Sad Day Sorn Day

 Yes, the Stylus is off the road for the Winter, so the DVLA owes me 5 months road tax. I took it out for a last run this evening to test a couple of things.

Thing one was a new camera mount that raises the cameras just above the roll bar, so it can see more of the scenery & less of the dashboard. It's a little "leggy", but I have a plan for that.

The other thing was an steering wheel.

The car came with a D-shaped black suede item from "OMP", which I didn't think went well with the car, so when my brother offered me the wheel from his HotRod of 50 years, I put that on. it looked great, just the job & I hung the OMP one on my kitchen wall as a conversation piece - which was fine, but I really wanted an older looking one. I looked around the Autojumble, where many wheels were to be found in pretty poor condition for £lots. However, I stumbled upon (literally) a wheel claiming to fit a Mini, in good condition for £30 & bought that. Then I started thinking. My brother's wheel looked good, but when touring I found the rim a little thin & my hands ached, also, I'd never been very happy with the look of the adaptor I'd made. But could I fit the new one & hang the older wood rim wheel on the wall?

When we got back I summoned up my inner Aircraft Fitter & drilled out the rivets holding the spokes onto the mounting ring, I countersunk the holes & rivetted it back on, now with a smooth underside, drilled holes for bolts & there it was, fitted - ish.

Of course the centre looked ugly, so I set about drawing up a new centre cap using "OnShape", as ever with me, it ended up a little "complex" as it had to fit over all the uglyness.

There were rebates for the bolts, for the arms and for a square rubber plug to retain it in the square hole in the centre of the wheel. That I will admit was a little genius. How do you hold a centre cap on without bolts & without it vibrating & buzzing? I used the square hole to fit a TPU (soft polyurethane) block I'd drawn & printed, which wedged into both the wheel & the cap - job done.

I set it printing at about 9:30 that evening, then had a "better" idea.  I could put subtle coloured rings on it! So I sat up late & swapped the colour to blue, then set my alarm & an hour later, re-set it to silver.

Then after another hour, orange, then silver again.

Obviously by this time I'd had broken sleep all night & it was a rather jaded Blatter that staggered down stairs the following day & was rather pleased when he found the display on the printer showing 99%.

I peeled it off the print mat & tried it on the wheel - perfect!

This was a good thing after a sleepless night.

Isn't that the cat's nightwear?

How did I manage without a 3D printer?

Holidays III

 

We had a week in the New Forest because - the AutoJumble was on & my girlfriend wanted to go.

As we arrived on the Saturday this was up for auction. I've been seeing barn-find E-Types for 30 years, surely there have now been more pulled out than there are barns to pull them out of.

This one went for £29k

Lovely soft top, early 2 door DS & a much later 4 door behind it.

Immaculate old Lancia - these have a weird looking engine, the cast cam cover looks like an aluminium blancmange with spark plugs sticking out apparently randomly.

This was not for sale. "Tetanus" was found as the rusted out wreck of a four door, front wheel drive Cord. Normally a properly expensive car, but there was so little left, it was not worth restoring. Until that is Andy Saunders found it. Andy has built some fantastic HotRods & as you can see the car is now a swoopy two door coupe & driven by the correct wheels. It is absolutely stunning.

Still a working vehicle, this Morris van was beautiful.

This was in the car park - & we saw it driving though the forest as well. It's a coach-built MG, one was built for a car show & an American ordered 100 to sell, but in the end only 60 odd were delivered, but isn't it fantastic?

Also in the "not seen one of those before" category was this Prefect pick-up. no idea of the history but it was either factory made or brilliantly executed, you can usually tell a saloon made into a pick-up, but this had none of the usual traits.

After the AutoJumble we visited Sammy Miller's Motorcycle Museum, as is usually the case we arrived as it opened & were thrown out when it closed. This was in the car park when we arrived.

I'm afraid I can't claim any great interest in motorcycles, but I do like engineering & there was certainly some of that on display - like this one with .......

.....a combined fairing / exhaust casting.

Or quarter-eliptic leaf spring front suspension........

,,,,,or girder forks with six springs, only two of which control the forks going up & down........

..... some had no forks at all & were just plain weird .......

....... while others were like rolling art works.

We even saw the actual Sammy Miller, now 90 years young, wandering about & organising people.

This was someone's Uni project. Looks fantastic, but I couldn't get past the idea that the engine's in there with you - that's not going to make for a relaxing experience.

There's a bit of a kit car connection here, the blue & green bikes were owned by Don & Derek Rickman - they of the Rickman Ranger kit, two of which I have owned.

A bike that falls into the "interesting" category. I expect there's an engine in there somewhere.

Not someone's custom built confection, but a standard 1938 Zundapp.

It looked absolutely fantastic.

I told you there was some weird front suspension going on

Trapezium steering - really?

A six GALLON petrol tank on a bike, & all hand beaten aluminium

As I say I thoroughly enjoyed the trip there - not necessarily for the "right" reasons, I was intrigued by the inventiveness & weirdness & by just how many ways people had come up with of solving the same problem.

And finally You have to love an enormous dustbin fairing!

Holidays II

 

A couple of weeks later & we were back at Old Warden for another Shuttleworth airshow which started with a couple of MkV Spitfires it quite close formation.

And the collection's own Gloster Gladiator, which is always lovely to see 

Shuttleworth is a good place to see things you wouldn't normally see fly....

... in ways you wouldn't normally see them fly......

....... and in combinations you wouldn't expect, like DeHaviland's Comet & Vampire.

The next trip out was a 1940s weekend near Peterborough, quite a small event, but very enjoyable, with a few Nazis in a cardboard Pill Box.........

..... getting blown up. The mock battle was very well staged, with lots of gunfire & explosions......

.... and troops sheltering behind pick-ups driven by easy targets 😁

Holidays I

 Well, the Stylus hasn't been out much, it has been to a local meet & up to Peterborough & so far the fuel pump has remained mercifully quiet. The only thing approaching a mod is an attempt to improve the video interest by raising the cameras to roll bar height, A thing is currently on the printer, getting printed.

But I have not been sitting idle, my girlfriend & I have been to Shuttleworth airshows & the HotRod Supernationals, archaeological sites & 1940s events & we are recently back from the New Forest where we had that week of glorious weather in September. So you'll be wanting some photos?

I'll start at Shuttleworth on the weekend of the HotRod Supernats & here we have the world's oldest airworthy aircraft, with the world's oldest airworthy engine. It's a Bleriot IX - the same type that was the first aeroplane to cross the English Chanel. It doesn't fly often as the conditions need to be just right, but it does still fly.

Because the Supernats were on, there was HotRod royalty in the car park, this is "Revenge", built in the late '70s. Absolutely outrageous, but also incredibly cool, there's the rear suspension from a Mclaren F1 car under the back & 800bhp of supercharged V8 round the front, the detailed engineering is exquisite & it raised the bar for UK HotRods so high, that it's never been surpassed.

Of particular interest to my girlfriend was the visiting Fairey Swordfish - a particular favourite of hers (she clearly has a soft spot for slow ungainly things). It was over from the Navy Wings collection at NAS Yeovilton for a few days. The engine actually has 100bhp less than Revenge & it's probably no faster.

The very next day we were back at Old Warden for the Supernats proper.

You'll know I'm fond of a 100e. I was particularly fond of this one as the builder had eschewed the "usual" Pinto engine in favour of a V6 & had avoided the temptation to mess with the body - there's something about a 100e, the more you do to the body, the worse they look. a bit of de-chroming & a little lowering is all they need.

There were a few 1940 Willys Coupes there, all done drag strip style as Willy's tend to be 

Just nice, nothing wild, just a good usable car.

I've seen this Zephyr / Zodiac before & it's an absolute thug. Huge V8, with a proper tube chassis, cage etc, but all painted & upholstered, beautiful workmanship. It's like a cage fighter in a Saville Row suit.

Really liked this old Jag too the body mods were so well done it was really hard to tell where it had been changed, really impressive.

Same car from the front, I'm fairly sure that's not the original grille, but it looks perfect.

My family were there, my brother's Prefect (3ltr V6) on one of it's first outings after a full re-build following a 25 year lay up & my nephew's 100e (2ltr Pinto), again recently back from some work. No, I didn't take the Stylus - maybe next time.

Really like this Baja Bug, by no means the "usual" style, but breaking the mould is part of what it's all about.

Stunning

Bog standard Fordson van to compare & contrast with...........

....... a not in the least be standard one

More Willys - it is actually the same "Willys Overland" that designed the Jeep, which makes the faux military paint job quite cool.

And finally - that is just the coolest thing I've seen for a while.