Classic car accessories that are highly collectible

October 25th 2022

The days of hot cams and GRP spoilers are past, but you can still have fun adding period gadgets to your classic, says Gordon Cruickshank. All except that ‘Italian wolf whistle’…

From handy to horrible, accessories have always been a lucrative sector of the automotive market

Accessorise! Proud car owners have always attempted to personalise their machine with add-ons, useful or otherwise, and it goes much further back than today’s underbody light sets: in Edwardian years you could buy a rear-view mirror (imagine!), a wicker umbrella holder or a snake’s head horn for your Stutz or Mercedes, or for the more refined a unique mascot for your Rolls-Royce radiator.

“Fluffy dice on the mirror have swung from kitsch to retro-ironic ”

It’s yet another area of the collecting hobby, as classic car owners look for ways to travel back to calmer times. Between the wars and even into the 1960s a heater or a pair of swivelling sun visors were comfort add-ons, but they hardly add style. What you really want is visible kit – and in the ’50s and ’60s a windscreen visor was a hot item, made to spark up your Ford Zephyr or Hillman Minx with a hint of dazzling California sunshine. It’s unlikely you’ll find an original that isn’t attached to a car, but surprisingly, new steel visors for a range of British classics are available online. Just don’t think about the safety consequences for any unintended pedestrian interface events. Although that’s not as bad as in my childhood when my toddler sister was carted around in a clip-on car seat with a metal tray table across her middle which in a crash would have neatly sliced her in half.

Clip on luxury headset — Clip-on luxury – but those flimsy adjusting nuts won’t protect your neck if you’re rear-ended

Clip-on headrests were another ‘luxury’ extra before these were built in to front seats – just don’t rely on the claimed anti-whiplash benefits. Real 1960s examples with unsplit vinyl will take some searching out, although you can get a suitably styled modern version for under £100.

For that ‘I’m a high-speed executive’ look, spotlamps are a must, either a matched pair (with chequered covers, naturally) or a single offside passing lamp to send a spear of bright light past the car in front before overtaking. (That was back in the days when people used to overtake.) You’ll want to match the style period – fashionable rectangular lamps suit the 1970s – and there’s a big choice of brand-new options if you don’t want to search for period examples. To add the rally look if you’re doing historic events a pair of distinctively shaped Cibie Oscars used to be the must-have; a good 50-year-old pair will fetch £200-£300 but you can also buy new.

A swivelling roof spotlamp like the works Minis would be distinctive, but if you don’t fancy leaks on your head there’s always the Helphos option – a directable plastic lamp that suctioned to the inside of your windscreen: £60-£150. Perfect for reading the signposts on a night stage on the Monte-Carlo Historique. Your navigator, if he’s not using his Poti (it’s an illuminated map magnifier) might appreciate a map light: find a swivelling chrome example on Ebay for £20, or a more useful flexible gooseneck – £30-£60 for period ones.

An old car’s windscreen looks empty without a tax disc; there used to be a big industry in disc holders, stick-on, magnetic or suction, so search at autojumbles or go to Holden Vintage & Classic for a new old-style one, then visit Earlswood Vintage & Classic to have a dated disc made up to suit. Badge bars were another way to proudly display your memberships or interests. Modern bars are available for £15-£30, while genuine old badges make a fun objective for car-boot sale visits – a fiver and up

Moving on to ‘set-dressing’ items – the period props you’ll see carefully arranged on the seat or in the boot at shows – we’ll leave out those stickers that said “We’ve seen the lions at Longleat”, although there is still a market in unused promotional stickers for Redex, Yardley McLaren and all the other racing teams. What you might want for your 1960s-mobile is “I’ve got a tiger in my tank”, Esso’s very successful PR campaign, and most of all you might search for the striped velvet tiger’s tail to hang from the fuel flap, looking convincingly as though you’ve trapped an endangered species in a toxic space. Originals are very hard to find, but reproductions abound for a tenner up. Ditto for fluffy dice to dangle from the mirror, which have swung from kitsch to retro-ironic. Not so the famous nodding dog for the back window – which you can still buy if you really must.

A period picnic set is a popular scene-setter for a 1930s or ’50s vehicle – wicker baskets are always popular, accompanied by a tartan travel rug, but orange plastic cups and Thermos flasks in a Rexine case will look just right in your Hillman Avenger. There are many available online from £30 on (although there’s a suspiciously high number of perfect and complete ones claiming to be genuine vintage).

Finally, if your vehicle dates from the 1970s or ’80s you could search for a beaded seat cover, promoted for ventilation and massage qualities. After all, a million cabbies can’t be wrong.