Busy Weekend Part 2

Having got up early yesterday for  the excellent Wheels Day, we were up early again, heading in the opposite direction for the Brooklands "Spring Gathering". The weather had looked iffy, but turned out better than forecast, so another excellent day was had. The variety of cars was again good - though not as "extreme" as Wheels Day & after a while the sun came out - ish. We also had a guided tour of my nephew's girlfriend's car restoration training workshop which was good.

I'll start with this '56 Chevy, certainly a bold colour choice, buy it just worked.

Isn't that lovely? Styling wise I don't think the Americans get it right that often, but when they do it can be very good indeed.

Subtle, well proportioned & easy to live with.

The paint on this was amazing, the sun came out just as we were talking about it & WOW!

You wouldn't want to get even a minor scratch on it though.

Zoom in - go on.

Back in the late '70s you didn't see a V8 Pop because no-one had worked out how to fit one in & keep some space in the inside. This one had a large V8 & four useable seats, which speaks volumes for the quality of the engineering. 

The "quilted" aluminium firewall was a work of art too.

A "Vincent Hurricane" - essentially a new body for a rusty Spitfire. You don't see too many around any more.

VWs & their offspring always feature heavily, & these two Type 2 pick-ups were very nice.

As was this GP Beach Buggy.

And this Nova with a Lotus badge. There were kits available to fit a Ford engine onto the VW transaxle, so it mat be that this car has a TwinCam. There was another Nova with a tube chassis & what appeared to be a mid mounted Alfa Boxer engine.

Classic Model A Hot Rod. It has been racing a Pendine Sands.

I got arty.

There was one of these at Wheels Day & I don't think it was the same one.

Also in the very small but sweet category was this Fiat 500. There seemed to be a great many Fiats in attendance.

Early Corvette was nice, but.....

...not as nice (to my eyes) as the slightly later one. I'll say it again - why doesn't a Cobra manufacturer make an early 'vette shell to fit their chassis?

Another Fiat - not one I was familiar with, I thought it was a Saab Sonnet at first.

Pretty little thing.

Freshly wrapped Haines Roadster looked good, the "wear" & "dirt" is in the wrap.

No manufacturer anywhere has ever made a car that had better styling than the two door MkI Escort. But now they're trying to see you a four door electric Capri.

I rest my case.

Weirdness. I'd guess that an Australian wanted the ultimate in a luxury "ute".

Body panels were perfectly straight & fitted well. Very impressive.

Yellow Tiger was just lovely. there were perhaps four Tigers in attendance. I would imagine some were ex-Alpines.

Representing the exotic end, were a couple of Maseratis, which were pretty stunning.

And finally. A friend sent an ad for this a couple of years ago when it was for sale. Someone thought "what if Lotus had done the Consul Capri instead of the Cortina". So they built one using Lotus Cortina parts & carrying out the same sort of mods - like the extra instruments & the wide steel wheels. It looked REALLY good.

Busy Weekend Part 1

The Easter long weekend, my girlfriend & I had a busy weekend planed, she arrived on Thursday after a nightmare journey down the A1 & M25, then had to get up early to jump in the Stylus & go to Wheels Day.

This wasn't just any old Wheels Day, this was the 50th Surrey Street Rodder's Wheels Day. As we trundled down the M4 we started seeing other interesting cars around us, then just as we pulled onto the off slip, everything stopped. there was a queue right down to the roundabout & then all round the roundabout, after that it cleared a little, so it wasn't actually the car show causing it, but people blocking the roundabout by not making sure there was a gap to drive into before moving. I took us 1/2 hour to get in, but later there were suggestions that it was taking two hours.

Anyway, Wheels Day 50 was brilliant with a very diverse range of cars, some of which are presented below. This year it stayed dry & we had a fantastic day.

Slightly ratty Ginetta. Looks like it's getting some love though.

My Nephew's 100e

My Brother's Prefect

Model B pick up in red oxide.

No idea what it is, other than it's a Pontiac & I'd guess at 1958

Unbelievably small Fiat 500

Now this was brilliant, how crazily over-the-top can you go? there were a number of cars that would've taken the "most outrageous in show", until this turned up. It's called "Warchief" & has a Red Indian motif, from the laser cut feathers in two lines along the top, to the cowhide "vinyl roof", then there was the copper wire stitching between the panels - oh & the six wheels. I doff my hat to the creator.

It was surrounded by smiling people all day.

It's not easy to roof chop a morris minor & make it look right, there's a lot of curves & not much length to blend them out it, but this one was superbly done. Oh - & then there was the huge modern V8 in it too. Superb workmanship & engineering.

Variety - we like that in a car show 

Citroen Light 15 cabrio, found as a heap of wreckage & restored.

Oh - & a large duck

Two '30s pick ups. The silver one - actually bare aluminium - is all hand wheeled. again superb workmanship.

There was a shed with various race cars in, including this rail car with two V8s - well, you would wouldn't you?

Also indoors was this beautiful MkI Cortina, with a few tasteful mods

  And a MkI Capri with a 6.3 V8 beautifully installed

Will you look at that? That's a 1950s designer's idea of a practical delivery truck. Just stunning.

This camper's owner probably thought it would be the most outrageous car at the show, close, but no cigar.

Sweeeeeeet!

This was interesting. As a model A, it would've left the factory with a four cylinder Ford engine & indeed, that's what it still has.........

,,,,,,but that's a Zetec, dressed up to look old. The braded cable, the brass fasteners & the plumbing all combine to make you doubt the evidence of your own eyes. Very very clever & probably does 40mpg

Pretty sure it wasn't an original, but it was a very good replica.

Revenge, I've told the story before, so I won't bore you again. Just fantastic!

Another contender for the outrageous award. Must try harder.

Not outrageous, just a bit weird. It was called "The Meowdi".

Clearly someone though this '59 Cadillac was lacking some length, so put a "continental" spare wheel kit on it.

For some people restoring a car just isn't enough of a challenge. How about restoring a lorry to carry it about on?

Redundancy - When It's A Good Thing.

 In this case I'm talking about redundancy in switching - when something important can be switched by independent switches so if one fails, the other still works.

For example the Stylus' cooling fan can be switched on by a temperature switch on the engine, one on the radiator, or by the ECU. I did have something similar for the brake lights, there were hydraulic switches on both front & rear circuits, plus I'd fitted a microswitch on the pedal as that switches as soon as the pedal starts to move, rather than when the pressure builds in the system & might just give a fraction of a second more warning to someone behind me.

BUT, the lever on the microswitch broke a while ago & now I'd taken one of the hydraulic switches out (it was the high point in the system & may have been causing the bleeding issue), that left only one switch, so I looked at re-instating one on the pedal. 

I've used the 3D printer several times when making parts for the car - this time I actually used the 3D printer, because I used a roller microswitch from a filament sensor. I made it fit the bracket from the old switch, but the bolt head the old one hit to switch it was too small. Looking through the pot of left-over fasteners I came upon a furniture bolt with an M6 thread to match the riv-nut in the roof of the footwell, a square to lock into the wood & a smooth domed head - perfect - NEVER throw things away.

You can just see it above the top left of the pedal, with the microswitch roller touching it. Obviously the important thing is to make sure nothing can restrict the pedal travel, so the bracket is very thin soft aluminium & the lever for the microswitch is very thin, so they'll both just crush if the worst happens, but in normal use, they're not close to anything.

Rally Design - A Thank You

In the post before last I mentioned that the Stylus failed MoT on a weeping rear calliper, that Rally Design answered my query inside 5 mins & although they were out of stock of the callipers needed for the disc brake conversion on my car - meaning I would be out of both Wheels Day & the RogueRunners Devon road trip - they looked around & came up with an alternative solution & got that dispatched.

It arrived at 11:00 ish today, fitted perfectly & within a couple of hours I was bleeding the brakes - which is where I'm currently stuck. I've got it to the point where I can get pressure after three pumps & my brother will come over after tea to help with bleeding the rest of the air out.

One of the e-mails from RD said the alternative was the same calliper with a different bracket, I looked at them & couldn't see a difference so initially when test fitting, used the new bracket (because "shiny"), but I soon noticed the disc was slightly offset in the groove, so the nice people at RD were absolutely correct, I swapped to the old bracket.

So - assuming I get them bled through OK - disaster averted & a BIG thank you to Rally Design for going the extra mile & getting me the parts.

I used many Rally Design parts on the Rickman Ranger all those years ago & was always pleased with the quality & price - not something I would normally say about "aftermarket" parts.

The Stylus on a previous road trip - there will be more!

Blackbushe May 25

 I & my girlfriend to the Stylus to Blackbushe on Sunday, we had breakfast in the café, saw my nephew & a couple of friends & wandered among the cars. Here is the Stylus among some esteemed company. It was chilly with a bit of a wind, but very sunny, which made photography difficult as my shadow seemed to be permanently in my photos.

Ford Model A - built in Canada, imported from South Africa, it's had quite a journey

Just lovely

I had a two door MkI in that colour....

...AND I had a MkIII in that colour.

We chatted to the owner of this Westfield XI for some time.

AC was very nice.

'33 Ford three window, MMMmmm!

This view doesn't show the orange flake paint, but it was stunning.

Soft top Interceptor

OH NO!

The Stylus went for its MoT today at the brilliant Silvesters in Guildford.

It does look pretty tired to be fair

BUT - it failed! one of the rear callipers was weeping hydraulic oil. Obviously I checked the fluid level before bringing it home, & it has two separate brake systems & it's traffic all the way, so there was no risk as the front brakes were perfectly OK. I knew the disc conversion kit was a Rally Design one, so I looked online - the calliper looked the same, but on the car they're handed & there was only one part number. I sent a message with a tick in the "URGENT" box & got a reply within 5 minutes saying if I ordered two (which I was) I'd get one left & one right.

I put the order in & got a confirmation, then DISASTER - an e-mail saying they were out of stock & it would be 4-5 weeks! That meant I was out of Wheels Day & the Devon road trip.

I e-mailed back explaining that I needed the car for a road trip & was there any alternative - could they supply a seal kit, or as I knew the calliper was a VAG part, could they tell me the vehicle so I could try somewhere else. About 15 mins later I got another e-mail saying there is another kit with the same calliper but different brackets, if I didn't mind swapping the brackets they could send that through. so as I write, the offending calliper is on the garage floor & the new ones are in the post, due tomorrow.

I think that's pretty good service, my only fear is that at some point since the car was built (24 years ago) Rally Design have changed the calliper type & the new ones won't fit.