greyhound page no longer calls the Ace pre-war, citing AC Owners' Club, history of the AC Aceca.
Correction: the production page no longer claims a source it does not have
The production page said its figures were compiled from AC Owners' Club records, and that where sources vary this archive follows the club registrar. Neither was true, and the same page already recorded that the club's own figure has not been obtained. The split of 151, 169 and 8 is now attributed to the one printed source it can be traced to: Sedgwick and Gillies, A to Z of Cars 1945 to 1970, 1986, as cited by Wikipedia. No figure has changed. The history page's range of published totals has also been corrected, from 300 to 328 to the full spread of about 300 to 370.
View the page →Aceca History: links onward, and tidier captions
The history article now links through to the chassis registry, the featured car and the production figures, and the leftover "Caption:" label has been removed from its photographs.
View the page →Chassis registry now declares a licence
The chassis registry now declares, in its structured data and in a statement on the page, that it is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. The licence covers the registry as a compilation; it does not cover the individual facts it records, nor photographs and documents contributed by owners and third parties.
View the page →Individual chassis records no longer listed in search engines
Each of the 334 chassis record pages carries only a few words specific to its own car, so they are no longer offered to search engines for listing. Every record remains on the site and reachable exactly as before, and the registry index and the browse-by pages are unaffected.
View the page →Five how-to guides now carry their own review date
Five of the how-to guides were inheriting the batch publication date of 18 July shared by the whole seed set, which understated when they were last worked on. They now each carry their own review date of 3 September, and the sitemap takes that date from the guide itself. The changelog page's own sitemap date is now derived from the date of its newest entry rather than being maintained by hand.
Publication dates now come from one place
This site held each page's publication date in three separate places and they had fallen out of step. One how-to guide was telling readers it had been updated in August while telling search engines it was modified in July; that guide now carries a single review date that both the page and its structured data read from. The sitemap now derives every date from the page it describes, rather than from a hand-maintained copy that had to be remembered separately, and any page with no date of its own is simply listed without one. Registry car pages, which previously published no date at all, now carry the date the record was added to the register.
Correction: the sitewide author description now names all six archives
The sitewide author description previously named only three of the author's single-model archives. It now names the full set: the AC Aceca, the Jaguar E-Type, the Jaguar Mk2, the Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider, the Triumph Stag and the MG T-Series. The sitewide author listing also now carries links to all six archive sites and the author's own site, matching the author page.
Door latches article extended after full read of 2013 forum thread
The door latches and strikers article has been extended after the 2013 club forum discussion was read in full. It now adds the oversize shaft repair described by a restorer, the named supplier position, the specific bear claw product proposed, and the finding that no account exists anywhere of anyone having cured this fault on an Ace or Aceca by any method.
View the page →New page on door latches and strikers
A subject the archive did not cover at all: a search here for "door catch" previously returned nothing. The new page sets out how the rotary star wheel latch works, how to read a door that sits proud before condemning the part, and which repairs owners report as having worked and which one is on record as having failed. The long standing suggestion that the MG A Fixed Head Coupe latch interchanges is recorded as the strongest lead there is and as still unconfirmed after more than twenty years.
View the page →Interior guide gains a section on identifying and sourcing seat shells
The interior guide now covers how to tell the right seats apart: the flat rear panel that distinguishes Ace and Aceca seats from Cobra seats, the differences between Ace and Aceca seats, and the carpet finished seat back. It also records one car that left the works with an Ace seat on one side and an Aceca seat on the other. Two seat suppliers have been added to the directory, which previously had none.
View the page →New page on bumpers and overriders
A subject the archive did not cover at all. The page establishes from Motor Sport's Earls Court report of November 1955 that overriders became standard on the Ace and bumpers on the Aceca for the 1956 season, and that neither was standard before. It dates the changeover between the two overrider patterns to late September 1955, and records one export car photographed in period without rear overriders. The page carries an unusually long list of what could not be established.
View the page →Oil temperature gauge article names a capillary instrument repairer
The oil temperature gauge article now names D H Day of Wroughton, Wiltshire, as a capillary instrument repairer and points to a published account of the do it yourself repair, and its sources note now cites the club forum thread it was built from rather than referring vaguely to owner experience. Instrument repair has been added to the suppliers directory, which previously had no entry for it.
View the page →Two articles corrected after re-reading their sources
The front disc brakes article had an unsourced date claim removed from its opening and now records how the forum disagreement resolved, the member who made the first claim having published the correction against himself. The suspension grease article was rewritten because it had presented a grease read from an AC 428 chassis plate, and explicitly guessed at by the owner who reported it, as the original specification for the Ace and Aceca, when the question in the source thread was never answered.
View the page →Seventh Aceca production total added to production page
A seventh published Aceca production total, 318, has been added to the figures-in-circulation table on the production page. It is sourced to the restorer's build board for chassis AEX 531, supplied to the archive by the car's owner in September 2026, and is recorded as being in circulation rather than as supported.
View the page →Wiring diagrams page gains document titles and an unresolved horn relay discrepancy
The Lucas wiring diagrams page now records the documents' own titles and issue dates as quoted by members holding physical copies. It also notes that no diagram issued later than February 1957 has been found in the club forum thread, and records an unresolved discrepancy between the diagrams and at least one car over the horn relay, including the Lucas 6RA part number 33188B. All of it is drawn from a single AC Owners Club forum thread running from September 2018 to January 2022.
View the page →Zagato identification corrected and wiring diagrams made easier to find
The chassis guide caption now identifies BEX 477 correctly as an Ace-Bristol rather than an Aceca-Bristol. The wiring diagrams page was retitled to name both the AC Ace and Aceca after a reader enquiry showed that Ace owners could not find it.
View the page →Interior guide: seat runners and floor mounting
The interior care guide gained a section on seat runners and floor mounting, drawn from an AC Owners' Club forum thread. It covers the wood fillets fitted to the door side of the runners only, the adjuster lever sitting on the left of both seats, and the lack of a current source for replacement runners now that the specialist who supplied reproductions has died.
View the page →The single-car articles now have an index
Three pages on this site follow one particular car, and two of them could not be reached from the menu at all. The Featured menu item pointed straight at one specific car, UBR 135, while /featured itself did not exist and returned a not found page. There is now an index of the documented cars at /featured, and the Featured menu lists all three. The footer had also been quietly dropping History from its list of pages, the result of an off by one in the way that list was built; History now appears there.
View the page →New article: AC Ace Bristol BE 232
A new page records AC Ace Bristol BE 232, 593 CPC: an ex-works development car with a lightweight aluminium body, raced by Geoff Wilson and Vic Hassall at Goodwood, Shelsley Walsh and Chateau Impney, laid up in a barn for forty years under Victor Yates, and restored by Kevin Kivlochan. The page is drawn from a single named magazine source, "Aced It" by Ivan Ostroff with photography by Laurens Parsons, Classic Cars, April 2017, and credits its author and photographer plainly. What the article records as thought rather than fact is kept as such, and its 2017 valuation is not reproduced.
View the page →Solex float levels corrected, and a new page on removing the Bristol camshaft
The Solex float levels page said that owners who had used both setting methods reported they arrive at the same place. In fact one specialist stated that the two methods agree and then asked publicly whether anyone who had used both could confirm it, and no confirmation came. The page now records that the two have not been compared in practice, and invites anyone who has used both to get in touch. The discussion is now cited directly. A new page on removing the Bristol camshaft has also been added. It records a single owner's account of the job, including the correction he later made to his own conclusion: that the oil pan can be dropped with the gearbox in place and the timing cover taken off with the engine still in the car.
View the page →Horn and indicator wiring page corrected
The horn and indicator wiring page reported mixed owner experience of replica Lucas horn and indicator switches when in fact a single owner had raised a doubt about them and his question about whether anyone had used them went unanswered. The page now records this as an open question and invites anyone who has fitted a replica to get in touch. The discussion the page draws on is now cited directly.
View the page →Overdrive fitting section added to gearbox page
Added a section to the gearbox and freewheel page on fitting an overdrive to an Aceca Bristol. It records that a Derek Hughes overdrive uses the existing gearbox mounts, while a Bristol 405 type overdrive gearbox, the BWCR12, would require the mounts to be altered. The question of whether the fibreglass gearbox tunnel must be widened is recorded as open, because as of September 2026 no Ace or Aceca owner has answered it publicly. The only forum response was from an owner who had fitted a Derek Hughes kit to a Bristol 400, a different car with a different tunnel, and his experience is described as an informed guess rather than an answer.
View the page →Front disc brakes page records a disagreement it had resolved
The front disc brakes page presented a contested point as settled. It stated that an earlier belief about caliper mounting spacing had been corrected from the Girling master catalogue, and instructed the reader to relieve the caliper rather than machine the disc, calling the alternative wrong and unsafe. The evidence does not support that certainty: one experienced owner stated one thing from handling the parts, another the opposite from a printed catalogue, and the discussion ended without independent verification. A third owner account had been missed entirely, that converting to Girling 16/3 calipers required the AC discs machined down slightly in diameter, which contradicts the page's main instruction. The page now records the disagreement rather than resolving it, and makes the practical point that what has to be machined appears to depend on which caliper is being fitted. An unattributed master cylinder number and two rear shoe numbers were cut, because their source could not be established. A section setting out what is still not established has been added.
View the page →Classic Dashboards entry corrected
Corrected the Classic Dashboards entry on the parts and specialists page. The archive had cautioned readers to confirm the firm was still trading, but that caution rested only on the age of a blog post and not on any evidence that it was not. Owners recommended Simon Lorkin on the AC Owners' Club forum in 2026. The entry now records the French address, the UK telephone number and the fact that parts must be removed from the car and sent rather than seen in situ.
View the page →Registry transcription errors corrected
An owner wrote in to report that his car's entry carried a history note belonging to the chassis above it in the register. He was right, and the fault was not confined to his car. The April 2014 AC Owners' Club Aceca register was transcribed from a two-column PDF that lost its row boundaries, so a note could attach to its own row and bleed onto the next. 48 rows have been repaired. Where a note contained the preceding entry's note as a prefix, the borrowed prefix was removed and the remainder kept. Where a note was wholly duplicated from the row above and specific enough to belong to one car only, it was removed. Nine rows had the trim colour welded onto the end of the original colour, for example a colour reading "Black PearlRed" where the car is Black Pearl with Red trim. Those were split. The 2023 Bristol register records the same colours correctly in separate fields, which confirms the split. Three rows where the two PDF columns had been interleaved character by character carried the same text in both columns and were recovered exactly. Six rows remain damaged and were deliberately not guessed at. In those the two columns interleaved irregularly and the original text cannot be recovered with confidence. They are left as they are and marked unconfirmed, because inventing a plausible note would be worse than showing a damaged one. The 2023 Aceca Bristol register and the 2009 Aceca 2.6 register are essentially unaffected. The fault is specific to the April 2014 document.
Prompted by the car's owner.
View the page →Owner address removed from two registry entries
Two entries carried a named individual's full home address, which had come across in the club register transcription and had been published on indexable pages. The registry pages state twice that owner details are never published. That promise was not being kept. The name and address have been removed from both entries. The acquisition date was kept, because the date is registry data and the address is not. All 335 rows were then searched for any other personal address, telephone number or email address. None was found. Names of previous owners remain, because ownership provenance is what a register is for, but no contact or location details do.
View the page →Confidence badges corrected on the 2014 register
Every one of the 334 published entries carried a green Confirmed badge, including the ones that were demonstrably wrong. The owner who wrote in read his entry as authoritative partly because of that badge. 86 of the 155 entries drawn from the April 2014 register are now marked unconfirmed: every row that was repaired, every row still carrying damaged text, and every row whose note is identical to another entry's, where there is no way to tell which car the note belongs to. 69 entries from that register keep Confirmed, as do all 171 Bristol entries and all 8 of the 2.6 entries. The badge now means something.
View the page →Lucas wiring diagram reference page
A new reference page lists the four known Lucas wiring diagram numbers for the AC Ace and Aceca (W29340, W29340A, W31520 and W31520A), their dates and where to obtain copies through the AC Owners Club archives and forum.
View the page →Wiring and the loom, the clutch, and a Morgan correction
Two new how-to pages: the wiring loom, covering who still makes harnesses for these cars, the Lucas colour code and why a wood framed body needs so many separate earths, and the clutch and its hydraulics, which records that the master cylinder differs by engine while the slave does not. The gearbox page has been corrected: the Morgan interchange in this clutch is the carbon faced release bearing, Borg and Beck 46890, not the slave cylinder.
View the page →The AC Light Six servicing set completed
Two further pages for AC's own engine: valve clearances, where the 0.020in hot figure is unusually well supported and the job doubles as a wear diagnosis, and spark plugs and ignition, which records conventional 14mm plugs rather than the Bristol's 10mm, the contact breaker gaps by distributor, and two published ignition timing figures that cannot both be right. The conflict is reported rather than resolved.
View the page →Servicing pages for AC's own Light Six engine
Roughly half of all Acecas have AC's own Light Six rather than the Bristol 100D2, and every servicing page here was written for the Bristol. Two new pages begin to correct that: cooling the AC Light Six, which explains why coolant choice on a mixed metal engine is a structural question, and engine oil and filter, which covers the factory monograde, normal oil pressure and the bypass filter. The servicing hub now asks which engine you have before anything else.
View the page →Parts and specialists, and clubs and records
Two new pages. The first sets out who actually supplies parts for the three engines and who works on these cars, and separates the AC-specific parts from the many that were bought in from suppliers serving the whole British industry. The second explains that there is no AC heritage certificate, what the AC Owners Club's DVLA V765 role means, and where a Bristol engine's factory records now live. Nothing on either page is paid for and nobody asked to be listed.
View the page →Registry titles now carry the registration
Chassis pages for the 177 cars with a recorded registration now show it in the page title alongside the chassis number, so a search on a number plate finds the car.
View the page →Year added to 324 registry cars
A year is now shown on registry chassis pages, derived only from the recorded ex-factory date. 324 of the 334 cars carry one. Nothing was inferred from the chassis series, and the ten cars with no usable date show no year at all.
View the page →Sister-site block removed from the footer
The block of links to related sites was taken out of the footer. A single author credit remains, and the full list of sites now sits on the author page where it belongs.
View the page →Storage, humidity and dehumidifiers
A new page on storing a car built from three materials. Steel, aluminium and ash each decay by a different route, which is why one storage regime does not suit all three.
View the page →Winter driving
A new page on using the car through the winter: salt, cold starting, and what to do afterwards.
View the page →Driving without synchromesh on first
A new page on double-declutching and getting first gear cleanly on a gearbox that offers no help.
View the page →Production figures corrected on the buying guide
The buying guide stated roughly 320 AC-engined cars, about 150 Aceca-Bristols and a handful of Ford cars. The verified figures are 328 in total: 151 AC-engined, 169 Bristol and 8 Ford. The correction was carried through every page quoting a production count.
View the page →Gallery cut back to real photographs
Twelve empty frames were removed from the gallery, along with the captions written for photographs that did not exist. Five photographs of UBR 135 were put in their place: side profile, the triple Solex installation, the walnut dashboard, the rear luggage deck and the tailgate open.
View the page →What was the first hatchback
A new page setting out the four competing claims, the Aston Martin DB2/4, the Aceca, the Renault 16 and the Citroen, without settling the question. The Aceca is not claimed as first here.
View the page →Thames Ditton, the works
A new page on the factory: the Weller brothers from 1911, the years of AC production at Thames Ditton, and the redevelopment of the site in 1986.
View the page →Image rights wording corrected
The wording on photographs was rewritten to match actual practice. Photographs are the archive's own unless stated otherwise, and where a source is still being confirmed that is said plainly rather than being glossed over.
UBR 135 provenance record expanded
The featured car page gained its specification table, the engine rebuild photographs with technical commentary, the AC Cars correspondence of 25 August 1966, and the section on the car being supplied through Ken Rudd. Personal details in the documents are permanently redacted.
View the page →First journal entry, Mathewsons Live 2026
A first-hand report from the Mathewsons sale at Thornton-le-Dale, with photographs taken on the day.
View the page →
Found something here that is wrong, or know of a car or a document that would improve the record? Get in touch.