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.

The Last Post (for today)

For today's third & final post, I'd like to draw you attention to this month's Complete Kit Car magazine, the cover of which looks like this:-

And there dear reader, 4th from the front is my Fury. I was invited by CKC to attend a small gathering at Donnington race track, the plan being to put together one good example of each of the esteemed Mr Phillips' cars.

It was a long old trek to get there, but nice - no - an honour, to meet the man himself & the Fury behaved impeccably throughout - as did the rest of the Sylva designs present. Inside the magazine is a long article about JP & his cars, the stories of each car present will be the subject of an article next month, so I'm going to have to buy another when that comes out.

The Last "Exhausting" Joke - I Promise - For Now

That's because (fanfare) the extended exhaust is finished. Today I picked up the welded tail section from Ashby Welding (www.ashbywelding.co.uk) & what a lovely job they've made of it.

As soon as I got home I trimmed the tail pipes to length & shaped them a bit - purely for artistic impression - & made up a stainless steel hanger to the weight of the tail pipe isn't hanging from the last bend, I also cut holes in the grille over the central vent in the removable valance. After a quick brush up with a wire brush, I must say I think it looks pretty good. On the evidence of a few miles - no fumy smell in the car at all.

More Exhausting

So, with the exhaust more or less in place, all it needed was a mount near the back & I could put it back on it’s wheels & drive it – it’s still waiting the tail pipes, but with the rear valence removed the exhaust was clear of the car. 

The exhaust was passing the main chassis rail behind the wheel, so having found a short length of aluminium channel left over from the alternator mount, I cut it to suit, squirted it with black pant & with a little sikaflex as jointing, riveted it on. As it doesn’t show up terribly well in the wheel arch (this is a good thing) I offer a CAD drawing so you know what it looks like.

 

I’ve also cut & shaped the tubing for the tail pipes & will drop them into Ashby Welding this evening as this section will be visible & my welding REALLY isn’t good enough for that.

Assuming I don’t find that the tyre hits under full bump, the car’s drivable again. Hoorah!

Mirror, mirror …….. two mirrors.

The door mirrors have always been a bit of a problem, when I built the car it had a plastic mirror that complied with the SVA rules, it was large & ugly & “fell off” soon after. Other people either use racing car mirrors, or motorcycle mirrors & this is fine & dandy. But I (being a finicky twit) wanted chrome circular mirrors to fit in with the car’s style as I saw it. I eventually found something that I felt would go & fitted them – only to find that mostly, all I could see was the rear wing of my own car. After humming & harring I made a couple of alloy brackets that lifted the mirrors, but sadly all was still not well.

The mirrors were flat so had a small angle of view, quite a lot of which was obscured by the deflector & it’s strut. This made driving on the continent quite scary as with luggage on the back I had no view over my left shoulder at all.

A solution appeared when Car Builder Solutions stocked a new mirror, one that was chrome & on quite a tall elegant stalk, also they had convex glass so had a much larger field of view. I ordered a pair, & when they arrived I rushed excitedly out to the garage & placed them on the doors.

Problems appeared. First the foot was not large enough to cover the two holes left by the previous mirrors, second, fitting them to the doors meant the doors would no longer open – or at least you’d need to take the deflectors off before the door would open. I thought about this for a long time. I thought about moving the deflectors, I thought about fitting the mirrors somewhere else. At last inspiration struck, I needed to mount the mirrors on a small “plinth”. I cast around the garage looking for something that would be the right thickness as well as easy to cut & work. Wood was the obvious solution, though not very practical. Eventually My eyes came to rest on a lump of the old bonnet, the rear top edge, effectively a L section piece of GRP.

I found that if I cut the leg lengths of the angle just right I could have a plinth for the mirror that was vertical – this was much better as the deflector then swung nicely past the mirror edge when the door opened, also the mirror was higher to improve the vie over the rear wing & looked even more elegant. What didn’t look so elegant was the rough cut angle of GRP. Again casting round the garage I found some old car body filler, so I slapped a load of that inside the L & at both ends & placed it on an acetate sheet to get a flat rear face.

After some (quite a lot) sanding I had a pleasing shape with the strength of 5mm thick GRP. A coat of black paint & there you go. I think It’s a great improvement.