Saturday 28 March 2009

Continued...

The next major event was Meg's first 12-Car rally, which took place thanks to the Vickers Barrow Motor Club (http://www.vbmc.co.uk/). The car proved to be flawless throughout and we managed not to drop any time anywhere, which is a credit to dear Meg! We only had one near-miss which resulted from being blinded after hitting a flood at speed, and me not being able to find the wiper switch in time. However, luckily, we only grazed the hedge! (Incidentally, the Monte Rally Plates are from an event in December that I did with Peter Leary in a 1953 Standard 8!)
Here's how she looked after the event.. Those wires took a lot of cleaning!





Since then, not a huge amount has happened. It snowed, so I went out to play:



Then it was finally dry and sunny, so I went out to play even more:








And finally, here are a couple of photos taken in front of my Grandmother's house... some rather nice surroundings, I'm sure you'll agree!







Anyway, that's about it for now, but I certainly hope to be posting more regularly!

Update!

Blimey, it's been nearly a year since I first set eyes on Meg!
Lots has happened since the wires went on. The next task was to underseal the underside. Previously the car had been painted underneath with Hammerite, the devil's paint. If you want an explanation why, just read Chris Perkins' blog!
A week was spent scraping off all the old hammerite, and filling my eyes with crap. Then, dashings of the new Dinitrol products were put on, and so far, it's proved excellent!


Anyway, as soon as this had been done, the MOT was booked. In true British-Car fashion, no end of problems occured the evening before the test. A sealed-beam unit failed, so one had to be stolen from the Midget; the brake lights failed, which resulted in faffing about with wiring for a long while; and the car started pouring petrol all over the ground, thanks to a dodgy fuel filler nozzle!


Anyway, the MOT went very well, with the car passing first time with no advisories. However, on her Maiden Voyage, the first time on the road in 30 years, we discovered some more minor problems. The timing was way out, and she was pinking like crazy, and she was refusing to start when warm, obviously because of the timing. However, the majority of things worked very well.


Now that the MOT was out of the way, I could start playing with exciting stuff! I decided to fit a pair of Lucas Flamethrowers to the front, which would prove to be incredibly helpful in 12-car rallies (see later on in the post!). This was the result:


Soon enough. my 17th Birthday came and went, and I managed to pass my test 20 days after my birthday. This meant that I could now be insured on the car through Footman James, and finally drive it on the road! Oh my, how much more fun it is than any modern hunk of junk!

After a few minor teething problems (to be expected after 30 years off the road!), all was well... for a while! The problems included a dodgy Dynamo Voltage Regulator, badly adjusted timing and carbs, along with other bits and pieces.

Anyway, have a few pictures taken in and around the Langdales a couple of days after I'd passed:

To be continued in the next post...