Brits on the Beach

Every year there is a gathering of English cars in a small town called Ladysmith about an hour easy drive north of  Victoria our home town. This is the first year I have attended it in an English car and participant.

We were there about 10:00 AM and certainly weren't the first ones there. A rough count of 250 to 300 cars of  all sizes shapes and ages, here were many pre-50's cars to a couple of year old Aston Marin DB9, one of the cars was a 30's Bentley marvelous car, it was great to have it blow past us on the highway on our way home. There was a sweet black Jag XK140, lots of Morgans,Mini's,Land Rovers, MGs of all kinds, and Rolls Royce's to name a few. One of the rarest that was there was a BSA car from the 40s I think.

And on it goes

I received samples from Jonathon Skinner (John Skinner (Manufacturing) Ltd http://www.john-skinner.co.uk) today and I have now got a match for the upholstery. I will  be going with the original dark green wool carpet and original grained stone covering with dark green piping these are all as close to the original as I can find. I think this will  set every thing off perfectly.



















I have had a couple of small problems and unfinished details to do as well. I couldn't get the wipers working at all so I got the motor out and found a jammed gear, that is now running well with no problems. I also needed parts for the crankcase ventilation pipe and new wiper arms with wiper blades, so I contacted Bob Yule at AutoFarm Ltd. (www.AutoFarm.net) for those parts as well as parts to refurbish the side curtains.  A few days later they arrived and now there are more things stroked off the punch list, which is getting shorter each week.

I still have several major things to complete (upholstery the biggest) but those will have to wait as the weather is good enough for another drive, and the road is calling.

The joys of old cars

I haven't added any thing t the blog because I have been out enjoying the car. I have put about 1000 miles on it since I got it on the road, and have enjoyed it immensely, none of the trips have been too long but just being out in it is enough.

I would say though that the shortest trip was the most heralding, I had just gone up to the bank and as I pulled out of the parking lot to come home when the prince of darkness struck. I got to the middle of the road and it died, no life at all, so I was able to push it to the side of the road. I did some trouble shooting and found there was no spark at the plugs. I was standing with the bonnet up and a familiar face stopped and asked if I needed help, it turned out to be a fellow member of the OECC (Old English Car Club) Wayne. By this time I had decided the problem was the coil as it was the one ignition piece I didn't replace. Wayne said he had one for a Rapier of the same vintage just a block or two down the road, he went off to get it. Well it wasn't that so a call to my local tow truck I got it home, and tinkered for an hour or so to find out that it was the new rotor that had failed, couldn't tell by looking at it but I guess it was shorting the spark to ground. A new $5 rotor from the local auto store fixed that, and started my spares box that now lives in the boot.