We Like Airfields

 

 A run out had been organised to Compton Abbas aerodrome, but it clashed with an England world cup game, so it was re-arranged for the 22^nd – which dawned warm & bright & clear. There were two groups out for this one, easterners & westerners, I could’ve joined either from home, but selected the western group as that gave me an extra ¾ hour in bed. I was the second to arrive at the east / west meet point on the A31, David & Mrs T having been there long enough to fuel up, people pulled in in ones & twos & we had to wait for a couple of late

comers. While there a couple of blokes came in to fill-up, one in a Maserati, the other in a Porsche Panamera, both pulled out of the garage & hit the loud pedal hard, in the process probably using more petrol than I would all day & not accelerating any faster.

When we were all collected, fuelled up & had inspected each other’s cars for new modifications, we hit the road. It was a glorious day, the roads were quiet - can’t remember seeing a single horse-box! We rumbled through pretty thatched villages & whizzed along the dead straight A30. Usually we’d dismiss dead straight roads as being too dull, but that road, on that day was sublime. One or two cars to break up the straightness with a little overtaking, good visibility, then back to the twisties.

And twisties there were aplenty, there is a superb switch-back section only about a mile from the aerodrome which has maybe six tight turns, we picked them off with gusto & without any tin-tops ahead of us.

 

Breakfast was taken on the patio watching the little planes putter about, while the SKCC bantered. Also there for feeding time were a couple of very pretty 1950’s Austin Healeys & a whole flock of police folk who kindly took no interest in our car’s front No. plates. Also filled with kindness was the lady who parked next to me at the end of a row, then asked if there would be any more of us, because she’d move her Fiesta so we could all park together. How very considerate.

 Breakfast devoured, we headed back to the car park, I had plotted a route home via the New Forest so I could pick up some rough cider in Burley, but Mr Mango had compiled a route for a handful of the crew, so I tagged along with that to begin with, this turned out to be a good thing as his route went up the switch-back, I waved my farewells & dropped out of formation at the top, turned - & did the switch-back again.

 

 

 

 

The journey home was a pleasant one, with the sun still shining, I did get stuck in traffic close to Ringwood, but avoided it apart from that.

Ahhh yes, a very pleasant Sunday morning.

There's a video here:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwPhWqylC5Y&feature=youtu.be

Indicators

The multi-LED bulb

At the Loomies run a couple of weeks ago David T pointed out that my front indicators weren’t working, a closer inspection revealed they were working but so dim that they didn’t show up in the sunshine. Something needed to be done.

The new single LED lamp units

The problem stems from my own fussiness. I wanted a late ‘50s look for the car (without getting obsessive about it), so fitted the Lucas style indicators, then I found some clear Lucas “488” lenses on Ebay & bought them, these are the flat jobs rather than the pointy ones & are clear, so match the headlights in both shape & colour.

But all was not well! The Lucas 488 bulb holders are different – deeper so the bulb fits behind the flat lens. I didn’t have the bulb holders so the bulbs didn’t fit. I found some small globe bulbs in orange – but they weren’t dark enough orange, Mr MoT man said. So I bought the small LED bulbs which as I said weren’t bright enough.

External earth in a wheel bay? It WILL corrode.

So now I’ve bought another pair of 3w LED lamps like the Day Running Lights & the reverse lights, except these light up orange. I took the indicators off the car, which as an additional benefit meant the external earth which had caused problems got binned, took out the already rusty steel bulb holders & made four aluminium discs, two accurately fitted the bulb holders, the other two “less so”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I cut the rubber boot off the back of the bulb holder, sikaflexed the rougher discs to the inside of the body & used the thread on the back of the lamp to hold the two discs & the rubber lens holder together.

 

 Wired it up & Bob’s-your-uncle. Reliable modern LED indicators inside 1950’s looking lamps.

 

 

 

 

Little Blatts

Been out on a couple of short - ish runs, one with NCD from the SKCC who's Fury has been stripped pretty much to the chassis, re- engineered to a much higher standard (& it was a nicely built car to start with) & passed it's MoT 1st time after three years. He needed a wing man for a test drive, so we kept it pretty local, but alas there was a problem - a loss of power, though the car got him home which is always the main thing.

Good to see the blue Fury out on the road though.

Then on Sunday I met up with David T & we took a trip to Loomies for breakfast to meet up with another couple of SKCCers. Gorgeous day as you can tell from this bit of video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAqiRIA3ImI

 



The aim of the vid was to mess with synching footage with music, as you'll see, some of it worked, some didn't.