All Accounted For

The last move into a bubble completed this morning. Starting the Alpine (hard to do) and moving it out of the garage so I could build the bubble for the Imp. It looked good in the sunshine ... 

... but I had work to do. First though to warm the Imp up.

Then I attacked the bubble - again I found the tabs to hold it up while I worked - so that was easier. However before I could finish it we had to make an emergency dash to Harkstead to free an old Lady from a book case !

That done and the bubble completed I moved the Imp around too. That was a little easier than the Alpine to start but given neither have been used for several cold weeks it's not surprising. The sun was out and they both really wanted a run ...

... but it was wet and salty - so no. What did get a run was the SAAB to the allotment for jobs.

Then PM back to the archive where I spotted a scan of the 1932 brochure with the Ulster in it !

That was a nice find.

Green is Good

I checked the Talbot and yes - green on both trickle chargers.

Lots of rain and wind so I went back to the archive - interesting. I found a first hand report from Brian Lewis who drove GO53 on the 1932 Mille Miglia. Very mater of a fact given he crashed into a ditch, retired, then the Italian crowd pulled the car out of the ditch and then after a swift drink continued to the end !

Less exciting was my run to Harkstead in the rain.

Then home again in the dark.

One interesting update was Ian Potts saying "NO" don't link the earths from the batteries.

Turning to the Troubled Talbot

Another day - another Bubble.

The Talbot was still hard to start this morning - including a a couple of those nasty sort of knocking failures but she got going in the end. I guess only heating up the very cold garage for an hour and a bit probably wasn't enough. However it looked splendid though once out in the daylight.

Starting on the bubble I spotted the same tags as the blue one had so was able to take some weight off it. The bubble went up ok (although it is filthy) but just took longer as I mixed up the curved and strait supports. Almost two hours before the car was in position.

I'd forgotten how long the car is so it needs to be almost touching the back wall to get it in. Moving it by had was not an option so I re-started it and used the engine. 

Then for a rest we went off to get the three Christmas trees. Here we are - already having dropped one off at Harkstead.

Then after lunch I finished off putting the car away and swapped the chargers around so I could put both the batteries on charge. I found I needed an extension lead for the second one though as the lead is not as long as the main ones. They are both on charge though and we'll see how we get on.

In then off to the boat (MK7 passenger time) to start clearing that out for the Winter lay up.

Even early afternoon the sun was setting but it was cold and bright. That done home again.

Finally a long SAAB run to the RGEA (via Glevering) to pick Chris up and then drop him back.

Rain forecast for the next few days so we'll probably stop there for a bit.

Bubble Blues

The sun peeped out eventually early morning so I decided I'd better get another bubble done. This time the new blue one in the new garage. First warm up the Ferrari and get the Aston out. Gosh it looked good on the drive.

Anyway I unpacked the new bubble and started work.

A couple of positive changes to the design: there were tags on the roof so I could hang it up and the zips seemed better quality. However the charger connections have changed format and the unit is much bigger. After an hour's work I realised that it would not fit. It's too tall and the shape of the box to stop the water getting in cuts into the frame. So a bit disappointing (that seems to be happening a lot recently) and I needed a change of plan.

That involved going into town in the SAAB - hair cut and re-think.

It was sunny though which helped me de-stress. After lunch we went back to plan B and put the new bubble in the brick garage. That took over an hour - especially as it can't go against the wall because of the petrol pump. It also felt bigger ? However it all fitted together well - although it helped that I knew what I was doing as many of the poles had lost their labels already.

It was too nice an afternoon not to take the Ferrari around the block - and I'm happy to report it behaved impeccably - and looked great - well a little less great by the time we'd got home on the dirty roads.

I also had to make a temporary fitting for the power but here we are - packed away. 

Three down - but I must look at the Talbot when I get chance.

Courier Time

Rain and wind greeted us first thing - but it did not matter as today I was working for the Fairies. First load of 10 picked up and delivered before 10.

Then a second run which was a bit further away - as the weather got worse.

But 10 more boxes in the post before lunchtime.

SAAB still working away - well with the odd CEL ... flashing.

Blue Skies and Red Cars

Sunny and cold - but a good day to be out and about. The sky was a deep blue and made even the dusty E-type glow.

Here we are at the recycling. Old clothes this time - from the cupboard I cleared out to get the Talbot Archine put away.

I also put the top on the E-type bubble and zipped it up - the car needs a clean really but it will keep it better for now.

It was also the end of the month so I took the miles. The Alpine had done as many miles as the SAAB - both over 270 - mind you the Alpine miles count double as the rood was off !

The rest of the fleet did respectable miles for the time of year - although both the Aston and the Ferrari were boosted by the trips to get repaired. Finally the Riley only managed a couple of short trips and the poor old Talbot did zero. I must fix it now.

Follow the Money

A dull and rainy day here - so no car action. Back to the archive then.

I went through the boxes and found a few nice things. Like the original invoice from Warwick Wright to Fox and Nicholl for the 1932 Alpine Trial Team Cars.

This is for the first one PJ 7361 - driven by Lewis and Fox.

Italian Stress Puppy

Ferrari to Grimaldi today. 

I almost cried when I started the car. It was terrible - would I make it ? I decided to give it a go - pop and bang all the way to the petrol station. Filling it up I had to wait behind a car for a while but the Ferrari was ticking over ok. So a good omen.

Then as I accelerated away it was backfiring again and down went the blackness - but it seemed to settle. Then the same happened again as I accelerated on the A12 but again it settled in the end.

It was very tense run but I relaxed a bit by the end. The car dropped on to 7 and a half cylinders after a few miles but kept going - and at last we arrived safely.

Steve thought it was the same plug as before #8, but Roberto said #4 last time. They have also fitted several without other reports and problems - so am I just unlucky ? Here it is with the dead one top right.

After an hour of them working they had fitted the car with a secondhand Marelli distributor cap and fired it up. It was almost as bad as before. I took a deep breath. Then after checking (and correcting where the leads were plugged in) it was better - but still not right. My heart sank.

They cleaned the effected plug a bit more - better but still a bit rough. However changing the plugs to a new set brought the result. Smooth tick over and clean revving. Smiles all round.

The run back was good - the car was car back to its old self - how many times have I said that in the last two years. 

So there we are - it really needs a clean again before I put it away for the Winter but we'll see.

What next ? To celebrate I took the Aston out on a run to save the planet - just like old times.

I noticed the splitter was home to several Ladybirds - odd.

I can only assume they liked the warmth.

So two down and one to go.

Next Patient Please

First task was to check Grange actually did fit four tyres.

Indeed they did. Also having looked at the (brief) guide to the Carplay integration I decided not to bother as it was a bit basic. Better to spend the money on Summer tyres.

Then back to the Ferrari and cleaning the lead (came up well) and cap (not so well). 

Start to finish about 45 mins. 

We’ll see how we get on tomorrow when I run the car over to Grimaldi. I did leave the tools in the boot in case I need to do a road side repair too - call it extra insurance. 

Finally I checked and I’m almost out of fuel though - so that’s a small added complication. 

Next a run to Harkstead for jobs - it was almost dark at 3:00.

Then a hop to the Co-op too as I was feeling lazy.

The Beast Lives !

So did last night's prep work ? The clue is in the title.

Well at 6:20 am it was cold and foggy but the garage had the chill taken off it and the car had been warming since 5:00. I though I'd risk trying to start it after almost seven weeks (the last run was October 8th) and ... YES - with a ROAR I was told.

That saved a lot of stress and hassle. However the run down was stressful enough as the fog closed in and we had a frosty zero degrees on the road. I kept the speed down down at first but by the time the sun rose it was easier too see so I sped up and just pottered along in the heavy traffic. After the very early start I still only got to Grange just on 8:00 am.

What next. After yesterday's history focus I thought I'd continue and visit Barlby Road and do some research. After taking to long way there by tube and foot here we are.

Behind the building was a development on the factory grounds with a plaque saying the first brick was laid back in 1995 - with 'appropriate' road names too. Well tangentially. 

Then off to 'The London Archives' at Farringdon. An easy tube ride it turns out - direct from Ladbrook Grove. I registered and asked them to get me the 1932 Olympia Cars Show Autocar Review from storage.

Then I got a call from Grange - they did not not have the Airplay unit in stock and it is delayed - Dho ! Well back to dropping it off in December.

Returning to the records office I looked through the magazine ... thinking it's the one I have got. [Checking when I got home it was]. However it was an easy tube ride back on the Elizabeth line - I should have changed at Farringdon before to get to Barney Road as it turned out.

I picked up the car as dusk fell and had a very good run home. Was it just me or was it slightly less bumpy on the new tyres ? Er ... the three that they charged me for that was. I must tell them.

So here we are back home again.

One down and two to go.

History Man - with a 'Van'

So SAAB out first thing in a quite chilly 4 degrees - today's job was to collect 20+ box files from Sussex. The run down was OK - just under three hours with a quick stop

Here we are loaded up with the Talbot Archive. I'm sure that will keep me busy for the next few years.

The run back felt much slower and lots of traffic - especially trying to go North on the Dartford Bridge - but oddly took about the same time.

I then got the Aston ready for tomorrow, set the fan on a timer, got the charge pack ready and put a light in the garage.

Finally I unpacked the archive from the car and had a look at a box which had a colour picture of a green Talbot. 

I found it on the TOC web site but not the actual photo. So it's a Talbot AV 105 from 1931 with a BROOKLANDS TOURER body.

I was happy with that - adding value already.

It could be worse

I checked on the Aston in the morning - I'd hoped the battery would be a bit charged but no.

I had to fix the door lock though as it had moved again in the damp and would not lock.

The good news is that the tyres are now all in so I'll take the car down Wednesday for the work. For being so patient I've given it a treat. I'm upgrading the Satnav to Apple Car Play. Whatever that is !

I also sent Grimaldi the pictures of the distributor - he confirmed it's gone again but says to clean it out so it runs a bit better, get the car to him and he'll put an old OEM unit on. So that's more progress.

On the Talbot front Ian Potts has offered to help so I'll move that job forward when I can.

Finally I've also been following Ed and his XJS on the RAC rally - unfortunately he disappeared from the daily results and looking for him I spotted this.

Luckily the reports say he's ok though. So it could be worse on all fronts.

Burnt and Red (Faced ?)

It was a cold, wet and windy day which was not encouraging me to get out and work, but I put the fan on the Talbot first thing and eventually I dragged myself into the garage to look at the Ferrari. 

The bloody car alarm kept going off though - so loud in there. Anyway I took off the cover to get access to the leads and as planned I used the endoscope to get a clear(ish) view of the lead ends and distributor cap. 

I also thought I'd better label them as I went. 

I managed to get to five of the eight for a look. Here is plug lead 3 where I started vs plug lead 8 next to it. 

Spot the difference. Number 3 is clean and bright at both ends and number 8 is burnt out. Oh.

After that 'success' I started Talbot - a bit rough - it's not been running since early October - but settled down. I did notice the charge light did not go out though - so that pointed to a blown fuse.

Yes the fuse was blown but even with new fuses the charge light refused to go out. So have I bugged up the voltage regulator ? I did feel that I'd been there before but at least I can now move the car and put it away for Winter.

Finally a quick Harkstead run in the SAAB to computer jobs, followed by shopping an filling up with petrol for Tuesday's run.

Talbot Time - Again

So back to work early and into a very cold shed now I have the right type of diaphragm - well I hoped so.

It seemed obvious what I had to do - get the new diaphragm seated into the little notch inside the pump body - push and turn. Unfortunately every time I tried it didn’t seem to be in the right position. I decided to mark the top of the diaphragm with a couple of pencil marks - for zero and 90 degrees - to try and help me get it into place.

After a couple more frustrating failures I realised I had to keep the lever arm fixed so that I could push the inverter down into the hole and twist it. Twice it went in and I couldn’t turn it enough to clip under the rim of the fitting. Then of course it got stuck halfway in and then pinged it when I moved moving the lever up and down. This wasn’t gonna be as easy as I’d hoped.

I decided to experiment using the old diaphragm and see if I could get the technique. That just proved it was very difficult and then the old one got stuck again. Eventually after 20 minutes I realised it was irrevocably stuck so I was going to have to do something drastic to get it back out. I decided as it was broken anyway I would just have to cut the top off to give me access to the peg.

I put tape around the base of the pump to prevent any metal dust getting in to and grounded away gently with the Dremel. I managed to cut the top off the old one, but even that took 15 mins of very gentle work. Eventually I’d removed the top and could see the peg had jammed under the mechanism - with a little wiggle it was out. 

I then used the stump of the old diaphragm as a guide and realised I’d been pushing it in far too far. I clean everything inside and out again and went back to fitting the new diaphragm. Now knowing how far to push it was then easy to align and let it sit a little proud of the pump body.

Next I cleaned the threads of the machine screws and reassembled the unit. Making sure I did so in the right orientation having almost put it on back to front. I also added a tad of grease to the newly cleaned threads for good measure. The diagram kept moving in the pump so I put a couple of strips of tape to hold it in place while I got the first screws in. 

That done I went to remove the small tapes - well one of them. The second tape seemed to have disappeared. I looked at the floor and looked at my bench and I couldn’t see it anywhere. I thought then that it was going to interfere with the diaphragm so I looked more closely, only to find it hidden behind the bowl - so the pump came apart again. Third time lucky. I managed to align first one and then the second screw opposite and then proceeded to fit the rest quite successfully.

So all in all almost two hours to reassemble the pump body.

I then went back to the garage and re-fitted the pump to the block - that proved relative easy - I attached all the fuel lines, replaced the coil and even managing to do the nuts up myself. I then refilled the bowl using the priming leaver - that immediately felt different and far more positive. I felt for leaks but could find none so left it to settle for a while.

Later I returned to refit the interior - and job done. So did the car start ?

Stay tuned for tomorrow's exciting episode.

Ended the day with a SAAB run to Harkstead with tools for jobs, in the rain.

Ferrari Frustrations

Heated the 308 up this morning and gave it another go.

It was worse than ever - pop bang and hard to start. Ho Hum.

At least the Talbot fuel pump part turned up. We'll see how I get on with that tomorrow.

Talbot Trials

So it's cold start to the day again, but we're in the garage and having another go at removing the Talbot fuel pump. First job was to remove the top part of the carpet and the top wooden inner firewall to get access to the coil clamp bolts.

That done I wedged some bubble wrap in the gap to try to stop the nuts just falling down again, I loosened them and then put tape over the nuts to catch them as I took off the coil clamp from the other side.

I disconnected the wires from the coil and taped up the ends as well as photographing their position and noted the positive terminal faces away from the engine and towards me.

That removed I now had very good access to the rear fuel pipe union. Using my thin vintage adjustable wrench I quickly removed the fuel pipes - making sure to capture the very thin washers that sits next to the thin nut.

Looking next at the fuel pump body itself I could only see two nuts holding it on and guessed at 13mm.

Having suspected it hadn't been off for a long time I was rather surprised to find the first bolt was actually quite loose. I then slightly undid the bolt on the top right and yes, that was slightly loose too. The top one was harder to get to but soon they were both off and I eased the pump away from the engine. Here is a view of the lobe that drives it - so it looks like the pump leaver goes above it.

Into the shed we went and I gave the pump a bit of a clean to remove some of the grime - especially the underside of the machine screws I was taking off. The six screws can off fine but the top did not want to come away. I'd been working over a bowl to capture any petrol drips which was a good idea. I gave the lower part of the pump a few taps with a large plastic screwdriver handle and I'd fell away - splashing petrol all over the bowl as it did.

There were three layers of membrane inside but to me it looked fine. I inspected the central nut I had to remove to release the diaphragm but it looked completely rounded off. Odd.

I carefully turned the central metal plate and was a bit shocked when it disconnected and it shot up and out. I had a good look but there seemed to be no faces on the central nut at all. At that point I realised I had the later model fuel pump. Dho. 

So we had to stop work and order the correct part - a bit of a guess but I think I have the correct one this time.

Later a Harkstead run in the MK2 for jobs. I ran into a snag so it was a run into town for parts.

Cold and then dark on the run home too but car going well.